Description of Operation Cornflakes, a WWII OSS project to deliver anti-Nazi propaganda through the German mail system. Declassified on 12/19/2007.
Record Group 226: Records of the Office of Strategic Services
Series: Field Station Files
File Unit: Folder 842: CASERTA-MO-OP-15: Production MTO: Cornflakes
Transcription:
"CORNFLAKES" PROJECT PLAN
[stamp] DECLASSIFIED Authority NND 853154 By ST/HRM NARA, Date 12/19/02[end stamp]
[left column]
SITUATION
In spring of 1945, disintegrating Nazi administrative functions presented MO/Rome with unrivalled chance to infiltrate MO printed material, through exploitation of tottering German Postal System.
OBJECTIVE
(1) To weaken further the will of Wehrmacht and civilians to continue losing fight. (2) Add more confusion to already chaotic communications and transport services. (3) Convince German people through dissemination of MO printed material of existence of Anti-Nazi group within Germany, especially strong in business and banking circles.
IMPLEMENTATION Counterfeit letters packed into faked German mailbags carried by 14th Fighter Squadron.
[between columns] [stamp] CASERTA [end stamp] -MO.OP.15
[right column]
EXECUTION
[stamp] OSS ARCHIVES [end stamp]
OPERATION From February 4, '45 to April 15, '45, the 14th Fighter Squadron of the 15th Airforce, on 20 sorties carried 320 "German mailbags" stuffed into 7inch smoke shell bombs - each bag carrying 300 letters, and filled with copies of Das Neue Deutschland, MO leaflets, etc. R.R. stations and marshalling yards the targets where mailbags were dropped on strafing missions. By special device, bags dropped free of bombs, thus removing tell-tale white source of drops.
EQUIPMENT Paper stocks, counterfeiting plates, MO printed material.
PERSONNEL
ROME: 3 Officers; 5 EM; 5 Civilians
BARI: 2 Officers; 4 EM; 2 Civilians
[crossed out] SECRET
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Central Intelligence Agency Report 2, Review of the World Situation as it Relates to the Security of the United States (cover, p.1), 11/14/1947.
File Unit: National Security Council - Meetings File, 1945-1953: Meetings: 2: November 14, 1947, 1945 - 1953
Series: Subject Files, 1945 - 1953
Collection: President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration), 1945 - 1960
Transcription:
[handwritten: "NA 16"]
[handwritten: "Action 12"]
SECRET [crossed out]
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Review of the World Situation as it Relates to the Security of the United States
CIA 2
14 November 1947
Copy No. 1
[stamp: "DECLASSIFIED
E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E)
OSD (crossed out, "C.I.A." handwritten] letter,
April 12, 1974 [crossed out, "3-29-77" handwritten}
["PROJECT NLT 77-1" handwritten]
By NLT-HC, NARS Date 4-15-77"]
SECRET [crossed out]
THE PRESIDENT
[page 2]
SECRET [crossed out]
REVIEW OF THE WORLD SITUATION AS IT RELATES TO THE SECURITY OF THE UNITED STATES
14 November 1947
GENERAL
1. Political. [italicized] Since our previous report (CIA 1, 26 September 1947) the most significant development has been the deterioration of the Communist (Soviet) political position in Western Europe. This process, which apparently began with the announcement of the "Truman Doctrine," has been accelerated by Soviet countermeasures, particularly by the establishment of the Cominform. The decision to establish that agency itself reflected an apprehensive realization that the European recovery program was about to become an effective reality and a corresponding recognition that the Communist political program in Western Europe had already failed. The Cominform, with its clear identification of Communist parties as agents of the Kremlin, its proscription of the non-Communist Left, and its threat to the best hope of European recovery, sacrificed whatever political prospects the Communist parties yet had. The general popular reaction is reflected in recent elections in Rome, France, Denmark, and Norway, all of which were decidedly anti-Communist in their implications.
Accepting political isolation as an advantage, the Communists have now abandoned the "democratic front" and "socialist unity" techniques and have adopted a "purer" concept of their mission as the only worthy representatives and leaders of the "masses." In the countries of Eastern Europe, which they control, the result has been an acceleration of the evolution from the "democratic" coalition toward an absolute Communistic totalitarianism. In Western Europe, where they are not in power, the application is a reversion toward action by a hard core of militants to create a "revolutionary situation."
The propaganda barrage against U.S. "reaction," "imperialism," and "warmongering" which has accompanied this shift in Soviet strategy has been of such volume and virulence as greatly to heighten the general political tension and increase apprehension that the conflict between the United States and the U.S.S.R. may soon lead to war. It is still probable, however, that the U.S.S.R. does not intend its provocations to produce that result, but only to intimidate those, in Europe and Asia, who could not escape involvement in such a catastrophe.
2. Economic. [italicized] The world economic situation has not changed materially. Acute shortages continue in many commodities such as wheat, coal, fertilizers, agricultural and mining machinery, and transportation equipment. The foreign exchange hold-
SECRET [crossed out]
[stamp: "DECLASSIFIED
E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E)
OSD (crossed out, "C.I.A." handwritten] letter,
April 12, 1974 [crossed out, "3-29-77" handwritten}
By NLT-HC, NARS Date 4-14-77"]
1
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