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CIA: SAD and SOG operations from WWII through Viet Nam

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William Joseph Donovan

The Special Activities Division (SAD) is a division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) National Clandestine Service (NCS) responsible for covert operations, black operations and other "special activities". These programs are the more notorious of the CIA's operations, with a few exceptions such as the MKULTRA program, run by the CIA's Directorate of Science & Technology. These include covert political action and paramilitary special operations. Within SAD there are two separate groups, one for paramilitary operations and another for political action.[1]

The Political Action Group within SAD is responsible for covert activities related to political influence, Psychological warfare and economic warfare. The rapid development of technology has added cyberwarfare to their mission. A large covert operation usually has components that involve many, or all, of these categories, as well as paramilitary operations.[2]

Special Operations Group (SOG) is the element within SAD responsible for paramilitary operations. These operations include collection of intelligence in hostile countries and regions, and all high threat military or intelligence operations with which the U.S. government does not wish to be overtly associated.[3]

World War II: creation as the OSS

While the World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was technically a military agency under the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in practice it was fairly autonomous of military control and enjoyed direct access to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Major General William Joseph Donovan was the head of the OSS. Donovan was a soldier and Medal of Honor recipient from World War One. He was also a lawyer and former classmate of FDR at Columbia Law School.[4] Like the subsequent CIA, OSS included both human intelligence functions and special operations paramilitary functions. Its Secret Intelligence division was responsible for espionage, while its Jedburgh teams, a joint U.S.-UK-French unit, were an ancestor of groups that create guerrilla units, such as the U.S. Army Special Forces and the CIA. OSS' Operational Groups were larger U.S. units that carried out direct action behind enemy lines. Even during WWII, the idea of intelligence and special operations units not under strict military control was controversial. OSS operated primarily in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) and to some extent in the China-Burma-India Theater, while General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was extremely reluctant to have any OSS personnel within his area of operations.

From 1943–1945, the OSS also played a major role in training Kuomintang troops in China and Burma, and recruited other indigenous irregular forces for sabotage as well as guides for Allied forces in Burma fighting the Japanese army. OSS also helped arm, train and supply resistance movements, including Mao Zedong's People's Liberation Army in China and the Viet Minh in French Indochina, in areas occupied by the Axis powers. Other functions of the OSS included the use of propaganda, espionage, subversion, and post-war planning.

One of the greatest accomplishments of the OSS during World War II was its penetration of Nazi Germany by OSS operatives. The OSS was responsible for training German and Austrian commandos for missions inside Nazi Germany. Some of these agents included exiled communists and socialist party members, labor activists, anti-Nazi POWs, and German and Jewish refugees. At the height of its influence during World War II, the OSS employed almost 24,000 people.[5]

OSS Paramilitary Officers parachuted into many countries that were behind enemy lines, including France, Norway and Greece. In Crete, OSS paramilitary officers linked up with, equipped and fought alongside Greek resistance forces against the Axis occupation.

OSS was disbanded shortly after World War II, with its intelligence analysis functions moving temporarily into the U.S. Department of State. Espionage and counterintelligence went into military units. The paramilitary and related functions went into an assortment of ad hoc groups such as the Office of Policy Coordination. Between the original creation of the CIA by the National Security Act of 1947 and various mergers and reorganizations through 1952, the wartime OSS functions generally went into CIA. The mission of training and leading of guerrillas generally stayed in the United States Army Special Forces, but the missions that were required to remain covert went to the paramilitary arm of the CIA. The direct descendant of the OSS' special operations is the CIA's Special Activities Division.

Tibet

File:Tenzin Gyatzo foto 1.jpg
14th Dalai Lama

After the Chinese invasion of Tibet in October 1950, the CIA inserted SAD paramilitary teams into Tibet to train and lead Tibetan resistance fighters against the People's Liberation Army of China. These teams selected and then trained Tibetan soldiers in the Rocky Mountains of the United States.[6] The SAD teams then advised and led these commandos against the Chinese, both from Nepal and India. In addition, SAD Paramilitary Officers were responsible for the Dalai Lama's clandestine escape to India, narrowly escaping capture and certain execution by the Chinese government.[6]

According to a book by retired CIA officer John Kenneth Knaus, entitled "Orphans Of The Cold War: America And The Tibetan Struggle For Survival", Gyalo Thondup, the older brother of the 14th (and current) Dalai Lama, sent the CIA five Tibetan recruits. These recruits were then trained in paramilitary tactics on the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas.[7] Shortly thereafter, the five men were covertly returned to Tibet “to assess and organize the resistance” and selected another 300 Tibetans for training. U.S. assistance to the Tibetan resistance ceased after the 1972 Nixon visit to China, after which the U.S. and Communist China normalized relations.[8]

Korea

Battle of Incheon
The CIA sponsored a variety of activities during the Korean War. These activities included maritime operations behind North Korean lines. Yong Do Island, connected by a rugged isthmus to Pusan, served as the base for those operations. These operations were carried out by well-trained Korean guerrillas. The four principal U.S. advisers responsible for the training and operational planning of those special missions were Dutch Kramer, Tom Curtis, George Atcheson and Joe Pagnella. All of these Paramilitary Operations Officer operated through a CIA front organization called the Joint Advisory Commission, Korea (JACK), headquartered at Tongnae, a village near Pusan, on the peninsula’s southeast coast.[9] These paramilitary teams were responsible for numerous maritime raids and ambushes behind North Korean lines, as well as prisoner of war rescue operations. These were the first maritime unconventional warfare units that trained indigenous forces as surrogates. They also provided a model, along with the other CIA-sponsored ground based paramilitary Korean operations, for the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) activities conducted by the U.S. military and the CIA/SAD in Vietnam.[10][11][9] In addition, CIA paramilitary ground-based teams worked directly for U.S. military commanders, specifically with the 8th Army, on the "White Tiger" initiative. This initiative included inserting South Korean commandos and CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers prior to the two major amphibious assaults on North Korea, including the landing at Inchon.[10]

Iran

Main article: Iranian coup d'état of 1953


In the early 1950s, the CIA and Britain's MI6 were ordered to overthrow the government of Iran, Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq; they installed the Nazi General Fazlollah Zahedi as Prime Minister. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, son of the Nazi collaborator Reza Pahlavi, under whose regime Iran was the leading exporter of materiel to Nazi Germany, later lead in the semi-dictatorial position of Shah.[12][13] The CIA's plan was named Operation Ajax.[14][15] The senior CIA officer was Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., the grandson of American president Theodore Roosevelt. The operation utilized all of SAD's components to include political action, covert influence and paramilitary operations. The paramilitary component included training anti-Communist guerrillas to fight the Tudeh Party if they seized power in the chaos of Operation Ajax.[16][17]


Guatemala

Main article: Guatemalan coup d'état of 1954

The CIA overthrew the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954,[18]

Cuba (1961)

Main article: Invasion of Cuba: Operations Pluto and Zapata
Map showing the location of the Bay of Pigs

The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as "La Batalla de Girón", or "Playa Girón" in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from U.S. government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the exile combatants in three days.

The sea-borne invasion force landed on April 17, and fighting lasted until April 19, 1961. CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers led the first assault on the beaches, and supervised the amphibious landings.[19] Four American aircrew instructors from Alabama Air National Guard were killed while flying attack sorties.[19] Various sources estimate Cuban Army casualties (killed or injured) to be in the thousands (between 2,000 and 5,000).[20] This invasion was a failure both militarily and politically.[21] Deteriorating Cuban-American relations were made worse by the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Bolivia

Main article: Murder of Che Guavara
Che Guevara
The National Liberation Army of Bolivia (ELN-Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia) was a communist guerrilla force that operated from the remote Ñancahuazú region against the pro-U.S. Bolivian government. They were joined by Che Guevara in the mid-1960s.[22][23] The ELN was well equipped and scored a number of early successes against the Bolivian army in the difficult terrain of the mountainous Camiri region.[24] In the late 1960s, the CIA deployed teams of SAD Paramilitary Operations Officers to Bolivia to train the Bolivian army in order to counter the ELN.[24] These SAD teams linked up with U.S. Army Special Forces and Bolivian Special Forces to track down and capture Guevara, who was a special prize because of his leading role in the Cuban Revolution.[24] On October 9, 1967, Guevara was executed by Bolivian soldiers on the orders of CIA paramilitary operative Félix Rodríguez shortly after being captured, according to CIA documents.[25] Guavara's death can be shown to be unlawful under the International Law of the Third Geneva Convention (Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of Prisoners of War)[26] In his book titled "Shadow Warrior: The CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles", Rodriguez claims that Guevara was executed over his objections by the Bolivian military on orders from their higher command.[24]

Vietnam and Laos

South Vietnam, Military Regions, 1967
The original OSS mission in Vietnam under Major Archimedes Patti was to work with Ho Chi Minh in order to prepare his forces to assist the United States and their Allies in fighting the Japanese. After the end of World War II, the United States ignored the attempts of Ho Chi Minh to maintain a friendly relationship. The lack of engagement between the U.S. and Vietnamese independence groups that were resisting the return of French colonial control after the end of WWII, angered Vietnamese groups.[27]

CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers trained and led Hmong tribesmen in Laos and Vietnam. This effort was considered a significant success, and the actions of these officers were not known for several years. Air America was the air component of the CIA's paramilitary mission in Southeast Asia and was responsible for all combat, logistics and search and rescue operations in Laos and certain sections of Vietnam.[28] The ethnic minority forces numbered in the tens of thousands and they conducted direct actions mission, led by Paramilitary Operations Officers, against the communist Pathet Lao forces and their North Vietnamese allies.[10]

Elements of SAD were seen in the CIA's Phoenix Program. One component of the Phoenix Program was involved in the capture and killing of suspected Viet Cong (National Liberation Front – NLF) members.[29] Between 1968 and 1972, the Phoenix Program captured 81,740 National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF or Viet Cong) members, of whom 26,369 were killed. This was a large proportion of U.S. killings between 1969 and 1971. The program was also successful in destroying their infrastructure. By 1970, communist plans repeatedly emphasized attacking the government's "pacification" program and specifically targeted Phoenix agents. The NLF also imposed quotas. In 1970, for example, communist officials near Da Nang in northern South Vietnam instructed their agents to "kill 400 persons" deemed to be government "tyrant[s]" and to “annihilate” anyone involved with the "pacification" program. Several North Vietnamese officials have made statements about the effectiveness of Phoenix.[30][31]

MAC-V SOG (Studies and Observations Group) (which was originally named the Special Operations Group, but was changed for cover purposes), was created and active during the Vietnam War. While CIA was just one part of MAC-V SOG, it did have operational control of some of the programs. Many of the military members of MAC-V SOG joined the CIA after their military service. The legacy of MAC-V SOG continues within SAD's Special Operations Group.[32]

See Also

and Wikipedia articles:

Citations

  1. ↑ Daugherty (2004)
  2. ↑ afr
  3. ↑ Robberson, Tod (October 27, 2002). "CIA commandos remain covert". Dallas Morning News. http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2002/021027-cia1.htm. </li>
  4. ↑ Wild Bill Donovan: The Last Hero, Anthony Cave Brown, New York City, Times Books, 1982
  5. ↑ Chef Julia Child, others part of WWII spy network, CNN, 2008-08-14
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 The CIA's Secret War in Tibet, Kenneth Conboy, James Morrison, The University Press of Kansas, 2002.
  7. ↑ Fitsanakis, Joseph, CIA Veteran Reveals Agency’s Operations in Tibet, intelNews, 2009-03-14 (http://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/01-100)
  8. ↑ Orphans Of The Cold War America And The Tibetan Struggle For Survival, John Kenneth Knaus, 1999 IBN 1-891620-85-1
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 http://www.historynet.com/korean-war-cia-sponsored-secret-naval-raids.htm
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Southworth (2002)
  11. ↑ (October 17, 2008). "Joint Publication 1-02, Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms" (PDF). 512 United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on November 29, 2008.
  12. ↑ "CIA Historical Paper No. 208 Clandestine Service History: Overthrow Of Premier Mossadeq Of Iran November 1952 – August 1953 by Donald N. Wilber". Archived from the original on 2009-06-08. http://www.webcitation.org/5hOKk6ByB. Retrieved on 2009-06-06
  13. ↑ James Risen (2000-04-16). "Secrets of History: The C.I.A. in Iran". The New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-11-03.
  14. ↑ O'Reilly, Kevin (2007). Decision Making in U.S. History. The Cold War & the 1950s. Social Studies. pp. 108. ISBN 1560042931.
  15. ↑ Mohammed Amjad. "Iran: From Royal Dictatorship to Theocracy". Greenwood Press, 1989. p. 62 "the United States had decided to save the 'free world' by overthrowing the democratically elected government of Mossadegh."
  16. ↑ The 1953 Coup D'etat in Iran. Archived from source June 8, 2009. URL accessed on June 6, 2009.
  17. ↑ Stephen Kinzer: "All the Shah's Men. An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror", John Wiley and Sons, 2003, p.215
  18. ↑ Piero Gleijeses, Nick. Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952–1954.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lynch (2000), pp.83, 129
  20. ↑ Triay (2001)
  21. ↑ Lazo, Mario, Dagger in the Heart: American Policy Failures in Cuba (1970), Twin Circle Publishing, New York
  22. ↑ Selvage 1985.
  23. ↑ Anderson 1997, p. 693.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 Rodriguez (1989)
  25. ↑ http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB5/index.html#declass
  26. ↑ GENEVA CONVENTION RELATIVE TO THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR OF AUGUST 12, 1949 (GENEVA CONVENTION III).
  27. ↑ Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America's Albatross, Archimedes, Patti, University of California Press, 1980, isbn=9780520047839
  28. ↑ Air America and The Ravens- by Chris Robbins â€” Both are the history of CIA/IAD's war in Laos, providing biographies and details on such CIA Paramilitary Officers as Wil Green, Tony Poe, Jerry Daniels, Howie Freeman, Bill Lair, and the pilots, ground crew and support personnel managed by IAD/SOG/AIR BRANCH under the proprietaries Bird Air, Southern Air Transport, China Air Transport and Air America-- and the U.S. Air Force forward air controllers (RAVENS) who were brought in under CIA/IAD command and control as "civilians" to support secret combat ops in Laos.
  29. ↑ Douglas Valentine. The Phoenix Program.
  30. ↑ http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/MarApr06/Andrade-Willbanks.pdf
  31. ↑ ^ Colby, William; Peter Forbath (1978) (extract concerning Gladio stay-behind operations in Scandinavia). Honourable Men: My Life in the CIA. London: Hutchinson.
  32. ↑ Shooting at the Moon by Roger Warner, The history of CIA/IAD'S 15-year involvement in conducting the secret war in Laos, 1960–1975, and the career of CIA PMCO (paramilitary case officer) Bill Lair.

    33. </ol>

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