01 December 2001

Treatments

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when we were concerned about screenplays. It came up again suddenly as we talked about the Grand Tours of other Generations. In many respects, the dramatic transformation of entertainment and news is startling but hardly new. It is something that has happened before. We thought we were going to do some of them to mold the larger story of a global war on terror.

You might remember that thing. Going back a couple decades, there was a flurry of interest from the entertainment industry in the immediate reaction to the hi-jackings and deaths of some 3,000 Americans. Hollywood wanted to help, unlike now, and floated some ideas about full-length screenplays that enhanced messaging with Government policy.

We have beaten some of this curious little story within an inch of its literary life. Part of it was about the most complicated propaganda campaign in human history. It had just been completed and plans for the future needed to be made. The American part of it ran from 1942 to 1945. The British Empire part of it was older, of course, since they had been in hot war since Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939.

Other targets? Getting the United States to enter the War in support of the British Empire.

That is still a matter of some controversy, since Prime Miniter Churchill viewed America’s industrial base as a crucial element in defeating Hitler’s war machine. Part of the British plan was to establish an American intelligence capability to complement that of Great Britain.

Establishment of a human intelligence (HUMINT) capability was part of it. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the answer to that problem. It was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) “to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.” It was a big deal and a little painful since the two departments had been locked in institutional conflict for more than a century.

Other disciplines handed to OSS included the use of propaganda, subversion and post-war planning. The capabilities of the OSS needed to be harnessed for a new world with new adversaries. But first an organization to manage the capabilities had to be created. The old structure featured intelligence managed by Army and Navy elements. The scope of the change was going to be huge, featuring atomic bombs, new military institutions, and unconventional operations.

The USSR under Josef Stalin was determined to provide threats in all those areas, and the US Government needed to be ready. The OSS was dissolved a month after the end of the war, in October of 1945. The old institutional structures were just some of the major issues confronting President Truman, the Department of War and the Department of the Navy. The last of these had been first when the Japanese launched their attack on Pearl Harbor. Over the course of the European and Pacific campaigns, much was learned. Intelligence tasks were shortly resumed and conducted by its successors, the department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and research (INR) and the independent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Other agencies performing classified tasking were buried further back in the new Department of Defense. Our pal Mac Showers told us about the Armed Forces Security Agency where he worked in Arlington before the establishment of the National Security Agency up at Fort Meade.

The OSS was dissolved a month after the end of the war, in October of 1945. There were some other major issues confronting President Truman and the Departments of War and the Department of the Navy. The last of these had been first in that organizational day, when LT Theodorous Mason was charged with establishing the Office of Naval Intelligence in 1882.

The intelligence structure implemented in the reorganization of 1948 was a vast undertaking. We appear to be in the midst of another one today. Some of the secrets held dear have been revealed and others simply accepted as the cost of doing business in a dangerous world. After the collapse of the Soviet Union there was general peace with the United States as the remaining Superpower. Something else is emerging. Mr. Putin’s Russia is attempting to re-establish something resembling the empire that was. He is joined by Xi Jinping atop that significant pile of baggage while yet another is generated by Iran in an effort to re-ignite a regional hegemony with Tehran at the middle.

It is interesting to look back and see how we stumbled into this place. What is even more fascinating is the idea of how these new structures are going to stumble out of it again. It is going to be interesting to see them try! At least it is going to need some treatments to take a look at. Some of this seems a little unlikely…

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