Read America's Great Game Online
Authors: Hugh Wilford
10
. See Hugh Wilford,
The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008). The CIA recently made available, in heavily redacted form, its own history of this operation: Michael Warner,
Hearts and Minds: Three Case Studies of the CIA’s Covert Support of American Anti-Communist Groups in the Cold War, 1949–1967
(Langley, VA: Central Intelligence Agency, 1999). Some clues in the unredacted text, such as a reference on page xiv to an organization aimed at “educated Arab Muslims,” suggest that
Chapter 4
of this work, entitled “A Hidden Policy,” is devoted to the American Friends of the Middle East. The chapter is, unfortunately, entirely redacted.
11
. See, for example, Berger to KR, June 9, 1950, 106.1, ACJP; Berger to Levison, June 21, 1950, and December 8, 1950, 74.11, ACJP; Eddy to Cornelius Van Engert, December 28, 1950, uncatalogued box, Postwar Correspondence and MSS, folder 1950–51, Cornelius Van H. Engert Papers, Special Collections, Georgetown University Library, Washington, DC; Engert to Eddy, December 30, 1950, Engert Papers; Sanders,
Dorothy Thompson
, 335; Berger to Levison, January 23, 1951, 75.1, ACJP.
12
. Berger to Thompson, March 16, 1951, 2.10, Dorothy Thompson Papers (hereafter DTP), Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library, Syracuse, NY; Berger to Levison, March 31, 1951, 75.1, ACJP; “Interview with Miss Dorothy Thompson,” April 5, 1951, 2.10, DTP; Thompson, April 5, 1951, 2.10, DTP; M. Snyder to Miss Sansom, May 11, 1951, 24.12, Allen Dulles Papers;
AFME Annual Report, 1951–52
, 59. 1, John Nuveen Jr. Papers (hereafter JNP), University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center.
13
. Engert to Thompson, June 29, 1951, 2.15, DTP; Thompson to Guaranty Trust, July 1951, 38.5, DTP; Engert to Thompson, June 1, 1951, 2.15, DTP; Eddy to Hopkins, January 11, 1954, 3.1, DTP.
14
. Patrice Gaudefroy-Demombynes (Eliot’s stepson), telephone interview by author, July 7, 2009; Mather Greenleaf Eliot to Samuel and Elsa Eliot, July 10, 1950, 1.4, Papers of the Eliot Family, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh; Eliot to parents, June 2, 1951, 1.5, Eliot Papers; Eliot to parents, November 18, 1951, 1.5, Eliot Papers.
15
. Wilford,
The Mighty Wurlitzer
, 152; “American Friends of the Middle East: Second Meeting of the Charter Members,” December 12, 1951, 2.13, DTP; “Heard in Washington,”
Near East Report
, March 7, 1967, 19.
16
. Berger to Levison, December 20, 1951, 75.1, ACJP.
17
.
AFME Annual Report, 1951–52
; “Application for Consultative Membership to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations,” no date, 4.13, DTP;
AFME Annual Report, 1953–54
, 59.1, JNP.
18
. Various AFME annual reports, 59.1, JNP.
19
.
AFME Annual Report, 1954–55
, 59.1, JNP; Harold Lamb, “The Hope of One American,” May 15, 1951, 19, Beg. of AFME, Harold Lamb Papers, Department of Special Collections, Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles; Eddy quoted in Lippman,
Arabian Knight
, 277;
AFME Annual Report, 1953–54
.
20
. “American Friends of the Middle East,” no date [1951], 4.13, DTP.
21
. Engert to Hugh Bullock, April 19, 1952, uncatalogued box, folder 1952–53, Engert Papers; “Tentative Statement Regarding the Position of the American Friends of the Middle East on United States Policy in the Middle East,” September 17, 1956, 59.2, JNP; “American Friends of the Middle East: Second Meeting of the Charter Members,” December 12, 1951, 2.13, DTP; Eddy to Robert A. McClure, January 9, 1951, 2.14, DTP; Eddy to Thompson, June 7, 1951, 2.4, DTP.
22
. “American Friends of the Middle East” and “Tentative Draft of Press Release,” no date [1951], 4.13, DTP.
23
.
AFME Annual Report, 1953–54
.
24
. Hopkins to John Foster Dulles, June 19, 1953, 611.80/6-1953, RG 59, NA; J. M. Troutbeck (British Embassy, Baghdad) to Anthony Eden, May 28, 1952, FO 371/98247, PRO; “Draft, Story of a Purpose,” September 19, 1958, 59.3, JNP.
25
. See, for example,
AFME Annual Report, 1953–54;
Berger to Levison, October 29, 1951, 75.1, ACJP; Berger to Morris Lazaron, March 11, 1952, 73.7, ACJP; Berger to Levison, July 30, 1952, 75.2, ACJP.
26
. Thompson to Gildersleeve, August 2, 1951, 38.6, DTP; Thompson to Berger, December 5, 1952, 122.2, ACJP; Thompson quoted in Kurth,
American Cassandra
, 428.
27
. Eddy to Thompson, October 11, 1951, 2.14, DTP.
28
. Eveland,
Ropes of Sand
, 125; confidential source; ibid.
29
. Armin H. Meyer to G. Lewis Jones, “American Friends of the Middle East,” September 24, 1959, quoted in
U.S. Propaganda in the Middle East—The Early Cold War Version
, ed. Joyce Battle, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 78, December 13, 2002,
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB78/essay.htm
; Eddy, “U.S. Government Aid Through Private Institutions,” February 14, 1959, 11.11, WAEP.
30
. Burton Berry to State, “Special IIA Projects for Islamic Countries,” October 1, 1952, 511.80/10-1952, RG 59, NA.
31
. Eliot to parents, April 15 and May 31, 1953, 1.6, Eliot Papers; Gaudefroy-Demombynes interview.
32
. See, for example, H. Ben Smith to Nuveen, September 15, 1958, 59.3, JNP; Lorraine Nye Norton, interview by author, Seattle, WA, August 15, 2009; Hopkins to Harold U. Stobart, May 11, 1954, 3.7, DTP; Kurth,
American Cassandra, 422;
Thompson to Hopkins, May 20, 1954, 5.11, DTP; Norton interview.
33
. Eveland,
Ropes of Sand
, 125, 291; Andrew Tully,
CIA: The Inside Story
(New York: Morrow, 1962), 78–79;
AFME Annual Report, 1954–55; AFME Annual Report, 1951–52
.
34
. Eliot to parents, December 29, 1953, 1.6, Eliot Papers. For a notable work about the relationship between the CIA and the Non-Communist Left, see Frances Stonor Saunders,
The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters
(New York: New Press, 2000).
35
. MC,
Game Player
, 110; AR,
Lust of Knowing
, 300–301, 306.
36
. AR,
Lust of Knowing
, chap. 23; Selwa “Lucky” Roosevelt,
Keeper of the Gate
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), chap. 14; MC,
Game Player
, 111; “A. B. Roosevelt Jr., Miss Showker Wed,”
New York Times
, September 2, 1950, 24.
Ten: In Search of a Hero: Egypt, 1952
1
. Burton Hersh,
The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA
(1992; rpt., St. Petersburg, FL: Tree Farm Books, 2002), 221; MC,
Game Player
, 123, 116, 121.
2
. Thomas,
Very Best Men
, 65, 72; KR to Belle Roosevelt, July 17, 1952, I, 142, Roosevelt, Kermit (son), KRBRP; Dulles quoted in Grose,
Gentleman Spy
, 415; MC,
Game Player
, 127, 111.
3
. Acheson quoted in W. Scott Lucas,
Divided We Stand: Britain, the US, and the Suez Crisis
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1991), 14; Acheson quoted in Little,
American Orientalism
, 164.
4
. KR,
Arabs, Oil, and History
, chap. 11; KR, “Egypt’s Inferiority Complex,” 357–364; “Egypt Detains Kermit Roosevelt,”
New York Times
, January 19, 1951, 10. According to the
Times
, Kim was traveling as an “unofficial Middle Eastern consultant to the State Department.”
5
. KR,
Arabs, Oil, and History
, 99; MC,
Game Player
, 131; KR to Belle Roosevelt, June 11, no year [1951], I, 142, Roosevelt, Kermit (son), KRBRP.
6
. MC,
Game of Nations
, 51; KR interview by R. Harris Smith; MC,
Game Player
, 144–145; MC,
Game of Nations
, 51.
7
. Polly to Belle Roosevelt, March 7, 1952, I, 143, Roosevelt, Mary Gaddis (Polly), undated, 1950–59, KRBRP; KR interview by R. Harris Smith.
8
. MC,
Game of Nations
, 53; MC,
Game Player
, 148–156. In a recent book, intelligence historian Gordon Thomas directly quotes comments supposedly made by Nasser concerning these meetings, but there is no indication of his source. See Gordon Thomas,
Secret Wars: One Hundred Years of British Intelligence Inside MI5 and MI6
(New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2009), 143–144.
9
. NSC staff study, January 18, 1952, quoted in Lucas,
Divided We Stand
, 13; among the several works mentioning Evans’s role are Joel Gordon,
Nasser’s Blessed Movement: Egypt’s Free Officers and the July Revolution
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 164; Rami Ginat, “Nasser and the Soviets: A Reassessment,” in
Rethinking Nasserism: Revolution and Historical Memory in Modern Egypt
, ed. Elie Podeh and Onn Winckler (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004), 233; KR,
Arabs, Oil, and History
, 87, 96; William Lakeland, telephone interview by Michael Doran, April 4, 2010, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; MC,
Game Player
, 148.
10
. Lakeland interview (Lakeland goes on to acknowledge the possibility that Copeland and Roosevelt did meet with junior members of the Free Officer movement); Julian Amery to Eden, December 22, 1951, 680, 1/2 General Political, 1945–57, Julian Amery Papers, Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, UK; Gordon,
Nasser’s Blessed Movement
, 162; Eveland,
Ropes of Sand
, 98n; KR, telephone interview by Kennett Love, May 5, 1970, 4, Kennett Love
Papers, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; KR interview by R. Harris Smith; Belle to Polly Roosevelt, April 3, 1952, I, 143, Roosevelt, Mary Gaddis (Polly), undated, 1950–59, KRBRP.
11
. Owen L. Sirrs,
A History of the Egyptian Intelligence Service: A History of the Mukhabarat, 1910–2009
(New York: Routledge, 2010), 26; Michael Doran, “Who’s Bill?,”
Princeton Alumni Weekly
, October 13, 2010,
http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2010/10/13/pages/8702/index.xml
.
12
. MC,
Game of Nations
, 63; “Draft Note to Dorothy Thompson,” September 8, 1952, 2.17, DTP; MC,
Game of Nations
, 52.
13
. “Draft Note to Dorothy Thompson”; “Dr. Edward L. R. Elson’s Visit to the Middle East on Behalf of ‘American Friends of the Middle East,’” uncatalogued box, Postwar Correspondence and MSS, folder 1952–53, Engert Papers; MC,
Game of Nations
, 62.
14
. Lakeland interview; Doran, “Who’s Bill?”; see Kelly McFarland, “All About the Wordplay: Gendered and Orientalist Language in U.S.-Egyptian Foreign Relations, 1952–1961” (Ph.D. diss., Kent State University, 2010), chap. 1; MC,
Game of Nations
, 62; Laura M. James,
Nasser at War: Arab Images of the Enemy
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 4.
15
. Ralph Stevenson, “Egypt: Annual Review for 1953,” January 25, 1954, PREM 11/629, PRO; A. Kirkbride, minute, July 3, 1953, FO 371/104258, PRO; Roger Makins to Eden, April 3, 1953, FO 371/102731, PRO; Robin Hankey to James Bowker, June 23, 1953, FO 371/102731, PRO; Kirkbride, minute.
16
. James,
Nasser at War
, 3; Willie Morris to Alan Rothnie, December 10, 1958, FO 371/133799, PRO; Mohamed [Muhammad] H. Haikal,
Cutting the Lion’s Tail: Suez Through Egyptian Eyes
(New York: Arbor House, 1987), 33; Muhammad al-Tawil,
La‘bat al-umam wa ‘abd al-nasir
(Cairo: Al-Maktab al-Misriyy al-Hadith, 1986), 50; Anthony Nutting,
Nasser
(New York: Dutton, 1972), 45, 58; Nasser quoted in David W. Lesch, “Abd al-Nasser and the United States,” in Podeh and Winckler, eds.,
Rethinking Nasserism
, 223.
17
. Donald Neff,
Warriors at Suez: Eisenhower Takes America into the Middle East
(New York: Linden/Simon & Schuster, 1981), 87.
18
. KR to MC, no date, reproduced in Tawil,
La‘bat al-umam
, 390.
19
. T. E. Lawrence,
Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1935), 8, 73, 67, 91.
20
. Gamal Abdul Nasser,
Egypt’s Liberation: The Philosophy of the Revolution
(Washington, DC: Public Affairs, 1955), 87–88.
21
. MC,
Game Player
, 111.
22
. Gildersleeve to John Foster Dulles, March 26, 1953; Lamb to John Foster Dulles, February 16, 1953, 9, Roa-Rus (2), Personnel Series, John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State: Papers 1951–59 (hereafter JFDP), Dwight D. Eisenhower Library (hereafter DDEL), Abilene, KS.
23
. Levison to Rosenwald, March 20, 1953, 75.3, ACJP; Grose,
Gentleman Spy
, 386; Berger to Levison, March 2 and 10, 1953, 75.3, ACJP.
Eleven: Mad Men on the Nile
1
. “Dulles Sees Need to Act in Mid-East,”
New York Times
, May 10, 1953, 4.
2
. Dulles quoted in Ray Takeyh,
The Origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine: The US, Britain, and Nasser’s Egypt, 1953–57
(New York: St. Martin’s, 2000), 9; “Memorandum of Conversation, Prepared in the Embassy in Cairo,” May 12, 1953,
FRUS 1952–54, Vol. 9
, 19–25; Mohamed Hassanein Haikal,
The Cairo Documents: The Inside Story of Nasser and His Relationship with World Leaders, Rebels, and Statesmen
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973), 43.