The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War—A Tragedy in Three Acts

by Scott Anderson

The reason for the gathering was a top secret directive formulated by the National Security Council seven weeks earlier. Known as NSC 10/2, the directive stated that, in recognition of “the vicious covert activities of the USSR, its satellite countries and Communist groups” in attacking American interests, the NSC had concluded that “the overt foreign activities of the US Government must be supplemented by covert operations.” As to what sort of activities fell under the covert operations rubric, NSC 10/2 was expansive: “propaganda; economic warfare; preventive direct action including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation measures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance movements, guerrillas and refugee liberation groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world.” If any of the very small handful of government officials given access to NSC 10/2 found it overly aggressive, their dissent was soon overwhelmed;