HOW WWII GAVE LIFE TO THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100090015-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: February 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

1. 11_. I JlIL, I iW 1L.- .. _LII L_1
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 CIA-RDP90-0
NEWS DAY
6 February 1985
Newly declassified papers revea
t.'Le U. S. spy agency in its infancy
By David Kahn
N DEC. 5. 1944, an official
of the Office of Strategic
Services, the predecessor
of the CIA, outlined a plan
for setting up a spy ring in Nazi Ger-
many.
The official, Thomas B. Wilson, had
become interested in using anti-Nazi
church groups in the Rhineland as a
basis for such. a ring. Soon the OSS
found a prospective. agent.
He was Hans, a private in the U.S.
By the middle of February, this had
been completed. But the OSS had not
yet worked out a cover story for him
nor provided the fake documents he
would need to substantiate this story.
In March, 1945, Cologne, the chief
city of the Rhineland, fell to the ad-
vancing Allied armies. Operation
CHURMI was shelved.
This tale, admittedly rather anticli-
mactic but in that way true to much of
life, is one of several similar ones to be
found in a vast hoard of recently de-
classified OSS documents. They have
been transferred by the Central Intel-
Jigence Agency to the National Ar-
chives, where they are now open to the
inspection of scholars. Filling 109 gray
archives boxes, they. consist of origi-
nals, carbon copies and negative pho-
tostats of the innumerable reports of
departments and subsections, of unit
histories typed on large sheets of blue
paper in black binders, of photo-
graphs, letters, endless memoranda,
orders 'and mimeographed unit-
...strength reports, pencil sketches of or-
ganization charts crumpled into
manila envelopes.
They deal with training,. supplies,
Army Born in East Prussia 35 years
before, and later a. student of theology
,at several prestigious German univer-
sities, 'he had lived in the Rhineland
for several years. In 1935 - two years
after Adolf Hitler came to power - he
left Germany. His background made
him an excellent choice to infiltrate
Germany and to contact the religious
officials in the waning months of the
Second World War.
The OSS code named the project the
CHURMI mission and set it in motion.
From Dec. 28 to Jan. 2, Hans met in
Paris with another expatriate, Fritz
Lieb, formerly. a__professor 'at Bonn,
where Hans had studied, and at the
time of their meeting a Swiss citizen
teaching in Basel. Also present was the
OSS' Carl. Auerbach. They discussed
mainly "safe houses" - places where
Hans could be sheltered without fear of
betrayal to the Gestapo.
. On Jan. 7, Lieb returned to Swit-
zerland to make arrangements for
Hans' support after he was para-
chuted into Germany. Hans began
spy training.
the endless personnel transfers, new
quarters, the technicalities of radio
transmission and reception, statistics
down to such details as the death in
a car accident of a private. They in-
clude many. names now, famous: Lt.
William J. Casey, then head of the Se-
cret Intelligence Branch of the Euro-
pean theater, now head of the CIA;
Maj. Arthur Goldberg, then head of
the Labor Division, later a justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court; Cmdr. John
Ford, then chief of the Field'Photo-
graphic Branch, later one of the great
movie directors; Willi Brandt, then
the Swedish contact of an anti-Nazi
group, later chancellor of West Ger-
many; Capt. Walt W. Rostow, then a
liaison officer to the British Air Minis-
trv. later President Lyndon Johnson's
national, security adviser. But, amidst,
the floods of trivia, stand out fascinat-
ing nuggets about the techniques, tri-
als and 'triumphs of American espio-'
nage in ''its embryonic stages.
One of the first problems in spying
is to find a spy. No single principle for
recruiting agents was found reliable;
the report of one unit stated. "In the
]ast analysis the recruiting was done
by ear.' In other words, [Lt. A. E.) Jo-
]is's conviction that a man would
make a good agent was the final decid-
ing issue." The report conceded that
the security check in such cases was
not too satisfactory.
Once an agent was recruited, he had
to be given a cover story ,- his false
identity.,, The documents tell that one
OSS division began by describing the
agent, determining the character of
the mission, and getting the agent's
ideas about what the cbver story.
should be.
The agent had to be not only fully
familiar with his cover story but full
sold on itas well. This required "sales
manship" on the part of the person
briefing the agent, noted a history of
the briefing division. "This inevitably
involved the ability to dominate the
agent. Briefing an agent was not the
sort of activity that could be done me-
clianically. The agent had to be given
faith in his story. Confidence in him-
self was the first condition of success."
For the data that would make its
fake documents appear authentic, the
briefing division. searched in captured
documents, newspapers, prisoner-of-
war interrogations, telephone books.
"An ordinary factory not only gave its
address in the telephone directory, but
also the names and addresses of its di-
rectors. If the agent's cover story in-
cluded having worked at a particular j
factory, he had to know the names of
I some of the officials. The telephone di-
rectory told him," said the history.
Continued
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100090015-8