314. Memorandum From the Assistant Director for Policy Coordination, Central Intelligence Agency (Wisner) to Joseph A. Frank of the Office of Policy Coordination0
SUBJECT
- Recommended Lines of Thought for Operational Planning
1. At the weekly meeting in Mr. Webb’s office Tuesday afternoon1 I covered practically all of the subject matter upon which I had been [Page 742] briefed by yourself and the others who attended the morning briefing session, and a considerable amount of interest was shown on the part of Mr. Webb and General Magruder, in particular. Toward the conclusion of the session, Mr. Webb began to spark off a number of ideas and as he warmed to his subject, he began to produce some very useful thoughts. All of the others present at the meeting were much impressed about his grasp of the significance and operational possibilities of the OPC activity, and General Magruder was especially enthusiastic in his comment upon Mr. Webb’s suggestions.
2. In view of the fact that Mr. Webb has taken this degree of personal interest and has gotten to the point of generating some lines of policy guidance to us, I believe that we would be well advised to do what we can to develop some refinements, and ultimately to produce some plans and projects along the lines of Mr. Webb’s recommendations. We will surely be asked from time to time in the future what we are doing about his proposals, and in addition there is no doubt that he has got hold of some useful thoughts.
3. The first line of thought developed by Mr. Webb originated with a discussion of the situation in Yugoslavia, and the fact that Tito’s performance and the Tito heresy are causing the Cominform more disturbance and woe than any single thing which has occurred since the war. [20 lines of source text not declassified]
4. Mr. Webb went on from this to propose that we should put considerable effort into spreading the story of the Tito heresy, and moreover that we should endeavor to induce similar developments in other Communist areas and within the Communist Parties of free areas. [9 lines of source text not declassified]
[1 paragraph (6–1/2 lines of source text) not declassified]
6. Mr. Webb made reference to the article on Tito by Hamilton Fish Armstrong in the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine, and whereas he agreed that it could not be effectively used in its present form because of its American origin and authorship—he said that we should draw material from it which should be caused to appear in disguised forms.
[1 paragraph (39 lines of source text) not declassified]
ADDENDUM
You will recall that in the talk which Mr. Kennan gave in Q Bldg. this morning, he listed as the first and perhaps the most serious weakness in the international position of the U.S. the inadequate and unsatisfactory character of the situation as regards Germany and Japan. In this connection [Page 743] he stated specifically that for the improvement of the German situation, it is absolutely essential that the German people be able to see the prospect of a position for themselves as full-fledged members of the Western European community, and that this will require the development of a better understanding between the German people and the peoples of the Western European countries. (These may not be his exact words but it is the sense of what he said.) I believe that this serves to reinforce Mr. Webb’s suggestion as outlined in paragraph 7 of the foregoing memorandum and that we may therefore with confidence proceed to work up the outlines of one or more projects calculated to accomplish the desired result.
I believe that it would be useful for you to make this memorandum available to your senior staff officers.