Office of Policy Coordination

Office of Policy Coordination. It was a covert action and psychological warfare unit established within the early Central Intelligence Agency during the opening phases of the Cold War. Created by a top-secret directive from the National Security Council, its primary mission was to conduct aggressive clandestine operations against the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe. The organization was merged with the CIA's overt intelligence collection arm in 1952 to form the unified Directorate of Plans.

History and formation

The unit was established on June 18, 1948, following the issuance of NSC Directive 10/2 by the National Security Council. This directive, crafted amid rising tensions exemplified by the Berlin Blockade and the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948, authorized the creation of a permanent organization for covert operations separate from traditional espionage. The directive's drafting was heavily influenced by officials like George F. Kennan, then head of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, who advocated for a capability to counter Soviet expansion through means short of open war. Its creation represented a significant evolution in American national security policy, formally endorsing peacetime covert action as a core instrument of foreign policy.

Organizational structure and leadership

The organization was nominally placed under the authority of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, but it was housed within and received logistical support from the Central Intelligence Agency. This arrangement created immediate bureaucratic friction. Its first and only director was Frank Wisner, a former Office of Strategic Services officer and State Department official. Wisner built a large, independent bureaucracy, recruiting personnel from the OSS, the military, academia, and the legal profession. Key figures within its ranks included future CIA luminaries like Richard Helms and Desmond FitzGerald. It established field offices across Western Europe, often operating under diplomatic cover from American embassies.

Operations and activities

Its activities were wide-ranging and ambitious, focusing on psychological warfare, political action, economic warfare, and paramilitary operations. In Eastern Europe, it supported anti-communist exile groups like the Albanian National Liberation Front and the Polish émigré government, launching failed infiltration missions such as Operation Valuable. It funded propaganda outlets, including the founding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and radio stations like Radio Free Europe. In Asia, it engaged in paramilitary efforts against Communist China, supporting Kuomintang remnants in Burma and conducting operations during the Korean War. Many of its early schemes were poorly planned and suffered from high casualty rates and security compromises.

Relationship with other agencies

Its relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency's own Office of Special Operations, which focused on espionage, was fraught with rivalry and duplication of effort. Director Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter and his successor, General Walter Bedell Smith, struggled to control the unit's independent activities and budget. The Department of Defense provided military resources and personnel for paramilitary missions, while the State Department under Dean Acheson often grew uneasy with operations that threatened diplomatic initiatives. This inter-agency conflict, particularly the dysfunctional "two-headed monster" within the CIA, was a primary reason for its eventual merger.

Legacy and dissolution

Frustrated by bureaucratic chaos, Director of Central Intelligence Walter Bedell Smith ordered its merger with the Office of Special Operations in 1952, creating the new Directorate of Plans under the leadership of Allen Dulles and Frank Wisner. This reorganization centralized all covert activities under the CIA's control. The unit's ambitious, often reckless early operations provided hard lessons in covert action that influenced later missions in Guatemala, Iran, and Indonesia. Its institutional framework and personnel became the backbone of the CIA's Clandestine Service for decades, embedding covert action as a permanent, if controversial, feature of United States foreign policy during the Cold War.

Category:Central Intelligence Agency Category:Defunct United States intelligence agencies Category:Cold War intelligence agencies