#180 – Ret. U.S. Major Danny Sjursen

#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...
#180 – Ret. U.S. Major Danny Sjursen

#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...
#176 – The CIA (part 1)

#176 – The CIA (part 1)

According to Truman, he never intended for the CIA to be a “Cloak & Dagger Outfit”. It was intended to be a centralized reporting agency, not to act as a spy organization. Today we start a series about how the CIA rose from the ashes of Wild Bill Donovan’s...
#175 – Domestic Happiness

#175 – Domestic Happiness

Tito’s form of Communism quickly became much more liberal than those in the Soviet bloc countries and China. The question is why? The collectivisation of land was put in reverse. The police were reformed and the press was given additional freedoms. Tito turned the...