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The CIA and Covert Operations

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Title: The CIA and Covert Operations


1
The CIA and Covert Operations
  • CHST 540
  • May 24, 2005

2
What is covert action?
  • activity designed to influence foreign political,
    economic, or military conditions
  • governments role in this activity is not
    apparent or acknowledged publicly
  • it is not considered traditional
    counterintelligence, diplomacy, or military action

3
Forms of covert action
  • Propaganda
  • Political action
  • Paramilitary operations

4
Covert Action in Europe
  • Italian elections, 1948
  • French trade unions
  • Poland WiN

5
Allen Dulles
  • Director of Central Intelligence 1953-61 during
    the Golden Age of CIA covert operations
  • During WWII had served as OSS station chief in
    Berne, Switzerland

6
Iran, 1953
  • Mohammed Mossadegh appointed Prime Minister April
    1951
  • nationalization of oil effective May 1, 1951
  • Anglo-Iranian Oil Company 50 owned by British

7
Operation Ajax (Operation Boot)
  • 1952 British approach CIA to remove Mossadegh
    from power
  • 1953 Kermit Roosevelt sent to Iran
  • August 14/15 decree by Shah demonstrations
    instigated by CIA posing as Tudeh
  • August 19 Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi assumes power

8
The Aftermath
  • US used Iran as base to spy on Soviets
  • Shah in power until 1979
  • Amnesty International 1976
  • Iran has the highest rate of death penalties in
    the world, no valid system of civilian courts and
    a history of torture which is beyond belief. No
    country in the world has a worse record in human
    rights than Iran.

9
Guatemala, 1954
  • Col. Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán elected President of
    Guatemala 1953
  • ruling coalition included some communists as
    minor partners
  • February 1953 expropriated United Fruit Company

10
Monroe Doctrine (1823)
  • established American special interest in western
    hemisphere
  • warned that US wouldnt tolerate spread of other
    empires
  • Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of
    States (1933) US and 19 other nations pledged
    not to use military force to intervene in
    inter-American affairs

11
Operation PB Success
  • Planning authorized by Eisenhower in 1953
  • CIA provided Col. Carlos Castillo Armas with
    money, mercenaries, and base in Honduras
  • radio (Voice of Liberation) and apparent air power

12
Effects of Liberation
  • opposition newspapers closed down
  • subversive books banned (Les Misérables works by
    Dostoyevsky, Miguel Angel Asturias, etc.)
  • communists could be arrested for up to 6
    months, couldnt own radio or hold public office

13
Doolittle Report
  • Report of the Special Study Group on Covert
  • Activities (September 1954)
  • It is now clear that we are facing an
    implacable enemy whose avowed objective is world
    domination by whatever means and at whatever
    cost. There are no rules in such a game. Hitherto
    acceptable norms of human conduct do not apply.

14
Bay of Pigs
  • Brigade 2506
  • April 15-19, 1961
  • 114 Brigade members killed, 1189 taken prisoner

15
The Aftermath
  • Taylor Commission failure due to bad planning
    and lack of professional military advice
  • Allen Dulles, Richard Bissell and others forced
    to resign
  • John McCone appointed Director of Central
    Intelligence

16
Food for thought
  • The majority of peacetime covert operations
    have probably been either crimes or mistakes
  • or both.
  • (Christopher Andrew, Missing Dimension, p.6)

17
Covert action in war Vietnam
  • Phoenix Program CIA worked with South Vietnamese
    intelligence to identify and neutralize Viet Cong
    members
  • Provincial Interrogation Centers (PICs) and
    Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PRUs)
  • Caught few high-level operatives
  • Criticized as an assassination campaign

18
Further reading on covert action
  • Christopher Andrew, For the Presidents Eyes
    Only Secret Intelligence and the American
    Presidency from Washington to Bush (New York
    HarperCollins, 1995)
  • David P. Forsythe, Democracy, War, and Covert
    Action Journal of Peace Research 294 (1992)
    385-95.
  • John Prados, Presidents Secret Wars CIA and
    Pentagon Covert Operations from World War II
    through the Persian Gulf (2nd edition Chicago
    Ivan R. Dee, 1996)
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