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)