'56 EAST EUROPE PLAN OF C.I.A. IS DESCRIBED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200500010-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 28, 2004
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: November 30, 1976
• Content Type: NSPR

7. ? THE NEW YORK TIMES
/-Approved ForPelease'2004/10/13: CIA-RDP88-013501
'56 EAST EUROPE PLAN
OF CIA IS DE' SCRIBED
..Ex-Aide-,Says Units Were Trained
to Return' for Risings Spurred by
Disc] os'are-of.-KhrilshcnevTaIks, -,
-" By DAVID BINDER
WASHINGTON, Nov.. 29---A -former
chief .of covert operations for. the Central
Intelligence-Agency says that the United
States gave paramilitary training to East=
era European volunteers for intervention.
iin potential nationaFF--tiprisings in'Hun-
James Angleton, head of special opera:
tions and counterintelligence in 1956, said,
in an interview 'that the agency 'began
training hundreds ?of: Eastern. Europeans.
"after- one of-his operatives obtained a
text of the- secret speech in which Nikita-
:S, Khrushchev denounced Stalin's crimes
;before the' 20th Congress of the Soviet
Mr.-Angleton,., who retired from the
`C.LA; last-year, maintained that his- mo-
tive was to "balance out" an account
of the C.I.A.'s handling of the speech pub
.;li.shed by Ray S.. Cline, then a top-ranking
: `intelligence analyst at the agency. Mr;
Cline, who was in charge of Chinese-Sovi-
: 'et affairs in the- Office of Current Intelli-,
gence- and, later became deputy C.I.A.
director. before going onto the State De-.1
'
-partment, ..included the- account inhis
newly issued autobiography,"Secre - Hun-
gary ? and ZZ'. autobiography,"Secrets,
Spies and Scholars: "There Was No Pay-
ment'..Mr. Angleton, in presenting his
ts;'Spies and Scholars.
'There Was No Payment'
Mr, Angleton, in presenting his account,
said that soon after the Khrushchev
speech became known in the :West, the
then Director, Allen. W. Dulles, ordered
.him to obtain a. copy- as a matter of the
highest priority.. 'A covert agent acquired
the text in April. 1956 from a European
Communist, whose motive for handing it
over was said to be ideological. ."'There
was no payment,'.'. 'Mr;: Angleton added,'
disputing Mr. Cline's assertion that the
agency had :''paid- _"a..,very . handsome
He said his superior, the late Frank
G. Wisner, then director of clandestine
services, including covert operations, per-
ceived the- speech as a tool for fostering
l
nationalist opposition to Soviet ru
e . in ~1 be released.
Eastern Europe.
. Cal.-. ... 'i s 5_ ?..
"Having the docartment gave u's enor-
moos advantage to organize. and update
..those operational-groups which were au-
thorized in 1950," he continued, referring
to a directive that established the agen-
cy's covert.politicai-action arm, the Office
of Policy Coordination, with an author-
ization.; for- paramilitary" operationall!
accepting the status quo of. Soviet liege,
mony.>
Mr. Wisner; who had been: r?comiriend
ed,by. Gen,"George.?C..Marshall to head
the: covert "'action .: program,... and. Mr..
AngeIton-promotecl '.vast . pr par tior.;for
:,.refurbishing;-- operational` " gr ups," autic:
,pating that-, the =Khrushchev speech
.."would-be a. thunderbolt not only to the
international Communist movement but
to soveceign, Corrtmunist State>":-Mr.1
Angleton related.
.Trained in West!Germany
The Eastern Europeans, in part former
ILLEGIB
In Mr. Argleton's account it went this
way: "Fhe decision to publish the Khrush=
chev speech was made by Eisenhower,
Allen Dulles and John Foster Dulles. They.
decided its signficance should take prece-
deuce over political action, and therefore,
wth the President's consent, the text and
footnotes prepared by the C.I.A. were
given over to The New York Times." "
Mr. Angleton said that in his:view what
he - termed premature release of the
speech, which The Times -published on
June 4, 1956, provoked nationalist 'risings
in Poland, Hungary an l Rumania _too
soon. far= the, covert: operational group,),
to respond.. - -
Mr. Cline and Mr. Angleton were agreed
in opposing the policy of East-West de-
tente furthered by Secretary of Slate
.H nry,.A. Kissinger under President Rich-
ard `,i. Nixon and Pi esident cord
ILLEGIB
members" of - rrewar peasant parties. and'
largely from Hungary, Poland and Ruma=
nia, with- -some. from - Czechoslovakia,
West Germany by C.I.A. paramilitary spe-
cialists, he said.. He' added that the'units
were headed by a, man he described as'
i?: "a born'leader,.a Yugoslav, whose school-,
Mr. Angleton-said .the units were dis
banded in.1958,-causing great disillusion
and bitterness among the members..
,The strategy developed by C.I.A.'s clan?
destind .services, principally' by Mr. Wis-
ner, he said,- envisioned keeping American.
:..acquisition of the Khrushchev speech se4
'cret .until.;the covert' groups. were "up
to snuff'-acid then releasing it to provoke
-national uprisings. _He'acknowledged that.
.the strategy -was'in harmony with a.-con:.
eept, 'frequently articulated when John
Foster Dulles was Secretary of State, that
the United States had a .duty to "'roll:
back". Communist forces that had seized
:control in?'Eastern.Europe.in the-wake:
of World War II.
The handling of the Khrushchev speech
became a hotly debated topic in the inner
,circles of the-Eisenhower Administration,
as Mr. Cline relates in his book
Cline Reports Amazement
"There 'were many talks 'aboi t what
to do," Mr. Angleton recalled. In the Cline
account,. Mr. Wisner and Mr. Angleton,
to Mr.Cline's amazement,. opposed publi-
'cation' of the speech, which he. had-ad-
vanced as treating the world to "the spec-
tacle of a?totalitarian nation indicted by
its own leadership r,
"Cline's role was -only verficiation? of
the document," Mr. Angleton commented.
','I-le wasn't a party"- to the discussions
on the clandestine side." ? - .
In Mr. Cline's version, he prevailed, and
on June 2, 1956, Allen Dulles telephoned
Approved For Release 2004/10/13 : CIA-RDP88-0135OR000200500010-8