Page:Eagle and Swastika - CIA and Nazi War Criminals and Collaborators.pdf/13

 The lesson of the Nazi war criminals is perhaps best applied to present intelligence operations. Sixty years after World War II, many Americans are concerned that actions taken by the US Government during the Cold War to combat the Soviet threat actually threatened our national liberties and democratic nature. Allen Dulles, the Director of Central Intelligence during 1953-61 and a former OSS station chief, displayed a cavalier attitude about Reinhard Gehlen, West Germany's then future intelligence chief. "I don't know if he is a rascal," Dulles said about the former head of the Wehrmacht's Fremde Heere Ost (FHO), the Foreign Armies East branch of military intelligence, that dealt with the Soviet Union. "There are few archbishops in espionage. He's on our side and that's all that matters. Besides," Dulles added, "one needn't ask him to one's club." (U)

Dulles's alleged response to concerns about the background and trustworthiness of such an important figure as Gehlen exemplifies the attitude that the Agency adopted with regard to the past Nazi activities and affiliations of its intelligence operatives during the Cold War. Since the 1970s, this Cold War attitude has created considerable problems, only to be compounded by other scandals that have roiled the Agency. With the end of the Cold War, the Agency is hardpressed to defend or even explain some of its actions during that trying period. The CIA still faces controversies over the backgrounds of its agents, as witnessed in the recruitment of sources in Central and Latin America as