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Original Articles

American Clandestine Intelligence in Early Postwar Europe

Pages 7-24 | Published online: 05 Oct 2012

References

  • 2000 . Creating the Secret State: The Origins of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1943–1947 Lawrence , KS : University Press of Kansas . Recent examples would include David F. Rudgers, (Gregory Mitrovich, Undermining the Kremlin: America's Strategy to Subvert the Soviet Bloc, 1947–1956 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000); Peter Grose, Operation Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000)
  • 1996 . Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945–1950: Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment Washington , DC : GPO . “Executive Order: Termination of the Office of Strategic Services and Disposition of Its Functions,” 20 September 1945, 44–46
  • 26 September 1946 . Ibid Memorandum from the Assistant Secretary of War to the Director of the Strategic Services Unit, 235–36; Memorandum for Brigadier General John Magruder, 27 September 1945, National Archives and Records Administration (College Park, Maryland), Record Group 226. Microfilm 1642, roll 113, frames, 142–43. All unpublished documents (paper or microfilm) cited in this article are located in Record Group 226. Microfilm documents will be cited as M1642/roll/frames
  • 22 October 1945 . Memorandum for the President [from Robert Patterson], M1642/113/528–531
  • 17 October 1945 . Memorandum for the Assistant Secretary of War [from General John Magruder], M1642/113/179-81; General John Magruder to the Executive to the Assistant Secretary of War, 19 January 1946, M1642/113/90-96; “Exhibit One: Present and Contemplated Future Deployment of SSU,” n.d., entry 210, box 142, folder “SSU Organization”. Hereafter paper documents will be cited as entry/box/folder
  • 2002 . Journal of Intelligence History “Interview with Mr. Gilpatric of Staff Division II” 3 March 1946. The author is indebted to Eduard Mark for providing a copy of this document. For the Fortier Committee, see Michael Warner, “Prolonged Suspense: The Fortier Board and the Transformation of the Office of Strategic Services,” 2 (Summer: 65–76
  • During the war OSS did not operate in Latin America (the responsibility of the Federal Bureau of Investigation) or the Pacific theater of operations. Initially, SSU had no presence in either of these areas
  • 6 November 1945 . Intelligence and National Security “Strategic Services Unit as of mid-October, 1945,” [General John Magruder to the Assistant Secretary of War], 25 October 1945, 210/142/folder: SSU Organization; “SI Operations in Italy [n.d.], 210/453/8; Frank Wisner to Whitney Shepardson, Ibid; Matthew Aid, “Stella Polaris and the Secret Code Battle in Postwar Europe,”, 17 (Autumn 2002): 46
  • “Strategic Services Unit as of mid-October, 1945”; Chief, Operational Auxiliaries, to Director SSU, 4 February 1946, M1642/42/1033–1035
  • 6 August 1945 . Battleground Berlin: CIA vs KGB in the Cold War New Haven : Yale University Press . Philip Horton to Whitney Shepardson, 215/2/13; “Report from Chief of OSS Austria,” 24 August 1945, M1642/3/635-36; “Operational Status Report,” 24 September 1945, 215/8/46; “Summary of SSU Activities During January 1946,” 210/191/14; David E. Murphy, Sergei A. Kondrashev and George Bailey, (1997, 8; “Interview with Mr. Gilpatric of Staff Division II,” 3 March 1946
  • 1945 . Charles Thayer to General John Magruder, 12 November 210/354/2
  • 15 November 1945 . Chief SI, Mission to Switzerland to Chief SI, SSU Washington, 210/191/13. For the complaints of the Spanish desk of SSU France, see Kantack to the Director, 210/208/folder “France.”
  • 12 November 1945 . See, for example, Charles Thayer to General John Magruder, 210/354/2
  • 1992 . “You are Never Going to Be Able to Run an Intelligence Unit: SSU Confronts the Black Market in Berlin,” . In Journal of Intelligence History New York : Charles Scribners . Kevin Conley Ruffner, 2 (Winter 2002): 1–20; Burton Hersh, The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA 159–60; Peter Sichel to the author, 17 July 2002
  • 5 July 1945 . Proctor to Whitney Shepardson, 210/416/5; General John Magruder to the Assistant Secretary of War, 17 October 1945, M1642/113/179–181
  • 5 November 1945 . For evidence of the marginalization of the Benelux and Scandinavian stations, see “Monthly Report of the Steering Division” (Germany), 214/4/19; For the history of Stella Polaris and American intelligence relations with the Finns, see Aid “Stella Polaris and the Secret Code Battle in Postwar Europe,” passim
  • 28 February 1946 . The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence 83 London : John Murray . “Current Status and Activities of SI London,” 210/435/4; Richard Aldrich, (2001
  • 1946 . “Current Status and Activities of SI France,” 28 February Ibid; General John Magruder to Chief, French Mission, 3 December 1945, M1642/73/989-994; Andrews to Whitney Shepardson, 13 July 1945, 215/2/[no folder number]
  • 1 October 1945 . General John Magruder to the Assistant Secretary of War. Subject: Report on SSU Activities from to 30 November 1945, n.d., M1642/113/25–59
  • 1945 . Frank Wisner to Whitney Shepardson, 6 December 1945, 214/4/20. See also the monthly reports of SSU Germany from the fall of in 214/4/19
  • 1994 . Intelligence and National Security For the OSS mission in Romania, see Eduard Mark, “The OSS in Romania, 1944–45: An Intelligence Operation of the Early Cold War,”, 9 (April: 320–44
  • Toward the end of the war two analysts from the Research and Analysis Division of OSS were assigned to the American embassy in Moscow, but they were not involved in clandestine intelligence collection
  • 27 July 1945 . Executive Office to Branch Chiefs. Subject: OSS Organization in Europe, 210/186/6; “SI Coverage in Southeast Europe,” 26 February 1946, 210/435/4. By the fall of 1945 American intelligence authorities noted an “almost complete absence of production” by the tiny Bucharest mission. “Monthly Report of Steering Division,” 4 October 1945, 214/4/19. The U.S. representative to the Allied Control Commission in Rumania, General Cortlandt Schuyler, ordered the two SSU officers on his staff to report only to him; apparently very few of their reports were passed on to SSU headquarters. The author is indebted to Eduard Mark for this information. Briefly, in mid-summer 1945, there was a small OSS mission in Albania
  • As late as January 1946 Washington headquarters recorded, “High-level political reporting from the Vienna Intelligence Unit was inadequate due to preoccupation with Vienna's Nazi problem.” “Summary of SSU Activities During January 1946,” 210/191/14
  • 4 October 1945 . “Monthly Report of Steering Division,” 214/4/19; “Operational Status Report,” 24 September 1945, 215/8/46; “Summary of SSU Activities During January 1946,” 210/191/14
  • 9 July 1945 . “SHAEF Joint Intelligence Committee: Political Intelligence Report,” M1642/10/1038-42; William Donovan to James Byrnes, 20 July 1945, M1642, 83/460–62
  • 2 August 1945 . See notation on “Monthly Report of Steering Division,” SI/Germany, 214/4/19
  • [CIA History Staff] Forging an Intelligence Partnership: CIA and the Origins of the BND, 1945–49 (Langley, VA; Central Intelligence Agency, 1999), xv; “Intelligence Requirements on Russian Zone/Germany,” 21 August 1945, 210/501/3. For evidence that intelligence officers in Germany believed that the American military government feared that operations into the Russian Zone would poison relations with Moscow, see Murphy, Kondrashev and Bailey. Battleground Berlin, 8
  • 24 September 1945 . “Operational Status Report,” 215/8/46; “Operational Status Report,” 7 December 1945, 215/8/44; Julor to Chief SI, Vienna, 10 December 1945, 210/187/1
  • 4 October 1945 . “Monthly Report of Steering Division,” 214/4/19; “Progress Report,” 11 February 1946, 215/8/43. Information concerning the number of SSU agents in the Soviet zone is drawn from the testimony of Frank Wisner before the Fortier Committee. Eduard Mark kindly provided a copy of this testimony
  • 16 August 1945 . Philip Horton to Whitney Shepardson, 215/2/13; Philip Horton to SI Branch, Washington, 18 August 1945, 215/2/13
  • 2 August 1945 . “Monthly Report of Steering Division, SI/Germany,” 214/4/19
  • 2003 . The Spying Game: The Secret History of British Espionage London : Politicos . Michael Smith, 27; Richard Aldrich, The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence (London: John Murray, 2001), 84–85. For British communications intelligence operations against the Soviet Union see, Aid, “Stella Polaris and the Secret Code Battle in Postwar Europe,”51–52
  • 11 April 1946 . Forging an Intelligence Partnership [CIA History Staff], xv, xvii; Alton Childs to Philip Horton, 215/2/[document 25920]; “Open Memorandum: Personal Opinion re Intelligence Penetration of Russia,” 18 March 1946, M1642/57/712-715; General John Magruder to General Clayton Bissell, 7 December 1945, M1642/29/1122. SSU circulated the first Warwick/Coventry products on 19 December 1945. Though leery of the Gehlen group, both OSS and SSU continued for some time to use the handful of anti-Nazis German civilians with whom Allen Dulles had established connections while in Switzerland during the war. This group, mostly from Germany's administrative and managerial classes, were known as the “Crown Jewels.” Dulles and his successors in the German mission expected these contacts to return to Germany and eventually assume leadership positions in postwar society. As intelligence sources the Crown Jewels proved disappointing
  • 6 November 1945 . “[X-2 Italy] to Saint: Report of Activities for October 1945,” 210/191/13
  • 29 December 1945 . “Report for November 1945,” 210/208/folder: Switzerland; “Summary of SSU Activities During January 1946,” 210/191/14
  • 1945 . “SSU Mission Austria, Progress Report, November” 3 December 1945, 210/191/14; “SSU Austria, Progress Report for January 1946,” 210/191/14
  • 15 August 2002. . [Name withheld by request] to the author
  • 17 July 2002 . Peter Sichel to the author
  • 30 March 1946 . Memorandum by Gordon Stewart (Chief, SI Germany): Secret Intelligence, Germany, 214/4/20; “Progress Report, March 1946” 15 April 1946, 215/8/43. In his memorandum of 30 March 1946, Gordon Stewart explicitly states that March marked a “turning point in the administration, orientation and activities of SI in the German Mission.”

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