WHY DID GEHLEN BREAK HIS SILENCE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100020036-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: September 1, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Release 2000/$6/13: CIA-RDP75-0000
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but Lieutenant General Gehlen, for-
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Staff, kept his wits about him. in April
1945, when nazi Germany vas on the
verge of ' collapse under the hammer
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Since the second world: war, there Gehlen kept silent . even after he Germany's eastern neighbours survived
is; perhaps, no other figuro~iil the realer retired In 1968, Ile was silent until the death agony of the fascist Reich
of imperialist espionage that has attrac- recently, when the West Germa life In peaceful seclusion, taking. walks in
9
h
ted so muc
attention on:, the part 'Q
Welt began to -print excerpts from m his
newspaperanen and researchers as Rmemoirs which are being put out by
hard Gehlen, former president" of the the Vase and Koehler publishers., It is
West German bi'ederal intelligence Ser-
vice (Btutdesnnchnchteudicnst BN1.?),
True, in contrast to his mentor and
idyllic Alpine meadows and pondering
future moves,'
Let It no.t be- thought that Gehlen
not surprising that the publication of was tormented by doubt, No, every-
Gehlen's reminiscences is being thing had been decided long ago: As
played up in the West; 'and not only soon as American troops appeared in
patron Allen Dulles, the founder and because this opus carries the signature the, vicinity, the Alpine hermit hasten-
many years' chief of the U.S, Central of the "grey general," but chiefly ed to give himself up. Ile neither,
Intelligence Agency, Gehlen was not because the memoirs are heavily . removed his uniform nor pasted on a
.a publicity hound. Quite the reverse, spiced with anti-Soviet fabrications. false moustache, he did not change his
For many years he preferred to keep Moreover, bourgeois newspapers and' name or conceal his' rank and office.
In the ,bade, and. to the end of his magazines which still keep to the cold He vent quietly to the Americans and
career made no public statements. It war trenches, are going out of their was received 'with open "arms,
was because of his avoidance of news- way to picture Gehlen as a veritable Early in August 1945, , when the
men, his shunning of the limelight and knight scans pear et scuts rcproche Potsdam agreement was being signed
his 'predilection for donning the elee - who for along time was In charge of. . at C'ecilienhof, ex-nazi General Gehlen
of ;mystery and acting behind the ' once of the most Important sectors of sat at it conference table in the Ponta-
scenes that Gehlen cause to be known as the "Western wall" against "conrmdn- ? gon, He was not there in the capacity
the "grey general.." ist- expansion," And they are doing it of a person under, investigation, being
The "grey general" (lid not permit with the same zeal as when some 15 interrogated 'hy the American generals,
his staff either to rnal:e statements in the or 20 years ago they tried to present 'but rather as 'an equal partner in
press. His instructions on this score Gehlen as'an enemy of Ilitlex and negotiations 'with high-ranking U.S.
were explicit: everything pertain- active member of the Resistance.' intelligence officials. The statements of
Ing to the activity of the "Gelilen orga- ? -Who is Reinhard Golden after all?' the nazi. super-spy were . attentively
nization," set up by the Americans Why have his "memoirs" been made followed by. Major General William
after the war and converted into the. public? What are the . aims. of those . ' 'Donovan, chief of the intelligence out-
bND in 1956, must be kept top secret. behind the wide publicity they are. fit disguised uncles the name of Office
-The ban extended, as the.I'Iamburg being given in'the West? of Strategic Services (OSS), Allen
magazine Der Spiegel wrote recently, Let us go back to August 1945,' The ' Dulles,- his right-hand main and hand
even to the ,history of the "Foreign Potsdam' conference of the heads of of- the European branch of OSS, Briga-
Armies Fast," a department of Hitler's the three great pov,ers ---- the. Soviet .. dier General John Magruder,. conarnan-
General Staff and an Important intclli- Union, - the' United States and der of the special task forces, and
pence agency of nazi Germany which Great Britain-had just ended. ~'he Ilig '' General- George Strong, chief of the
.for three years had been headed by Three 'had agreed that the postwar .G-2 tactical intelligence.
Gehlen and whose personnel made up structure df Germany must be founded 'f'ine interest displayed' by. the Imads
the core of the espionage organization on the following principles: deriazifica.- ' of the U.S, 'secret service in the former
he led in the postwar period. ..'bveiy ? . tion and demilitarization, the final dis- chief of . the "Foreign Armies East"
former officer of this department," Der bandment? of all military, paramilitary department was quite understandable:
Spiegel eniphasizerd, "was instructed , and nazi organizations and institutions, . towards the and of the war Gehleir
not to divulge what he knew about it. complete disarmament and dissolution - held iri his hands some of the impor-
Public'knowledge'of'its activity, Gehlen, of'aU German awned forces, punishrnent' . taut threads of the. nazi espionage
argues, would enable, the enemy . to of the war 'criminals, abolition of the ref t; ork. Seftpu Deliver, a former
draw definite conclusions also about Garman monopolies, and the democra- - British secret agent who after the war
the methods of activity of the Federal, . tic reconstruction of public life. Nazis, became a prominent journalist, wrote
Intelligence Service. " .. The' chief ?hin:-! ;,big and small, were scttrrplig all over ' in the Dally f xpres.s that in 1945, when
Felf abides by this rule," Grarmany and Iiuron ...,. ?ch