Two months later he moved on to Romania where his main task was to spy on the activities of the Soviet Union. The President strode from the room. Castillo's new government was immediately recognised by President Dwight Eisenhower. Required fields are marked *. Frank Wisner was born in Laurel, Mississippi, in 1910. Through think-tanks to foundations, directorates to membership of gentlemen's clubs, these mandarins were interlocked by their institutional affiliations and by a shared belief in their own superiority.". Ernesto Guevara attempted to organize some civil militias but senior army officers blocked the distribution of weapons. The POWs were returned by a U.S. Air Crew Rescue Unit via the Popeti-Leordeni Airfield. He was assigned as a vice consul at the American Consulate General in Tangier, Morocco. Death 29 Oct 1965 (aged 56) Kent . However, he got bored and enlisted in the United States Navy six months before Pearl Harbor. Frank Gardiner Wisner - Commander, United States Navy Central Intellignce Agency February 27, 2023 by Michael Robert Patterson Frank Gardner Wisner was born in Laurel, Mississippi, in 1910. In 1976, at the beginning of the Carter administration, he served under Cyrus Vance as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State. As soon as the war ended Truman ordered the OSS to be closed down leaving a small intelligence organization, the Strategic Services Unit (SSU) in the War Department. "They don't seem to be up to anything. He said that the country needed "an agrarian reform which puts an end to the latifundios and the semi-feudal practices, giving the land to thousands of peasants, raising their purchasing power and creating a great internal market favorable to the development of domestic industry.". These organizations were run by people with well-known right-wing views such as William Paley (CBS), Henry Luce (Time Magazine and Life Magazine), Arthur Hays Sulzberger (New York Times), Alfred Friendly (managing editor of the Washington Post), Jerry O'Leary (Washington Star), Hal Hendrix (Miami News), Barry Bingham Sr., (Louisville Courier-Journal), James Copley (Copley News Services) and Joseph Harrison (Christian Science Monitor). He was a good sprinter and hurdler and in 1936 was asked to compete in the Olympic trials. During the Hungarian Uprising an estimated 20,000 people were killed. With the help of George Kennan, the Office of Special Projects was created in 1948. Sudden Death. On 18th June, 1954, aircraft dropped leaflets over Guatemala demanding that Arbenz resign immediately or else the county would be bombed. Arbenz began to tackle Guatemala's unequal land distribution. He gained support for this from James Forrestal, the Defense Secretary. A large number of these prisoners were tortured or killed. Frank G. Wisner, Sr. did not dabble in small matters. This included George Kennan, Dean Acheson, Richard Bissell, Desmond FitzGerald, Joseph Alsop, Stewart Alsop, Tracy Barnes, Thomas Braden, Philip Graham, David Bruce, Clark Clifford, Walt Rostow, Eugene Rostow, Chip Bohlen, Cord Meyer, James Angleton, William Averill Harriman, John McCloy, Felix Frankfurter, John Sherman Cooper, James Reston, Allen W. Dulles and Paul Nitze. Wisner managed to get a copy of the speech that Nikita Khrushchev made at the 20th Party Congress in February, 1956, where Khrushchev launched an attack on the rule of Joseph Stalin. Henry Cabot Lodge tried to block the Security Council from discussing a resolution to send an investigation team to Guatemala. The most active element of this special staff came from the CIA's clandestine Air Division which at that time was under the control of Dick Helms. The only thing theyre proving is the law of gravity, said one CIA officer. As a result the resolution was defeated by 5 votes to 4. Under this innocuous title, the United States was now fully in the business of covert political operations. According to Donald N. Wilber, who was involved in this CIA plot to remove Mossadegh from power, in early August, 1953, Iranian CIA operatives, pretending to be socialists, threatened Muslim leaders with "savage punishment if they opposed Mossadegh," thereby giving the impression that Mossadegh was cracking down on dissent. When Lansdale was manipulating electoral politics in the Philippines in 1953, Wisner asked Joe Alsop to write some columns warning the Filipinos not to steal the election from Magsaysay. The President's final handshake was with Alien Dulles. According to Deborah Davis in Katharine the Great, "By the early 1950s, Wisner 'owned' respected members of the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS and other communications vehicles." Record information. It is doubtful that many of the lawmakers who voted for the 1947 Act could have envisioned the scale on which the CIA would engage in operational activities all over the world. But Frank was a little excessive, even for me.". Would the National Security Council really want to explain to the press why some official had to be bribed or some foreign election had to be subverted? On April 4, 1953, Wisner persuaded Allen W. Dulles to approve $1 million to be used "in any way that would bring about the fall of Mossadegh." In July 19, 1954, he created the National Committee of Defense Against Communism and decreed the Preventive Penal Law Against Communism to fight against those who supported Arbenz when he was in power. It did not take him long to discover that some of them had been active in left-wing politics in the 1930s. All the top officials of the agency, from director on down, were in attendance. Guillermo Toriello appealed to the United Nations to help protect Guatemalan government. He pointed out that they had spent a great deal of money on Radio Free Europe "to get these people to revolt". When this failed he put pressure on Security Council members to vote against the resolution. First headed by Allen Dulles, Wisner succeeded Dulles in 1951 when Dulles was named Director of Central Intelligence. One of the most important journalists under the control of Operation Mockingbird was Joseph Alsop, whose articles appeared in over 300 different newspapers. While the Guatemalan government valued $2.99 per acre, the American government valued it at $75 per acre. Wisner's death saddened but did not shock his colleagues. Hector (Rip Robertson) said only one, a courier . It compelled a higher degree of intellectual curiosity, accomplishment, and operational savior faire than did espionage ("espionage" referring specifically to the recruitment of foreign intelligence agents). 2022 FOX News Network, LLC. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles added that the Guatemala people were living under a "communist type of terrorism". Recalled one CIA officer, I would be at a meeting where it was obvious that the decision had been made the night before at a dinner party., Still, the jobs toll on Wisner was becoming apparent. He pointed out that they had spent a great deal of money on Radio Free Europe "to get these people to revolt". Members of what was later called the Georgetown Ladies' Social Club included Katharine Graham, Mary Pinchot Meyer, Sally Reston, Polly Wisner, Joan Braden, Lorraine Cooper, Evangeline Bruce, Avis Bohlen, Janet Barnes, Tish Alsop, Cynthia Helms, Marietta FitzGerald, Phyllis Nitze and Annie Bissell. Any reaction? According to Alex Constantine (Mockingbird: The Subversion Of The Free Press By The CIA), in the 1950s, "some 3,000 salaried and contract CIA employees were eventually engaged in propaganda efforts". The questions from the unknown man next to me were very insistent, furtive. He worked in the Navy's censor's office before managing to get a transfer to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). [10], Wisner was recruited in 1947 by Dean Acheson to join the State Department to become the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Areas. I suspect that had we known more (it would have just made us more appreciative.) He suffered a breakdown in 1958, and retired from the Agency in 1962. The CIA was also busy bribing Arbenz's military commanders. According to Nina Burleigh (A Very Private Woman) these journalists sometimes wrote articles that were commissioned by Frank Wisner. Under this innocuous title, the United States was now fully in the business of covert political operations. He wanted to start yet another secret agencythis one accountable to virtually no one. He condemned the Great Purge and accused Stalin of abusing his power. ", Assassination of John F. Kennedy Encyclopedia, In December, 1956, Wisner had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed as suffering from manic depression. Another project started by Wisner was called Operation Bloodstone. The UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold was so upset by the actions of the USA that he considered resigning from his post. It had also given America resources and experience (concentrated in private hands) with the world outside the Americas, used effectively by the OSS during World War II American government, however, had stayed in America, lending its influence to business but never trying to overthrow other governments for commercial purposes. William (Rip) Robertson was also involved in the campaign against Arbenz. However, Barnes convinced him that it was vital important that the Soviets did not establish a "beachhead in Central America". The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. When the war ended, the OSS was shut down and Wisner returned to the soul-draining doldrums of office life. After 1953 the network was overseen by Allen W. Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency. "They don't seem to be up to anything. What was not said, but what was already clear after the events in East Germany the previous year, was that the exercise of American power, even clandestinely through the CIA, would not be undertaken where Soviet power was already established. By the early 1960s he held right-wing opinions. He is the son of CIA official Frank Wisner (1909-1965). They also produced three films on Guatemala for showing free in cinemas. He gained support for this from James Forrestal, the Defense Secretary. Eisenhower turned to his Chief of the Joint Chiefs. This report examines the information and intelligence resources available to and relied upon by policymakers during the Rwanda crisis. According to Loftus, it was all part of a Cold War scheme to wage guerrilla warfare in Soviet-occupied Europe, in which the Nazi collaborators were to play a key role. According to Phillips he initially questioned the right of the CIA to interfere in Guatemala: In his autobiography Phillips claims he said to Barnes: "But Arbenz became President in a free election. He announced a change in policy and gave orders for the Soviet Union's political prisoners to be released. ", Wisner, who had been involved in creating this propaganda, told friends that he felt the American government had let Hungary down. All results for Frank Wisner. He talked about his children. The plot against Arbenz therefore became part of Executive Action (a plan to remove unfriendly foreign leaders from power). It also highlights the structure and personalities of U.S. decision-making during that late spring of 1994 when hundreds of thousands were killed as the U.S. and other nations stood by. Eisenhower shook his head, perhaps thinking of the thousands who had died in France. After leaving the OSS Wisner joined the Wall Street law firm, Carter Ledyard. In this position, he was instrumental in supporting pro-American forces that toppled Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953[citation needed] and Jacobo Arbenz Guzmn in Guatemala in 1954. He was diagnosed as manic depressive and received electroshock therapy. [16], On August 23, 1951, Wisner succeeded Allen W. Dulles and became the second Deputy Director of Plans, with Richard Helms as his chief of operations. According to Deborah Davis, Meyer became Mockingbird's "principal operative".
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