"[15], During the early 1950s, Wisner was the subject of FBI inquiries in connection with his wartime work in Romania, including the claim that he had an affair with Tanda Caradja, daughter of Romanian princess Catherine Caradja during the war; Caradja was alleged in FBI reports to be a Soviet agent. Accepting that further resistance would only bring more deaths he announced his resignation over the radio. If it gets near the coast of Guatemala we'll sink the son-of-a-bitch. ' 1930s. Wisner remained as Deputy Director of Plans (DDP) until September 1958, playing an important role in the early history of the CIA. (A separate Office of Special Operations conducted secret actions aimed solely at gathering intelligence.) When he finished Alien Dulles said, "Brad, I've never heard such crap." Four months later he agreed to retire from the CIA. Hoover, claimed that Caradja was a Soviet agent. Five thousand refugees volunteered to be part of a post-nuclear guerrilla force, which was just what it sounds likeFallout: New Stalingrad. The DPP now accounted for three quarters of the CIA budget and 60% of its personnel. I saw Frank three days before he died and he seemed in good spirits. Frank Wisner was married to Christine de Ganay, the stepmother of Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France from 2007 until 2012. [3] He is the son of CIA official Frank Wisner (19091965).
Shuttling Diplomat Ambassador of Peace - Advisorsmagazine Wisner was placed in charge of this new branch, and was beginning to find some real successes.
The growth of the OSS brought conflict with John Edgar Hoover who saw it as a rival to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Edit Search New Search Jump to Filters. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Most men brought their wives to these gatherings. Wisner worked closely with Kim Philby, the British agent who was also a Soviet spy. [21], In 1962, Wisner retired from the CIA. During his absence Wisner's job was covered by his chief of operations, Richard Helms. He was educated at Woodberry Forest School in Orange and the University of Virginia. Khrushchev's de-Stalinzation policy encouraged people living in Eastern Europe to believe that he was willing to give them more independence from the Soviet Union. All the top officials of the agency, from director on down, were in attendance. Henry Cabot Lodge tried to block the Security Council from discussing a resolution to send an investigation team to Guatemala. According to Nina Burleigh (A Very Private Woman) these journalists sometimes wrote articles that were commissioned by Frank Wisner. That beginning took place for him in Romania, simultaneously dealing with the results of the German war and with the coming reality of Soviet power. This secret operation involved recruiting former German officers and diplomats who could be used in the covert war against the Soviet Union. Desmond FitzGerald, a deputy director of the CIA, remembered him as a watchmaker in Detroit on whose shoulders it fell far more than any other man, to build our defenses from the ground up and with all speed., 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. This machinery was in the CIA but the agency shared control of it with the State Department and the Pentagon. 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." A month earlier word had spread through the agency that the New York Times was embarking on a first-ever investigation of the CIA. "Incredible". After the war, he headed the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), one of the OSS successor organizations, from 1948 to 1950. (The CIA posted guards to keep the KGB from seeing who was there.). The Two Frank Wisners. He served in South Vietnam until 1969, when he returned to the State Department as officer in charge of Tunisian affairs. In 1964 he became a rural development officer at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, South Vietnam, for the Agency for International Development. Wisner was born in New York on July 2, 1938. He was educated at Woodberry Forest School in Orange and the University of Virginia. Covert action (orchestrating coups, anti-Communist insurgencies, academic conferences, labor unions, political parties, publishing houses, and shipping companies) required considerable manpower, and it drew the intellectual crme de la crme. For months, waves of airborne spies in mission after mission landed, and each was killed straightaway. The program successfully inserted countless pro-American news stories into coverage while suppressing reporting that might be embarrassing to the country. The removal of Jacobo Arbenz resulted in several decades of repression. 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. Finally Brad (Colonel Albert Haney) rehearsed his speech. Frank Gardiner Wisner was one of the founding officers of the Central Intelligence Agency and played a major role in CIA operations throughout the 1950s. After leaving the OSS Wisner joined the Wall Street law firm, Carter Ledyard. As soon as the war ended Truman ordered the OSS to be closed down leaving a small intelligence organization, the Strategic Services Unit (SSU) in the War Department. 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. Wisner's suicide was "entirely rational, if you can say such a thing," said his niece Jean Lindsey. Frank Gardiner Wisner (June 23, 1909 - October 29, 1965) was head of Office of Strategic Services operations in southeastern Europe in 1944-1945 at the end of World War II, and served as the 2nd Deputy Director of Plans in charge of the Directorate of Plans of the Central Intelligence Agency from August 23, 1951 to January 1, 1959. [11] He went on to become a member of the board for EOG Resources.
The real Angleton, the real Frank Wisner, the real Bill Harvey are stories in their own right. 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". During World War II, Wisner and his wife Polly became close friends with Philip Graham and his wife Katharine Graham who after the war became publishers of The Washington Post. Wisner, as head of the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), took overall responsibility for the operation. 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. 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. Eisenhower turned to his Chief of the Joint Chiefs. 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." Frances Stonor Saunders, the author of Who Paid the Piper: The CIA and the Cultural Cold War? Iranians took to the streets against Mohammed Mossadegh. CIA, "Letter of . Later he became an informal adviser to the royal family. He gained support for this from James Forrestal, the Defense Secretary. At Arlington Cemetery, Frank Wisner was buried as a naval commander, his wartime rank.
Virtual Roundtable: Life Lessons Learned With Frank G. Wisner They were the patricians of the modern age, the paladins of democracy, and saw no contradiction in that. Harvey reported back in June 1951 that he was convinced that Philby was a KGB spy. Arbenz began to tackle Guatemala's unequal land distribution. He was first stationed in Cairo where he spent an uneventful year. Some of this money was used to bribe journalists and publishers. All the top officials of the agency, from director on down, were in attendance. Khrushchev's de-Stalinzation policy encouraged people living in Eastern Europe to believe that he was willing to give them more independence from the Soviet Union. On June 18, 1948, the United States National Security Council approved NSC 10/2 which created the Office of Special Projects. Frankpassed away in July 1963, at age 83. 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.". [12] Wisner is chair of the board of directors of The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.[13][14]. [20], In 1961, Wisner was ordered to organize CIA activities in British Guiana. . Mossadegh also abolished Iran's feudal agriculture sector and replaced with a system of collective farming and government land ownership. Wisner and 21 OSS agents landed in Romania,[5] where he became head of OSS Bucharest. In April 1962 Richard Helms recalled Wisner to Washington.
Frank Wisner - SourceWatch After Pearl Harbor, he found himself in the Office of Strategic Services, where he spied behind enemy lines, eventually becoming head of OSS operations in southeastern Europe. It was not successful and still suffering from depression, he was released from hospital in 1958. Wisner Sr. died in 1965 by michael gordon. It had also given America resources and experience (concentrated in private hands) with the world outside the Americas, used effectively by the OSS during World War II American government, however, had stayed in America, lending its influence to business but never trying to overthrow other governments for commercial purposes. Market data provided byFactset. 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. He was a good sprinter and hurdler and in 1936 was asked to compete in the Olympic trials. This information was passed to Joseph McCarthy who started making attacks on members of the OPC. Among his overseas assignments, Wisner served as the United States Ambassador to Zambia (197982); Egypt (198691), the Philippines (199192), and India, 199497. She was born in Ashley, N.D. She grew up and attended schools in North Dakota. Even with my curious nature, I myself was unaware, except in the vaguest terms, what political action projects were going forward and how (Frank Wisner was spending Marshall Plan counterpart funds.) He was educated at Woodberry Forest School in Orange and the University of Virginia. 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? 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.