Perhaps the best documented covert action disaster was the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. How Effective Was US Involvement in Covert Coups in Containing the USSR? The operations which were deemed successful at the time in Iran and Afghanistan have left a legacy of anti-Americanism which has continually hampered the contemporary foreign policy of the US and given rise to outward hostility. Where it did succeed US covert support often tainted a friendly regime and in the long run weakened them as with the Shah of Iran whose pro western leanings definitely had a part in his downfall. Covert actions, by definition, are difficult to examine. Daugherty, William, Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency (Kentucky: Kentucky University Press, 2004). Nutter, John, The CIA’s Black Ops, Covert Action, Foreign Policy and Democracy (New York: Prometheus Books, 2000). [10]  However John Nutter contends that covert action was almost universally counterproductive and caused more problems than it solved. The Bay of Pigs operation in Cuba illustrates this well. It is published as part of our mission to showcase peer-leading papers written by students during their studies. The CIA used economic sanctions and assured the Chilean military that the US would support a coup with US dollars flowing to a regime which undid Allende’s socialist reforms. [16] However this argument is less than convincing on closer inspection. William Daugherty claims that during the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy and Reagan, covert action contributed significantly to the fall of the USSR and the end of the “nuclear nightmare”. Many of the threats now facing world security require a low-key covert response such as terrorism or the drugs trade. Organized by Cord Meyer (a CIA official) and Allen W. Dulles (Director of Central Intelligence) in the 1950s, it was later led by Frank Wisner (Directorate of Plans of the CIA) after Dulles became head of CIA. Roger C. Dunham (1 June 1997). [15] If this was not to work then the rebels were expected to ‘melt into the hills’. [6] Isenberg, ‘The Pitfalls of US Covert Operations’, 1. [18], Despite the fiasco, lessons were not learnt about the failures of covert action and instead focused on how to do it better next time. In 1954 an operation code named PBSUCCESS involved a Guatemalan Colonel Carlos C. Armas entering his home country with a small force, which had a CIA backing and was backed up by CIA pilots after some confusion Armas became President. [8] Most publicised covert action has been conducted in this third category. Therefore covert action was entirely counterproductive as it caused precisely what US policy makers feared. In the post Cold War environment covert actions must also meet moral guidelines. The communist threat was perceived from a global perspective and the emphasis began to shift away from Europe crisis management to a worldwide effort to forestall and contain what was seen as communist aggression. It is difficult to assess the effect of covert action on the outcome of the Cold War. As Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats recently acknowledged, “we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States.”44 Organizations like the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Fo… The requirement for coordination and clearance of covert operations in the government was firm. [17] The first principle of covert action to be effective is for it to be part of a well-coordinated policy drawing on all principles of intelligence, not to be used as a substitute for other forms. The fact that these two operations, being so close together and having such great effect, produced an operational hubris that led to later disasters. [17] Roy Godson, Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards, US Covert Action and Counterintelligence (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2008), 121. [31] Isenberg, ‘The Pitfalls of US Covert Operations’, 11. The National Security Act of 1947 did not explicitly authorize the CIA to conduct covert operations, although Section 102(d)(5) was sufficiently vague to permit abuse. The failure of the Bay of Pigs helped entrench Castro in Cuba, sacrificed US credibility and helped perpetuate the intensity of the Cold War which resulted in the Missile Crisis. In spite of this covert action still has its supporters, in the dogmatic view of Mark Bowden, failing to help Islamic fighters against the Soviet invasion may have stunted the growth of Islamic terrorism, but it also may have prolonged the power and influence of the Soviet state. It was only after the US imposed sanctions that Cuba was forced to find a new buyer for its sugar and, paired with the Bay of Pigs invasion, forced Cuba towards the USSR. Originally, designed to counter Cuban and the Soviet support once South Africa intervened to help the US backed forces it signalled to the Third World that the US was allied with the South African Regime. Even Castro’s political leanings were ambiguous after the Cuban Revolution. On December 14, 1947, they were ordered to execute “covert psychological operations designed to counter Soviet and Soviet-inspired activities.” Their first mission was to spend tens of millions of dollars of secret cash to influence the Italian elections. While these actions produced short term gains and success, they left an ineradicable impression of guilt by association at best and sowed bitter seeds which would grow into difficult problems for future generations of US policy makers. Indeed the USSR intelligence services not only neutralised most CIA operations but also helped regimes such as Castro’s to maintain their power by demonstrating outside forces were to blame for indigenous problems such as crop failures, bad economic performance and social unrest. These operations were a paramilitary operation, which are the most controversial of all covert operations as the more recent Phoenix Program in Vietnam showed. This work can be used for background reading and research, but should not be cited as an expert source or used in place of scholarly articles/books. [26] There is little evidence to suggest that Arbenz or Mossadegh were actually communists or puppets of the USSR. Their success here illustrates a point about covert operations, it is frequently easier to support the status quo and bolster a friendly regime than it is to bring down a hostile one. Other actions are harder to calculate such as the Covert support to Chilean opposition parties in the early 1970's, was the CIA's support crucial or would Allende's government have failed any way? Of the 40 or so covert actions under way in the mid-1980's at least half had been subject of a press account", but this depends on the country, the US public have traditional viewed covert operations in a more favourable light than their European counter parts. US covert actions began during the Second World War under the auspices of the Office of Strategic Studies (OSS), the idea of William Donovan. A new operation entitled MONGOOSE began in Cuba with a series of disjointed raids, sabotage and assassination plots. The surrounding secrecy leads to uncertainty about the relevant data concerning their scope, origin and success. Covert Operations - Call of Duty Operators & Identity Item Bundle in the Store. For her book, Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War, O’Rourke compiled an original dataset of U.S. regime-change operations carried out between 1947 and 1989, including 64 covert cases. Once the Shah was safely in power the CIA helped train the Iranian intelligence service to cement his hold on power. Therefore to evaluate the success one must look at a myriad of factors. Similarly on the back of the success in Iran Operation PBSUCCESS was launched in Guatemala 1954. No one from the CIA had told the President that the plan virtually required a US invasion in order to succeed or truly understood the situation in Cuba. Widespread populist movements brought Mohammad Mosaddegh to power in Iran and Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. Based on recently declassified documents, this book provides the first examination of the Truman Administration’s decision to employ covert operations in the Cold War. Secondly, it can have a serious effect on the relations between States; in the case of the Albania relations with the West were hostile until the end of the 1980's. [2] John Nutter, The CIA’s Black Ops, Covert Action, Foreign Policy and Democracy (New York: Prometheus Books, 2000), 19. [9] Thus the characterisation of CIA acting as a ‘rogue elephant’ is generally invalid. - Cookies. With the end of the Cold War co operation between the services is likely to increase, especially against common threats such as weapon proliferation and any covert action undertaken must be merited on a case by case basis. One must re-examine the operations and evaluate what was contributed. [6] Many of these actions were legally acts of war yet undertaken with the specific purpose of avoiding war. The decrease on the emphasis of plausible deniability made these operations less covert and, combined with the general exasperation and outrage of the Vietnam War, created a public backlash against the US intelligence services. Suspicion of U.S. motive… The Albanian experience showed that even apparently weak regimes could defend themselves against foreign supported insurgents. In the view of John Nutter, “by imposing foul regimes on many of the peoples of the world, the US, even in winning, poisoned the well of friendship.”[28]. [30] The long term consequences of covert action and the legacy left from ethically dubious plans have cost the US more than they gained. The answer is that they can be very effective not only to support a larger war effort like the Phoenix Program but to subvert hostile and bolster friendly regimes. [1] David Isenberg, ‘The Pitfalls of US Covert Operations’, Policy Analysis, 18:118, (1989), 2. 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