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

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100010011-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
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• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 24, 2000
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: November 1, 1972
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION
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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
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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
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