CIA Midterm

Part A: Topics

I. General

1) Pinochet

• Gen. Pinochet was a right-wing general who overthrew left-wing president of Chile Salvador Allende in a violent military coup on 9/11/73. He was supported by the CIA. He immediately carried out a bloodbath in Chile, murdering and torturing tens of thousands of leftist opponents of his junta (=military government).

2) Contras/Sandinistas

• The Sandinistas were a left-wing political party who ruled Nicaragua from 1979- 1990. In order to overthrow the Sandinistas, the CIA created a terrorist army, the Contras, which attacked Nicaragua and killed thousands of innocent people.

3) CCF/Michael Josselson

• The CCF (Congress for Cultural Freedom) was a CIA-run organization that funded and controlled writers and publishing houses. It was organized by Michael Josselson in 1950 and was disbanded in 1979.

4) Ramparts magazine

• Ramparts was a US left-wing magazine. In 1967, it published an exposé of CIA secret funding and control of anti-communist education groups in the US and abroad, including the National Student Association (NSA).

5) CUT

• CUT was Chile’s biggest labor federation, led by a Chilean communist, Figueroa. The CIA tried to influence its members to oppose left-wing president Allende, the socialist leader of Chile from 1970-73, but almost 100% supported Allende, so the CIA instead focused on influencing the conservative Gremios to oppose Allende.

6) George Kennan/NSC-68

• George Kennan was a US government official whose ideas were the foundation for the “Containment” policy against communism in 1947. Containment, contained in the US government paper NSC-68, said that communism had to be “contained” or prevented from spreading to new areas.

7) Gremio

• Gremios were conservative professional organizations in Chile. Because the CIA, helped by the AFL-CIO’s AIFLD, failed to win over the pro-communist CUT, Chile’s biggest labor federation, the CIA and AIFLD were forced to work with the Gremios’ support for the 1973 coup against left-wing president Allende led by Gen. Pinochet.

8) Jay Lovestone

• Lovestone was a communist apostate who had been a communist, but during the 1950s-1970s he was head of the AIFLD (American Institute for Free Labor Development), an agency of the AFL-CIO (the major labor union federation in the US). He worked closely with the CIA by helping it to fight against left-wing labor unions around the world; he helped support dictators and right-wing unions.

9) CIA and plane crash assassinations (discuss examples)

• The CIA has been linked to the assassinations in plane crashes (probably by bombing) of a number of left-wing leaders, including Jaime Roldos Aguilera, president of Ecuador, in 1981; Omar Torrijos, president of Panama, also in 1981; Eduardo Campos, Brazilian presidential candidate; and Francisco sá Carneiro, prime minister of Portugal, killed in 1980

10) George Meany [Under AFL-CIO]

• Meany became the first president of the American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) when the two labor federations (AFL and CIO) merged in 1955. He ran the federation until his retirement in 1979 . The AFL-CIO was, and is today, the biggest federation of labor unions in the US. As president of the AFL-CIO, Meany worked closely with the CIA.

II. Iran

1) Mossadegh/National Front [* You must answer both of these]

• Mossadegh was Prime Minister of Iran from 1951-3, and head of the left-wing National Front organization, who was left-wing but not communist. He was overthrown by “Operation Ajax,” a 1953 operation led by the CIA and Britain’s MI6. The National Front was a left-wing organization in Iran led by Mossadegh whose main goal was to nationalize Iran’s oil so the profits could help the people of Iran, not the wealthy British AIOC.

2) Reza Shah/ Shah Reza Pahlavi

• Reza Shah was ruler of Iran who was removed by the British in 1941 because he did not fight the Germans; he was replaced by his son, Shah Reza Pahlavi. In 1953, Pahlavi worked with the CIA to remove Prime Minister Mossadegh from power in Operation Ajax. He remained Shah until he was overthrown during the “Islamic revolution” of 1979.

3) Kermit Roosevelt

• Kermit Roosevelt was an important CIA operative in Tehran. In 1953, with the help of the British MI6’s secret Iranian contacts, he successfully organized Operation Ajax.

4) Brothers Allen and John Foster Dulles

• Allen Dulles was CIA Director from 1953-61, when it carried out anti- democratic operations in Guatemala, Iran, and the Bay of Pigs. He was also appointed to the Warren Commission to examine the assassination of JFK in 1963. John Foster was the anti-communist Secretary of State during the Eisenhower presidency, from 1953-9.

5) Rashidian Brothers

• The Rashidian brothers were 3 wealthy Iranian brothers who were close to the US government and the CIA. With their money and extensive political contacts in Iran, they played an important role in helping Operation Ajax to succeed.

6) Gen. Zahedi

• Gen. Zahedi was a close ally of the Shah. He was picked by CIA to replace Mossadegh as Prime Minister after he was overthrown in “Ajax” in 1953. He had been arrested by the British in 1941 for collaborating with Nazi Germany.

7) Qavam

• Qavam was involved in two important events: the first event took place in 1946, when, as Iran’s prime minister, Qavam persuaded Soviet leader Stalin to remove Soviet troops from northern Iran which had been supporting the pro-communist Azerbaijan Peo- ple’s Republic, or APR). The APR immediately disbanded, and its creators, members of the communist Tudeh party, were all executed. The second event took place in July 1952 when Qavam was appointed Prime Minister by the Shah after Mossadegh briefly resigned. Qavam acted like a dictator and promised to reverse the nationalization of AIOC. Within 4 days, massive demonstrations forced him to leave office and Mossadegh returned as Prime Minister.

8) Savak

• The Savak was the brutal secret police of the Shah that tortured and killed thousands of “enemies.” It was created in 1957, after Operation Ajax.

9) Supplemental Agreement

• In 1949, during the rule of conservative Iranian Prime Minister Razmara, Britain offered a “Supplemental oil agreement” to Iran which promised to share a little more of the profits from AIOC, but kept British control of the oil company. It was rejected by the Majlis.

10) Baqai/Makki

• Both Makki and Baqai were turncoats (traitors) who turned against Mossadegh after having supported him. Baqai had been leader of the left-wing Toilers Party that supported Mossadegh. Makki, a member of the Majlis, had helped lead the takeover of the Abadan refinery in 1951 and was at one time Mossadeqh’s heir apparent.

11) Donald Wilber

• Wilber was a Princeton University professor who, working in Malta jointly with the MI6’s Norman Darbyshire, drew up the plan for Operation Ajax, the CIA’s scenario to overthrow Mossadegh.

12) 50-50 Agreement

• This was an agreement by the US-owned Aramco oil company in 1950 with Saudi Arabia which divided the profits 50-50. Aramco recommended that AIOC do the same with Iran, but AIOC refused.

13) AIOC

• The AIOC (Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) was a huge British oil company in Iran that made huge profits for its British owners. It was nationalized in 1951 by the Majlis, Iran’s parliament, and renamed the NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company), now run by Mossadegh’s government.

III. Guatemala

1) Rios Montt

• Ríos Montt [was the military ruler of Guatemala in the early 1980s. He was convicted of genocide against the majority Mayans by a UN tribunal in the 1990s. He declared a policy of “Fusiles y frijoles” (“bullets and beans”), which used force against left- wing guerrillas and promised to feed those who supported his government]

2) Historical Clarification Commission

• Historical Clarification Commission [was a UN commission which concluded in

1999 that the US was responsible for “acts of genocide” against the Mayan people because

of the money and training it gave to the Guatemalan military’s genocide against the people]

3) Army of Liberation

[Answer:] Part of the first stage of “Operation PBSUCCESS,” this was an army of

mercenaries from Guatemala and neighboring countries recruited by the CIA puppet, Gen.

Castillo Armas, to enter Guatemala and overthrow Arbenz’s government in June 1954.

Basically it failed.]

4) Decree 900

[Answer:] [was Arbenz’s land reform program, passed by the Guatemalan Congress in

1952. It distributed much land (mostly from the UFC) to the poor, helping to bring down

food prices and enabling many poor Guatemalans to afford basic goods for the first time]

5) Kekchi Indian Massacre

[Answer:] [In May 1978, at least 140 Kekchi Indians who were petitioning the government

to protect their land against cattle ranchers were massacred by government forces]

6) McCarthy and McCarthyism

[Answer:] [McCarthy, US Senator from Wisconsin, began a witchhunt inside the US

against accused “communists” during 1948-56. His campaign created an atmosphere of

fear, since most of those accused were simply liberal or left wing people who favored peace,

equality, women’s and civil rights for African-Americans, etc.]

7) Castillo Armas

[Answer:] Gen. Castillo Armas [was arrested in 1949 for leading a coup with Col. Arana

against the left-wing Arevalo government. He fled to Honduras, where he remained as a

CIA contact until 1954, when he led the “Army of Liberation” in the first attempt to

overthrow Arbenz in the CIA’s Operation PBSUCCESS. The second coup attempt

succeeded in overthrowing Arbenz in June, and he became Guatemalan President from

1954 until his assassination in 1957]

8) United Fruit Company

[Answer:] United Fruit Company (UFC) [was a US-based company that owned much land

and dominated the economy of Guatemala since the early 1900s. Its main product was

bananas. It controlled right-wing Guatemalan leaders and was supported by the CIA. The

directors of UFC convinced the Truman and Eisenhower administrations that President

Arbenz intended to align Guatemala with the Soviet Bloc. UFC also felt threatened by

Arbenz’s agrarian reform legislation. UFC was the largest Guatemalan landowner and

employer, and the Arbenz government’s land reform included the expropriation of 40% of

UFC’s land. The new labor code also allowed UFC workers to strike over wages and work

conditions. The UFC was largely responsible for convincing the CIA to overthrow Arbenz]

9) Jacobo Arbenz

[Answer:] Jacobo Arbenz [was the left-wing President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954. He

greatly helped the poor peasants, workers, women, etc. through his reforms, but the US

government feared his left-wing policies and, as part of its Containment policy, overthrew

him in operation “PBSUCCESS” in 1954. After that, Guatemala was ruled by right-wing

dictators, and hundreds of thousands of innocent people were slaughtered in US-supported

genocide.]

10) Bishop Gerardi

[Answer:] Bishop Gerardi [was a Guatemalan Catholic bishop who wrote a report on

military government atrocities against the Mayan people, listing specific names of officers.

In 1998 he was bludgeoned to death with a concrete block.

Part B. Long Answers

—You Must Do BOTH 1 and 2

1) Discuss in detail the history of CIA involvement in controlling students, art, literature, and

music in the US and abroad [*From the “Wilford” book].

Answer: Students: In 1947, the first year of its creation, the CIA began to make secret

subsidies to the National Student Association (NSA) through fake “charitable foundations.”

Officials in the NSA were “groomed [trained]” by the CIA, sworn to secrecy and helped to

channel money to friendly organizations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that worked

against “communist fronts.” In 1967, this secret activity was revealed in articles in the left-wing

Ramparts magazine and The New York Times.

Art and Literature: writers have long been associated with the CIA, including top officials

James Angleton and E. Howard Hunt. The US government portrayed the USSR, its Cold War

opponent, as a dictatorial society with little artistic freedom and the CIA became the main

supporter of US and Western art, especially modern art. It created the Congress for Cultural

Freedom (CCF) in 1950 which gave millions of dollars of government money to many literary

magazines—including Partisan Review, one of the most influential magazines of the 20th

century, as well as literary journals on every continent—literary prizes, music festivals, art

exhibits, etc. Its main aim was to “showcase” US artists. Many artists who could not live on the

small income from their art were able to survive with the extra funding they received from the

CIA. The board of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was controlled by CIA officials,

including the billionaire Rockefellers, Whitneys, etc.

2) Discuss in detail the history of the People’s Republic of Azerbaijan.

Answer: In 1941, Iran was occupied by the Soviets in the north and by the British in the

center and south. Iran was used as a transportation route to provide vital supplies to the Soviet

Union's war efforts against Germany. In 1946, after the end of WWII, the wartime occupation

was not needed, but activists of the Tudeh, the Iranian Communist Party, proclaimed the

People’s Republic of Azerbaijan in northern Iran. Although Stalin ordered his troops to prevent

Iranian soldiers from entering the province, Iran’s Prime Minister Qavam (Shah Reza Pahlavi

was the pro-Western monarch) persuaded Stalin to withdraw, and sent a US general, General

Norman Schwarzkopf, to Tabriz, where he ended the Republic with brutality. All the Tudeh

leaders were executed.