ABSTRACT

OPC, Josselson’s new employer, came into existence only in June 1948, when Truman’s National Security Council charged the organization with conducting a panoply of covert actions against the Soviet Union, including subversion of Soviet-sponsored political groups, support for guerillas to liberate Eastern Europe, economic warfare, and propaganda.5 Though nominally part of the CIA, OPC was sufficiently autonomous that its head, 40-year-old Frank Wisner, ran OPC as his own fiefdom. Colleagues recalled him as “almost boyishly charming, cool yet coiled, a low hurdler from Mississippi constrained by a vest.”6 Before and after the war, he was a Wall Street lawyer. During the war, he joined OSS, where his exploits in Romania ranged from keeping a close watch on the Russians to performing magic tricks for the royal family. Stationed in Germany at war’s end, he became convinced that Russia was an emerging enemy; his warnings fell on deaf ears.7