The Korean War was the first major conflict of the cold war. It started on June 25, 1950. It was known as a Korean police action in order to avoid the need for congressional approval. North Korea had invaded the South and Truman was preparing to meet with Douglas McArthur. Truman expected useful CIA intelligence on Korea. Specifically he wanted to know whether the Chinese would cross the border. McArthur assured him that they would not. As it turned out the CIA was once again of no help because it knew nothing at all about China. What American spies we had in China at the time of Mao’s victory over Chiang Kai-shek had all left the country in a hurry. Furthermore, McArthur hated the CIA and kept its operatives out of the Far East wherever possible. The CIA had a weak group of agents left over from WWII. Its research was poor and its bulletins to the President were valueless. Its allies were Syngman Rhee and Chiang Kai-shek both of whom produced intelligence that was worthless and corruption was rampant. No information was reliable. It became apparent that the intelligence agency of the strongest country in the world was conned and deceived by crooks and foes. Exiles were once again faking intelligence for pro fit and the CIA was the patsy.
When the President traveled to Wake Island to meet McArthur the CIA headquarters assured him that the Chinese did not intend to intervene. And this was despite the warning of their Tokyo station chief that the Chinese had 300,000 troops mobilized on the border. Taiwan told headquarters the same thing. The warnings were ignored. After the American troops were attacked on the border, the CIA still insisted that a major intervention was not likely. Finally when the Chinese did invade we were so surprised and unprepared that the Chinese pushed our forces down the entire southern peninsula to the sea. Eventually we were able to force them out of the South and the conflict became a trench war until it ended on July 27, 1953. However, there were horrendous casualties on both sides. Also the agency engaged in paramilitary operations which were for the most part failures and were responsible for many more lives lost.
The CIA recruited Chinese and Korean agents and dropped them behind the lines in North Korea where they disappeared—never to be heard from. They were sent to gain intelligence or give support to resistance movements that did not exist. In short, they were suicidal assignments. The money and lives lost was way disproportional to what was gained. In fact there are those who say nothing was gained and this kind of irresponsibility continued on into the 1960’s. The CIA just kept sending agents to their death for no damn reason.
Years later, the final conclusion was that all the “secret” information collected during the war was pure fiction produced by Chinese and North Korean intelligence agents and passed on to the administration. In fact, even worse the paramilitary operations had been sold out from the very beginning. Treachery and deceit was rampant and headquarters did not have a clue.
References:
Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes. Doubleday, 2007
Wikipedia
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Great essay - and exposure of these issues !! .. we need as much light burning down on these secret operations as we can muster ... every word spoken toward that goal is a shining light of freedom and truth ! Congratulations for the courage and conviction to tell it like it is !!
Its hard to believe - on this 4th of July - that our country's political path since the revolution in 1776 ... has brought us to the current state of affairs.. ie abdicating the constitution and rule of the citizens. Instead of preserving the privacy of the citizens and protecting them from the government, they hide nefarious activities with the secrecy lable,and have let corporations do an 'end run around our constitution ... with sweeping deprivations of privacy and our 'rights'. The government, Dept. of Defense, and the CIA are all in bed with global corporations - The cia is one of the original corporate sinners. When I was in Viet Nam .. the cia was the operating drug cartel in S E Asia, amassing vast sums of cash for their secret coffers!
Notwithstanding, the cia has had a 'secret budget' since its inception as the OSS .. and has been behind the most amazing 'bungles' of our history since WW 2, as you so pointedly show us!
It might lead one to ask - as an argument - 'is it possible that someone benefited from these 'bungles'?... and begs the question, 'could they have been intentional or merely f-ups?
My general disbelief of anything coming from the cia and the DoD has been justified and borne out time and time again, as you so aptly hilight in this essay!
The cia has been a sub-rosa government since its inception. I have been around many cia operatives over the years, I know that what you 'think' you 'know' .. is only what they let you know... and mis-direction and dis-information is a key stock-in-tradecraft! It's nearly impossible to see what is behind their curtain of secrecy. The onion analogy - layers of secrecy buried behind an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, tied up around a mystery !
On a related note ... the corporatizing of America is a tragedy of astounding proportions .. Since corprorations are not beholding to the citizens, or the constitution, they can use amazing 'get arounds' of our privacy and 'rights' .. [they are barely beholding to their stockholders]. We have reached the point of corporate 'BIG BROTHER' doing the dirty work FOR the government! This allows the officials of the gov't enought wiggle room to say "we didnt violate the law", "We didn't get OUR hands dirty... those are 'private matters' out of our control", but is it really ?]
The sad bit is that .. we have been inveigled into - not just accepting, but rabidly embracing - the new digital world. Everyone is in a mad rush to have the latest 'n greatest tech toys and computers etc. This - by default - allows the government [via corporations] to intrude even further into everyone's lives, and infringe on the citizens with impugnity! - The sites you surf, the calls you make - land lines and cell phones, medical records, purchases on the internet, even the books you read from the library ... are all in the hands of the secret folks ... and who knows what they do with the information!?
Sadly, the politicos and lobbyists have seen this 'loophole' in the constitution, and riding the republican coat tails, have taken full advantage of a lazy and uninformed [poorly educated? all children left behind ?] citizenry, who ultimately are responsible for allowing this to happen ..our congress has been virtually criminal with lack of 'oversight' .. and enabled and allowed [via lined pockets with lobby money] ..the government to use 'outsourcing' - to those corporate interests. Now vast segments of our government and military activities are corporate activities and outside the reach of the constitution or law [Blackwater for a great example .. we have created a mercenary army outside our laws, and allowed our military to languish while shedding all the blood ... as you so well explained in previous posting]. The cia/homeland security are complicit as well , since they now spy on the citizens with the aid of corporate resources... and do so without regard to the law!
Our government is using corporate channels, not to mention the military-industrial-technology gangs - to provide to the government all the info about the habits of their users .. we may yet rue the day the government went 'paperless' .. The Google ruling is of great concern... and yet one more move down that slippery slope!
It has been suggested that the next president will inherit the 'shell' of a government ..not unlike like the 'Great Oz' behind the curtain .. when you look into the various cabinet depts .. there will be signs saying .. gone to yaglue / mocrosift / giggle etc .. there is no 'there' there !!! Nobody home !! -- The cia hides behind secrecy .. the government hides behind its corporate sponsors, and privatized responsibilities !
Where can the people hide FROM their government - military - homeland security - privatized operations and the complete abandonment of the constitution!? It is no longer .. 'of the people, by the people, for the people' ... its more like 'damn the people' .. full steam ahead!
Keep up the great writing - keep shining that light, because we NEED more voices like yours to bring some sanity back to a world turned upside down! - Thank You .. Happy 4th of July ... a big admirer
Post a Comment