Lt. Col. Duncan Chaplin Lee (1913–1988) was a confidential senior assistant to Maj. Gen. William ("Wild Bill") Donovan, founder and director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), World War II-era predecessor of the CIA, between 1942 and 1946.
[2] While an officer, according to Soviet courier Elizabeth Bentley, Lee—reportedly a descendant of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee[3]—covertly furnished her with information on "anti-Soviet work by OSS" and other topics of interest to Moscow,[4] which was technically an ally (in Europe) following the collapse of the Nazi-Soviet pact.
Gorsky was concerned that this affair might result in Lee's cover being blown, because his wife, who was also a member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), knew about his espionage activities.
Distraught over his deteriorating marriage, the pressures of the love affair, and intensified security probes at the OSS, Duncan Lee, by late 1944, had become an extremely reluctant Soviet source.
As Nazi Germany was retreating, Bentley further testified that Lee identified multiple OSS assets who he said would cause trouble for postwar Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
Many freely admitted their espionage in public hearings once the statute of limitations had run out, and most of those she named were independently proved guilty by the testimony of other eyewitnesses and eventually by the Venona files.
[25] Lee joined insurance giant American International Group in 1953, rising to serve as AIG's chief in-house lawyer in New York City prior to his retirement in 1974.