Special Operations Group organization
also: SOG, third ASOG, aviation special operations group, Special Operations, four-man study
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
CIAintelligence service · 15Vietnamcountry · 10Edward Lansdaleperson · 8United Statescountry · 6Robert F. Kennedyperson · 5Graves Erskineperson · 5Laoscountry · 4Bay of Pigsoperation · 4Don Blackburnperson · 4South Vietnamplace · 4U.S. Army Special Forcesorganization · 3Joint Chiefs of Stafforganization · 2Donald Gallowayperson · 2Military Airlift Commandorganization · 2James Doolittleperson · 2Da Nangplace · 2Roscoe Hillenkoetterperson · 2U.S. Navyorganization · 2Cubacountry · 2William R. Scottonperson · 2Phoenix Programoperation · 2Operation 40operation · 2Koreacountry · 2Operation White Staroperation · 2
Claims (20)
Office of Policy Coordination merged_with
Special Operations Group host_asserted
“The Office of Policy Coordination, OPC, which were the covert operations section, and the Office of Special Operations, OSO, which was the intel collection and spies group, were united to create a clandestine service field mission for the f…”
▶ Operation Gladio - Korea part 3 @ 3:34
J. Patrick Coyne member_of
Special Operations Group host_asserted
“much of what was going on, as far as the briefings part goes. After meetings with both Dulles and Wisner, Doolittle and consultant J. Patrick Coyne, C-O-Y-N-E, made a field trip in mid-September to inspect CIA installations in Western Europ…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret Wars chap 7 @ 13:08
William H. Frank member_of
Special Operations Group host_asserted
“Jimmy Doolittle was a good choice. He was a dynamic leader who was one of the people involved in the bombing of Japan in 1942. He had known Ike from the time they were both commanders in Britain in 1944. Doolittle got his basic instructions…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret Wars chap 7 @ 8:14
Morris L. Ernst member_of
Special Operations Group host_asserted
“Jimmy Doolittle was a good choice. He was a dynamic leader who was one of the people involved in the bombing of Japan in 1942. He had known Ike from the time they were both commanders in Britain in 1944. Doolittle got his basic instructions…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret Wars chap 7 @ 8:14
Special Operations Group recruited
Nung book_quoted
“were almost completely destroyed, with only four survivors escaping to the south. A fifth team inserted after a renewed go-ahead returned with meager intelligence resorts, which of course is the same kind of result that they were having in …”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 26:12
Special Operations Group trained
Nung book_quoted
“The Project Shining Brass, which was the SOG's code name for the cross-border patrols, the Nung, N-U-N-G, were given final training by the Vietnamese, and the patrols became more extensive in 1965. The SOG code name was changed from Prairie…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 27:15
Special Operations Group spied_on
Ho Chi Minh Trail book_quoted
“from special forces camps into Vietnamese border region. The patrols identified the Ho Chi Minh Trail routes and marked them for bombing by Steel Tiger. This effort was supplemented by a road watch program in which the patrols scouted for s…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 27:43
Special Operations Group carried_out_attack
Laos book_quoted
“To help move the road watch teams, Prairie Fire executed over 250 missions in 67 alone, including patrols penetrating as far as 12 miles into Laos, where they're not supposed to be. But in 68, in addition to the Green Berets serving in the …”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 28:13
Elton Manzoni member_of
Special Operations Group host_asserted
“and was met by Special Forces Colonel who briefed him on his mission. Manzoni was told that he would be working for the Special Operations Group under a number of directives called O-Plans, which is operational plans, which had been drawn o…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Vietnam Part 5 Phoenix Program @ 58:42
Special Operations Group succeeded
Combined Studies Group host_asserted
“and was met by Special Forces Colonel who briefed him on his mission. Manzoni was told that he would be working for the Special Operations Group under a number of directives called O-Plans, which is operational plans, which had been drawn o…”
▶ Operation Gladio- Vietnam Part 5 Phoenix Program @ 58:42
Anthony Herbert member_of
Special Operations Group book_quoted
“Anthony Herbert, H-E-R-B-E-R-T, tells how he reported for duty with the Special Operations Group in Saigon in November 65 and was asked to join a top secret PSYOPs war program. Quote, what they wanted me to do was to take charge of executio…”
▶ Operation Gladio-Vietnam Part 8 Phoenix Program @ 36:29
Robert F. Kennedy reassigned
Special Operations Group documented
“and everything else. McNamara had advised that he did not really need a special assistant for these matters. In a sudden move the day after the defeat at the Bay of Pigs, the Office of Special Operations were reassigned other military tasks…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 47:02
Special Operations Group member_of
Phoenix Program host_asserted
“I remember one of the terms used by the Phoenix program assassins was MACV-SOG, study and observation group. They were a twisted version of the last acronym. Yeah, I'm a SOG, a son of the Gestapo. Was this some type of message being sent to…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Medusa Files Part 18 OKL bombing pt II @ 1:03:09
Dwight D. Eisenhower founded
Special Operations Group host_asserted
“Studies Group on Covert Operations, which is basically the name of it, went to the president on September 30th. Doolittle's report gave solid support to the rationale to continue this secret worldwide covert war. And they used war. As long …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret Wars chap 7 @ 13:34
James Doolittle member_of
Special Operations Group host_asserted
“But his lack of knowledge is built into the plausible deniability. So that doesn't mean he didn't know. It just means that they're using the plausible deniability. And he may or may not have known. The NSC staff approached retired Air Force…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret Wars chap 7 @ 7:18
William J. Donovan member_of
Special Operations Group host_asserted
“Hadley, and you're never going to believe who the fourth person was on this study. Bridget, one guess. Any guess? Exactly. Gotta be. William Pauly. Pauly. They do turn up like bad pennies, don't they? Oh, my God. That's all I can say. If yo…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret Wars chap 7 @ 8:45
James Doolittle member_of
Special Operations Group host_asserted
“much of what was going on, as far as the briefings part goes. After meetings with both Dulles and Wisner, Doolittle and consultant J. Patrick Coyne, C-O-Y-N-E, made a field trip in mid-September to inspect CIA installations in Western Europ…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret Wars chap 7 @ 13:08
William R. Scotton headed
Special Operations Group host_asserted
“In provinces, the public safety advised policemen to establish curfews and regulate the movement of people. So they also were going to combine the police and paramilitary programs and teach the police to be able to interrogate people the sa…”
▶ Operation Gladio - Vietnam Part 7 @ 19:27
Special Operations Group spied_on
Vietnam host_asserted
“and operational teams to operate not only just in Cambodia, but they also used them in Vietnam against the North Vietnamese. The Saigon-based studies and operation groups called ASOG, in turn, reported in theory to General Westmoreland and …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Drugs,Oil and War Part 12 @ 33:48
Special Operations Group front_for
CIA host_asserted
“and operational teams to operate not only just in Cambodia, but they also used them in Vietnam against the North Vietnamese. The Saigon-based studies and operation groups called ASOG, in turn, reported in theory to General Westmoreland and …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Drugs,Oil and War Part 12 @ 33:48
Mentions (48)
▶ 1:15:12
I was an SF back in the late 70s or early mid-80s. And my team sergeant had been in Vietnam with SF Combat Patch. We used to ask him what he did in Vietnam, and he'd always say recon. Recon. Someone finally asked him, oh, you mean like MACV…
▶ 34:48
Story broke in the United States. Former CIA John Stockwell, blah, blah, blah, wrote a book. Stockwell disclosed that the CIA station had given a generous budget and maintained intimate contact with all of the planners. The CIA station had …
▶ 3:34
The Office of Policy Coordination, OPC, which were the covert operations section, and the Office of Special Operations, OSO, which was the intel collection and spies group, were united to create a clandestine service field mission for the f…
▶ 22:41
was formed in Saigon to implement O-Plan 34, and attacks against the North Vietnamese began in February from Phoenix Island off the coast of Da Nang. So, July 1964, the SOG, which is the Special Operations Group, achieved its goal of creati…
▶ 23:08
Elton Mazzoni and Kenny Van Lesser led 20 South Vietnamese Marines in a raid against Hung My Island, H-O-N-M-E Island. Dropped on the wrong side of the island, Mazzoni and Van Lesser failed to knock out their target, which was a North Vietn…
▶ 58:42
and was met by Special Forces Colonel who briefed him on his mission. Manzoni was told that he would be working for the Special Operations Group under a number of directives called O-Plans, which is operational plans, which had been drawn o…
▶ 1:01:09
running over-the-fence missions as part of the SOG called Leaping Lena Program, which we mentioned before. Three-quarters of the missions were into Laos, not northern Vietnam, which was supposed to be a neutral country. And they also went i…
▶ 17:02
Over in Vietnam, millions after millions of dollars. And basically, it's being done to set up facilities to torture people that are civilian, not military. And that's very important. These are not militants. These are civilian people in vil…
▶ 22:51
and take them off to wherever they were going to do their duty. So successful was the Motivational Indoctrination Program that they decided to take it again throughout the entire province. In early 1965, Scotton had asked to introduce this …
▶ 23:15
which was the successor to the program called Leaping Lena, which we talked about a few days ago. Recruits for the SOG project were profit-motivated people that they could convince to desert their former unit. And he would type up a contrac…
▶ 25:16
that if you had American soldiers that committed war crimes, instead of them being actually prosecuted, and I don't have any, it is not footnoted on here, so I don't have any way of verifying this, so I'm just going to say that up front, th…
▶ 26:15
were no longer effective after they had revolted and compensation alone wasn't going to cut it. So they wanted to do paramilitary police SOG and pacification programs that all kind of combined. And what Scotton said about it is, quote, for …
▶ 36:29
Anthony Herbert, H-E-R-B-E-R-T, tells how he reported for duty with the Special Operations Group in Saigon in November 65 and was asked to join a top secret PSYOPs war program. Quote, what they wanted me to do was to take charge of executio…
▶ 35:51
to organize a studies and observation group called the SOG, S-O-G, as Unconventional Warfare Task Force in January 64. Among the 34A operations, which were carried out by air and sea, was the delivery of propaganda leaflets that were airdro…
▶ 1:01:01
There were no more briefings by the CIA after that. The elements of the CIA plan were adopted, but the ones we know about were carried out by special forces and not by the CIA. So you have the special forces using study and observation grou…
▶ 35:40
The annual turnover from this online finance was estimated to be $3 billion. So everybody's in on it. Information technology specialists from legitimate local businesses are also involved in providing technology support to Colombia's traffi…
▶ 33:48
and operational teams to operate not only just in Cambodia, but they also used them in Vietnam against the North Vietnamese. The Saigon-based studies and operation groups called ASOG, in turn, reported in theory to General Westmoreland and …
▶ 38:36
and it implicates the U.S. intelligence community, not only in the coup itself, but also in the ensuing strategy of provocation, we would call it strategy of tension, in which a series of hopeless attacks on larger and superior enemy forces…
▶ 25:16
Cross-border operations from South Vietnam were the bread and butter of the military advisory group called Study and Observation Group, or the SOG. This effort gathered momentum in 1964 when the Vietnamese officers acting for the Americans …
▶ 27:15
The Project Shining Brass, which was the SOG's code name for the cross-border patrols, the Nung, N-U-N-G, were given final training by the Vietnamese, and the patrols became more extensive in 1965. The SOG code name was changed from Prairie…
▶ 27:43
from special forces camps into Vietnamese border region. The patrols identified the Ho Chi Minh Trail routes and marked them for bombing by Steel Tiger. This effort was supplemented by a road watch program in which the patrols scouted for s…
▶ 48:32
The Air Force transport stood ready at several bases in Japan. The Navy sent out from San Diego the fast transport Horace Bath, a ship equipped with four landing craft and modified to carry 162 commandos. Submarine reconnaissance troops and…
▶ 53:11
Kottke recruited an energetic Marine officer by the name of Lieutenant Colonel Dutch Kramer, K-R-A-E-M-E-R, to run the base. The Military Special Operations Group coordinated sea transport for agents while the civil air transport ferried al…
▶ 46:04
There were also changes in the Office of the Secretary of Defense under the Office of Special Operations. The Office of Special Operations got abolished after the Bay of Pigs, although some of its representatives, like Ed Lansdale, had cons…
▶ 46:33
Graves Erskine had run a tight ship, but perhaps there was just too much work for a single office to handle. At the time, the Office of Special Operations was truly an intelligence focal point. Not only did it handle liaison on covert opera…
▶ 47:02
and everything else. McNamara had advised that he did not really need a special assistant for these matters. In a sudden move the day after the defeat at the Bay of Pigs, the Office of Special Operations were reassigned other military tasks…
▶ 47:32
After all, Lansdell was already the deputy to Graves Earthen and one of the foremost proponents of counterinsurgency. But there were questions as to whether he had enough knowledge about satellites and some of the other technical issues to …
▶ 47:59
to the Director of Defense Research and Engineering. Deception responsibilities went to a special planning office on the Navy staff, and Lansdell retained a small staff to handle special activities only. Some credit Erston with accomplishin…
▶ 7:18
But his lack of knowledge is built into the plausible deniability. So that doesn't mean he didn't know. It just means that they're using the plausible deniability. And he may or may not have known. The NSC staff approached retired Air Force…
▶ 13:34
Studies Group on Covert Operations, which is basically the name of it, went to the president on September 30th. Doolittle's report gave solid support to the rationale to continue this secret worldwide covert war. And they used war. As long …
▶ 18:03
patrol units, plus four strike forces. When Daniel Boone missions were revealed in the American press, the code name had changed to Salem House. The Special Operations Group unit also made efforts to install agent networks inside of Cambodi…
▶ 31:29
As a full colonel, he taught at West Point. Then he was an advisor in Vietnam and commanded a special group at Fort Bragg. And in 1960, it was Blackburn who got the assignment for setting up White Star in Laos. After that tour with the spec…
▶ 31:59
whose Bearcat Base prepared agent teams for infiltration. After receiving intelligence in the existence of a prisoner camp, the Special Operations and DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, began feasibility studies for this rescue mission. A pr…
▶ 32:55
Simon was a legendary figure with two tours in charge of White Star, one with special operations and one with a military advisory group, where he helped develop contingency plans for an invasion of Laos and the command of special forces gro…
▶ 16:03
Changes also occurred in the Pentagon. The Office of Special Operations transformed itself after the Bay of Pigs. Although the Office of Special Operations representatives, such as Ed Lansdale, had raised objections to the Cuba project, the…
▶ 16:37
that time, the Office of Special Operations truly functioned as an intelligence focal point. It handled liaison from everything from allocating forces to covert projects to military personnel attached to the CIA to cover arrangements. It al…
▶ 17:07
McNamara was told that he did not really need a special assistance for these matters. Suddenly, the day after the final defeat of the Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs, most of the Office of Special Operations personnel were reassigned to oth…
▶ 18:07
The officers need not to have worried. When the Office of Special Operations disappeared, McNamara assigned its technical responsibilities to the Director of Defense and Research Engineering. Under his August 7th directive, deception respon…
▶ 19:05
A new unit, the Special Assistance for Counterinsurgencies and Special Operations, called SATCA, SATSA, is what finally emerged. In any case, Lansdale did not succeed building his Office of Special Operations empire. Pulled into a renewed C…
▶ 57:06
as against the 4,200 working in espionage and other clandestine services. That's not even counting everybody. That's just the ones they categorized as actual covert operators. The bulk of the paramilitary people in the Special Operations Di…
▶ 9:15
President Johnson approved O-Plan 34A. The CIA was going to be based in Da Nang and handed over pieces of switchback to the military in 1964. It would be expanded. Quite soon, the military's study and observation group, SOG,…
▶ 22:08
To both Colby's and Shackley's credit, their differences remained minor. Another intelligence mission principally involving special forces at the MAC SOG was a prisoner rescue under the code name Bright Light. The most spectacular mission w…
▶ 26:25
In June of 46, he asked the National Intelligence Authority to give him responsibility for all U.S. foreign intelligence gathering, a preliminary to bringing the strategic services back out of the War Department. The proposal matched recomm…
▶ 46:58
threatened to defeat American foreign policy objectives absent this Cold War tool. He wanted the U.S. Directorate for Political Warfare. At its very first meeting on December 13th, the National Security Council discussed a program for secre…
▶ 47:28
A week later, Admiral Hillenkotter ordered his OSO chief, Donald Galloway, to plan a covert psychological campaign using existing CIA resources where possible. Galloway formed a special procedures group within the Office of Special Operatio…
▶ 52:03
Deputy Chief of Station. Might I add that he was in the military while serving as the CIA's Deputy Chief of Station? He is one of the guys that is CIA wearing a uniform. For the Army in Vietnam, Singleton had commanded the MAC SOG, Special …
▶ 1:03:09
I remember one of the terms used by the Phoenix program assassins was MACV-SOG, study and observation group. They were a twisted version of the last acronym. Yeah, I'm a SOG, a son of the Gestapo. Was this some type of message being sent to…
▶ 1:41:00
early or it can be late. We're just going to have to be very flexible on when I do these shows. I am purposely, I'm not just traveling for fun this time. I am going to a very dear friend of mine's change of command ceremony at Fort Hood. He…