Blowback (58 page)

1
.

Fletcher Prouty interview, April 12, 1984. See also Fletcher Prouty,
The Secret Team
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973). On pivotal role of Brigadier General Robert McClure, see Colonel Alfred H. Paddock,
U.S. Army Special Warfare
(Washington, D.C.: National Defense University, 1982), pp. 17–20 and 44–51.

2
.

Prouty interview, April 12, 1984. For archival documentation on this point, see JIC 634/1, “Joint Intelligence Committee: Vulnerability of Soviet Bloc Armed Forces to Guerrilla Warfare,” September 8, 1953 (top secret), now available on microfilm through University Publications of America,
Records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
, Part 2:
The Soviet Union
, Reel 7, Frame 0184ff., which discusses in detail U.S. insurgency operations inside the USSR in the event of war, including assassinations, contamination of water supplies, destruction of communications, and other techniques.

3
.

“Subject: Evaluation of Effect on Soviet War Effort Resulting from the Strategic Air Offensive,” June 1, 1949 (top secret), Box 9, Tab 67-OSD, Hot Files, RG 319, NA, Washington, D.C., declassified following author's review request. On this point, see also “Dir of Log to Dir of P&O, Subject: JCS 1920/1,” March 1, 1949, P&O 350 06 TS through 381 FLR TS, 1949 Hot File, RG 319, NA, Washington, D.C.

4
.

On Labor Service units, see
Labor Services and Industrial Police in the European Command 1945–1950
(Karlsruhe, Germany: Historical Division EUCOM, 1952), pp. 112–15 and the chronology on pp. 236–46. This study was formerly classified as secret security information but is now declassified and available at the NA and the Center for Military History, both in Washington, D.C. It is cited hereinafter as
Labor Service History
.

For data in footnote concerning USSR use of Labor Service units, see Central Intelligence Agency, “Memorandum for Mr. John D Hickerson, Department of State,” November 19, 1947 (secret), 861.20262/11–1947 RG 59, NA, Washington, D.C. For Nazi use of Labor Service groups, see B. Dmytryshyn, “The Nazis and the SS Volunteer Division ‘Galicia,'”
American Slavic and East European Review
(February 1956), pp. 2–3, and C. L. Lundin, “Nazification of Baltic German Minorities,” Journal
of Central European Affairs
(April
1947), p. 25. See also L. Poliakov, “The Vatican and the ‘Jewish Question,'”
Commentary
(November 1950), p. 442, for information concerning genocidal activities by German Labor Service gangs during the Holocaust in Poland.

5
.

U.S
. v.
Talivaldis K arklins
, U.S. District Court Central California, civil action CV 81 0460 LTL; and U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Special Investigations, op cit., p. 44. On émigré nationalists and the Labor Service Divisions, see also depositions of Edward O'Connor and Col. Philip Corso (ret.),
U.S
. v.
Liudas Kairys
, U.S. District Court Northern Illinois, civil action 80-C-4032, and the defendant's posttrial brief in the same case. Kairys had served during the war in the SS Commando Lublin and as an SS guard at the Treblinka forced-labor camp. He joined a U.S. Army-sponsored Lithuanian labor service unit in 1947, and it was through that channel that he entered the United States. “The Army took Kairys and 18 to 20 men from his [Labor Service] unit to Stuttgart,” Kairys's defense brief reads. “They were taken to the head of a long line waiting to see the [U.S.] consul and after only two or three minutes of processing, he was given an oath” and shortly thereafter put on a transport to the United States. The Treblinka forced-labor camp where Kairys served is not to be confused with the better-known Treblinka extermination center, which was nearby. Thousands of Jewish prisoners were murdered by the SS at the forced-labor camp; hundreds of thousands were killed at the extermination center.

On Zegners, see “Aplilciba 1941 y 20 Augusta,” “Aplilciba 18 Dec. 1941,” and “RIGAER E-G der Sicherheitspolizei den 7 Okt. 1942 Nr.1098,” copies in author's collection, which document Zegners's role in the Latvian security police in Riga.

6
.

The American colonel quoted in the text spoke with the author on the condition he not be identified.

7
.

For record of Busbee's correspondence, see “Item 1, 2 February 1951” and “Item 1, 27 April 1951,” European Command Labor Services Division Classified Decimal File, 1950–51 (secret), now at RG 338, NA, Suitland, Md.; and
Labor Service History
, p. 151.

8
.

Labor Service History
, p. 117 (on suppression of disturbances); pp. 181–82 (on weapons and training); p. 198 (on chemical warfare preparations). On strength of units, see
EUCOM Annual Narrative Report 1954
(secret), RG 338, NA, Suitland, Md., pp. 85–88, 95–98. On secrecy of mission, see “Subject: Letter to General Eddy from K. W. Von Schlieben, Major, 31 Oct 1950” (restricted), RG 338 Decimal Files, NA, Suitland, Md.

9
.

On Albanian unit, see
EUCOM Annual Narative Report, Labor Services Division, 1950
, European Command Labor Services Division Classified Decimal File, 1950–51 (secret), p. 22, RG 338, NA, Suitland, Md.

10
.

“Geheimorganisation des Bundes Deutscher Jugend in Hessen Ausgehoben,”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
, October 9, 1952; “Oberbundesanwalt Fordert BDJ-Akten,”
Frankfurter Rundeschau
, October 14, 1952, p. 1; “Alleged Secret Organization: Guerrilla Training in Germany,”
Times
of London, October 9, 1952.

11
.

“‘Partisans' in Germany: An Arms Dump in the Odenwald,”
Times
of London, October 11, 1952; “German Says U.S. Set Up Saboteurs,”
New York Times
, October 9, 1952; “More Germans Hit U.S. Sabotage Plan,”
New York Times
, October 12, 1952.

12
.

“German Saboteurs Betray U.S. Trust,”
New York Times
, October 10, 1952.

13
.

“German Socialist Fears Subversion,”
New York Times
, October 14, 1952.

14
.

Thomas Braden interview, September 12, 1984; Meyer, op. cit.

15
.

Select Committee [Church Committee] to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities, U.S. Senate, 94th Congress,
Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1975).

16
.

Military Intelligence Division, “History of the Military Intelligence Division, 7 December 1941—1 September 1945,”
ACMH Manuscripts, 1946
, pp. 307–08, ACMH Manuscripts (secret), RG 319, NA, Washington, D.C.

17
.

Colonel R. W. Porter to Major General R. C. Lindsay et al., “Psychological Warfare Study for Guidance in Strategic Planning,” with annex, March 11, 1948 (top secret), P&O 091.42 TS (Section I, Cases 1–7), Hot Files, RG 319, NA, Washington, D.C. On this point, see also JIC 634/1, Reel 7, frame 0184ff., particularly Paragraph 5c, “Command of MVD Security Units.” “The command of MVD security troops is extremely centralized,” the JIC recommendation states. “[T]herefore, [MVD] headquarters would be profitable targets. The higher the MVD official that could be removed, the greater the loss of security control, and the greater the intimidation of other officials.”

For an intriguing study of the “benefits” of systematic assassination of America's political opponents, see Captain John T. Stark,
Unconventional Warfare
—
Selective Assassination as an Instrument of National Policy
(Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Command and Staff College Special Study, n.d. [1962?]), official use only.

18
.

Wisner correspondence with the INS, 1951, as reproduced in John Loftus,
The Belarus Secret
(New York: Knopf, 1982), pp. 102–03.

19
.

Church Committee Report
, Book IV, p. 132n.

20
.

Prouty interview, April 12, 1984. For information on the “medical experiments” discussed in footnote, see John Marks,
The Search for the Manchurian Candidate
(New York: Times Books, 1979), pp. 22–29. For CIA role in assassination plots on foreign leaders, see
Church Committee Report
, interim report, November 20, 1975, and
Church Committee Report
, Book IV, p. 121ff.

21
.

John S. Guthrie memorandum for the secretary, Security Control Section, JIG, “Subject: Assignment of Code Word,” December 8, 1947 (top secret), (for Hagberry) and November 21, 1947 (for Lithia), both in 1946–1948 Decimal File, P&O 311.5 TS (Section II), 1948, RG 319, NA, Washington, D.C.

22
.

Maris Cakars and Barton Osborn, “Operation Ohio,”
WIN
(September 18, 1975). See also Miles Copeland,
Without Cloak or Dagger
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974), p. 241, in which former CIA operative Copeland praises the “no-nonsense handling of occasional traitors” by an unidentified émigré group on the OPC payroll as a desirable contrast with what was “allowed in the OPC itself.” For Army comments on missing records mentioned in text: author's FOIA correspondence with the National Archives and U.S. Army concerning Hagberry, Lithia, and Rusty, 1984.

23
.

Franklin Lindsay interview, January 25, 1985.

24
.

Church Committee Report
, Book IV, p. 128ff.

For data on Soviet use of assassination discussed in footnote, see, for example, CIA, “Soviet Use of Assassination and Kidnapping,” loc. cit., “16 Anti-Communist Leaders Died the Death of Bandera,”
ABN Correspondence
, n.d. (1962?); Nikolai Khokhlov and Milton Lehman “I Would Not Murder for the Soviets,”
Saturday Evening Post
(November 20 and 27, December 4 and 11, 1954); and particularly
MVD-MGB Campaign Against Russian Émigrés
, loc. cit.

25
.

For biographic material on Pash: Boris Pash interview, February 1985; and Pash, op. cit., for World War II role and photos. For role in Oppenheimer case, see James Reston, “Dr. Oppenheimer Is Barred from Security Clearance, Though ‘Loyal,' ‘Discreet,'”
New York Times
, June 2, 1954, p. Iff.

26
.

For documentation of Pash's role in Bloodstone, see SANACC 395, Document 8 (SANA 6024: Appointment of Committee), April 15, 1948 (secret). On assassination as a designated Bloodstone mission, see Joint Strategic Plans Committee, JSPC 862/3, loc. cit.

27
.

Church Committee Report
, Book IV, p. 129. According to the CIA, Pash was assigned to that agency from March 3, 1949, to January 3, 1952, and worked with the CIA on several operations after that date; see ibid., p. 128.

28
.

Pash interview, February 1985.

29
.

SANACC 395 Document 8 (SANA 6024: Appointment of Committee), April 15, 1948 (secret), and
Church Committee Report
, Book IV, p. 128ff.

30
.

Church Committee Report
Book IV, p. 129ff.

31
.

Ibid, p. 130.

32
.

Pentagon document: JSPC 862/2, loc. cit., Appendix “C,” pp. 27, 35. Pash: SANACC 395 Document 8 (SANA 6024: Appointment of Committee), April 15, 1948, and
Church Committee Report
, Book IV, p. 130. Albanian role: see Chapter Nine, source notes 31 through 33. Murder of double agents: Cakars and Osborn, op. cit.; Copeland, op. cit, p. 241, with quoted comment from OPC supervisor in
Church Committee Report
, Book IV, p. 312.

33
.

Corson, op. cit., p. 361.