The CIA and the Soviet Bloc Political Warfare, the Origins of the CIA and Countering Communism in Europe

by Long, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9781780763934
• ISBN10: 178076393X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-03-27
• Publisher: Bloomsbury

Summary

The Central Intelligence Agency was established by Harry S. Truman immediately after World War II to provide covert political and military support to further US foreign policy. Strengthened by President Eisenhower, by the early 1950s, under the command of Allen Dulles, the CIA was actively overthrowing governments - Prime Minister Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, and President Árbenz Guzmán in Guatemala in 1954. The Agency was less involved in Eastern Europe, however, where the Soviet Union had established control – despite opportunities for US interference such as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Czechoslovak revolt in 1968. Here, Stephen Long challenges the accepted view that the US accepted a post-World War II ordering of Europe which placed the East outside an American 'sphere of influence'. He argues instead that 'disorder prevailed over design' in the planning and organization of espionage during the early stages of the Cold War. Featuring new archival material, and unpicking the relationship between the CIA, the US government and the Soviet Union, The CIA and the Soviet Bloc sheds new light on espionage, the Cold War, US diplomatic history and the history of 20th century Europe.

Author Biography

Stephen Long is Lecturer in American History and Foreign Relations at the University of Nottingham.

Table of Contents

National Security Council Directives
Introduction

1. Holding the Line: ERP, the Communist Challenge and the Bureaucratic Struggle over Psychological Warfare, July-December 1947
The onset of the Cold War
The Marshall Plan and Cominform
The long march to psychological warfare begins
The convergence of SANACC and peacetime psychological warfare
Interim measures and the bureaucratic quagmire
The final phase: bridging the bureaucratic divide
The end of the beginning: adoption of NSC 4-A

2. Cold Wars in Europe and the USA: Administrative Conflict over the Inauguration of Political Warfare, January-June 1948
SPG and the initiation of covert psychological warfare
The Cold War in Europe: Italy and the historical narrative
The debate begins over the organisation of political warfare
PPS and the origins of peacetime political warfare
PPS 22, Bloodstone, NCFE and RFE
The PPS-CIA feud
The inauguration of organised political warfare
Administrative differences widen: the Director of Special Studies
NSC 10
Allen Dulles and ISG's interim report
Hillenkoetter's compromise proposal
The Lovett-Forrestal-Dulles Meeting: an alternative to NSC 10
The Special Services Unit
From Office of Special Services to Office of Special Projects
The final phase - redrafting NSC 10/1
An uneasy compromise: approval of NSC 10/2

3. The Strategic Dilemma: The Pursuit of a Soviet Bloc Policy, Titoism and Program A, 1948-50
The debates over Soviet bloc policy in 1948
Adoption of NSC 20/4
Germany, Program A and ramifications for the Cold War
US policy and the Moscow-Belgrade dispute
The spring 1949 policy debates
The development of Soviet bloc policy, June-December 1949
The London Conference of US Ministers to Eastern Europe
The Adoption of NSC 58/2
The transition of policy in 1950
4. Systemic Disorder: The Launch of OPC Political Warfare Operations against the Soviet Bloc from 1948
The administration of political warfare post-NSC 10/2
The rise of the Office of Policy Coordination
The activation of OPC
Sanctioning a broad operational mandate
OPC's autonomy and the breakdown of policy direction
The launch of operations by OPC
Albania: Operation Valuable/BGFIEND
Yugoslavia: misadventure in the Balkans
Poland: support of WIN
Ukraine: Operation ZRELOPE

5. Disorder over Design: The Strategic and Operational Impasse over US Political Warfare, 1950-3
The directorship of Walter Bedell Smith
The impact of NSC 68 on strategy and operations
The organisation of operations under the CIA
The 'magnitude paper' and NSC 10/5
The rise and fall of PSB
Dissent in the ranks over Soviet bloc strategy

6. Assuming the Mantle: The Eisenhower Administration and the Soviet Bloc, 1953-6
The Jackson Committee review of US covert operations
Caution versus activism: VFC, Stalin's death and the East German riots
NSC 162/2: Eisenhower's 'New Look' foreign policy
OCB and the development of US policy
Reaffirmation of political warfare: the NSC 5412 series and Doolittle Report
The policy shift towards evolution and détente in 1955
1956: year of upheaval
The Polish October
The Hungarian Revolution
Aftermath of revolution and the demise of US political warfare

Conclusion
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index