The Scroll and Key tomb is admired for its Moorish Revival style Scroll and Key, Yale, New Haven, Connecticut He was assigned as a vice consul at the American Consulate General in Tangier, Morocco. [11] He went on to become a member of the board for EOG Resources. The plot against Arbenz therefore became part of Executive Action (a plan to remove unfriendly foreign leaders from power). Wisner began his intelligence career in the Office of Strategic Services in World War II. David Atlee Phillips was appointed to run the propaganda campaign against Arbenz's government. Who made that decision?". Frank Gardner Wisner was born in Laurel, Mississippi, in 1910. Wisner, one of the early members of the Central Intelligence Agency, helped build, and was the . Hoover, claimed that Caradja was a Soviet agent. Wisner reportedly suffered a mental breakdown after the Soviet Union quashed the Hungarian revolution in 1956, and in 1965 he committed suicide. [12] Wisner was chosen to lead the OPC in the capacity of Assistant Director for Policy Coordination (ADPC). Thats why when you read about something called the Mission Support Activity, your eyes glaze over before you realize that youre reading about the Joint Special Operations Commands special mission unit for intelligence commandos. 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). In 1953 the brothers helped out Edward Lansdale and the CIA in the Philippines: "Wisner actively courted the Alsops, along with a few other newsmen he regarded as suitable outlets. The questions from the unknown man next to me were very insistent, furtive. Arbenz, on the other hand, had simply been trying to reform his country and had not sought foreign help in this. In 1954 Wisner arranged for the funding the Hollywood production of Animal Farm, the animated allegory based on the book written by George Orwell. Frank G. Wisner, an ex-OSS man, was brought in from the State Department to head it, with a cover title of his own invention. With so many talented officers working in covert action, and with most of the foreigners involved being friendly collaborators and not "recruited" assets, the do could scarcely base promotions on the number of recruitments a case officer made each year. Four months later he agreed to retire from the CIA. "Tomorrow morning, gentlemen," Dulles said, "we will go to the White House to brief the President. Harrison E. Salisbury commented: "He (Wisner) was the key to a great many things, a brilliant, compulsive man, of enormous charm, imagination, and conviction that anything, anything could be achieved and that he could achieve it. This was followed by a week of bombing ports, ammunition dumps, military barracks and the international airport. With the help of George Kennan, the Office of Special Projects was created in 1948. He persuaded President Harry S. Truman that the OSS in peacetime would be an "American Gestapo". They were the patricians of the modern age, the paladins of democracy, and saw no contradiction in that. Wisner added that he felt personally betrayed by this behaviour. 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. This resulted in the religious community turning against Mossadegh. No longer would the Monroe Doctrine, which was directed against foreign imperial ambitions in the Americas from across the Atlantic or the Pacific, suffice. "Thanks Allen, and thanks to all of you. During his absence Wisner's job was covered by his chief of operations, Richard Helms. We drank iced tea as we sat around a garden table in Dulles' back yard. Frances Stonor Saunders, the author of Who Paid the Piper: The CIA and the Cultural Cold War? On January 4, 1951, the CIA merged the two offices and created a new Plans Division, which has had sole control over secret operations of all types since that date. (The CIA posted guards to keep the KGB from seeing who was there.). Allen W. Dulles therefore sent him to London to be CIA chief of station in England. Subscribe to our Spartacus Newsletter and keep up to date with the latest articles. Wisner was disappointed by the US government's reaction to this news and he was forced to advise the Romanian royal family to go into exile. You've averted a Soviet beachhead in our hemisphere." As a result Philby was forced to leave the United States. However, there is evidence that he was recruited several years earlier and had been spying on the liberal organizations he had been a member of in the later 1940s. Frank Justin Wisnerwas born on month day1879, at birth place. 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. They plan for apocalyptic scenarios and continuity of government. This included the claim that Guatemala was the beginning of "Soviet expansion in the Americas". Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. "Incredible". The President's final handshake was with Alien Dulles. His lineage is impeccable, since his father, Frank Wisner Sr., was a senior CIA official (from 1947 until his suicide in 1965) who was involved in the overthrow of Arbenz of Guatemala (1954) and Mossadeq of Iran (1953). The UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold was so upset by the actions of the USA that he considered resigning from his post. After graduating Wisner worked as a Wall Street lawyer. 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. . . The removal of Jacobo Arbenz resulted in several decades of repression. [12] Wisner is chair of the board of directors of The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.[13][14]. Early life [ edit] This included former members of the Nazi Party such as Gustav Hilger and Hans von Bittenfield. A decision was reached to create an organization within the CIA to conduct secret political operations. In 1951 Allen W. Dulles persuaded Cord Meyer to join the CIA. 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." "Instead of a dirge, it was exuberant, powerful, exultant," recalled Tom Braden. Frank Wisner was married to Christine de Ganay, the stepmother of Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France from 2007 until 2012. Wisner, who reside on the George Wedge farm east of town. Market data provided by Factset. . Evan Thomas, the author of The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA (1995), argues that Joseph Alsop and Stewart Alsop worked very closely with Winser. [17] Another project he was involved in was with regard to the Belarus Brigade's leaders, a unit incorporated into a German SS division, who were assisted into the United States after the Second world war, due largely to his efforts. Wisner became head of this new organization and Richard Helms became his chief of operations. Wisner focused his efforts on psychological warfare, most notably through Operation Mockingbird, wherein the OPC sought to influence foreign mediaand who better to plant propaganda than the press itself? Later, John Loftus, a prosecutor with the Office of Special Investigations at the U.S. Justice Department, accused Wisner of methodically recruiting Nazi war criminals. In early 2011, the Obama administration asked Wisner to carry views to Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, including advice that Mubarak should resign to defuse the crisis. Probably the most powerful of the Georgetown insiders was Frank Wisner, chief of covert operations for the C.I.A., and one of the most zealous of the anti-Communist crusaders who turned the agency . In addition, regardless of the principles being professed, when direct action was taken (whether clandestine or not), the interests of American business would be a consideration: if the flag was to follow, it would quite definitely follow trade. "What about the Russians? During his tenure in Lusaka, he played the role of point man for the Constructive Engagement policy of assistant secretary of state for African affairs Chester Crocker. Alsop was happy to comply, though he doubted his columns would have much impact on the Huks. degree. President Dwight Eisenhower was delighted with this result and asked Wisner to arrange for Kermit Roosevelt to give him a personal briefing on Operation Ajax. Brad finished and the lights went up. After retiring from government service in 1997, Wisner joined the board at a subsidiary of Enron, the former energy company and served on the board of American International Group (AIG). Frank Wisner, who was part of the small network of OSS hands eager to get back in the spy game, had a solution to the problem. Carlos Castillo and his collection of soldiers now crossed the Honduran-Guatemalan border. Manage Settings While in Bucharest he became friendly with King Michael of Romania. In the cases of Frank Wisner and Philip Graham, it played a role in their suicides. This became the espionage and counter-intelligence branch of the Central Intelligence Agency. This secret operation involved recruiting former German officers and diplomats who could be used in the covert war against the Soviet Union. In 1976, at the beginning of the Carter administration, he served under Cyrus Vance as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State. At Arlington Cemetery, Frank Wisner was buried as a naval commander, his wartime rank. Wisner told Clare Boothe Luce, the American ambassador in Italy: "All these people are getting killed and we weren't doing anything, we were ignoring it. Iranians took to the streets against Mohammed Mossadegh. However, Wisner was cleared of all suspicions by the CIA Office of Security. He was so depressed that his wife, Polly, worried that he would try to commit suicide. She moved to Lodi in 1934. "He realized that his life would be circumscribed by increasing cycles of depression. Frank Wisner was constantly looked for ways to help convince the public of the dangers of communism. The New York Times reported that he was a personal friend of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. However, the CIA Voice of Liberation successfully convinced Arbenz's supporters that two large and heavily armed columns of invaders were moving towards Guatemala City. Wisners office would be attached to the CIA only on paper, and strictly for funding and quarters. A close friend, Avis Bohlen said he "was so depressed about how the world was going he felt we were losing the Cold War.". At his funeral the Bethlehem Chapel in the National Cathedral was overflowing with old friends who sang "Fling Out the Banner" as Wisner's family marched down the aisle at the end of the service. This machinery was in the CIA but the agency shared control of it with the State Department and the Pentagon. To give some idea of how aggressively Wisner worked to build his spy network and subvert the Soviet Union, when the OPC was finally and officially absorbed into the CIA as the Directorate of Plans, it dwarfed the rest of the Agency, and consumed 75 percent of the CIA budget. By this time Operation Mockingbird had a major influence over 25 newspapers and wire agencies. When this failed he put pressure on Security Council members to vote against the resolution. As a result Philby was forced to leave the United States. : the individuals concerned have for . Admiral. In late 2002, Wisner co-chaired an independent working group that developed a model for the US's post-conflict role in Iraq, should an invasion occur. He worked tirelessly during the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 to roll back Soviet expansion, but was largely ignored for fear of triggering a nuclear war. 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.". The State Department immediately disavowed his comments and said Wisner had not been serving as an envoy but as a conduit for certain administration views.[16]. The Central Intelligence Agency decided that Arbenz had to be removed from power. Today, Wisner serves as an international affairs advisor for global legal powerhouse Squire Patton . Frank George Wisner II (born July 2, 1938) is an American businessman and former diplomat. Arbenz now believed he stood little chance of preventing Castillo gaining power. He served in South Vietnam until 1969, when he returned to the State Department as officer in charge of Tunisian affairs. Wisner began having trouble with J. Edgar Hoover. Alsop dutifully printed the story, which may or may not have been true.". According to Nina Burleigh (A Very Private Woman) these journalists sometimes wrote articles that were commissioned by Frank Wisner. 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. In March 1945, Wisner was transferred to Wiesbaden, Germany. According to Deborah Davis (Katharine the Great): "By the early 1950s, Wisner 'owned' respected members of the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS and other communications vehicles.". Over the next few weeks thousands were arrested on suspicion of communist activity. 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. I myself was no great admirer of the Soviet Union, and I certainly had no expectation of harmonious relations after the war. Castillo now reversed the Arbenz reforms. 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. Wisner recruited Philip Graham (Washington Post) to run the project within the industry. He wanted to start yet another secret agencythis one accountable to virtually no one. In March 1953, 209,842 acres of United Fruit Company's uncultivated land was taken by the government which offered compensation of $525,000. 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. 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. A door opened near me. As one of the agents involved in Operation Bloodstone, Harry Rositzke, pointed out, Wisner was willing to use anyone "as long as he was anti-communist". He committed suicide in 1965. Eisenhower spoke to his Chief of Naval Operations "Watch that sub. 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. She was born in Ashley, N.D. She grew up and attended schools in North Dakota. He eventually had a breakdown, was hospitalized, and received an aggressive course of electroshock therapy. However, in 1947, he was recruited by Dean Acheson, to work under Charles Saltzman, at the State Department's Office of Occupied Territories. 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". Graham himself recruited others who had worked for military intelligence during the war. He was a good sprinter and hurdler and in 1936 was asked to compete in the Olympic trials. Eisenhower shook hands all around. He was prescribed psychoanalysis and shock therapy (electroconvulsive treatment). 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). After World War II, American governments were more willing to use their influence and strength all over the world for the first time and to see an ideological implication in the "persecution" of US business interests. In June. All rights reserved. No longer would the Monroe Doctrine, which was directed against foreign imperial ambitions in the Americas from across the Atlantic or the Pacific, suffice. Toriello accused the United States government of categorizing "as communism every manifestation of nationalism or economic independence, any desire for social progress, any intellectual curiosity, and any interest in progressive liberal reforms.". Frank G. Wisner Jr. grew up in the long shadow of his secret agent father. Wisner arrived in England in September, 1959. Wisner Sr. died in 1965 by michael gordon. Four days later, after a day in which Mubarak allies took violent reprisal against democracy activists, Wisner spoke to a security conference in Europe and called it "crucial" that Mubarak stay on in the interest of "stability." It did not take him long to discover that some of them had been active in left-wing politics in the 1930s. Finally Brad (Colonel Albert Haney) rehearsed his speech. Alumni include Frank Wisner, one of the CIA's founders, and US ambassador to the UN Edward Stettinius, Jr. President Dwight Eisenhower responded by claiming that Guatemala had a "communist dictatorship.. had established an outpost on this continent to the detriment of all the American nations". Wisner was too ill to return to his post as head of the DDP. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. The OPCs mission was to take on the Soviet Union, and right from the start, the Pentagongearing up for World War IIIwanted everything from insurgencies in Western Europe to sabotaging the entire Soviet air force, and it wanted them now. Accepting that further resistance would only bring more deaths he announced his resignation over the radio. He also serves on the advisory board of the National Security Network, and on the board of Refugees International. Wisner remained concerned about the spread of communism and began lobbying for a new intelligence agency. Another project started by Wisner was called Operation Bloodstone. They were defiant and proud, but besieged. Eisenhower spoke to his Chief of Naval Operations "Watch that sub. From 1971 to 1973, he was first secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, and following that, from 1973 to 1974, he was first secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Dacca, Bangladesh. Other journalists willing to promote the views of the CIA included Ben Bradlee (Newsweek), James Reston (New York Times), Charles Douglas Jackson (Time Magazine), Walter Pincus (Washington Post), William C. Baggs (Miami News), Herb Gold (Miami News) and Charles Bartlett (Chattanooga Times). The growth of the OSS brought conflict with John Edgar Hoover who saw it as a rival to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. To get better results, add more information such as Birth Info, Death Info and Locationeven a guess will help. Wisner was also deeply involved in establishing the Lockheed U-2 spy plane program run by Richard M. Bissell Jr.[1], Wisner suffered a serious breakdown in September 1958. Vibrant democratic parties, even socialist ones, were preferable to a Communist victory. He persuaded President Harry S. Truman that the OSS in peacetime would be an "American Gestapo". Under this innocuous title, the United States was now fully in the business of covert political operations. Most men brought their wives to these gatherings. and a LL.B. Wisner grew very fond of Philby and was unaware that he was a Soviet spy betraying all his operations to his masters in Moscow. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. A decision was reached to create an organization within the CIA to conduct secret political operations. Wisner was a genteel lawyer from Mississippi who grew bored with office life and joined the Navy. The results were horrifying2500 Hungarians were killed, 200,000 were forced to flee their country, and tens of thousands were arrested and imprisoned. [8] Twelve B-17 Flying Fortress planes flew out the prisoners in hourly shifts. [18], J. Edgar Hoover and U.S. Its worth noting that Wisner was the Christopher Hitchens of his daya relentless charmer and bon vivant who threw all the best parties with the most interesting, powerful, and influential guests. With the help of resident Anastasio Somoza, Castillo had formed a rebel army in Nicaragua. Two months later he moved on to Romania where his main task was to spy on the activities of the Soviet Union. "Thanks Allen, and thanks to all of you. After 1953 the network was overseen by Allen W. Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency. It was the nearest thing to an expletive I ever heard Dulles use. Castillo's new government was immediately recognised by President Dwight Eisenhower. The real Angleton, the real Frank Wisner, the real Bill Harvey are stories in their own right. In all, some 1,700 American POWs were transported. During this period Wisner worked closely with Kim Philby, the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) liaison in Washington. Britain and France were both initially in favour but eventually buckled under United States pressure and agreed to abstain. This included James Truitt, Russell Wiggins, Phil Geyelin, John Hayes and Alan Barth. All the top officials of the agency, from director on down, were in attendance. post-template-default single single-post postid-2835 single-format-standard. During the war William Donovan as head of the OSS, had built up a team of 16,000 agents working behind enemy lines. It did not take him long to discover that some of them had been active in left-wing politics in the 1930s. Their published recommendations included: the establishment of law and order through the retraining of the Iraqi army, focusing on the distribution of humanitarian assistance and reestablishment of vital services, and the importance of avoiding the appointment of exiled Iraqi opposition leaders to dominant positions in the new government. He whispered a number of questions: "Who is that? So still, there's still another, you know, year left in the war. Sudden Death. Eisenhower turned to his Chief of the Joint Chiefs. As Thomas Polgar later pointed out: "Sure, we never said rise up and revolt, but there was a lot of propaganda that led the Hungarians to believe that we would help. After graduating Wisner worked as a Wall Street lawyer. He was educated at Woodberry Forest School in Orange and the University of Virginia. The program successfully inserted countless pro-American news stories into coverage while suppressing reporting that might be embarrassing to the country. He was dismissed from the CIA in 1950 after an arrest a few years earlier brought his homosexuality to the attention of Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Lavender scare that saw a purge of the State Department personnel because of charges of homosexuality. Mrs. Wisner had gone to Chicago to visit with friends for a few days, taking her children with her.. As Evan Thomas reported in The Very Best Men, the OPCs charter gave it responsibility for propaganda, economic warfare; preventative direct action, including sabotage, antisabotage, demolition and evacuation measures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-Communist elements in threatened countries of the free world. The U.S. government would disclaim any responsibility of the OPCs missions. Wisner worked closely with Kim Philby, the British agent who was also a Soviet spy. Wisner was also able to restrict newspapers from reporting about certain events. Phillips, along with E. Howard Hunt, was responsible for running the CIA's Voice of Liberation radio station. The man who sits at the head of the table is Frank G. Wisner, a bald, barrel-chested, martini-drinking (he gave up cigars, friends say) 72-year-old retired ambassador and businessman. Wisner, as head of the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), took overall responsibility for the operation. On 18th June, 1954, aircraft dropped leaflets over Guatemala demanding that Arbenz resign immediately or else the county would be bombed. Wisner grew very fond of Philby and was unaware that he was a Soviet spy betraying all his operations to his masters in Moscow. . I myself was no great admirer of the Soviet Union, and I certainly had no expectation of harmonious relations after the war. Frank Wisner was constantly looked for ways to help convince the public of the dangers of communism. On Tuesday, April third at Chicago, occurred the sudden death of little Frank M. Wisner, the three and a half years old son of Mr. and Mrs. L.S. Date of death: 29 October 1965: Manner of death: suicide; Place of burial: Arlington National Cemetery (385229.114N 77414.088W, Section 6, grave 9395-C, 1965) Pseudonym: . [20] After a lengthy recovery, Wisner became chief of the CIA's London Station. I suspect that had we known more (it would have just made us more appreciative.) However, Barnes convinced him that it was vital important that the Soviets did not establish a "beachhead in Central America". ", Assassination of John F. Kennedy Encyclopedia, In December, 1956, Wisner had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed as suffering from manic depression. The whole arrangement of American power in the world from the nineteenth century was based on commercial concerns and methods of operation his had given America a material empire through the ownership of foreign transport systems, oil fields, estancias, stocks, and shares. Market data provided byFactset. In the darkness I could see only a silhouette of the person entering the room; when the door closed it was dark again, and I could not make out the features of the man standing next to me. "I got a cable in Kuala Lumpur, where I was stationed," said Arthur Jacobs, the "Ozzard of Wiz" who had been Wisner's aide in the early 1950s. When Truman signed the CIA into existence, the new agency found a similar reception. The CIA was also busy bribing Arbenz's military commanders. Wisner was transferred to the OSS station in Wiesbaden. According to Deborah Davis (Katharine the Great): "By the early 1950s, Wisner 'owned' respected members of the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS and other communications vehicles.". [11] On September 1, 1948, the office was formally established, although it was renamed to the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) for obfuscation purposes.