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The National Union of Labor Solidarists, nationalism, and human intelligence operations in the Cold War

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David Albanese reconstructs the CIA’s exploitation of the Natsional’no Trudovoi Soyuz, a right-wing Russian nationalist organization, as a part of ‘rollback’ and ‘stay-behind’ covert operations against the Soviet Union during the 1950s.

Image courtesy of interviewee. July 29, 2024

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This video outlines a research project focused on émigré organizations from the Soviet Union that collaborated with Western intelligence, particularly during the Cold War. The author examines groups like the NTS (National Alliance of Russian Solidarists), which had roots in the anti-communist movements of the 1920s and later collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II as they sought to oppose the Soviet regime.

The work is guided by insights gained from historical documents released under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998, which mandated the U.S. government to reveal information about former war criminals employed by it. The author discusses the complexities of these relationships, including the strategic failures and diplomatic sensitivities that arise from blending anti-communist and collaborationist efforts.

Particularly noteworthy is the investigation into failed operations, such as the CIA's attempts to recruit and deploy émigrés back into the Soviet Union for intelligence and espionage purposes. The presentation highlights specific cases, illustrating how initial operations succeeded or failed, often revealing the dangers posed by double agents and intelligence failures.

The narrative emphasizes a shift in U.S. intelligence strategies, from reliance on human intelligence (HUMINT) to technological intelligence (TECHINT), as operations became increasingly risky and often unproductive. The author concludes by reflecting on how these historical efforts reveal deeper issues within intelligence operations and how perceptions of the NTS and similar groups have changed over time, ultimately leading to a decline in their effectiveness and support.

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One of the reasons I I wanted to do this project is

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because this is based on earlier work that I was doing

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around the question of emigre organizations

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that were coming out of the Soviet Union, especially ones

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that were collaborationists that had worked with the Germans

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during the Second World War

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and found their way working

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for Western Intelligence Services.

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So MI six, but chiefly, CIA is what I was looking at.

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And so there are a lot of previous works

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that I've done a lot of great work describing the, the NTS

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or, the a Nazi true to Voice sa, which is in Russian,

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but translates through the National Union of Labor.

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SOS was their name.

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And so works like, work on groups like this

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and other anti-Soviet and collaborationist organizations,

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and looking at these relationships with US government

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and intelligence services,

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and some of this work that has been done previously like

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that on Operation Paperclip is fairly well known.

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And Paperclip was of course, the recruitment of

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Nazi scientists and other high ranking officials to work

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for the US government during the Cold War.

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So a lot of these guys became really key players in

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scientific research

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and space exploration like Werner Von Brown.

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So this kind of work made people, kind of even

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ordinary people pretty well versed on this idea

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that there were kind of these iffy relationships

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between people that were formerly part of the Nazi apparatus

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or worked with them and then now had close ties,

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with the US government.

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And as far as Emigre operations, one of the most,

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well-known, you know, anti-communist emigre operations

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of the Cold War is the failed Bay

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of Pigs operation in which you have this Cuban Revolutionary

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Council that's trained by the United States to go

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and try to bring down the Castro regime.

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So what I'm looking at is kind

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of a hybrid of these two different things.

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We're looking at these anti-communist emigre organizations,

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and also their past relationships with,

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you know, Nazi war crimes.

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And so my work has really been benefited by laws

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that were passed in 1998 in the United States.

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There was a law that was passed that was the,

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Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998.

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So it re required, by act of Congress that the,

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government administrations

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and line agencies, they had to reveal information

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that they had on known, known war criminals

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that were in the employ of the United States.

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So that's F-B-I-C-I-A,

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and places like INS immigration

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and na na natural Naturalization services, easy

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for me to say, where end up working,

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with the United States.

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So give, getting these records out there.

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Now, it took years. It was a years long

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process for this to happen.

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Uh, a lot of this came out in 2005.

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In 2007, these records were made available.

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But my in, you know, my understanding is

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that there's still a lot that needs to be,

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further disclosed.

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But some of this stuff is really,

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what's the word I should say, is a diplomatically sensitive

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with a lot of post-Soviet states, in which there's a very,

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blurred line between who is a collaborator

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with the Nazis during the Second World War,

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and who's a national hero of different post-Soviet states.

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And so in places like Ukraine

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and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia,

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and Lithuania, this remains very, very sensitive.

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And so a lot of these documents kind of remain withheld

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because of the, the diplomatic sensitivity behind it.

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So I've even submitted some FOIA requests

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that have been denied, and I think in large part

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because of the sensitivity behind that.

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So anyway, my article here, it's providing a contribution

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to the understanding of this relationship,

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but also discussing things like rollback operations

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during the second World War

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and human intelligence operations.

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And so it's using primarily this kind of archival documents

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that came out of this 1998 law,

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and trying to flesh out how an operation like this worked

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during the early Cold War, understanding why it failed,

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and then also kind of contributing to this,

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broader comprehension

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of why you see a decline in these kinds

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of human intelligence operations coming out of the West.

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And instead a turn, especially

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by the United States towards more kind of, reliable

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or objective technological intelligence like U2 spy planes

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and satellite imagery

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and stuff like that, so

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that the human stuff is gonna become secondary,

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and this technological stuff is gonna be the primary focus.

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So I, I think that's kind

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of the crux of what I'm doing here.

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The title of this article comes from a, a article

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that appeared in Life Magazine in December of 1949.

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And the t title of that article was,

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it Takes a Russian to Beat a Russian.

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And this was an article that was written

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by a journalist named Wallace Carroll.

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Now, Wallace Carroll wasn't just any journalist,

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he was somebody who covered the Second World War extensively

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in Europe and Asia while it was going on.

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And Carroll was also an expert in psychological propaganda,

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psychological operations.

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He worked closely with the United States government,

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and he worked closely with, general Eisenhower in Europe

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to try to craft messaging that was being used well,

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both domestically

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and internationally for audiences

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to consume on the war effort.

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And of course, president Eisenhower is well known

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for his belief in psychological operations when he was

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president of the United States as well.

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Now, what Carol meant when he wrote this, it takes a Russian

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to beat a Russian, is that he said,

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looking back on the German invasion

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of the Soviet Union in 1941

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and 1942, there were many Soviet citizens

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that greeted the German army as, as liberators, right?

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They came in and these people saw them,

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that this is the chance to finally bring down communism

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and to free Ukraine, Russia, wherever from,

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this, this domination.

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Now, the problem is, Carol says, is that the,

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the Germans weren't psychologically prepared themselves

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to work with the, the populations

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that they were occupying, right?

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That they were trained to view these people as subhuman,

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as inferior, so that they were never on the footing

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that they could actually cultivate.

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You know, so-called hearts and minds in this region,

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and to use these, this pockets

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of resistance effectively against the Soviet Union.

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It wasn't really until the latter stages of the war

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that they started to, really consider arming,

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for instance, Russians against the Russian state in

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supporting these kinds of rebellious rebellion movements.

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So there was a general named Andre Vasf that was a defector

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and had Russian troops that defected with him,

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but didn't receive any kind of support from the Germans

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until 19 44, 19 45.

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And by then, the tide

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of the war had already substantially shifted.

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So that was a pure desperation move by the Germans. Okay?

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So the reason why you, the NTS gets involved is

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because this is a group that goes back to the 1920s,

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and they were founded in Belgrade in Southern Europe.

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And this was a group that was founded by White Generals.

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These were anti-communist generals that are,

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were on the losing side of the revolution

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and the Russian Civil War.

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And they wanted to try

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to continue their resistance against the Soviet Union from

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the outside, try to recruit other emigres

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and maybe mount some kind of, you know,

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psychological resistance, propaganda resistance against,

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now the new Soviet Union.

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And they were successful.

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They, in the sense that they were one of the largest

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anti-communist Russian organizations in the world.

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They had chapters not just in Europe,

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but in Africa, in Asia, north America,

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and even as far away as Australia.

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So they had a lot of credibility as a group

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that was really geared towards trying

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to bring down communism.

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There was just one problem.

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And that was when you have this relationship that's growing

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between CIA

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and NTS, there were people in CIA

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that were commenting the fact that, well,

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materially there's not that much difference

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between the kinds of programs that they are calling for.

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They seem to be kind of a hybrid between Russian nationalism

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and c Cism and socialism, which isn't that different than

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what the Soviet Union stands for.

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It's just a stridently Russian version of that.

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Another problem is their efforts during the war.

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So they were, as I said,

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a very right wing group nationalist.

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They were also antisemitic.

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They also had a lot of publications in their own periodical

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sev in the 1930s that used a lot of anti-Semitic language.

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So, different slurs that were being used

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to describe Jewish people,

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and also, cultivating the narrative of Jewish bolshevism

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or Jewish domination of Russia

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and other states through communism.

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And so, if you read the kind of kinds of things

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that are being written about in the 1930s, it mirrors a lot

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of the same stuff that is coming out

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of Germany in the 1930s as well.

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And so, when you get to the war where this is happening,

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you have these NTS officials

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and leaders that are gonna draw closer and closer to Germany

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because they see this now as the chance

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to really maybe overthrow communism within Russia.

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Um, and to that end, that's gonna allow them

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by having this partnership that

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for the first time since the Civil War in Russia,

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these NTS leaders

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and their, you know, cadres are gonna be able

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to operate openly on Russia soil.

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Okay? Not in secret, not trying to, you know,

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use coded language to maybe find recruits,

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but openly trying to spread their message

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and ha ha have people organized with the Germans to try

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to bring down the Soviet Union.

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And so this group was one of those

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that was really instrumental in helping

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build that relationship.

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By 1944, between that salv movement

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of these Russian defectors

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and the Germans, the problem for the Germans was

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that the NTS wasn't really loyal to Germany.

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So that when things start to really go, you know,

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pear shaped in 1944

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and 1945, some of their leaders are gonna start reaching out

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to other Western allies that are against Germany.

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'cause they understand what's gonna happen when Germany is

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ultimately gonna lose the war,

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that they're gonna need some other benefactor to step in.

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Germany catches wind of this.

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They round up some of the leaders

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and the others, they, you know, they make a jackrabbit out

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of there, and they go underground by 1949,

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they're gonna be reassembled

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and re reconstituted in displaced persons

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camps within Europe.

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And there were many, many of these different camps

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that were spread across Europe.

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So especially in Germany where you have these emigres

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and refugees predominantly from Eastern Europe

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that are aggregated in these camps.

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Some people are afraid that they can't go back

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to the Soviet Union because they were

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disloyal during the war.

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So you have this, this becomes kind of a breeding ground

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for further recruitment for the NTS.

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It's also going to be a breeding ground of,

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for recruitment, for Western Intelligence services

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for MI six and for CIA.

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So we have writings from, a man named Harry Raki,

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who was the director of the Soviet Branch

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of Special Projects for the United States, kind

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of a forerunner to the CIA

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and Raki is on the ground in these different

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displaced persons camps.

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And he says that this is kind of the moment,

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this is the closing window that we have to reach out

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to organizations and to people who can be of benefit to us

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in this dawning Cold War.

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So this is summer of 1946.

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February that year, Stalin has given speeches in which he's

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identifying that the west

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and capitalism, it remains the enemy of communism,

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communism that has now been effective in

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defeating fascism, right?

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And will continue to defend itself against, all

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of its enemies within and without.

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And then in March, you have Winston Churchill's speech in

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Fulton, Missouri, where he describes this iron curtain

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that has descended, across Europe.

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Okay? So now it's very clear that this is not going

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to remain a harmonious relationship

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between these former allies.

12:59.735 --> 13:02.155
So the Soviet Union KY is saying,

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is active within these displaced person camps to find,

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to recruit spies

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or potential double agents that could continue working

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for them now in this early Cold War.

13:13.015 --> 13:15.875
And that the United States needs to really be doing the same

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because Soviet Union is doing recruitment,

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but they're also repatriating people

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to come back to the Soviet Union.

13:22.495 --> 13:25.875
So we really need to strike while the iron is hot now,

13:25.875 --> 13:27.995
that maybe we can recruit some of these people

13:28.455 --> 13:31.195
before they get forced back to the Soviet Union,

13:31.535 --> 13:33.675
or if they are forced back to the Soviet Union,

13:33.675 --> 13:36.915
that they can continue to work for the West in what's known

13:37.015 --> 13:39.915
as stay behind operations in which you have these

13:39.915 --> 13:42.075
individuals that are behind enemy lines

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and will continue operating there.

13:44.815 --> 13:46.875
Um, whether in peace time

13:47.255 --> 13:49.915
or should the Cold War go hot, that these are kinds

13:49.915 --> 13:53.275
of pockets of resistance, within the enemy camp.

13:54.255 --> 13:56.675
And so, from 1947 onward,

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after you have the creation

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of the Central Intelligence Agency,

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and you have the Office of Policy coordination within

14:03.585 --> 14:06.835
that is going to work hard to cultivate these kinds

14:06.835 --> 14:10.035
of relationships with groups like the NTS.

14:10.655 --> 14:14.315
And this is part of a operation that is referred to

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as a rollback, in the early Cold War.

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A lot of people are familiar with the idea of containment.

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Uh, George Kenon wrote early on in the Cold War about his

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strategy of containment to kind of quarantine communism

14:27.965 --> 14:32.355
where it is, and to strategically prevent it from spreading

14:32.355 --> 14:33.595
outside of those borders.

14:34.325 --> 14:36.755
Kenon was not calling for, you know, Western

14:36.975 --> 14:40.275
or American intervention, wherever any kind

14:40.275 --> 14:41.995
of communist menace popped up,

14:42.415 --> 14:44.115
but to strategically decide

14:44.445 --> 14:47.115
where the United States is going to respond to it.

14:48.085 --> 14:49.975
However, for a lot of people,

14:49.975 --> 14:52.405
especially within the intelligence apparatus,

14:52.545 --> 14:54.965
so people like Frank Wisner, who was the head of

14:54.965 --> 14:58.365
that office, office of policy coordination within the CIA,

14:58.785 --> 15:00.285
people like John Foster

15:00.585 --> 15:03.805
and Alan Dulles in the United States, that wasn't enough.

15:04.345 --> 15:07.245
Why? Because it's purely a defensive posture.

15:07.755 --> 15:11.645
It's pretty much saying that communism is acceptable within

15:12.235 --> 15:13.485
this confined area,

15:14.105 --> 15:18.045
but it also is surrendering all the initiative to Moscow for

15:18.055 --> 15:21.445
where any kinds of, battlegrounds are going to be

15:21.445 --> 15:22.445
during the Cold War.

15:22.825 --> 15:24.765
So instead, the United States needs to try

15:24.765 --> 15:29.085
to roll back this iron curtain by supporting, you know,

15:29.095 --> 15:32.205
propaganda, supporting sabotage operations,

15:32.575 --> 15:35.045
supporting gorilla warfare movements,

15:35.045 --> 15:39.725
and funding them on Soviet, on communist territory, not

15:39.725 --> 15:43.245
through direct, you know, combat between the US

15:43.245 --> 15:44.365
and the Soviet Union, but

15:44.365 --> 15:47.125
through these indirect kinds of measures.

15:47.705 --> 15:49.565
And that's where this growing relationship

15:49.565 --> 15:52.965
between the United States and the NTS comes in.

15:53.745 --> 15:56.685
So in Germany, near these displaced persons camps,

15:56.685 --> 15:58.365
especially within the US zone

15:58.365 --> 16:01.205
of occupation in Southern Germany, you're start going

16:01.205 --> 16:03.885
to start to have facilities that are constructed,

16:04.505 --> 16:07.245
and you're gonna have schools where these recruits

16:07.245 --> 16:10.045
that are coming from NTS are going to be brought in,

16:10.105 --> 16:13.045
and they're gonna be trained how to do these kinds of stay

16:13.045 --> 16:15.245
behind rollback operations.

16:16.095 --> 16:19.145
Okay? So this is gonna be set up in October

16:19.205 --> 16:22.945
of 1951 is the school that I'm primarily concerned

16:22.945 --> 16:26.185
with here is geared towards, operations

16:26.185 --> 16:27.705
that were referred to as,

16:27.705 --> 16:30.425
operation Carcass is the umbrella that fell under.

16:31.005 --> 16:34.225
And carcass was one of three legs that were part

16:34.225 --> 16:36.385
of an operation referred to as aerosol.

16:36.925 --> 16:41.305
So within aerosol you had one leg that was called Spain,

16:41.515 --> 16:45.305
which was to, spread pro ideology

16:45.365 --> 16:49.305
and propaganda to Russian soldiers that were in zones

16:49.305 --> 16:51.945
of occupation within Germany and Austria.

16:52.285 --> 16:54.385
So, NTS members would try to

16:55.015 --> 16:58.065
inculcate these Russian soldiers with their ideology

16:58.365 --> 17:01.505
to make them more attuned to Russian nationalism

17:01.765 --> 17:06.345
and the imagination of a post-Soviet Russia, free of,

17:06.365 --> 17:08.185
communist domination.

17:09.015 --> 17:11.555
The second was an operation that was called radio,

17:11.885 --> 17:13.755
which is exactly what it sounds like.

17:14.135 --> 17:15.635
It was a implementation

17:15.635 --> 17:18.355
of radio broadcasts throughout Central

17:18.655 --> 17:21.955
and into Eastern Europe to reach out to, again,

17:22.025 --> 17:24.195
also these Russian soldiers that are occupying.

17:24.335 --> 17:27.955
But any emigres that might be hearing these broadcasts so

17:27.955 --> 17:30.755
that they know about the NTS, that they become,

17:31.345 --> 17:35.155
that not just that they become, what's the word,

17:35.185 --> 17:36.675
sympathetic to their program,

17:37.295 --> 17:40.435
but also that they just have the ability to imagine

17:40.465 --> 17:43.915
that there is somebody out there who is resisting,

17:43.915 --> 17:47.555
communism, which is a powerful kind of,

17:47.555 --> 17:49.725
psychological force that is created,

17:49.725 --> 17:51.005
that there is an alternative.

17:51.235 --> 17:53.045
Okay? Uh, and then maybe some

17:53.045 --> 17:56.005
of these broadcasts could also reach into Eastern Europe so

17:56.005 --> 17:58.845
that actual Soviet citizens could hear them as well.

17:59.875 --> 18:02.845
Carcass is the most, like what we would recognize

18:02.905 --> 18:04.245
as a rollback operation.

18:04.595 --> 18:07.085
This was the recruitment of these young men

18:07.195 --> 18:09.965
that had been in these displaced persons camps

18:09.985 --> 18:11.165
to join the NTS

18:11.425 --> 18:14.565
and start working in joint operations with the CIA

18:14.865 --> 18:17.565
to be airdropped into Soviet territory.

18:18.065 --> 18:19.685
And from there, they could try

18:19.685 --> 18:21.365
to recruit other members, right?

18:21.375 --> 18:24.405
Other people. They can, gain,

18:24.405 --> 18:27.245
information about what's going on in the Soviet Union,

18:27.465 --> 18:29.365
report that back to the West.

18:30.035 --> 18:33.405
They could, report movements around military sites

18:33.425 --> 18:36.285
and locations, any kinds of news that they're hearing

18:36.305 --> 18:38.045
and rumors within the Soviet Union.

18:38.825 --> 18:41.885
And if the Cold War were to go hot, they could take

18:41.905 --> 18:45.045
to the woods and they could kind of mount these pockets

18:45.045 --> 18:48.445
of resistance to fight back against the Soviet Union within

18:48.545 --> 18:51.365
its own borders and kind of create chaos from within

18:51.795 --> 18:55.125
with these kinds of partisan groups like those that fought

18:55.125 --> 18:56.765
during the Second World War, these

18:57.635 --> 18:59.285
irregular military forces.

18:59.835 --> 19:02.805
Okay? So they weren't necessarily, supposed

19:03.045 --> 19:06.005
to sabotage things or draw any attention to themselves.

19:06.475 --> 19:09.725
They were supposed to live in kind of this semi-legal status

19:09.775 --> 19:11.325
where they have their working papers,

19:11.675 --> 19:14.245
they have falsified documents, they're going to jobs,

19:14.665 --> 19:17.245
but they're kind of working behind the scenes to try

19:17.245 --> 19:22.005
to spread the message of the NTS in what NTS recognized

19:22.105 --> 19:25.765
or what they described as a molecular theory of revolution.

19:26.115 --> 19:29.805
That you create pockets of three people or so, right?

19:30.065 --> 19:33.045
And make it so it's not necessarily easy to trace back

19:33.045 --> 19:34.445
to one organization.

19:34.865 --> 19:36.805
And that these pockets of people together,

19:36.855 --> 19:39.045
these small groups, would be the only

19:39.045 --> 19:40.205
ones who know each other.

19:40.585 --> 19:42.805
Uh, if you broke into that group, you would only be able

19:42.805 --> 19:44.045
to identify a few people,

19:44.425 --> 19:47.485
but at the same time, you could mobilize them I if needed

19:48.025 --> 19:49.325
in the event of war.

19:50.125 --> 19:54.335
Okay? So October, 1951, you had these trainings that begin,

19:54.555 --> 19:56.095
for, for carcass.

19:56.355 --> 19:59.495
And the plan is that by spring of 1952,

19:59.755 --> 20:03.015
you're gonna have your first airdrops into the Soviet Union.

20:03.675 --> 20:06.255
So what's planned is that you have three recruits

20:06.365 --> 20:08.255
that are going to be dropped there.

20:08.715 --> 20:10.495
One is a former Red Army sergeant.

20:11.115 --> 20:15.015
The second is a, well, not maybe the best recruit.

20:15.015 --> 20:17.055
He's kind of a habitual alcoholic.

20:17.225 --> 20:19.895
There was a lot of concerns about him going into this.

20:20.435 --> 20:22.855
The third was somebody who comes from kind of a criminal,

20:23.115 --> 20:26.935
background underground kind of, life

20:27.075 --> 20:28.695
before all this happened.

20:28.995 --> 20:31.895
So somebody who has a penchant for illegal existence,

20:32.495 --> 20:34.975
somebody who has ability to operate kind of,

20:34.975 --> 20:36.975
beneath the, the surface, right?

20:37.275 --> 20:40.175
But also might be somebody who can get himself into trouble

20:40.245 --> 20:43.015
with kind of his seeking of adventure

20:43.155 --> 20:44.655
and kind of risk taking behavior.

20:45.115 --> 20:48.765
So not the best group to necessarily start out with,

20:49.145 --> 20:52.405
and they are being instructed by two NTS men.

20:52.785 --> 20:54.805
Now, the funny thing about these NTS men is

20:54.805 --> 20:56.685
that the CIA operatives,

20:56.825 --> 21:01.625
or CIA agents at the school noticed that these two NTS guys,

21:01.625 --> 21:05.065
that they were, they were hyper Russian, that they kind

21:05.265 --> 21:09.585
of exhibited this need to, really overemphasize just

21:09.765 --> 21:12.625
how in tune they were with their, their ethnicity

21:12.885 --> 21:14.345
and their country, right?

21:14.515 --> 21:17.465
Which makes sense when you're dealing with people who kind

21:17.465 --> 21:20.785
of feel disconnected from their homeland, maybe a fear

21:20.805 --> 21:22.705
of losing their identity, right?

21:23.085 --> 21:24.865
But also emphasizing of just

21:25.005 --> 21:27.065
how Russian they are in their organization,

21:27.125 --> 21:30.585
how much they capture the true spirit of the Russian people.

21:31.245 --> 21:33.225
And so these were the kinds of instructors

21:33.225 --> 21:34.825
that they had working with them.

21:35.685 --> 21:39.785
So the first drop is going to happen in May of 1952,

21:40.085 --> 21:43.865
and the drop site is going to be in, Western Bellus.

21:44.885 --> 21:47.785
Things don't necessarily start out great.

21:48.125 --> 21:50.585
Um, they don't necessarily hear from the

21:50.595 --> 21:51.785
operatives right away.

21:51.965 --> 21:54.945
One of them, the former red AR Army Sergeant, he's the first

21:54.945 --> 21:57.865
to reach out back to, the Americans

21:57.925 --> 21:59.825
or the NTS weeks later.

22:00.365 --> 22:02.745
He says that he's finally established himself,

22:03.005 --> 22:04.665
but he's gonna go back to the drop site

22:04.665 --> 22:06.545
to pick up some things that he buried there.

22:06.895 --> 22:08.385
What they were, what they were given

22:08.565 --> 22:09.665
was, you know, currency.

22:10.055 --> 22:12.385
They were given falsified documents that I mentioned

22:12.385 --> 22:13.625
before, maps.

22:13.695 --> 22:16.185
They were given code books and they were given weapons.

22:16.685 --> 22:18.625
So he probably left that stuff, some of that stuff

22:18.625 --> 22:19.985
behind the beginning.

22:20.365 --> 22:22.145
Um, and maybe along, well, he,

22:22.325 --> 22:24.705
he brought his wireless transmitter with him so

22:24.705 --> 22:26.145
that he could send calligraphy back.

22:26.605 --> 22:28.745
Uh, but maybe some of these things he left,

22:28.805 --> 22:29.905
for safekeeping there,

22:30.685 --> 22:32.865
but never heard from him again after that.

22:33.125 --> 22:35.225
So sometime between when he sent that message

22:35.285 --> 22:38.545
and when he went back to the drop site, he got,

22:38.765 --> 22:40.185
it seems he got caught,

22:40.365 --> 22:42.105
by Russian Intelligence Services.

22:43.075 --> 22:45.895
The other two, the ones who were more in doubt, the,

22:46.075 --> 22:47.495
the heavy drinker

22:47.715 --> 22:51.815
and the kind of the, the, the black market kind of guy.

22:52.125 --> 22:55.655
They actually continued to operate, behind enemy lines

22:55.745 --> 22:58.615
until they were finally apprehended in 1960.

22:58.795 --> 23:01.175
So they probably were the most successful

23:01.555 --> 23:02.775
of the entire group,

23:03.635 --> 23:05.775
but they really never contributed anything

23:05.775 --> 23:08.695
of value over the tenure of the time that they were there.

23:09.635 --> 23:10.895
And so, okay, things seem

23:10.895 --> 23:12.695
to go all right with this first group.

23:12.835 --> 23:16.655
And so now you have a second cycle that's being planned.

23:16.795 --> 23:18.615
And this is gonna be, this is for the spring

23:18.615 --> 23:20.735
of 1953 the following year.

23:21.315 --> 23:22.655
So they're being trained up

23:22.715 --> 23:24.375
and it's, it's gonna be more ambitious.

23:24.715 --> 23:27.855
Now you have eight agents that are gonna be dropped into,

23:28.075 --> 23:29.215
into Ukraine,

23:30.445 --> 23:32.785
and they're gonna, they're gonna work largely

23:33.205 --> 23:35.065
in partnerships.

23:35.405 --> 23:37.985
So you have three groups of two that are gonna be dropped,

23:38.285 --> 23:40.185
and then two additional agents that'll

23:40.185 --> 23:41.865
work independently with each other.

23:42.685 --> 23:45.885
Now, what's significant that happens going into the spring

23:45.885 --> 23:50.125
of 1953 is that Stalin dies in the beginning of March.

23:50.945 --> 23:53.765
And this seems to present a huge opportunity

23:54.105 --> 23:56.925
for Western Intelligence Services and the NTS.

23:57.475 --> 24:00.125
This could be a moment now where things are just

24:00.645 --> 24:03.085
unstable enough to make their life easier, right?

24:03.535 --> 24:06.285
Maybe this is the time in which the Russian

24:06.545 --> 24:11.085
and Soviet imagination for something after Stalin, something

24:11.085 --> 24:14.765
after communism is actually coming to the fore, right?

24:14.915 --> 24:17.885
It's not quite clear what the future is going to be,

24:18.105 --> 24:20.045
in the spring of 1953.

24:20.185 --> 24:23.445
So one might have hope at this time that this is,

24:23.675 --> 24:26.685
this could be our window of opportunity here, a new window

24:26.745 --> 24:30.525
of opportunity to do something with this next generation

24:30.525 --> 24:32.405
of Russian young men that are coming in.

24:32.405 --> 24:35.205
They're not the old white hairs from the NTS young men

24:35.205 --> 24:38.365
that are coming in and might be able to affect change,

24:38.745 --> 24:41.685
on a ground swell within the Soviet Union.

24:41.785 --> 24:43.365
Or if not at least plant the seeds

24:43.365 --> 24:45.125
for something, in the future.

24:46.255 --> 24:47.835
But it doesn't work out that way.

24:48.335 --> 24:53.235
Um, when the NTS men are, so the, first group

24:53.235 --> 24:55.995
that's gonna be dropped in April of 1953,

24:56.695 --> 25:01.395
the four men are apprehended almost immediately within 48

25:01.395 --> 25:03.755
hours of landing at the drop site.

25:04.105 --> 25:07.075
They are caught by, Soviet intelligence.

25:07.615 --> 25:09.635
And we know about this quickly in the West

25:09.635 --> 25:12.275
because it's gonna be reported by the Soviet Ministry

25:12.275 --> 25:16.995
of Internal Affairs in the Soviet newspaper is Vestia, okay?

25:17.455 --> 25:20.435
So is Vestia and Internal Affairs.

25:20.825 --> 25:23.515
They report the real names of the men

25:23.575 --> 25:25.755
who were dropped into the Soviet Union,

25:26.015 --> 25:27.195
not their falsified names.

25:27.615 --> 25:29.995
So it means that these men were interrogated,

25:30.225 --> 25:32.075
that they were broken under interrogation,

25:32.695 --> 25:35.475
and that they likely gave up a lot more than just their

25:35.475 --> 25:38.835
names along with them, they were caught with their,

25:38.895 --> 25:40.155
you know, their fake documents.

25:40.155 --> 25:41.755
They were caught with their code books,

25:41.945 --> 25:43.475
they were caught with their weapons.

25:44.215 --> 25:48.195
And so a lot of this information now had been turned over

25:48.305 --> 25:51.435
immediately to, Soviet Secret Police.

25:51.735 --> 25:52.995
And there's a lot that they could do

25:52.995 --> 25:54.995
with this information going forward.

25:55.495 --> 25:57.195
Now, one could stand to reason

25:57.195 --> 25:58.875
that there is a lot more information

25:58.875 --> 26:00.315
that was likely given over to them,

26:00.375 --> 26:01.995
the location of the school.

26:02.655 --> 26:04.555
Uh, who might the identities be

26:04.935 --> 26:06.515
of other agents that are involved.

26:07.095 --> 26:11.825
But, so, CIA had to kind of figure out how did this happen?

26:11.925 --> 26:14.625
Within 48 hours, they were caught.

26:14.965 --> 26:18.625
So there was an internal investigation that was, done

26:18.885 --> 26:20.905
by, by the United States.

26:21.325 --> 26:24.425
So an internal review of what happened determined

26:24.425 --> 26:26.825
that there probably was a visual

26:27.165 --> 26:30.185
or electronic, interception

26:30.325 --> 26:32.985
or spotting of the American plane

26:32.985 --> 26:34.945
that was flying into Soviet airspace.

26:35.685 --> 26:38.265
Uh, and that would allowed them to determine kind

26:38.265 --> 26:41.365
of the trajectory, identify possible

26:41.365 --> 26:42.565
landing zones along the way.

26:43.385 --> 26:45.515
What they figured also could be a problem is

26:45.515 --> 26:48.595
that the American plane had no markings on it when it was

26:48.595 --> 26:50.915
flying, which is gonna further arouse suspicion

26:50.915 --> 26:52.355
that something is wrong here.

26:52.975 --> 26:54.235
And there was a possibility

26:54.235 --> 26:58.275
that maybe they had in inadvertently flown into range

26:58.275 --> 27:00.795
of Soviet radar while they were doing this.

27:01.145 --> 27:04.355
Okay? So all of these were potential problems,

27:04.935 --> 27:08.835
but on top of all of this, CIA began to determine

27:09.305 --> 27:11.635
that at least one of its agents

27:11.635 --> 27:15.075
that it was recruiting from the NTS was likely Soviet

27:15.125 --> 27:18.555
controlled, and was probably giving this information over

27:18.655 --> 27:21.955
to, the Soviet, the Soviets, either coming out

27:21.955 --> 27:24.435
of Germany or maybe that, you know, some other way

27:24.665 --> 27:26.995
that this is getting, getting to them.

27:27.215 --> 27:30.035
And this was further determined when this agent,

27:30.035 --> 27:31.995
we'll call him number 27 for now,

27:32.195 --> 27:33.435
'cause it's part of his code name.

27:33.435 --> 27:34.515
When in, in my article,

27:35.025 --> 27:38.835
when Number 27 was deployed into the Soviet Union,

27:39.455 --> 27:43.275
he reported no useful information at all to the West.

27:43.815 --> 27:46.755
And the messages that he was sending seemed like he was

27:46.755 --> 27:48.475
trying to glean information about

27:48.605 --> 27:51.915
where the other NTS men were, where they landed,

27:52.215 --> 27:54.715
and what their current, activities were.

27:55.135 --> 27:56.355
So it made it seem like he was

27:57.275 --> 27:58.985
being controlled on some level

27:59.445 --> 28:02.585
and trying to get this information back to his handlers.

28:03.595 --> 28:06.805
Okay? So there was supposed to be a third cycle

28:07.225 --> 28:09.285
of these agents, these operatives,

28:09.285 --> 28:12.805
to be dropped into the Soviet Union for well

28:13.135 --> 28:15.005
after summer of 1953.

28:15.105 --> 28:16.565
But it doesn't come to pass.

28:16.995 --> 28:20.525
It's, it ends up being suspended until there's some way

28:20.525 --> 28:24.045
to figure out how to tighten up security at the American Run

28:24.045 --> 28:25.045
School in Germany.

28:25.825 --> 28:29.765
Um, and along with that, to

28:30.305 --> 28:31.765
better vet the agents

28:31.875 --> 28:34.445
that are coming into these possible schools.

28:35.265 --> 28:36.845
But things continue to just get worse

28:37.025 --> 28:38.685
for the CIA and the NTS.

28:39.305 --> 28:41.645
So, as I mentioned, there were eight agents

28:41.645 --> 28:43.685
that were involved in this second cycle, so

28:43.685 --> 28:44.685
beyond the other four,

28:44.955 --> 28:47.445
another four had infiltrated the Soviet Union.

28:48.105 --> 28:52.925
And in 19 54, 2 more agents are gonna be apprehended

28:53.025 --> 28:54.405
by the Soviet Union.

28:55.105 --> 28:57.325
Now, what happened to those four guys that were caught

28:57.325 --> 28:58.845
by the Ministry of Internal Affairs?

28:59.235 --> 29:02.365
Well, when they were caught, they were put on trial,

29:02.675 --> 29:05.365
they were, exposed as former collaborators.

29:05.435 --> 29:07.925
They were accused of crimes of killing other fellows,

29:07.925 --> 29:11.085
Russian soldiers of killing, members

29:11.105 --> 29:12.685
of the Soviet populace.

29:13.065 --> 29:16.325
And they were executed for, for their treachery, you know,

29:16.325 --> 29:18.965
adding to that, that now they were working for an enemy

29:18.965 --> 29:20.165
of the Soviet Union again.

29:20.845 --> 29:23.345
So in 1954, you have two more of these guys

29:23.615 --> 29:24.825
that end up being caught.

29:25.365 --> 29:27.825
And again, they get all the information from them.

29:28.355 --> 29:32.505
These guys we know for sure did name, did give the names of

29:33.025 --> 29:35.625
Americans and Russians that were involved in the operations.

29:36.365 --> 29:39.825
Um, and something different happens here.

29:40.095 --> 29:42.415
They're not executed by the Soviet Union.

29:42.525 --> 29:43.775
They're not put on trial.

29:43.955 --> 29:45.935
So they turn all this information over,

29:46.755 --> 29:48.695
and Russian media reports

29:48.695 --> 29:52.815
that these two men were given the full opportunity to live

29:52.955 --> 29:55.775
and work in their native homeland in the land

29:55.835 --> 29:57.695
of their birth right, of their identity.

29:58.195 --> 30:00.255
So something very different is happening here.

30:00.275 --> 30:02.615
We see a, a key change in strategy

30:03.195 --> 30:06.175
by the Soviet Union now in 1954.

30:06.355 --> 30:07.695
So by 1954,

30:07.995 --> 30:11.335
the Soviet Union has undergone a clear change in the

30:11.815 --> 30:14.975
strategy of how they're dealing with these NTS men

30:14.975 --> 30:17.295
that they catch on Soviet territory.

30:18.195 --> 30:22.605
So what also is happening in 1954 is that there seems

30:22.605 --> 30:25.445
to be change in what's going on in the West as well.

30:26.025 --> 30:27.965
So there was a proposed collaboration

30:28.075 --> 30:29.405
between the United Kingdom

30:29.505 --> 30:33.845
and the United States on further joint operations for NTS

30:33.905 --> 30:37.085
and, infiltration rollback operations

30:37.215 --> 30:38.445
based out of Frankfurt.

30:38.905 --> 30:41.885
And so the United States is looking back on it, kind

30:41.885 --> 30:45.005
of the mixed bag, mostly bad of what's happened up

30:45.005 --> 30:48.245
to this point, but they argue that it's really necessary

30:48.345 --> 30:51.285
to continue sponsoring these NTS operations

30:51.555 --> 30:54.325
because it's a powerful psychological weapon.

30:54.505 --> 30:57.805
If it's not a really powerful intelligence weapon,

30:57.805 --> 31:00.485
they're not getting a lot of actionable information at all

31:00.825 --> 31:02.445
coming out of the Soviet Union.

31:02.465 --> 31:04.525
In fact, they're, they're now, they're burning through

31:05.145 --> 31:06.725
agents that are being sent there,

31:07.305 --> 31:09.925
but if they don't continue supporting it, that it,

31:09.925 --> 31:11.805
they lose this kind of moral victory

31:11.915 --> 31:14.285
that they'll be handing over to the Soviet Union.

31:14.625 --> 31:16.885
The reputation of the NTS will be tarnished

31:16.885 --> 31:18.565
that it's not a highly effective

31:18.825 --> 31:20.925
or, not a highly effective group,

31:20.945 --> 31:24.245
or it's not really seen as a threat to the Soviet Union.

31:24.835 --> 31:26.445
It's kind of paradoxical, right?

31:26.985 --> 31:29.365
The more kinds of sol soldiers

31:29.705 --> 31:32.205
or people they send there, they get caught these spies

31:32.235 --> 31:33.485
that get apprehended.

31:33.865 --> 31:36.285
It doesn't necessarily look good. It's a waste of resources.

31:36.625 --> 31:39.325
But yet at the same time, the fixation of the Soviet Union

31:39.345 --> 31:40.765
and catching these guys on,

31:41.125 --> 31:43.445
exposing them is also showing the threat

31:43.445 --> 31:45.685
that they perceive the NTS to be.

31:45.865 --> 31:47.325
So it's kind of a two-sided thing.

31:48.075 --> 31:49.605
What also we see with this is

31:49.605 --> 31:53.085
that now the n sponsoring these NTS operations,

31:53.425 --> 31:55.365
but to go back behind the Iron Curtain

31:55.905 --> 31:58.045
is no longer really something

31:58.045 --> 32:00.245
that's geared towards an end in

32:00.525 --> 32:01.565
bringing the end of communism.

32:01.565 --> 32:04.005
But it's kind of an end in itself that this is something

32:04.005 --> 32:07.045
that needs to continue to be sponsored for this kind of,

32:07.055 --> 32:08.405
propaganda value.

32:09.245 --> 32:10.985
So we might look at this kind of

32:11.585 --> 32:13.905
proposed joint collaboration between the UK

32:14.005 --> 32:15.465
and the US as kind

32:15.465 --> 32:17.665
of giving second wind to these operations.

32:17.965 --> 32:19.745
But what really is happening here is

32:19.745 --> 32:23.345
that this isn't the United Kingdom ramping things up in

32:23.345 --> 32:24.505
dealing with the NTS,

32:24.565 --> 32:26.665
but it's actually the United Kingdom kind

32:26.665 --> 32:29.625
of distancing themselves from these further operations

32:29.625 --> 32:32.105
because the United Kingdom was doing these operations

32:32.245 --> 32:36.345
as well under the code name shuba in the 1950s.

32:36.805 --> 32:38.705
So what we actually see here is kind

32:38.705 --> 32:41.605
of a transition from the United Kingdom being involved in

32:41.605 --> 32:44.365
these operations to handing these this over really

32:44.625 --> 32:45.685
to the United States.

32:46.065 --> 32:49.925
And we see this because by 1956, the United Kingdom decides

32:49.925 --> 32:52.485
to pull out of this joint, partnership,

32:52.705 --> 32:54.125
and they transfer all of the,

32:54.125 --> 32:57.885
their remaining NTS agents over to the United States

32:58.025 --> 33:00.965
for any further operations that might be done with them.

33:01.745 --> 33:03.485
So actually, we're really seeing things kind

33:03.485 --> 33:05.405
of really decline fast.

33:06.145 --> 33:07.685
And then in 1957,

33:08.225 --> 33:11.205
we have a Soviet press conference that takes place.

33:11.395 --> 33:13.325
It's hours long and it's televised,

33:13.545 --> 33:15.085
and it's broadcast on radio.

33:15.665 --> 33:19.245
And you have two, the two previously surrendered agents,

33:19.345 --> 33:21.925
the ones whose lives were spared along

33:21.925 --> 33:24.885
with two other apprehended NTS agents

33:25.185 --> 33:28.485
who the CIA believes at this point were,

33:29.275 --> 33:31.405
were actual double agents all along.

33:31.705 --> 33:34.925
So one of them being the A four mentioned number 27,

33:35.305 --> 33:36.885
and another one who was identified

33:36.885 --> 33:38.605
as number 22 at this point.

33:38.905 --> 33:40.885
But they're all engaged in this,

33:41.335 --> 33:45.325
press conference in which they are all exhibiting remorse

33:45.425 --> 33:48.325
for their betrayal of their fatherland.

33:48.825 --> 33:51.925
So now we really start to see things come full circle here.

33:52.545 --> 33:55.565
The Soviet Union has kind of turned the messaging

33:55.945 --> 33:57.085
of the United States

33:57.105 --> 34:01.085
and the NTS on its head, that it's not the Soviet Union

34:01.465 --> 34:03.485
who are the traitors to the Russian nation,

34:04.025 --> 34:05.485
but it's these people who claim

34:05.505 --> 34:07.085
to be the nationalists, right?

34:07.395 --> 34:08.405
That they are the ones

34:08.405 --> 34:10.405
that are betraying the Russian people,

34:11.065 --> 34:13.765
and that instead they should just lay down their arms

34:14.225 --> 34:17.365
and come back home repatriate to the Soviet Union.

34:18.025 --> 34:20.685
And, you know, perhaps everything will be forgiven

34:20.825 --> 34:21.845
as a result of this.

34:22.975 --> 34:26.555
So the reason I wrote about this operation is not

34:26.555 --> 34:27.635
because we see a lot of stuff

34:27.635 --> 34:29.755
that is really unique here at all.

34:29.975 --> 34:32.915
In fact, it's pretty representative of these kinds

34:32.915 --> 34:36.155
of operations that were attempted behind the Iron Curtain

34:36.735 --> 34:41.035
and how we see the effectiveness in the Soviet Union at

34:41.445 --> 34:44.275
completely, what's the word I'm looking for?

34:44.275 --> 34:46.395
Just rendering them inert, either by

34:46.915 --> 34:48.635
catching them once they're in the Soviet Union,

34:49.215 --> 34:52.875
or poisoning the well of these organizations in the West,

34:53.225 --> 34:54.595
such that the, to the extent

34:54.595 --> 34:56.635
that the United Kingdom has already decided

34:56.905 --> 35:00.035
that these guys are not worth getting in bed with, right?

35:00.415 --> 35:02.435
Or all the resources going into it.

35:02.815 --> 35:04.995
And even the United States is getting to the point where

35:05.615 --> 35:08.435
we can't tell friend from foe anymore with this.

35:08.745 --> 35:11.715
There's not a lot of justification for this moving forward.

35:12.215 --> 35:14.555
And so it's not surprising that we see

35:14.555 --> 35:16.595
because of all, it's not happening in a vacuum.

35:16.665 --> 35:18.995
This is happening with other, kinds

35:18.995 --> 35:20.515
of human intelligence operations.

35:21.055 --> 35:24.195
The United States is attempting against the USSR so that

35:24.255 --> 35:26.635
by 1960, when you have the rise

35:26.855 --> 35:29.435
of technological intelligence that's going

35:29.435 --> 35:31.715
to be increasingly utilized through the Cold War,

35:31.985 --> 35:33.435
that this kind of stuff is gonna fall

35:33.435 --> 35:34.835
increasingly to the wayside.

35:35.095 --> 35:36.555
And the United States,

35:36.555 --> 35:40.885
Government and US media are gonna continue to,

35:41.145 --> 35:44.405
you know, trumpet the amazing capabilities

35:44.665 --> 35:47.325
and successes of American technological

35:47.965 --> 35:49.445
surveillance all around the world.

35:49.465 --> 35:50.685
So beginning with the Soviet Union,

35:50.745 --> 35:53.165
but becoming this global apparatus.

35:53.545 --> 35:55.565
And so that's, that's what I really wanted

35:55.565 --> 35:57.965
to drive home here with this article that I wrote.

Unveiling Shadows: The Complex Interplay of Emigre Organizations, Nazi Collaborations, and U.S. Intelligence Operations**

00:00:00 - One of the reasons I I wanted to do this project is because this is based on earlier work that I was doing around the question of emigre organizations that were coming out of the Soviet Union, especially ones that were collaborationists that had worked with the Germans during the Second World War and found their way working for Western Intelligence Services. So MI six, but chiefly, CIA is what I was looking at. And so there are a lot of previous works that I've done a lot of great work describing the, the NTS or, the a Nazi true to Voice sa, which is in Russian, but translates through the National Union of Labor. SOS was their name. And so works like, work on groups like this
00:00:46 - and looking at these relationships with US government and intelligence services, and some of this work that has been done previously like that on Operation Paperclip is fairly well known. And Paperclip was of course, the recruitment of Nazi scientists and other high ranking officials to work for the US government during the Cold War. So a lot of these guys became really key players in scientific research and space exploration like Werner Von Brown. So this kind of work made people, kind of even ordinary people pretty well versed on this idea that there were kind of these iffy relationships
00:01:27 - or worked with them and then now had close ties, with the US government. And as far as Emigre operations, one of the most, well-known, you know, anti-communist emigre operations of the Cold War is the failed Bay of Pigs operation in which you have this Cuban Revolutionary Council that's trained by the United States to go and try to bring down the Castro regime. So what I'm looking at is kind of a hybrid of these two different things. We're looking at these anti-communist emigre organizations, and also their past relationships with, you know, Nazi war crimes.
00:02:06 - that were passed in 1998 in the United States. There was a law that was passed that was the, Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998. So it re required, by act of Congress that the, government administrations and line agencies, they had to reveal information that they had on known, known war criminals that were in the employ of the United States. So that's F-B-I-C-I-A, and places like INS immigration and na na natural Naturalization services, easy for me to say, where end up working,
00:02:45 - So give, getting these records out there. Now, it took years. It was a years long process for this to happen. a lot of this came out in 2005. In 2007, these records were made available. But my in, you know, my understanding is that there's still a lot that needs to be, further disclosed. But some of this stuff is really, what's the word I should say, is a diplomatically sensitive with a lot of post-Soviet states, in which there's a very, blurred line between who is a collaborator with the Nazis during the Second World War, and who's a national hero of different post-Soviet states.
00:03:26 - and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, this remains very, very sensitive. And so a lot of these documents kind of remain withheld because of the, the diplomatic sensitivity behind it. So I've even submitted some FOIA requests that have been denied, and I think in large part because of the sensitivity behind that. So anyway, my article here, it's providing a contribution to the understanding of this relationship, but also discussing things like rollback operations during the second World War and human intelligence operations. And so it's using primarily this kind of archival documents

"From Human Intelligence to Technological Superiority: The Shift in Cold War Operations and the Role of Psychological Warfare"

00:04:10 - and trying to flesh out how an operation like this worked during the early Cold War, understanding why it failed, and then also kind of contributing to this, broader comprehension of why you see a decline in these kinds of human intelligence operations coming out of the West. And instead a turn, especially by the United States towards more kind of, reliable or objective technological intelligence like U2 spy planes and satellite imagery and stuff like that, so that the human stuff is gonna become secondary, and this technological stuff is gonna be the primary focus.
00:04:49 - of the crux of what I'm doing here. The title of this article comes from a, a article that appeared in Life Magazine in December of 1949. And the t title of that article was, it Takes a Russian to Beat a Russian. And this was an article that was written by a journalist named Wallace Carroll. Now, Wallace Carroll wasn't just any journalist, he was somebody who covered the Second World War extensively in Europe and Asia while it was going on. And Carroll was also an expert in psychological propaganda, psychological operations. He worked closely with the United States government, and he worked closely with, general Eisenhower in Europe
00:05:35 - both domestically and internationally for audiences to consume on the war effort. And of course, president Eisenhower is well known for his belief in psychological operations when he was president of the United States as well. Now, what Carol meant when he wrote this, it takes a Russian to beat a Russian, is that he said, looking back on the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and 1942, there were many Soviet citizens that greeted the German army as, as liberators, right? They came in and these people saw them, that this is the chance to finally bring down communism and to free Ukraine, Russia, wherever from,
00:06:18 - Now, the problem is, Carol says, is that the, the Germans weren't psychologically prepared themselves to work with the, the populations that they were occupying, right? That they were trained to view these people as subhuman, as inferior, so that they were never on the footing that they could actually cultivate. You know, so-called hearts and minds in this region, and to use these, this pockets of resistance effectively against the Soviet Union. It wasn't really until the latter stages of the war that they started to, really consider arming, for instance, Russians against the Russian state in
00:06:59 - So there was a general named Andre Vasf that was a defector and had Russian troops that defected with him, but didn't receive any kind of support from the Germans until 19 44, 19 45. And by then, the tide of the war had already substantially shifted. So that was a pure desperation move by the Germans. Okay? So the reason why you, the NTS gets involved is because this is a group that goes back to the 1920s, and they were founded in Belgrade in Southern Europe. And this was a group that was founded by White Generals.
00:07:39 - were on the losing side of the revolution and the Russian Civil War. And they wanted to try to continue their resistance against the Soviet Union from the outside, try to recruit other emigres and maybe mount some kind of, you know, psychological resistance, propaganda resistance against, now the new Soviet Union. And they were successful. They, in the sense that they were one of the largest anti-communist Russian organizations in the world. They had chapters not just in Europe, but in Africa, in Asia, north America, and even as far away as Australia. So they had a lot of credibility as a group

"Complicated Alliances: The NTS and Its Paradoxical Relationship with the CIA During the Cold War"

00:08:19 - to bring down communism. There was just one problem. And that was when you have this relationship that's growing between CIA and NTS, there were people in CIA that were commenting the fact that, well, materially there's not that much difference between the kinds of programs that they are calling for. They seem to be kind of a hybrid between Russian nationalism and c Cism and socialism, which isn't that different than what the Soviet Union stands for. It's just a stridently Russian version of that. Another problem is their efforts during the war. So they were, as I said,
00:09:00 - They were also antisemitic. They also had a lot of publications in their own periodical sev in the 1930s that used a lot of anti-Semitic language. So, different slurs that were being used to describe Jewish people, and also, cultivating the narrative of Jewish bolshevism or Jewish domination of Russia and other states through communism. And so, if you read the kind of kinds of things that are being written about in the 1930s, it mirrors a lot of the same stuff that is coming out of Germany in the 1930s as well. And so, when you get to the war where this is happening,
00:09:42 - and leaders that are gonna draw closer and closer to Germany because they see this now as the chance to really maybe overthrow communism within Russia. and to that end, that's gonna allow them by having this partnership that for the first time since the Civil War in Russia, these NTS leaders and their, you know, cadres are gonna be able to operate openly on Russia soil. Okay? Not in secret, not trying to, you know, use coded language to maybe find recruits, but openly trying to spread their message and ha ha have people organized with the Germans to try
00:10:23 - And so this group was one of those that was really instrumental in helping build that relationship. By 1944, between that salv movement of these Russian defectors and the Germans, the problem for the Germans was that the NTS wasn't really loyal to Germany. So that when things start to really go, you know, pear shaped in 1944 and 1945, some of their leaders are gonna start reaching out to other Western allies that are against Germany. 'cause they understand what's gonna happen when Germany is ultimately gonna lose the war, that they're gonna need some other benefactor to step in. Germany catches wind of this.
00:11:03 - and the others, they, you know, they make a jackrabbit out of there, and they go underground by 1949, they're gonna be reassembled and re reconstituted in displaced persons camps within Europe. And there were many, many of these different camps that were spread across Europe. So especially in Germany where you have these emigres and refugees predominantly from Eastern Europe that are aggregated in these camps. Some people are afraid that they can't go back to the Soviet Union because they were disloyal during the war. So you have this, this becomes kind of a breeding ground for further recruitment for the NTS.
00:11:45 - for recruitment, for Western Intelligence services for MI six and for CIA. So we have writings from, a man named Harry Raki, who was the director of the Soviet Branch of Special Projects for the United States, kind of a forerunner to the CIA and Raki is on the ground in these different displaced persons camps. And he says that this is kind of the moment, this is the closing window that we have to reach out to organizations and to people who can be of benefit to us in this dawning Cold War. So this is summer of 1946. February that year, Stalin has given speeches in which he's

"The Early Cold War: Strategies of Recruitment and Psychological Warfare Against Communism"**

00:12:26 - and capitalism, it remains the enemy of communism, communism that has now been effective in defeating fascism, right? And will continue to defend itself against, all of its enemies within and without. And then in March, you have Winston Churchill's speech in Fulton, Missouri, where he describes this iron curtain that has descended, across Europe. Okay? So now it's very clear that this is not going to remain a harmonious relationship between these former allies. So the Soviet Union KY is saying, is active within these displaced person camps to find,
00:13:07 - or potential double agents that could continue working for them now in this early Cold War. And that the United States needs to really be doing the same because Soviet Union is doing recruitment, but they're also repatriating people to come back to the Soviet Union. So we really need to strike while the iron is hot now, that maybe we can recruit some of these people before they get forced back to the Soviet Union, or if they are forced back to the Soviet Union, that they can continue to work for the West in what's known as stay behind operations in which you have these individuals that are behind enemy lines and will continue operating there. whether in peace time
00:13:49 - of pockets of resistance, within the enemy camp. And so, from 1947 onward, after you have the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, and you have the Office of Policy coordination within that is going to work hard to cultivate these kinds of relationships with groups like the NTS. And this is part of a operation that is referred to as a rollback, in the early Cold War. A lot of people are familiar with the idea of containment. George Kenon wrote early on in the Cold War about his strategy of containment to kind of quarantine communism
00:14:32 - outside of those borders. Kenon was not calling for, you know, Western or American intervention, wherever any kind of communist menace popped up, but to strategically decide where the United States is going to respond to it. However, for a lot of people, especially within the intelligence apparatus, so people like Frank Wisner, who was the head of that office, office of policy coordination within the CIA, people like John Foster and Alan Dulles in the United States, that wasn't enough. Why? Because it's purely a defensive posture. It's pretty much saying that communism is acceptable within
00:15:14 - but it also is surrendering all the initiative to Moscow for where any kinds of, battlegrounds are going to be during the Cold War. So instead, the United States needs to try to roll back this iron curtain by supporting, you know, propaganda, supporting sabotage operations, supporting gorilla warfare movements, and funding them on Soviet, on communist territory, not through direct, you know, combat between the US and the Soviet Union, but through these indirect kinds of measures. And that's where this growing relationship between the United States and the NTS comes in.
00:15:56 - especially within the US zone of occupation in Southern Germany, you're start going to start to have facilities that are constructed, and you're gonna have schools where these recruits that are coming from NTS are going to be brought in, and they're gonna be trained how to do these kinds of stay behind rollback operations. Okay? So this is gonna be set up in October of 1951 is the school that I'm primarily concerned with here is geared towards, operations that were referred to as, operation Carcass is the umbrella that fell under. And carcass was one of three legs that were part

"Covert Operations: NTS Strategies for Psychological Warfare and Recruitment during the Cold War"

00:16:36 - So within aerosol you had one leg that was called Spain, which was to, spread pro ideology and propaganda to Russian soldiers that were in zones of occupation within Germany and Austria. So, NTS members would try to inculcate these Russian soldiers with their ideology to make them more attuned to Russian nationalism and the imagination of a post-Soviet Russia, free of, communist domination. The second was an operation that was called radio, which is exactly what it sounds like. It was a implementation
00:17:18 - and into Eastern Europe to reach out to, again, also these Russian soldiers that are occupying. But any emigres that might be hearing these broadcasts so that they know about the NTS, that they become, that not just that they become, what's the word, sympathetic to their program, but also that they just have the ability to imagine that there is somebody out there who is resisting, communism, which is a powerful kind of, psychological force that is created, that there is an alternative. Okay? and then maybe some of these broadcasts could also reach into Eastern Europe so
00:17:59 - Carcass is the most, like what we would recognize as a rollback operation. This was the recruitment of these young men that had been in these displaced persons camps to join the NTS and start working in joint operations with the CIA to be airdropped into Soviet territory. And from there, they could try to recruit other members, right? Other people. They can, gain, information about what's going on in the Soviet Union, report that back to the West. They could, report movements around military sites and locations, any kinds of news that they're hearing
00:18:38 - And if the Cold War were to go hot, they could take to the woods and they could kind of mount these pockets of resistance to fight back against the Soviet Union within its own borders and kind of create chaos from within with these kinds of partisan groups like those that fought during the Second World War, these irregular military forces. Okay? So they weren't necessarily, supposed to sabotage things or draw any attention to themselves. They were supposed to live in kind of this semi-legal status where they have their working papers, they have falsified documents, they're going to jobs, but they're kind of working behind the scenes to try
00:19:22 - or what they described as a molecular theory of revolution. That you create pockets of three people or so, right? And make it so it's not necessarily easy to trace back to one organization. And that these pockets of people together, these small groups, would be the only ones who know each other. if you broke into that group, you would only be able to identify a few people, but at the same time, you could mobilize them I if needed in the event of war. Okay? So October, 1951, you had these trainings that begin, for, for carcass. And the plan is that by spring of 1952,
00:20:03 - So what's planned is that you have three recruits that are going to be dropped there. One is a former Red Army sergeant. The second is a, well, not maybe the best recruit. He's kind of a habitual alcoholic. There was a lot of concerns about him going into this. The third was somebody who comes from kind of a criminal, background underground kind of, life before all this happened. So somebody who has a penchant for illegal existence, somebody who has ability to operate kind of, beneath the, the surface, right? But also might be somebody who can get himself into trouble

"Uncertain Opportunities: The Initial Challenges of NTS Operatives in the Face of Soviet Intelligence"

00:20:43 - and kind of risk taking behavior. So not the best group to necessarily start out with, and they are being instructed by two NTS men. Now, the funny thing about these NTS men is that the CIA operatives, or CIA agents at the school noticed that these two NTS guys, that they were, they were hyper Russian, that they kind of exhibited this need to, really overemphasize just how in tune they were with their, their ethnicity and their country, right? Which makes sense when you're dealing with people who kind of feel disconnected from their homeland, maybe a fear
00:21:23 - But also emphasizing of just how Russian they are in their organization, how much they capture the true spirit of the Russian people. And so these were the kinds of instructors that they had working with them. So the first drop is going to happen in May of 1952, and the drop site is going to be in, Western Bellus. Things don't necessarily start out great. they don't necessarily hear from the operatives right away. One of them, the former red AR Army Sergeant, he's the first to reach out back to, the Americans or the NTS weeks later. He says that he's finally established himself,
00:22:04 - to pick up some things that he buried there. What they were, what they were given was, you know, currency. They were given falsified documents that I mentioned before, maps. They were given code books and they were given weapons. So he probably left that stuff, some of that stuff behind the beginning. and maybe along, well, he, he brought his wireless transmitter with him so that he could send calligraphy back. but maybe some of these things he left, for safekeeping there, but never heard from him again after that. So sometime between when he sent that message and when he went back to the drop site, he got, it seems he got caught, by Russian Intelligence Services.
00:22:46 - the heavy drinker and the kind of the, the, the black market kind of guy. They actually continued to operate, behind enemy lines until they were finally apprehended in 1960. So they probably were the most successful of the entire group, but they really never contributed anything of value over the tenure of the time that they were there. And so, okay, things seem to go all right with this first group. And so now you have a second cycle that's being planned. And this is gonna be, this is for the spring of 1953 the following year. So they're being trained up and it's, it's gonna be more ambitious.
00:23:28 - into Ukraine, and they're gonna, they're gonna work largely in partnerships. So you have three groups of two that are gonna be dropped, and then two additional agents that'll work independently with each other. Now, what's significant that happens going into the spring of 1953 is that Stalin dies in the beginning of March. And this seems to present a huge opportunity for Western Intelligence Services and the NTS. This could be a moment now where things are just unstable enough to make their life easier, right? Maybe this is the time in which the Russian
00:24:11 - after communism is actually coming to the fore, right? It's not quite clear what the future is going to be, in the spring of 1953. So one might have hope at this time that this is, this could be our window of opportunity here, a new window of opportunity to do something with this next generation of Russian young men that are coming in. They're not the old white hairs from the NTS young men that are coming in and might be able to affect change, on a ground swell within the Soviet Union. Or if not at least plant the seeds for something, in the future. But it doesn't work out that way.

"Failed Intelligence Operations: The Capture and Consequences of NTS Agents in Soviet Territory"

00:24:53 - that's gonna be dropped in April of 1953, the four men are apprehended almost immediately within 48 hours of landing at the drop site. They are caught by, Soviet intelligence. And we know about this quickly in the West because it's gonna be reported by the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Soviet newspaper is Vestia, okay? So is Vestia and Internal Affairs. They report the real names of the men who were dropped into the Soviet Union, not their falsified names. So it means that these men were interrogated,
00:25:32 - and that they likely gave up a lot more than just their names along with them, they were caught with their, you know, their fake documents. They were caught with their code books, they were caught with their weapons. And so a lot of this information now had been turned over immediately to, Soviet Secret Police. And there's a lot that they could do with this information going forward. Now, one could stand to reason that there is a lot more information that was likely given over to them, the location of the school. who might the identities be of other agents that are involved. But, so, CIA had to kind of figure out how did this happen?
00:26:14 - So there was an internal investigation that was, done by, by the United States. So an internal review of what happened determined that there probably was a visual or electronic, interception or spotting of the American plane that was flying into Soviet airspace. and that would allowed them to determine kind of the trajectory, identify possible landing zones along the way. What they figured also could be a problem is that the American plane had no markings on it when it was flying, which is gonna further arouse suspicion that something is wrong here.
00:26:54 - that maybe they had in inadvertently flown into range of Soviet radar while they were doing this. Okay? So all of these were potential problems, but on top of all of this, CIA began to determine that at least one of its agents that it was recruiting from the NTS was likely Soviet controlled, and was probably giving this information over to, the Soviet, the Soviets, either coming out of Germany or maybe that, you know, some other way that this is getting, getting to them. And this was further determined when this agent, we'll call him number 27 for now, 'cause it's part of his code name.
00:27:35 - when Number 27 was deployed into the Soviet Union, he reported no useful information at all to the West. And the messages that he was sending seemed like he was trying to glean information about where the other NTS men were, where they landed, and what their current, activities were. So it made it seem like he was being controlled on some level and trying to get this information back to his handlers. Okay? So there was supposed to be a third cycle of these agents, these operatives, to be dropped into the Soviet Union for well after summer of 1953.
00:28:16 - It's, it ends up being suspended until there's some way to figure out how to tighten up security at the American Run School in Germany. and along with that, to better vet the agents that are coming into these possible schools. But things continue to just get worse for the CIA and the NTS. So, as I mentioned, there were eight agents that were involved in this second cycle, so beyond the other four, another four had infiltrated the Soviet Union. And in 19 54, 2 more agents are gonna be apprehended by the Soviet Union.

"Shifting Allegiances: The Changing Strategies of the Soviet Union and Western Intelligence in the Cold War"

00:28:57 - by the Ministry of Internal Affairs? Well, when they were caught, they were put on trial, they were, exposed as former collaborators. They were accused of crimes of killing other fellows, Russian soldiers of killing, members of the Soviet populace. And they were executed for, for their treachery, you know, adding to that, that now they were working for an enemy of the Soviet Union again. So in 1954, you have two more of these guys that end up being caught. And again, they get all the information from them. These guys we know for sure did name, did give the names of Americans and Russians that were involved in the operations.
00:29:40 - They're not executed by the Soviet Union. They're not put on trial. So they turn all this information over, and Russian media reports that these two men were given the full opportunity to live and work in their native homeland in the land of their birth right, of their identity. So something very different is happening here. We see a, a key change in strategy by the Soviet Union now in 1954. So by 1954, the Soviet Union has undergone a clear change in the strategy of how they're dealing with these NTS men that they catch on Soviet territory.
00:30:22 - to be change in what's going on in the West as well. So there was a proposed collaboration between the United Kingdom and the United States on further joint operations for NTS and, infiltration rollback operations based out of Frankfurt. And so the United States is looking back on it, kind of the mixed bag, mostly bad of what's happened up to this point, but they argue that it's really necessary to continue sponsoring these NTS operations because it's a powerful psychological weapon. If it's not a really powerful intelligence weapon, they're not getting a lot of actionable information at all
00:31:02 - In fact, they're, they're now, they're burning through agents that are being sent there, but if they don't continue supporting it, that it, they lose this kind of moral victory that they'll be handing over to the Soviet Union. The reputation of the NTS will be tarnished that it's not a highly effective or, not a highly effective group, or it's not really seen as a threat to the Soviet Union. It's kind of paradoxical, right? The more kinds of sol soldiers or people they send there, they get caught these spies that get apprehended. It doesn't necessarily look good. It's a waste of resources. But yet at the same time, the fixation of the Soviet Union and catching these guys on,
00:31:43 - that they perceive the NTS to be. So it's kind of a two-sided thing. What also we see with this is that now the n sponsoring these NTS operations, but to go back behind the Iron Curtain is no longer really something that's geared towards an end in bringing the end of communism. But it's kind of an end in itself that this is something that needs to continue to be sponsored for this kind of, propaganda value. So we might look at this kind of proposed joint collaboration between the UK and the US as kind of giving second wind to these operations. But what really is happening here is that this isn't the United Kingdom ramping things up in
00:32:24 - but it's actually the United Kingdom kind of distancing themselves from these further operations because the United Kingdom was doing these operations as well under the code name shuba in the 1950s. So what we actually see here is kind of a transition from the United Kingdom being involved in these operations to handing these this over really to the United States. And we see this because by 1956, the United Kingdom decides to pull out of this joint, partnership, and they transfer all of the, their remaining NTS agents over to the United States for any further operations that might be done with them. So actually, we're really seeing things kind

"Turning the Tide: The Soviet Union's Propaganda Victory and the Decline of Human Intelligence Operations"

00:33:06 - And then in 1957, we have a Soviet press conference that takes place. It's hours long and it's televised, and it's broadcast on radio. And you have two, the two previously surrendered agents, the ones whose lives were spared along with two other apprehended NTS agents who the CIA believes at this point were, were actual double agents all along. So one of them being the A four mentioned number 27, and another one who was identified as number 22 at this point. But they're all engaged in this, press conference in which they are all exhibiting remorse
00:33:48 - So now we really start to see things come full circle here. The Soviet Union has kind of turned the messaging of the United States and the NTS on its head, that it's not the Soviet Union who are the traitors to the Russian nation, but it's these people who claim to be the nationalists, right? That they are the ones that are betraying the Russian people, and that instead they should just lay down their arms and come back home repatriate to the Soviet Union. And, you know, perhaps everything will be forgiven as a result of this. So the reason I wrote about this operation is not
00:34:27 - that is really unique here at all. In fact, it's pretty representative of these kinds of operations that were attempted behind the Iron Curtain and how we see the effectiveness in the Soviet Union at completely, what's the word I'm looking for? Just rendering them inert, either by catching them once they're in the Soviet Union, or poisoning the well of these organizations in the West, such that the, to the extent that the United Kingdom has already decided that these guys are not worth getting in bed with, right? Or all the resources going into it. And even the United States is getting to the point where we can't tell friend from foe anymore with this.
00:35:12 - And so it's not surprising that we see because of all, it's not happening in a vacuum. This is happening with other, kinds of human intelligence operations. The United States is attempting against the USSR so that by 1960, when you have the rise of technological intelligence that's going to be increasingly utilized through the Cold War, that this kind of stuff is gonna fall increasingly to the wayside. And the United States, Government and US media are gonna continue to, you know, trumpet the amazing capabilities and successes of American technological surveillance all around the world.
00:35:55 - but becoming this global apparatus. And so that's, that's what I really wanted to drive home here with this article that I wrote.

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