Col. Tom Parker’s request for a “draft deferment” may be a
clue, but did the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” did espionage work for the US
government during the Cold War?
By: Ringo Bones
If Elvis Presley did actual espionage work in behalf of the
US government during the Cold War, it may have likely happened during his U.S. Army
conscriptions days while being assingned as a Jeep mechanic in Freiburg of what
was then West Germany. Given the easy acces to the Sudetenland – which was then
largely under the control of the then Soviet Union, Elvis Presley could have
easily performed top secret espionage work given his “celebrity status” at the
time. But is there any proof to this?
Given that Hollywood has been very cooperative with the US
government ever since it set up the business of movie-making, it may have been
likely that the Hollywood movie industry made “disinformation films” about
Elvis Presley’s “secret spywork in the then communist era Sudetenland”. The
1984 movie Top Secret may have been just a spoof of every Elvis musical with US
DoD cooperation ever made - i.e. Elvis' G.I. Blues - but it did its job of making the idea of “Elvis in
the Sudetenland” spying for the US government to gather vital Cold War era
intel somewhat improbable in the eyes of the 1960s era KGB.
Hollywood also has a very good track record of providing
cover for US government sanctioned espionage work that might have been
uncovered by your typical spook. The 2012 movie Argo that stars Ben Affleck on
the secret mission done by then CIA master-of-disguise Tony Mendez shows
details of how the US government rescued the US Embassy personnel in Iran that
were trapped during the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution that was only
declassified back in 1998 in time for the then US President Bill Clinton to
give commendations to Tony Mendez and the Canadian embassy personnel in Iran at
that time who helped. It may have been very likely that we may be seeing an “Elvis
in the Sudetenland” movie once the US government declassifies the details for the
general public to see.
