CIA Manual for PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS IN GUERRILLA WARFARE

by Central Intelligence Agency, Duane R. Clarridge

A tactical manual for the revolutionary. First published by the Central Intelligence Agency and distributed to the Contras in Central America. The main contributor(author) to this manual was Duane Ramsdell "Dewey" Clarridge (with a few unknown contributors), who was an operations officer for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supervisor for more than 30 years, who became known in the mid-1980s for his role in the Contra end of the Iran-Contra Affair. He is the reputed planner of the clandestine mining of Nicaragua's harbors during the Nicaraguan Revolution.

Genres: Psychology, War, Politics, History, Military Fiction, Nonfiction, Espionage

64 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 16, 2011

About the author

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the U.S. Government, tasked with gathering, processing and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT). As one of the principal members of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the President and his Cabinet.

Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is a domestic security service, CIA has no law enforcement function and is mainly focused on overseas intelligence gathering, with only limited domestic collection. Though it is not the only U.S. government agency specializing in HUMINT, CIA serves as the national manager for coordination and deconfliction of HUMINT activities across the entire intelligence community. Moreover, CIA is the only agency authorized by law to carry out and oversee covert action on behalf of the President, unless the President determines that another agency is better suited for carrying out such action. It can, for example, exert foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division.

Before the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, CIA Director concurrently served as the head of the Intelligence Community; today these functions and authorities reside with the Director of National Intelligence. Despite transferring some of its powers to the DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks. In 2013, The Washington Post reported that in fiscal year 2010, the CIA had the largest budget of all IC agencies, exceeding previous estimates.

The CIA has increasingly expanded its roles, including covert paramilitary operations. One of its largest divisions, the Information Operations Center (IOC), has shifted focus from counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations. While the CIA has had some recent accomplishments, such as locating Osama bin Laden and taking part in the successful Operation Neptune Spear, it has also been involved in controversial programs such as extraordinary rendition and enhanced interrogation techniques.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This CIA manual, disseminated among Nicaragua contras and agency employees, is really two manuals. On the one hand, it is a DIY sabotage guide, intended for quotidian wrecking ranging from calling in sick to work to improvised incendiary time-bombs. On the other, it is a field manual on how to maintain psy-op cells and what attitude to take to local farmers and civilians. In this, it partly mirrors Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, hammering on the importance of "unity" and "self-criticism" as a way to safeguard group democracy and seeking to practically demonstrate the alliance of the guerilla goals with peasant interests. Indeed, in the foreword, Agee describes how the authors of the manual modelled their work on Asian and Latin-American revolutionary writings - if anything, an indirect vindication of their effectiveness. However, what is obviously lacking is the objective unity of Contra and peasants alignments, and hence it simply appropriates the most superficial ideological-organisational trappings while simultaneously instructing its audience to blackmail and psychologically coerce peasants to join terror cells, to fabricate mass demonstrations ("with 200-300 agitators it is possible to incite public demonstrations, in which 10.000-20.000 people can participate"), to cover up the murders of fleeing farmers with black propaganda and to mold public discontent of any kind into the starkest anti-government riots. All of it has the same purpose: to cloak foreign imperialist meddling in "local" colours.

Hugely instructive. If western intelligence agencies were willing to manufacture revolts this blatantly 50 years ago, when the American economic position was relatively speaking quite secure, one can only imagine what depths it would not sink to to undermine the global axis of resistance, centering on China and the other people's republics. As an added bonus, if you ever need to make a rousing speech, it contains a handy rhetorics kit at the end, stocked with all kinds of practical advice and examples.

[William Jukes-Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A translation of the manual handed to Nicaraguan revolutionaries. Pretty interesting read, and definitely plays into the Russian Color Revolution theory. The CIA need some better editors though, this thing is riddled with errors such as typos and formatting issues.

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a how-to guide on how to astroturf a revolution, there’s a lot of things left unsaid. The manual seems to go out of its way to not recognize the potential for any popular consent for the Sandinista government in favor of portraying it mono-dimensionally as a foreign agent. Considering the horrifying tortures and murders the Contra terrorists (for whom this book was written) carried out against innocents and popular public figures, it’s clear that this is the “quiet part” the book intensionally allows to be filled in through other avenues.

Also it’s super rich for the book written and disseminated by the CIA tells their astroturfed terrorists to use rhetoric of “foreign imperialist meddling” against the popular Nicaraguan socialist movements.

As far as the advice in the book goes for how to structure a guerrilla movement, it’s decent enough. Like I said it’s clearly incomplete and leaves things unsaid to leave open the door to terrorist violence and uses cult logic to isolate and otherwise massive swaths of the population in order to paint them as the enemy. The CIA is basically doing its best to ape Castro without having a grasp about the legit popularity of his rhetoric. You can’t do a Castro Revolution in favor of capitalism and foreign US intervention - it just won’t work. Any such right-guerrilla group will necessitate a use of excessive terror and oppression over the populace in service of middle or upper class minority interests.

[Ned Leffingwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

The CIA needed to hire some better editors. This edition is fraught with typos, although that might be due to translation.

This book is short, which helps. It is supposedly the psych ops manual for the CONTRAS in Nicaragua. The manual espouses them as a Christian democratic group while endorsing techniques such as blackmail, hiring criminals to incite riots, and making sure someone is"martyred" in the riot so that their death can be exploited. I would recommend it to people interested in military history and poltical conflicts.

[Leah Good]

Read this as research to help me write a character who spent his teen years being groomed for political and/or military leadership. It was definitely helpful in that context. Also an interesting glimpse into the mindset of overthrowing a regime.

[Al Sheppard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covert Operations

A incapacitated how to operator a Phy Ops mission To Win Their Hearts and Minds. Or how to start your own Revolution

[Hugo Souza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

[Tomas Caldon]

An evil, enlightening text. Little more to say.

[Trey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This manual could have been condensed by more than half. It is very repetitive which made it frustrating to read. It does contain interesting information about Guerrilla Warfare. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone for enjoyment, but it could be useful when reading or writing about war.

[Karam · Rating 5 out of 5]

العمليات النفسية في حرب العصابات او (Tayacán) وهو عنوان الكتاب باللغة الأسبانية المكتوب بها في الأصل، وتعني المُرشد او المعلم الخاص.

كتاب إرشادي من إصدار CIA الي ميليشات الكونترا في نيكاراغوا-من أكير دول امريكا الوسطي- المدعومة من الولايات المتحدة ضد الحكومة الإشتراكية.

اثار الكتاب الإرشادي جدلاً في الولايات المتحدة بعد ما نشرته وكالة Associated press عام 1984 في عهد الرئيس ريجان.

ركز الكتاب ذو التسعين صفحة علي أهمية العمليات النفسية ووجوب ان تحظي علي أهمية مماثلة للعمليات القتالية.
يركز الدليل علي عمليات الخداع والترويع والعنف واستخدامها في تجنيد المواطنين.

يحتوي الكتاب علي عدة فصول يستفيض فيها بالتفاصيل عن الصفات الواجب توافرها في مقاتل حرب العصابات، وعن تشكيل فرق للدعايا المسلحة وعن تكوين تلك الفرق وطرق التوصل بينها.
وتحت عنوان "السيطرة علي الكتل الجماهيرية" يعطي اهتماماً خاصاً لكيفية تحويل غضب الجماهير إلي عنف في الوقت المناسب، ويتحدث عن تكتيكات خاصة حيث انه بإمكانية قوة تتمكن من 200-300 مُحرِض، يمكن إنشاء مظاهرة يشارك فيها عدد يتراوح من 10,000-20,000

كما يُشجع علي إختراق المنظمات السياسية المُعترف بها حكومياً من أجل توجيهها في الوقت المناسب لصالح المقاومة.

ويختم الكتاب بملحق عن تقنيات الإقناع في المحادثات والخطب كوسيلة لجذب وتثوير الجماهير.
————————
وأختم بهذا الاقتباس :
"حرب العصابات هي في الأساس حرب سياسية".

[Luca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very specific.
Helpful if you find yourself as "contrarrevolución" guerrilla fighter in Nicaragua and the US president is Ronald Reagan.

[Fallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suspect this is the manual that Yvette Felarca uses. Its only 68 pages, so it would only take a few months for her to finish. Shines some light on the way fascists take over.

[Wilson Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

The CIA definitely earns the title of masters of deception and I was impressed as to how easily digestible is this little book. Also, curiously applicable for cults and political parties.