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. In Hungary the prime minister Imre Nagy removed state control of the mass media and encouraged public discussion on political and economic reform. Frank Wisner was brilliant, tortured, and a founder of American intelligence. However, he began to get suspicious in 1951 and he asked William Harvey and James Jesus Angleton to investigate Philby. Alsop was happy to comply, though he doubted his columns would have much impact on the Huks. The OPC had a staff of 10, so this wasnt likely to happen. He condemned the Great Purge and accused Stalin of abusing his power. Unlike most members of the Georgetown Crowd, Meyer now abandoned his liberal views. 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. When Lansdale was manipulating electoral politics in the Philippines in 1953, Wisner asked Joe Alsop to write some columns warning the Filipinos not to steal the election from Magsaysay. It would nominally report to a senior State Department official. Thus by overthrowing him, America was in effect making a new decision in the cold war. Funded with money from the CIA and MI6, the pro-monarchy forces quickly gained the upper hand. At Arlington Cemetery, Frank Wisner was buried as a naval commander, his wartime rank. Among his overseas assignments, Wisner served as the United States Ambassador to Zambia (197982); Egypt (198691), the Philippines (199192), and India, 199497. 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. The agents whom he and Burke infiltrated into Romania, Poland, the Baltic states and East Germany all disappeared; most were probably killed. Mussadegh in Iran was left-wing and had indulged in talks with Russian diplomats about possible alliances and treaties. While the Guatemalan government valued $2.99 per acre, the American government valued it at $75 per acre. What right do we have to help someone topple his government and throw him out of office?" Some of this money was used to bribe journalists and publishers. Henry Breck, a junior CIA officer out of Groton and Harvard, watched his grim-faced elders as they mourned. Frank Wisner - Ancestry.com By this time Operation Mockingbird had a major influence over 25 newspapers and wire agencies. Wisner Junior was well-known in the CIA and he worked as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and Under Secretary of . Phillips, along with E. Howard Hunt, was responsible for running the CIA's Voice of Liberation radio station. 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. 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. Eisenhower shook hands all around. He lived in Romania with a beautiful Russian spy. (Mockingbird wasnt the OPCs only psychological operation, and Wisners office had a great sense of humor. All the top officials of the agency, from director on down, were in attendance. 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. He persuaded President Harry S. Truman that the OSS in peacetime would be an "American Gestapo". In Hungary the prime minister Imre Nagy removed state control of the mass media and encouraged public discussion on political and economic reform. 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). [10], Wisner died by suicide on October 29, 1965.[22]. The company wanted $16 million for the land. This became the espionage and counter-intelligence branch of the Central Intelligence Agency. The President's final handshake was with Alien Dulles. It did not take him long to discover that some of them had been active in left-wing politics in the 1930s. The CIA was also busy bribing Arbenz's military commanders. He was diagnosed as manic depressive and received electroshock therapy. He pointed out that they had spent a great deal of money on Radio Free Europe "to get these people to revolt". Thomas points out that he "considered his friends Joe and Stewart Alsop to be reliable purveyors of the company line in their columns". Henry Breck, a junior CIA officer out of Groton and Harvard, watched his grim-faced elders as they mourned. When this failed he put pressure on Security Council members to vote against the resolution. David Atlee Phillips was appointed to run the propaganda campaign against Arbenz's government. An indictment of the CIA, through the lives of four spies His first task was to oversee the return of some 1,350 American airmen who had been shot down in missions against Romanian oilfields. 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. Harvey reported back in June 1951 that he was convinced that Philby was a KGB spy. Now internal subversion communism from within - was an additional cause for direct action. [14], According to its secret charter, the OPC's responsibilities include "propaganda, economic warfare, preventive direct action, including sabotage, antisabotage, demolition and evacuation procedures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, guerrillas and refugee liberation groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world. Afterward, he obviously wasnt equipped to go back to the Directorate of Plans, so he was made the station chief in London. Over the next few weeks riots took place in Poland and East Germany. 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. It wasnt long before the United States recognized the obvious mistake it had made in shutting down its intelligence capabilities. 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. "Tomorrow morning, gentlemen," Dulles said, "we will go to the White House to brief the President. Hoover, claimed that Caradja was a Soviet agent. Eisenhower spoke to his Chief of Naval Operations "Watch that sub. Frank Wisner married Antonie Chalupsky, daughter of Frantisek Chalupsky and Katerine Chudly about 1881 and they . Later he became an informal adviser to the royal family. Eisenhower shook his head, perhaps thinking of the thousands who had died in France. 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. He was Richard Nixon, the Vice President. He was a good sprinter and hurdler and in 1936 was asked to compete in the Olympic trials. 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. He worked in the Navy's censor's office until he managed to transfer to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1943. He eventually had a breakdown, was hospitalized, and received an aggressive course of electroshock therapy. 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.". He had been elected as President of Guatemala in March, 1951. When the Central Intelligence Agency was established in 1947, its founding officers had to figure out how to build a global network of spies, run secret missions, overthrow governments, and recruit agents. While in Bucharest he became friendly with King Michael of Romania. He was a good sprinter and hurdler and in 1936 was asked to compete in the Olympic trials. In 2012 he succeeded Paul A. Volcker as chairman of the board of trustees of International House, a cultural-exchange residence and program center in New York City. Graham himself recruited others who had worked for military intelligence during the war. 1944, Wisner was sent to Turkey. Wisner moved to Washington where he associated with a group of journalists, politicians and government officials that became known as the Georgetown Set. Eisenhower shook hands all around. 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. Its not like other countries were lining up to teach the United States the finer points of espionage, so those first CIA men had to be really smart or slightly crazy. Wisner was appointed director of the organization. [11] On September 1, 1948, the office was formally established, although it was renamed to the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) for obfuscation purposes. The nature of Arbenz's government, however, meant that Operation Success launched both the CIA and the United States on a new path. According to Loftus, it was all part of a Cold War scheme to wage guerrilla warfare in Soviet-occupied Europe, in which the Nazi collaborators were to play a key role. Frank Wisner, Jr. WASHINGTON Once a month or so, a coterie of aging diplomats convenes at the elegant Metropolitan Club of New York. ", General Ridgeway answered. 2022 FOX News Network, LLC. The only thing theyre proving is the law of gravity, said one CIA officer. The program lasted through 1971. 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. But Frank was a little excessive, even for me.". 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). When Truman signed the CIA into existence, the new agency found a similar reception. Perhaps he had made up his mind to kill himself. Required fields are marked *. "He realized that his life would be circumscribed by increasing cycles of depression. http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKwisner.htm Categories: People Articles with hCards "The cable was from Des FitzGerald. Death Frank Wisner reportedly committed suicide with one of his son's shotguns on October 29, 1965. During this period Wisner worked closely with Kim Philby, the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) liaison in Washington. The President strode from the room. All results for Frank Wisner. He persuaded President Harry S. Truman that the OSS in peacetime would be an "American Gestapo". On August 29, 1944, Lt. Comdr. Richard Bissell - The Connecticut Yankee Behind the Bay of Pigs We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. A decision was reached to create an organization within the CIA to conduct secret political operations. Brad finished and the lights went up. All rights reserved. He was Richard Nixon, the Vice President. The lighted shaft of the Washington Monument could be seen through the trees. Samuel Zemurray, United Fruit Company's largest shareholder, with the help of Tommy Corcoran, organized an anti-Arbenz campaign in the American media. 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 removal of Jacobo Arbenz resulted in several decades of repression. Wisner reportedly suffered a mental breakdown after the Soviet Union quashed the Hungarian revolution in 1956, and in 1965 he committed suicide. This included James Truitt, Russell Wiggins, Phil Geyelin, John Hayes and Alan Barth. Work out a new speech for Brad We went to the White House in the morning. After graduating Wisner worked as a Wall Street lawyer. Members are only revealed after their death - a wreath of black magnolias shaped like '7' is laid at the gravesite. [1] He was also tapped for the Seven Society. Henry Cabot Lodge tried to block the Security Council from discussing a resolution to send an investigation team to Guatemala. Arbenz, on the other hand, had simply been trying to reform his country and had not sought foreign help in this. In fact, according to several of his friends, on social occasions he became very aggressive when discussing politics. This report examines the information and intelligence resources available to and relied upon by policymakers during the Rwanda crisis. The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) was funded by siphoning of funds intended for the Marshall Plan. Powered and implemented byFactSet Digital Solutions. He retired in 1963, and committed suicide with a shotgun in 1965. He orchestrated a massive spy ring, many of whose members were tasked with parachuting into Soviet territory and gathering intelligence. 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. The CIA propaganda campaign included the distribution of 100,000 copies of a pamphlet entitled Chronology of Communism in Guatemala. The Guatemalan Foreign Minister, Guillermo Toriello, asked the United Nations for help against the covert activities of the United States. He was impressive - not at all the disturbing man he was in the shadows. Nagy also released anti-communists from prison and talked about holding free elections and withdrawing Hungary from the Warsaw Pact. The results were horrifying2500 Hungarians were killed, 200,000 were forced to flee their country, and tens of thousands were arrested and imprisoned. The Central Intelligence Agency decided that Arbenz had to be removed from power. [3] He is the son of CIA official Frank Wisner (19091965). He became Assistant Director of the Office of Policy Coordination. [20] After a lengthy recovery, Wisner became chief of the CIA's London Station. A large number of these prisoners were tortured or killed. Frank George Wisner II (born July 2, 1938) is an American businessman and former diplomat who had served as acting United States Secretary of State for a few hours following the resignation of the previous acting United States Secretary of State Arnold Kanter at noon on January 20, 1993 until the confirmation by the United States Senate and swearing in of Warren Christopher as United States Secretary of State later that day. When the war ended, the OSS was shut down and Wisner returned to the soul-draining doldrums of office life.
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