James Critchfield person
also: Critchfield, Jim Critchfield, the departing CIA station chief, Critchfeld
Explore in graph → Export claims (CSV) ↓
Related entities (most co-mentioned)
CIAintelligence service · 17Reinhard Gehlenperson · 16Gehlen Organizationorganization · 10Allen Dullesperson · 5United Statescountry · 4Desmond Fitzgeraldperson · 3Washington, D.C.place · 3Heinz Gehreperson · 3Edwin Wilsonperson · 2Martin Bormannperson · 2Dachauplace · 2Nuremberg trialsevent · 2Tetra Tech Corporationorganization · 2Adolf Hitlerperson · 2Far East Divisionorganization · 2Pulachplace · 2Viennaplace · 2Munichplace · 2West Germanycountry · 2Pierre de Silvaperson · 1Henry Pleasanceperson · 1Tibetcountry · 1Associated Tradersorganization · 11951 World Seriesevent · 1
Claims (9)
James Critchfield supervised
Reinhard Gehlen documented
“He was later recruited into the CIA by her brothers. In his final report, Critchfield firmly concluded that the CIA should fold the Galen's group under its wing. It was the beginning of the relationship. The CIA officially assumed responsib…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Devil's Chessboard Part 13 @ 10:56
Richard M. Bissell Jr. read
James Critchfield documented
“But Alan Dulles and Richard Bissell read it before the landing at the Bay of Pigs, and it received other circulation inside the CIA. One of Critchfield's recommendations provided for a survey of the assets for unconventional warfare and par…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Chap 24 (25) @ 38:58
Richard Helms approved
James Critchfield book_quoted
“Critchfield continued into Austria, where he returned later as a young colonel with the counterintelligence group. He joined the CIA in the summer of 1948. Richard Helms approved personnel assignments for Germany at the time, and Critchfiel…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (4) @ 47:34
Allen Dulles read
James Critchfield documented
“But Alan Dulles and Richard Bissell read it before the landing at the Bay of Pigs, and it received other circulation inside the CIA. One of Critchfield's recommendations provided for a survey of the assets for unconventional warfare and par…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Chap 24 (25) @ 38:58
James Critchfield headed
Gehlen Organization book_quoted
“Codenamed Marshal from his Vienna days, Jim Critchfield became the chief of the Galen organization on the American side. His deputy, Pierre De Silva, had helped manage security for the atomic bomb project during World War II. Another, Henry…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (4) @ 48:38
James Critchfield founded
Tetra Tech Corporation documented
“was the brainchild of retired CIA James Critchfield, did security-related work in the Middle East, where Critchfield had spent his time as a CIA officer. Huh, Tetra Tech Corporation. We've come across that one before. We've also come across…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 42 (44) @ 50:52
James Critchfield wrote
Project Brushfire documented
“The letter commented on what Barnes had said about another CIA initiative, a study group on the deterrence of guerrilla warfare. Cross believed that officials already understood this problem. They had to be told how to make the most of asse…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Chap 24 (25) @ 38:29
James Critchfield recruited
Reinhard Gehlen documented
“He was later recruited into the CIA by her brothers. In his final report, Critchfield firmly concluded that the CIA should fold the Galen's group under its wing. It was the beginning of the relationship. The CIA officially assumed responsib…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Devil's Chessboard Part 13 @ 10:56
James Critchfield recruited
CIA host_asserted
“Other evidence suggests that the CIA had taken measures to incapacitate and eliminate Qasem in 1960 and that it was involved in the coup that overthrew him in 1963. James Critchfield has been cited as making the initial recruitments in 1963…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 13 (14) @ 37:16
Mentions (35)
▶ 38:29
The letter commented on what Barnes had said about another CIA initiative, a study group on the deterrence of guerrilla warfare. Cross believed that officials already understood this problem. They had to be told how to make the most of asse…
▶ 38:58
But Alan Dulles and Richard Bissell read it before the landing at the Bay of Pigs, and it received other circulation inside the CIA. One of Critchfield's recommendations provided for a survey of the assets for unconventional warfare and par…
▶ 37:16
Other evidence suggests that the CIA had taken measures to incapacitate and eliminate Qasem in 1960 and that it was involved in the coup that overthrew him in 1963. James Critchfield has been cited as making the initial recruitments in 1963…
▶ 19:18
setup. The locale this time was going to be Tibet. It was technically part of China. In the Director of Operations area, China belonged to Fitzgerald's barony, meaning he was all things China. It fell in the Far East Division. Technically, …
▶ 19:58
A project in Tibet depended on logistics and training bases that Fitzgerald ran, but the theater of activity could be reached over land, at least by the CIA, only from places where Critchfeld was in charge. This is a turf war. This could ha…
▶ 21:27
This routinized the special arrangements previously required for the Far East to carry out activities in the Near East. Jim Critchfield did not mind having some of the people act primarily in support of the Far East, and Desmond Fitzgerald …
▶ 50:21
may have been spurious, represented only the bare tip of the iceberg in terms of CIA corporate covers. Edwin Wilson's import-export operations, for example, was another kind of cover used to move arms and equipment, as is Associated Traders…
▶ 50:52
was the brainchild of retired CIA James Critchfield, did security-related work in the Middle East, where Critchfield had spent his time as a CIA officer. Huh, Tetra Tech Corporation. We've come across that one before. We've also come across…
▶ 47:04
and basically began pulling at support from the Galen organization. Colonel Charles Bromley would be the chief army representative. The man from the CIA, also from the army actually, but in the reserve, having just joined the agency, was Ja…
▶ 47:34
Critchfield continued into Austria, where he returned later as a young colonel with the counterintelligence group. He joined the CIA in the summer of 1948. Richard Helms approved personnel assignments for Germany at the time, and Critchfiel…
▶ 48:03
Critchfield began that September with no CIA or Army input, no files, no nothing. His Army colleagues soon dropped out. Galen and his assistant, Eric Waldman, and Heinz Herr were Critchfield's main points of contact. In the end, Critchfield…
▶ 48:38
Codenamed Marshal from his Vienna days, Jim Critchfield became the chief of the Galen organization on the American side. His deputy, Pierre De Silva, had helped manage security for the atomic bomb project during World War II. Another, Henry…
▶ 49:09
The two once suggested to Critchfield that Galen be dumped. The base chief refused to do that. Through Critchfield, the CIA provided money, equipment, and advice for the Germans and passed on orders from Washington. We now know that Washing…
▶ 9:56
James Critchfield, the news chief of CIA Munich Station, was given the task of evaluating Galen's operation and recommending for or against it. The 31-year-old Critchfield was a Dulles man. He had identified as a talented prospect by Eleano…
▶ 10:56
He was later recruited into the CIA by her brothers. In his final report, Critchfield firmly concluded that the CIA should fold the Galen's group under its wing. It was the beginning of the relationship. The CIA officially assumed responsib…
▶ 11:26
P-U-L-L-A-C-K, which was the official site of the Galen organization, still on the outskirts of Munich. He set up his office in Bormann's former bedroom. Galen had turned Pollock into its own separate world with over 200 of his top staff an…
▶ 11:53
Before Critchfield moved in, the German spymaster himself had lived with his wife and four children in Bormann's two-story house, known ironically as the White House. Its decor still retained all of the Nazi paraphernalia. The only change w…
▶ 12:24
As Critchfield CIA deputies and their families moved into the Galen compound, an intimate social fusion began to develop. The Germans and the Americans worked and partied together. Their children attended the same one-room school, and their…
▶ 12:54
had concerns. Just a few weeks before Galen and his top men, who included high-ranking officers of the former German general staff and even SS, had been dedicated warriors of the Third Reich, and yet Critchfield convinced himself, except fo…
▶ 13:21
Critchfield was the son of a small-town North Dakota doctor and schoolteacher graduating from North Dakota State University. Critchfield had served in North Africa and Europe, rising through the ranks to become one of the Army's youngest co…
▶ 13:40
Crossing the Rhine in the final days of the war as a commander of a mobile task force, the young colonel was one of the first American officers to witness firsthand the results of Hitler's final solution. In late April, his unit came across…
▶ 14:07
Camp survivors chased after an escaping SS guard, wrestling him to the ground and choking him to death. Despite his war experiences, Critchfield prided himself on keeping an open mind about the former Nazi commanders. Galen, this is a quote…
▶ 14:37
In personal characteristics, apparent values and thoughts about the future of Germany and Europe, these Nazi officers did not seem to me significantly different than the U.S. Army, unquote. Galen was a difficult personality, according to Cr…
▶ 15:13
Despite Galen's occasional hysterics, Critchfield expressed admiration for him and his business-like style. He almost certainly would have been convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg. But Critchfield graciously overlooked Galen's past. He wen…
▶ 15:45
He went on to say that he had Christian beliefs that were evident and reinforced by his wife and family. Obviously, Critchfield was an easy mark for Galen. Reinhard Galen was a man with rat-like cunning. Instead of a hangman's noose at Nure…
▶ 16:18
to a dominant role in the European stage. He had a cringing respect for power and money, but was deeply resentful about being forced to answer to them. He often treated his handlers, including Critchfield, as enemies, keeping them dark abou…
▶ 16:43
Later in his life, Critchfield admitted to the Washington Post reporter, quote, there's no doubt that the CIA got carried away with recruiting some pretty bad people, unquote. In a secret 1954 memo later declassified, the agency acknowledge…
▶ 17:15
He would go on to say, I've lived with this for 50 years to the post. Almost everything negative that has been written about Galen, in which he has been described as an ardent ex-Nazi, one of Hitler's war criminals, this is far from the fac…
▶ 17:43
It was Critchfield who arranged for the trip to America for Galen and Heinz Herr in the fall of 1951, highlighted by the final game of the World Series. Galen's CIA caretaker saw the American Odyssey, which was scheduled to include a high-l…
▶ 18:45
A fury of inner office CIA memorandums on the eve of Galen's U.S. trip had quotes like this. His trip can obviously produce a variety of political embarrassments. Galen will be somewhat difficult to control on this trip. In the end, the tri…
▶ 19:16
to their railway tour of America. On their way to the West Coast, they stopped over in Chicago, visited a speakeasy. Much to the surprise of all of us, said Critchfield, we were greeted by a famous member of the mafia. Not surprising based …
▶ 25:14
As the CIA prepared to transfer the Galen organization to the West German government, the agency generously continued to back Galen, giving him enough money to buy a lakeside estate near their compound, where he enjoyed sailing his boat on …
▶ 37:34
red gold tricolors of the Federal Republic of Germany. But as Jim Critchfield and his wife packed their family belongings to prepare for his transfer to the Middle East, there was one more urgent piece of business for the departing CIA stat…
▶ 38:55
portrait, Galen got to the heart of the matter. He was prepared to take drastic action to prevent such a political scenario from unfolding, going as far as overthrowing the democracy in West Germany if necessary. Critchfield immediately rep…
▶ 39:25
including the establishment of an illegal apparatus in the Federal Republic to oppose elements in Germany supporting a pro-Soviet policy. Galen, Critchfield added, would like to discuss a plan for that eventuality with you.…