#186 – Project Artichoke

#186 – Project Artichoke

In 1951, the CIA spent $100 million buying arms and ammunition to support 200,000 Chinese anti-communist guerrillas who were going to fight against Mao. The only problem was – the guerrillas didn’t exist. Then, to counter the rising problem of double agents in...
#186 – Project Artichoke

#185 – Wagging The Dog

In 1951, the CIA’s budget was ballooning out of control to fund its massive covert operations which were all complete disasters. But they were secret disasters, so nobody, not even Congress or the President, let alone the general public, ever heard about most of them....
#186 – Project Artichoke

#184 – Abortive Missions

The CIA’s first attempt to train foreign agents and parachute them into Soviet territory ended in disaster. So did their second attempt. And their third. And so on. But they did it anyway. Then the Korean War happened and Bedell Smith became the fourth CIA director in...
#186 – Project Artichoke

#183 – CIA Hearts Nazis

If there’s one thing the CIA loved in its early days, it was hiring Nazis – like General Reinhard Gehlen who ran their West German spying operation and ended up running West Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND)....
#186 – Project Artichoke

#182 – CIA Front Groups

The CIA wanted to secretly funnel American cash to European politicians, criminals and businesses that would do their bidding. They also wanted to influence public opinion about capitalism, communism, but without appearing to. To accomplish this, they set up an...
#186 – Project Artichoke

#181 – Plausible Deniability

On September 1, 1948, Frank Wisner took charge of the CIA’s covert operations. Known as the OPC – The Office of Policy Co-ordination. Although the CIA was a publicly known entity, the OPC was top secret. One of the first things he did was establish a...
#186 – Project Artichoke

#179 – Covert Psychological Operations

Part 4 of our series on the creation of the CIA. Even the CIA’s original legal counsel warned them that covert missions were illegal – but they did them anyway. On December 14, 1947, they were ordered to execute “covert psychological operations designed to...
#186 – Project Artichoke

#178 – Scare The Hell Out Of Them

Part 3 of our series on the creation of the CIA. In 1947, Truman’s popularity was plunging. The CIA came out of his attempt to scare the hell out of the country. Exit Director Vandenberg and enter Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Allen Dulles, the National Security...
#177 – Director of Centralized Snooping

#177 – Director of Centralized Snooping

Part 2 of our series on the creation of the CIA. After Truman’s decision to shut down the OSS, Wild Bill Donovan’s deputy, Brigadier General John Magruder, met secretly with John McCloy, the assistant secretary of war, taking advantage of the fact that Henry...