[The adults at Free Acres retorted:] "You mean back a man who helped big business weather the Depression and who pushed through the AAA, so hogs are slaughtered, wheat burned, and milk poured into the river to raise prices high while people go hungry?"

As a youth, his family often summered in Free Acres, New Jersey, a community using economic philosopher Henry George's concept of single taxation.

[1] While studying at Harvard University as a member of the class of 1949, Grossman joined the Communist Party USA, whose platform claimed unequivocal opposition to racism, exploitation, and most importantly — Nazi Germany.

Grossman later stated he defected because he feared prosecution by U.S. authorities for not declaring his membership in left-wing political organizations prior to his entering the army.

In 1954, Grossman was recruited as an informant by the East German Ministry of State Security (MfS, or "Stasi"), codename TAUCHER ("Diver").