Talk:Martha Dodd

Who reported suicide?

I just read Martha Dodd's Through Embassy Eyes, her dad's diary, and Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts and it makes no mention of this. Nor does she seem like the type of person to try and commit suicide. Can we get a reference on this? 68.32.58.131 (talk) 19:06, 23 May 2011 (UTC) Quba Osman

It's been removed. Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 23:56, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

Life after 1957

The various language versions of the article disagree on where the Sterns lived after leaving Mexico. The English version says that "the Soviets then allowed them to immigrate to Moscow", implying (but not saying explicitly) that they lived in the USSR. Later, "apparently disappointed with their lives in the Soviet Union" plainly states that they lived in the USSR. Yet the German version of the article says "Seit 1957 lebten sie in der Tschechoslowakei, wo Dodd 1990 starb", i.e. "since 1957 they lived in Czechoslovakia, where Dodd died in 1990."

The Russian article says "В 1957 году супруги эмигрировали в Чехословакию, в Прагу. В 1962—1968 годах проживали в Гаване на Кубе. С 1968 года опять в Праге." That is, in 1957 they emigrated to Czechoslovakia, [namely] Prague. In 1962-1968 they lived in Havana, Cuba. Since 1968 back in Prague.

Likewise the NYT obit makes no mention of the Sterns ever living in the USSR, only Prague. Since Prague was never part of the USSR, it would be great if someone could clarify the English version. I don't have access to the source quoted in the English article, but the discrepancy is striking. I also note that the Russian article says the Sterns lived in Cuba in 1962-1968 while the English version says it was 1963-1970.

For what it's worth, a Czech magazine article (Pátek, a weekend magazine of Lidové Noviny from April 2012) about Martha Dodd-Stern claimed that the Sterns could not return to the US even after the charges against them had been dropped because they owed too much in back taxes. No source was identified in the article. Codegen86 (talk) 18:52, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

Indeed

I too noticed the discrepancies in the description of the Stern's exile station in this article as well as in the German article and also in Larson's book. - Cuba seems to be probable, but Moscow not. The little bourgeois Dodd seems to not to have been - already since her journey in 1934 - very keen to live in the Soviet communist paradise. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:16B8:463A:D600:11DE:D885:914B:A79 (talk) 22:33, 13 August 2017 (UTC)

“Journalist”/spy

Considering that she spent half her life on the run or living in Soviet client states, her bio should be altered from describing her as a journalist/writer to “spy”. She committed espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union - it was the core of most of her life. 2600:8805:3804:F500:FD4B:F41E:20B4:DBF0 (talk) 11:52, 2 April 2024 (UTC)