---
category: Other
created: 2026-09-21
summary: Naval intelligence officer and professional anticommunist researcher for
  Joseph McCarthy and the American Legion, whose name files passed to the Wackenhut
  Corporation and then to the Church League of America.
tags:
- Person
- KarlBaarslag
- Anticommunism
- OfficeOfNavalIntelligence
- JosephMcCarthy
- AmericanLegion
- Wackenhut
- ChurchLeagueOfAmerica
updated: 2026-09-21
---

Karl Baarslag served in the Office of Naval Intelligence during the [Second World War](/events/world-war-ii/) and afterward "worked as a professional anti-communist researcher for Senator [Joseph McCarthy](/people/joseph-mccarthy/), the American Legion, and the [Church League of America](/organizations/church-league-of-america/)." He "closely monitored individuals and organizations for potential Communist ties, and ultimately transferred many of his research files to the like-minded [Wackenhut Corporation](/organizations/wackenhut-corporation/)," by gift or sale. The company had files on 2.5 million people by 1971. In 1975 it passed most of what it still held to the Church League.[^1]

His papers form the third series of the Church League collection at the Tamiment Library of [New York University](/organizations/new-york-university/), and an alphabetical Baarslag name file closes the Wackenhut series. Its last folder, X to Z, includes Darryl Zanuck, Mark Zborowski, General Ralph Zwicker, and Mayor Sam Yorty of [Los Angeles](/places/los-angeles/).[^1]

[^1]: Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University, finding aid to the Church League of America Collection of the Research Files of Counterattack, the Wackenhut Corporation, and Karl Baarslag, TAM 148. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_148/