Joseph Martin, a Republican. He did not talk to Eisenhower that day or ever. For all his micromanaging of No’s reward money or perhaps because of it, the president never asked to meet with No.

On the day of his unhappy encounter at Riggs National Bank, No went back to his hotel to brood about whether the U.S. government was trying to cheat him. He was free to grumble and complain. But he had very few, if any, options, other than to do what he was told. Cut off from his mother in South Korea, he had no one to give him independent counsel. His friends, such as they were, were military officers and CIA agents. They were pleasant enough, but their loyalties were not to him. The onlyperson No could talk to was Captain Kim, and Kim followed the government script.

After two days, No was persuaded that the trust fund was not a trick, and he walked back to the bank. Kim came along, as did the lawyer hired by the CIA and the CIA agent with the check. No signed the papers. In the fall of 1954, after he began classes at the University of Delaware, reporters continued to ask about the reward money and suggested in news stories that it had not been paid, which irritated the CIA. Agents told No to make it clear to newsmen that he had the money and he was happy about how it had all turned out. The Associated Press, the New York Times and the Saturday