Tacoma-born George Shaw Wheeler, 41, his wife and four children, got to Czechoslovakia just before the Communist coup of February 1948. A U.S. Government employee since 1934 (NLRB, Department of Labor, War Production Board), Wheeler had served in a moderately important job with the U.S. Military Government in Germany. After two years and several loyalty investigations, he was fired in an economy drive. Wheeler went to Prague, got a job teaching economics in Charles University, wrote articles for the small Wallaceite National Guardian.
Last week Wheeler called a press conference, denounced the U.S. for the Marshall Plan, the Atlantic pact and "Wall Street cartelization." To the delighted Czech press he announced that he would formally ask for asylum in Czechoslovakia, where he had "got to know the real democracy."