Transcript to the powerpoint presentation

The CIA and Covert Operations
CHST 540
May 24, 2005
What is covert action?
activity designed to influence foreign political,
economic, or military conditions
government’s role in this activity is not apparent
or acknowledged publicly
it is not considered traditional counterintelligence,
diplomacy, or military action
Forms of covert action
Propaganda
Political action
Paramilitary operations
Covert Action in Europe
Italian elections, 1948
French trade unions
Poland: WiN
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
Iran, 1953
Mohammed Mossadegh appointed
Prime Minister April 1951
nationalization of oil effective
May 1, 1951
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company 50%
owned by British
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
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.’
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
Monroe Doctrine (1823)
established American special interest in western
hemisphere
warned that US wouldn’t 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 interAmerican affairs
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
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,
couldn’t own radio or hold public office
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.’
Bay of Pigs
Brigade 2506
April 15-19, 1961
114 Brigade members
killed, 1189 taken
prisoner
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
Food for thought…
‘The majority of peacetime covert operations…
have probably been either crimes or mistakes
or both.’
(Christopher Andrew, Missing Dimension, p.6)
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’
Further reading on covert action
Christopher Andrew, For the President’s 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 29:4 (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)