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The Secret Cold War: the C.I.A. and American Foreign Policy in Europe, 1946–1956. Part I *

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Trevor Barnes
Trevor Barnes
Affiliation:
British Broadcasting Corporation
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Extract

President Truman celebrated the birth of the central intelligence agency with a private lunch at the White House on 24 January 1946. He invited the first director of central intelligence, Admiral Sidney Souers, and the president's chief of staff, Admiral William Leahy. Truman appeared with wooden daggers and black hats and coats which he presented to his guests.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , June 1981 , pp. 399 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

1 At this time the organization was called the central intelligence group (C.I.G.). The ceremony is recorded in Truman's diaries, quoted in Yergin, Daniel, Shattered peace: the origins of the Cold War and the national security state (London, 1978), pp. 216–17Google Scholar. Martin, David C., Wilderness of mirrors (New York, 1980), p. 36.Google Scholar

2 The British government partially abandoned its ridiculous habit of holding back all files containing any reference, however passing, to its secret services in early 1980. The Times, 12 May and 17 June 1980. Final report of the senate select committee on intelligence activities (the Church committee), (Washington, 1976), 1 and IV.Google Scholar

3 The complete set for the period 26 September 1947 to 27 October 1950 is in the Truman papers, Truman library, president's secretary's files.

4 None of these reports has yet been released. Walter Pforzheimer, C.I.A. legislative counsel 1946–56, interview, 15 Mar. 1979.

5 Truman, Harry S., Memoirs (2 vols. New York, 1956), 11, 58Google Scholar. Confirmed by Lawrence Houston, general counsel of C.I.A. from 1946, interview, 16 Mar. 1979.

6 ‘Resignation plans of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek’, memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 16 Dec. 1948 and untitled memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 23 May 1947, Leahy files, National Archives, box 20, file 128.

7 Houston, Pforzheimer interviews.

8 ‘Notes on intelligence in U.K.’ by Commodore Tully Shelley, U.S.N., 28 May 1946, Leahy files, box 20, file 131. Shelley wrote of ‘the most cordial relations’ with Britain's naval intelligence. The new British intelligence bureau was to function from 1 July 1946 and was to undertake strategic studies of all parts of the world as well as special studies assigned by the joint intelligence committee.

9 Memo, Vandenburg to Truman, 25 Feb. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 128. The murderer was a certain Maria Pasquinelli.

10 Reports from Dutch intelligence: ‘Repueblik Indonesia’ and ‘Aims, methods and means of Soviet Russia in Asia and the middle East’, 13 June 1946, Leahy files, box 21, file 141. Cline, Ray, Secrets, spies and scholars (New York, 1976), pp. 123–7.Google Scholar

11 Minutes of N.I.A. meeting, 12 Feb. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 132.

12 Powers, Thomas, The man who kept the secrets: Richard Helms and the C.I.A. (London, 1980), pp. 24, 314, 389.Google Scholar

13 Memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 24 Sep. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 129.

14 Memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 8 Aug. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 128.

15 Cline, , Secrets, p. 104Google Scholar. Marchetti, Victor and Marks, John D., The C.I.A. and the cult of intelligence (Coronet edn, London, 1976), p. 401.Google Scholar

16 Church committee report, IV, 4–13.

17 Memo regarding Kennan by Vandenburg, 27 June 1946. Clark Clifford (special counsel to Truman) to Leahy, 18 July 1946, Leahy files, box 20, file 131.

18 Memo, Vandenburg to Truman, ‘Ghost rockets over Scandinavia’, 1 Aug. 1946, Leahy files, box 20, file 131.

19 Jones, R. V., Most secret war: British scientific intelligence 1939–45 (Coronet edn, London, 1979), pp. 639–43.Google Scholar

20 ‘Soviet military intentions’, C.I.G.special study no.4, 18 Sep. 1946, Leahy files, miscellaneous file. O.R.E. 1/1, 6 Jan. 1947, quoted in Yergin, Shattered peace, pp. 276–7.

21 ‘Soviet capabilities for the development and production of certain types of weapons and equipment’, O.R.E. 4/1, 31 Oct. 1946, Truman papers, president's secretary's files. The military estimate was between 1951 and 1961. Lafeber, Walter, America, Russia and the Cold War 1945–71 (New York, 1972), p. 35.Google Scholar

22 Memo, Vandenburg to Truman, 26 Nov. 1946, Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

23 Memo, Vandenburg to Truman, 26 Feb. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 128.

24 ‘The Greek situation’, O.R.E. 6/1, 7 Feb. 1947, Truman papers, president's secretary's files. Truman, Memoirs, 11, 98–9.

25 Minutes on N.I.A. meetings, 17 July and 25 Sept. 1946, Leahy files, box 20, file 132.

26 Pforzheimer, interview. Leahy was however fairly close to Truman: Yergin, Shattered peace, P. 74.

27 Minutes of N.I.A. meeting, 12 Feb. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 132.

28 Church committee report, IV, 1315.

29 Paul Nitze, interview, 15 Mar. 1979.

30 Thomas Braden, head of C.I.A. international organizations division 1951–4, interview, 21 Mar. 1979. Joyce, and Golko, Gabriel, The limits of power: the world and U.S. foreign policy (1945–54) (New York, 1972), p. 450.Google Scholar

31 Quoted in Yergin, Shattered peace, p. 255.

32 Minutes of N.I.A. meeting, 17 July 1946, Leahy files, box 20, file 132. Church committee report, IV, 25–6. Memo, ‘S.W.N.C.C: psychological warfare’, 10 Dec. 1946. Leahy files, box 20, file 132.

33 Memo, Vandenburg to Truman, 25 Feb. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 128.

34 Memo, ‘Testimony on the National Security Act 1947’, Vandenburg to secretaries of armed services and Leahy, 29 Apr. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 131.

35 Minutes of N.I.A. meeting, 26 June 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 132.

36 Hillenkoetter, ‘Using the world's information resources’, Army information digest (Nov. 1948), pp. 3–6. The Church committee almost totally ignored the content of C.I.A. reports and estimates.

37 Memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 8 Aug. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 128.

38 Memo, ‘Significance of establishment of communist information bureau’, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 10 Oct. 1947, Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

39 Memo and estimate, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 3 Sept. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 129.

40 C.I.A. 1, 26 Sept. 1947. See note 3 for location of all C.I.A. reviews of world situation. Henceforth cited by number and date.

41 Memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 7 Nov. 1947, Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

42 C.I.A. 2, 14 Nov. 1947.

43 C.I.A. 3, 17 Dec. 1947.

44 C.I.A. 5, 12 Feb. 1948.

45 Yergin, , Shattered peace, pp. 346–7.Google Scholar

46 Faulty analysis flowed partly from the reports on which it was based. They dealt almost exclusively with the Czech non-communist parties and the information in them was nine days to ten weeks old by the time of distribution. See C.I.A. intelligence reports SO-10626, 7 Jan. 1948; SO-11579, 10 Feb. 1948; SO-11698, 11 Feb. 1948.‘Rebuttal to New York Herald Tribune allegations of intelligence failures’, ER 1–1768, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 3 Aug. 1950. C.I.A. 2, 14 Nov. 1947. All Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

47 Foreign relations of the United States 1948 (Washington, 1976), in (western Europe), 733–6.Google Scholar

48 ‘Possible consequences… ‘, O.R.E. 69,9 Feb. 1948, Series O.R.E. 48 and ‘Greece’, no. SR-10, Mar. 1948, both Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

49 Smith, Jean Edward (ed.), The papers of General Lucius D. Clay: Germany 1945–9 (Bloomington, 1974), PP. 568–9.Google Scholar

50 Cited in memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 16 Mar. 1948, Truman papers, president's secretary's files. This was in fact one of the first among the few warnings the administration received. The acting chief of the division of central European affairs predicted at about the same time ‘a determined effort’ to dislodge the allies from Berlin: Yergin, Shattered peace, pp. 372–3.

51 ‘The implications of the soviet demand for a mutual assistance pact’, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 2 Mar. 1948, Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

52 C.I.A. 3–48, 10 Mar. 1948. Memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 15 Mar. 1948. C.I.A. 4–48, 8 Apr. 1948. ‘Possibility of direct soviet action in 1948’, O.R.E. 22/48. A further O.R.E. report, 58/48, emphasized that the Russians would have on balance little to gain by an attack. All Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

53 C.I.A. 4–48, 8 Apr. 1948.

54 ‘Possible Soviet moves in Germany’, O.R.E. 29–48, 28 Apr. 1948. ‘Effect of soviet restrictions on the U.S. position in Berlin’, O.R.E. 41–48, 14 June 1948. Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

55 Memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 28 June 1948. ‘Russian directive indicating Soviets intend to incorporate Berlin into the soviet zone’, memo, 30 June 1948. Memo, ER01012, 30 June 1948. Memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 10 Dec. 1948. All documents, Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

56 Compare the later date in Church committee report, IV, 29–30.

57 Foreign relations of the United States 1947 (Washington, 1975), in (western Europe), 803–5, 889–92, 919, 976–81.Google Scholar

58 Memo, Hillenkoetter to Truman, 3 Sep. 1947, Leahy files, box 20, file 128. C.I.A. 1, 26 Sep. 1947.

59 Cline, , Secrets, pp. 97–102.Google Scholar

60 Houston, Pforzheimer, interviews; cf. Acheson, Dean, Present at the creation (New York, 1969), p. 286.Google Scholar

61 Houston, Pforzheimer, interviews. Corson, William, Armies of ignorance (New York, 1977), pp. 294–304.Google Scholar

62 ‘The current situation in Italy’, O.R.E. 47/1, 16 Feb. 1948; C.I.A. 3–48, 10 Mar. 1948; C.I.A. 4–48, 8 Apr. 1948. All Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

63 Walter, Millis (ed.), Forrestaldiaries (New York, 1951), pp. 383–4Google Scholar. Woolf, S.J. (ed.), The rebirth of Italy 1943–50 (London, 1972), pp. 235–7.Google Scholar

64 LeFranc, Georges, Le mouvement syndical: de la libération aux événcments de mai-juin 1968 (Paris, 1969), pp. 24, 65Google Scholar. The New York Times, 8 May 1967Google Scholar. Le Monde, 12 May 1967Google Scholar. Braden, interview. Foreign relations 1948, IV, 50. John Maury, C.I.A. chief of soviet operations 1954–62, interview, 16 Mar. 1979.Google Scholar

65 Kennan, George, Memoirs (2 vols. Boston, 1972), 11: 1950–65, pp. 202–3Google Scholar. Church committee report, IV, 31. ‘The C.I.A. and the organization for intelligence - a report to the N.S.C, 1 Jan. 1949, National Archives, N.N.M.M. collection of N.S.C. documents, box 7.

66 Memo to Truman on N.S.C. meeting, 21 May 1948. ‘Establishment of a special services unit in the C.I.A.’, N.S.C. 10, 2 June 1948. Both in Truman papers, president's secretary's files.

67 Record of N.S.C. meeting, 19 Aug. 1948 and memo to Truman on the same meeting, Truman papers, president's secretary's files, N.S.C. Truman. Cf. Church committee report, 1, 48–9.

68 Quoted in Church committee report, IV, 31.

69 A lesson learnt early by some in the field of propaganda warfare. See Foreign Relations 1947, III, 749–50.Google Scholar