THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: A SHORT HISTORY TO MID-1963 - PART 1

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP75-00001R000100010011-4
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
2
Document Creation Date: 
November 16, 2016
Document Release Date: 
April 24, 2000
Sequence Number: 
11
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
November 1, 1972
Content Type: 
MAGAZINE
File: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon CIA-RDP75-00001R000100010011-4.pdf108.51 KB
Body: 
COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION Approved For Release 2000/05/2bvebb4 DkM0001 R00010001001 Tile Central Inte Hgence Agency: James Hepburn J Information about secret intelligence services - Harry Truman, President of the U.S. quoted at the start of the chapter kov's "Tsar Satan" at the Kiev Opera.I The assassin, a lawyer named Dimitri Bogrov, was convinced he had acted in the cause of freedom, and many others before him had sacrificed themselves in the struggle against the Tsars. But fanatics like Bogrov who are pre- pared to die for a cause are few indeed, and the nihilists lost more men.?thah the imperial families. Professional Soldier Assassins Today, .'professional soldiers and guerilla war- riors have taken up,where the nihilists left off. .They are just as courageous, but often less success- ful. In Germany, in 12 y.cars of Nazism and 5 years of war, despite the Kreisau Circle and the numerous groups that claimed in 1946 to have belonged to the underground, despite the work of the Allied intel- 1igence.services and the plots hatched by several high-ranking officers of the Wehrmacht and the OKW, Hitler was never assassinated. Two officers, how- ever, tried. The first planted. a bomb on one of Hitler's aides, claiming it was a bottle of cognac. The bomb was-due to go off in the plane carrying the Fuehrer to the eastern front, but it failed to explode. The assassination attempt was never dis- covered. It was publicized later by its author, who meanwhile had recovered his "bottle of cognac". Colonel Von Stauffenberg Against Hitler The second, more serious attempt was the work of Colonel Klaus l'on Stauffenberg. His failure dealt a deathblow-to the.plot of July 20, 1944. Stauffen berg either didn't dare or didn't care to shoot Ilitier. 2 Instead, he placed his briefcase, contain ing the equivalent of a pound of TNT3, under the conference table where Hitler was sitting and left the room, claiming lie had to make a phone call. The TNT was set off by a detonator a few minutes later. But Colonel Von Stauffenberg, while abrilliant cavalryman, was a poor saboteur. His bomb would have killed Ifit]er. and probably most of the other officers present., if the conference had been held, as was usually the case at h'astenburg, in the case- ment of a cement blockhouse. The closed quarters would have magnified the compression, and the explo sion would have proved fatal. On that hot July day hotce~cr, the conference was held instead in a woode barracks with the windows open. Hitler was only knocked to the floor and slightly wounded by the explosion. prefer not to rely on idealists. History tells us. Colonel Von Stauff.enberg was mistaken in his why. choice of an explosive. TNT is excellent for blow ssas p, ]~}~',Q 1"ucs and bridges, but for this ty Approved Fol 1,61 a ~~~0/05/23 : CIA-RC P75-000 1 The Tsar's Prime minister, Stolypin, was shot o ~ L~t~ Y~f AA l ffenberg should have used a death In 1911 during a peirfurmance of ltimsky-Korsa- defensive grenade of the type used by the German A Short History to IQh' d.i 63 FOIAb3b "1 riever had any thought ... when I set up the CIA, that it would be injected into peacetime cloak-and-dagger operations. Some of the complications and embarrassment that I think we have experienced are in a part attributable -to the fact that this quiet l e .. . intelligence arm of the President has been so removed from its intended ro Introductory Note by the Editor The book Farewell America", by James Hepburn, was published in 1960 in English by Frontiers Co. in Vaduz, Liechtenstein: 410 pages long, including 14 pages of index. James Hepburn is a pseudonym; the book is reputed to have been written by the French Intelligence, in order to report to Ameri- cans tchat actually happened in the assassination of.l'resident John F. Kennedy. Copies of the book may?be..purchased readily in Canada, and at one or two addresses in the United States. No bookstore in the United States that I know of will order and sell'copies of the book. (inquire of the National Committee to Investigate Assassinations, 927 15th St. NW, Washington. D.G. 20005, for ways to pur- chase the book.) The twenty chapters are ab- sorbingly interesting. and the way they operate is of course not in the open literature. In the two and a half years since I read the book, 1 have seen no demonstra- tion that any of the information contained in the book is false - and the information does tie in with much else that is known.. Perhaps more than 90`,0 of what is in the boot: is true. The following article is based on Chapter 15, "Spies", of "Farewell America". Everywhere "-- and the United States is no excep- tion - there are criminals who will do anything for money, But it is one thing to murder a creditor, a Senator or a jealous husband, and quite another to assassinate the President of the United States. Hired Killers Hired killers are rarely employed by a parapolit- ical or paramilitary group. They are much too dan- gerous. Their eonnect'ions, their morals, and their insatiable avarice pose too many problems for a responsible organization. On the other hand, a number of individuals active in groups like the John Birch Society, the Patrick Henry ".zsociation, and the Christian Crusaders would be only too happy to volunteer for an ideological crime. But, although successful assassinations have on occasion been the work of fanatics, serious-minded conspirators would Approved For Release 2000/05/23 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100010011-4 MISSING PAGE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT MISSING PAGE(S): Approved For Release 2000/05/23 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100010011-4