Editing Conspiracy BBS Archive/cia info (section)

===PARAMILITARY OPERATIONS===

Perhaps the most tangible type of covert action engaged
in by the CIA is in the form of paramilitary operations. 
This category of covert operations is also potentially the
most politically dangerous.  With the onset of the Cold War
and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, military operations
became both necessary and dangerous at the same time.  In
countries where other forms of persuasion did not seem to be
working, it often seemed necessary to use military forces to
further the foreign policy goals of the United States.  The
perceived threat of Soviet domination of the Third World
served to increase the pressure for military intervention. 
It was thus decided by U.S. leaders that the nation should
have paramilitary capabilities.  The responsibility for
devising and carrying out these operations naturally settled
upon the shoulders of the CIA.
     
Though the United States began to work on developing a
paramilitary capability after World War II, with the
exception of an operation in Guatemala in 1954, the scale of
activities was minimal before 1961.  When President John F.
Kennedy took office in 1961, he and his closest advisors were
convinced of the need for the U.S. to develop an
unconventional warfare capability to counter the growing
evidence of communist guerilla activities in Southeast Asia
and Africa.  The aim of "counterinsurgency" (as it became
known) was to prevent communist supported military victories
without causing a major U.S./Soviet confrontation.
Simultaneously, Kennedy directed the CIA to develop and use
its paramilitary capabilities around the world.  Thus, in the
decade of the 1960s, developing a paramilitary capability
became the primary objective of the CIA's clandestine
activities, and by 1967, spending on paramilitary activities
had surpassed both psychological and political action in the
amount of budgetary allocation.
     
In the early 1960s, the decolonization of Africa sparked
an increase in the scale of CIA clandestine activities on
that continent.  CIA activities there paralleled the growing
interest within the State Department and the Kennedy
Administration in Third World Countries, which were regarded
as the first line of defense against the Soviets.  The U.S.
Government assumed that the Soviets would attempt to encroach
upon the newly independent states.  Thus the African
continent, which prior to 1960 was included in the CIA's
Middle-Eastern Division became a separate division.  In
addition, between 1959 and 1963, the number of CIA stations
in Africa increased by 55.5%.  Also, the perception of a
growing Soviet presence both politically and through guerilla
activity in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, resulted in a 40%
increase in the size of the Western Hemisphere Division
between 1960 and 1965.
     
Throughout the 1960s, the CIA was involved in
paramilitary operations in a number of countries.  Its
involvement included efforts in Angola, Vietnam, Laos, and
Cuba.  Many of the CIA's undertakings were either
unsuccessful or without any clear result and some of them
will be discussed later.  Before leaving this category of
covert operations, it is interesting to consider a story
recounted by Fred Branfman, in a book entitled Uncloaking the
CIA by Howard Frazier.

There are many stories I could tell about him, but
I will tell just one.  In the late 1960s a friend
of mine was a pilot for a private CIA airline.  The
agent threw a box on the airplane one day and said
"Take this to Landry in Udorn".  (Pat Landry was
the head of the CIA in Udorn, coordinating the
Burma-Thailand-Laos-North Vietnam theatre).  My
friend started flying the plane and noticed a bad
odor coming from the box.  After some time he could
not stand it anymore and opened up the box.  Inside
was a fresh human head.  This was a joke.  The idea
was to see what Pat Landry would do when someone
put this box on his desk.  You cannot throw a human
head in the wastepaper basket, you cannot throw it
in the garbage can.  CIA paramilitary activities
were and are being carried out by people, like this
agent, who have gone beyond the pale of civilized
behavior.  There are hundreds of these people now
working in the Third World.  This fact is, of
course,   not just a disgrace, but a clear and
present danger.
�