Reinhard Gehlen

Reinhard Gehlen
Born	3 March 1902 Erfurt, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	8 June 1979 Stamberg, West Germany
Nationality	German
Political orientation	Nazism

Reinhard Gehlen (3 March 1902 – 8 June 1979) was a Nazi intelligence officer who led operations against the Soviet Union during the Second World War. He surrendered in May 1945 and gave his archives to the United States. The USA hid him from the Soviet Union and allowed him to continue to spy against the USSR with support from Allen Dulles. He restarted his spy organization in West Germany on 9 July 1946 and hired dozens of former SS and Gestapo officers.

Gehlen's organization enlisted thousands of Gestapo, Wehrmacht, and SS veterans, including bureaucrats who ran the central administrative apparatus of the Holocaust. The organization played a major role within NATO, supplying two-thirds of raw intelligence on the Warsaw Pact countries. Members of Gehlen's organization were also instrumental in helping thousands of fascist fugitives escape via ratlines to safe havens abroad.

Career

Gehlen became chief of the Third Reich's Foreign Armies East (FHO), on April 1, 1942. He was thus responsible for Germany's military intelligence operations throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. His FHO was connected in this role with a number of secret fascist organizations in the countries to Germany's east. These included Stepan Bandera's "B Faction" of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN/B), Romania's Iron Guard, the Ustachi of Yugoslavia, the Vanagis of Latvia, and, after the summer of 1942, "Vlasov's Army," a band of Red Army defectors. Later on in the war, Gehlen placed one of his top men in control of Foreign Armies West, which broadened his power. After Admiral Wilhelm Canaris was purged, Gehlen became, in effect, Nazi Germany's top intelligence official.

Surrender and offer of his services to USA

In December 1943, Gehlen reached the conclusion that Germany would lose the war, and in 1944, he began discussing the impending defeat with his close associates. He noted in his 1972 memoir that he told his colleagues that "we must begin thinking of the future" explaining his plans for offering fascist anti-communist intelligence services to the Western powers so that he and his Nazi associates could continue operating as an organization, "to help defend against Communist expansion and to recover and reunify Germany's lost territories," intending their organization to eventually to be taken over by Germany's future government. He explains as follows:

My view was that there would be a place even for Germany in a Europe rearmed for defense against communism. Therefore we must set our sights on the Western powers, and give ourselves two objectives: to help defend against Communist expansion and to recover and reunify Germany's lost territories. [...] I felt that the common defense interests of the Western powers must inevitably lead them to recognize that without Germany all Europe was lost. This was why we could realistically expect them to show an interest in exploiting our intelligence service for espionage work in the East. Given the total defeat that was now approaching, it was probably utopian to entertain any notion of rebuilding the service immediately after the war ended, as the Allies would destroy every organization sponsored by the Third Reich. But the attempt was still worthwhile so that someday a future German government could take the organization over, using our present staff as the expert nucleus.

Gehlen surrendered to the USA, and pitched himself as someone who could make a vital contribution to the forthcoming struggle against the Communists. In addition to sharing his vast espionage archive on the USSR, Gehlen promised that he could resurrect an underground network of battle-hardened, anti-communist assets who were well placed throughout the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Although the Yalta Treaty stipulated that the United States must give the Soviets all captured German officers who had been involved in "eastern area activities," Gehlen was quickly sent to Fort Hunt in Virginia, arriving with six of his top FHO aides, where they were housed and provided with a butler and orderlies. Gehlen and his staff stayed in the USA for almost a year.

Continued operation in Europe

Gehlen returned to West Germany in the summer of 1946, with a mandate to rebuild his espionage organization and resume spying on the East at the behest of USA intelligence. An Institute for Policy Studies article notes that "The date is significant as it preceded the onset of the cold war, which, according to standard U.S. historical accounts, did not begin until a year later. The early courtship of Gehlen by American intelligence suggests that Washington was in a cold war mode sooner than most people realize." The article also notes that this treatment of Gehlen "also belies the prevalent Western notion that aggressive Soviet policies were primarily to blame for triggering the cold war."

According to Gehlen's memoir, when he returned to Europe, he and his staff stayed temporarily in a shared compound with USA military personnel and liaison team, and were regarded as a "study group" with three houses as living quarters which "served as both office and living quarters." According to Gehlen, "The first few days were taken up with conferences with the two American officers on the question of how best to organize our work and how American and German aims could best be reconciled," further stating, "My later discussions with General Sibert in Oberursel ended with a 'gentlemen's agreement' which for a variety of reasons we never set down in black and white. Such was the element of trust that had been built up between the two sides during this year of intensive personal contact that neither had the slightest hesitation in founding the entire operation on a verbal agreement and a handshake. This unconditional trust was absolutely crucial to our success in the years that followed."

Based near Munich, Gehlen proceeded to enlist thousands of Gestapo, Wehrmacht, and SS veterans into the "Gehlen Organization", including bureaucrats who ran the central administrative apparatus of the Holocaust. The organization would go on to play a major role within NATO, supplying two-thirds of raw intelligence on the Warsaw Pact countries. Under CIA auspices, and later as head of the West German secret service until he retired in 1968, Gehlen exerted considerable influence on U.S. policy toward the Soviet bloc. Members of the Gehlen Organization were also instrumental in helping thousands of fascist fugitives escape via ratlines to safe havens abroad. Third Reich expatriates and fascist collaborators subsequently emerged as "security advisors" working with right-wing groups in various countries.

See also

• Operation Paperclip