Professor recounts CIA work

Playing tennis one sunny Sunday afternoon in 1956, electronics technician 2nd Class Warren Clark was summoned back to his ship by the Navy captain. The captain had orders from the CIA for Clark to go to Formosa, the Chinese island now known as Taiwan.

The orders were strange, Clark recalled. He said that not even the captain understood them. But Clark packed his things and headed for San Francisco, where his assignment would begin.

While in San Francisco, Clark visited all the consulates and embassies and ended up with a passport good in nearly every country of the world. He was told to buy civilian clothes and off he went to Formosa.

Clark is said to be a man of integrity and discipline, a man who puts God and his country before his personal relationships - a man who now makes his home at Cal State Long Beach as a criminal justice professor devoted to the success of his students.

But Clark started his adult life with a career in the Navy, where he said he was asked to take a stand for his beliefs.

In 1956, the CIA selected Clark for a top secret assignment in Formosa. His job was cryptography - the decoding of secret messages.

"The CIA had a very heavy presence in Formosa," Clark said. "I was told it was the composite of everything in my background that made me the guy they were looking for."

He worked directly under three-star Admiral Austin K. Doyal, not only decoding incoming messages, but also designing and building transmitter sites to send the crypto messages back and forth to the United States.

During World War II, America made an alliance pact with China, vowing to fight against any country declaring war on China. Formosa, then claimed as a province of China, was in danger of a take over. The United States moved in quickly to help defend Formosa.

"We were the eyes and ears of the Pacific," Clark said. His cover was as a radio announcer for Armed Forces Radio.

The CIA sent its messages via Ella Fitzgerald records over the radio, Clark said. The only way to break the code would be to have the exact same record playing at the exact same time at the other end of the transmission. A signal was sent seconds prior to the record's playing.

Clark said it was impossible to break the codes. However, he recalled a time when a bad leak was discovered.

Incoming messages were being leaked out of the CIA crypto building and printed in the Chinese newspapers. Clark said he was assigned to find the leak.

Clark said he spent more than a year researching and watching people, while going to clubs to make sure men were not getting drunk and giving out information. He spent hours trying to find the leak. He said he even checked the walls and the roof for wiring that might be tapping into their machines.

While the admiral's wife was redecorating the admiral's office one day with a new chandelier, Clark said he noticed some Chinese men climbing into the ceiling. It was the only place Clark said he had not looked.

The men had made a room between the ceiling of the crypto room and the roof of the building and had a man on guard at all times with a tape recorder. As the U.S. soldiers read the messages aloud to each other to ensure that they made sense, the Chinese man in the room would record everything. Clark said he eventually cracked the case and the Chinese men were punished.

Clark said he continued his education while in Formosa, along with picking up other extracurricular activities. He studied Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions and learned to speak Mandarin.

Clark said he learned a great deal from the people of Formosa. He said taught him patience, how to get along with people and a new language and culture.

"It was a wonderful experience," Clark said. "For personal growth, you can't beat it."

He was also a Sunday school teacher and helped to build a Lutheran Church. One day he took the 15 children in his Sunday school class to the local religious store where he bought the girls gold cross necklaces and the boys lapel pins.

Clark said he had hopes of brining a little happiness into the lives of the Taiwanese, who were treated terribly by Chang Kai Shec and his people.

"They (the Chinese) subjugated them (the Taiwanese) horribly," Clark said. "They were very brutal to the Taiwanese people."

Today, Clark stands up for the students he believes in. He said he uses stories from his life to instill courage and persistence in his students and encourages them to do well and to achieve all their goals.

"I work with these young people like gang busters to give them direction and pride in what they do," he said.

Clark said that he and his wife are so intent on students doing well that they have a set up a fund so that each semester they can help one outstanding woman with her tuition. Clark said he realizes that women are often at a disadvantage in the world of criminal justice, so he does what he can to help them get a good education.

Clark also writes hundreds of reference letters each year. He said he believes in his students and knows that if given a chance they can succeed.

"I believe we are here for a reason, so I make every honest attempt I have to contribute," Clark said.