Gordon Gray person
also: Gray, Director Gray
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Psychological Strategy Boardorganization · 27Dwight D. Eisenhowerperson · 27CIAintelligence service · 26Allen Dullesperson · 245412 Grouporganization · 17Frank Wisnerperson · 13Harry S. Trumanperson · 11Tracy Barnesperson · 9Walter Bedell Smithperson · 9National Security Councilorganization · 8United Statescountry · 6Fidel Castroperson · 6U.S. Armyorganization · 5Presidential Intelligence Advisory Boardorganization · 5U.S. State Departmentorganization · 4Desmond Fitzgeraldperson · 4Presidential Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activitiesorganization · 4Cubacountry · 4United Wa State Armyorganization · 4Charles Cabellperson · 4William Harding Jacksonperson · 3Carter, Lanyard, and Milburnorganization · 3Henry Kissingerperson · 3University of North Carolinaorganization · 3
Claims (31)
Gordon Gray recruited
Tracy Barnes documented
“All of them had worked in the same Wall Street law firm called Carter, Ledyard, and Milburn before World War II. Gray hired as his assistant in this psychological warfare area a guy by the name of Tracy Barnes, B-A-R-N-E-S.…”
▶ The Colonels corner president’s secret wars chapter 5 @ 36:14
Gordon Gray member_of
5412 Group documented
“The president met to discuss Tibet with a group including Gordon Gray, Secretary Harder, Alan Dulles, Cabell, and Desmond Fitzgerald. Two weeks later, there was another discussion with the 5412 group. In May and June of 1960, mass defection…”
▶ The Colonels Corner President’s Secret Wars chapter 9, continued @ 29:48
Gordon Gray worked_for
University of North Carolina documented
“A North Carolina state senator, both before and after the war, an assistant secretary at the Pentagon and then secretary of the Army, Gray left government service in 1950 to preside over the University of North Carolina. A few short months …”
▶ The Colonels corner president’s secret wars chapter 5 @ 41:29
Gordon Gray appointed
Harry S. Truman documented
“Planning for propaganda and psychological warfare and later monitoring national efforts in that area was the job of a PSB staff office. The first staff director that Truman chose was Gordon Gray, G-R-A-Y, Gordon. And I would love to know wh…”
▶ The Colonels corner president’s secret wars chapter 5 @ 35:17
Gordon Gray member_of
National Security Council documented
“Precisely timed to place a protective force around the Dalai Lama just as the Dalai Lama fled. Units of the NVDA partisans formed a rear guard behind the Dalai Lama's party throughout his trek to the Indian border. They also created a decoy…”
▶ The Colonels Corner President’s Secret Wars chapter 9, continued @ 10:53
Gordon Gray appointed
Tracy Barnes host_asserted
“as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Army. Gray left his position as secretary just as Barnes arrived. But Barnes stayed on under Clifford Alexander. A year later, Gray reappeared as director of the Psychological Strategy Board. H…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner safe for Democracy Part 9 @ 39:41
John F. Kennedy appointed
Gordon Gray documented
“but the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the prominent civilian group to which Clark Clifford and Gordon Gray were soon appointed. And you guys remember who Clark Clifford is? Clark Clifford is the guy that goes on to facili…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner – Presidents’ Secret Wars Chapter 11 cont’d @ 16:08
Walter Bedell Smith appointed
Gordon Gray host_asserted
“Guy that would have been in charge was Gordon Gray. General Walter Bedell Smith and William Jackson brought the word. Jackson, a Gray associate since 1930s, represented the token of trust. General Smith told Gray that he, Smith, wanted Gray…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (6) @ 40:37
Harry S. Truman appointed
Gordon Gray host_asserted
“From the president's point of view, revising his NSC covert action directive had the purpose of designating a new subcommittee of the National Security Council as the lead authority on approvals. Gray would be chief of that unit. Truman kne…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (6) @ 41:30
Gordon Gray headed
University of North Carolina host_asserted
“He had become the head of the University of North Carolina in February of 1950, yet actually did not give up his Army post until April. And even then, he stayed on as a special assistant until November. President Truman Summons became only …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (6) @ 41:58
Gordon Gray member_of
Carter, Lanyard, and Milburn host_asserted
“Gray was the son of Bowman Gray, a tobacco baron and chairman of R.J. Reynolds. Bowman's son could have gone anywhere but chose a state college. Yale Law followed and Gray worked a couple of years at Frank Wisner's Wall Street firm, Carter …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (6) @ 42:27
Gordon Gray founded
Winston-Salem Journal host_asserted
“and then became a newspaper publisher. His two papers, the Winston-Salem Journal and the Twin Cities Sentinel, he also had a radio station, which eventually morphed into a media empire. All the while, one of these guys. In 1937, Gray ran fo…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (6) @ 42:54
Gordon Gray headed
Psychological Strategy Board host_asserted
“The Psychological Strategy Board staff under Gordon Gray constituted a central planning authority. In effect, the staff aimed to become the U.S. command center for all psychological operations. But something went wrong along the way. Genera…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (6) @ 54:19
Gordon Gray recruited
Tracy Barnes host_asserted
“The best the Psychological Strategy Board finally achieved was to help prevent interagency rivalries from crippling ongoing field efforts. Gray brought an OSS veteran, Tracy Barnes, as his deputy director. By 1952, the Psychological Strateg…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (6) @ 55:14
Raymond Allen succeeded
Gordon Gray host_asserted
“Gray appealed to Smith to ensure the CIA's representatives would attend the meetings, but Smith refused. In January of 52, Gray resigned. He would be succeeded by Raymond Allen, president of the University of Washington. Allen's background …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (6) @ 1:00:33
Gordon Gray headed
Psychological Strategy Board book_quoted
“Gordon Gray's staff had orders to assemble overall regional country and subject plans that the board could review. Planning for propaganda and psychological warfare and later monitoring national efforts in this regard became the job of the …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 7 @ 7:13
Gordon Gray member_of
U.S. Army book_quoted
“Instead of the occupation, gradually lifted controls on the German media and the U.S. military steadily dismantled the PSYOPs units. Soon the subject was scarcely even taught in service schools. In 1950, there were only seven officers in th…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 7 @ 23:24
Gordon Gray member_of
Carter, Lanyard, and Milburn host_asserted
“And its greatest claim to fame in 1905 was when it hired FDR. At Carter Ledyard, Frank Wisner labored for seven years, eventually becoming a partner. There he met other associates like William Jackson, Gordon Gray, and Tracy Barnes. Jackson…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 5 (4) @ 13:47
Gordon Gray member_of
5412 Group book_quoted
“As the president's special assistant, which now is a designated national security advisor, Gordon Gray is functioning as that before it was created. He became Eisenhower's voice in the 5412 group. Although Allen Dulles officially functioned…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe For Democracy Part 15 (16) @ 11:44
Gordon Gray studied
Vietnam book_quoted
“Gordon Gray studied drug use by American soldiers in Vietnam, yet the Presidential Advisory Board remained entirely unaware of the drug running by the U.S. CIA in Laos. A year later, Burke recalls the board never heard of and did not see th…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 33 (35) @ 30:29
Gordon Gray spied_on
CIA documented
“Yet Kissinger then refused the board access to the 40 committee minutes and the NSC's records that would have shown that the covert actions were approved and carried out. So how are you going to review something if you're not allowed to see…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 33 (35) @ 33:37
Gordon Gray member_of
Carter, Lanyard, and Milburn documented
“All of them had worked in the same Wall Street law firm called Carter, Ledyard, and Milburn before World War II. Gray hired as his assistant in this psychological warfare area a guy by the name of Tracy Barnes, B-A-R-N-E-S.…”
▶ The Colonels corner president’s secret wars chapter 5 @ 36:14
Walter Bedell Smith appointed
Gordon Gray documented
“A North Carolina state senator, both before and after the war, an assistant secretary at the Pentagon and then secretary of the Army, Gray left government service in 1950 to preside over the University of North Carolina. A few short months …”
▶ The Colonels corner president’s secret wars chapter 5 @ 41:29
Gordon Gray headed
Psychological Strategy Board host_asserted
“had approved covert operations informally, but the NSC directives merely gave it authority to regulate the Office of Planning. That was Wisner's group. These procedures was dismantled by Eisenhower. Also gone was the Psychological Strategy …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret Wars chap 7 @ 5:51
Gordon Gray headed
Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization book_quoted
“Gray had once hoped to become the director of central intelligence, but any chance he had had expired with the Truman administration. He was a holdover as a board member and helped provided by. Gray's efficiency and discretion also pleased …”
▶ The Colonel’s corner president‘s secret wars chapter 8 cont @ 12:21
Gordon Gray member_of
5412 Group book_quoted
“As the president's special assistant, Gordon Gray was Eisenhower's representative on the 40-54-12 group. And remember, that was set up so that Eisenhower has plausible deniability. So this Gordon Gray, who's a Democrat, Eisenhower's a Repub…”
▶ The Colonel’s corner president‘s secret wars chapter 8 cont @ 13:19
Gordon Gray member_of
National Security Council documented
“Partisan units formed a rear guard behind the party through its trek to the Indian border region and also created a diversion for the PLA. On November 1st, 1958, Gordon Gray sent a note to the NSC executive secretary, James Lay. It read, qu…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 16 (17) @ 25:29
Gordon Gray recruited
Tracy Barnes host_asserted
“That is unions preceding Bill Colby at that institution. You know, another spy at the entity that is in charge of unions. Then came home spending three years with a Providence, Rhode Island law firm. It was Gordon Gray, who we've already ta…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner safe for Democracy Part 9 @ 39:05
Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed
Gordon Gray book_quoted
“Cutler, Ike's special assistant for national security affairs, left the White House to return to his Boston bank. The president turned to Gray, though a Democrat, to fill this important post, because parties really don't matter at the end o…”
▶ The Colonel’s corner president‘s secret wars chapter 8 cont @ 12:53
Harry S. Truman appointed
Gordon Gray host_asserted
“had approved covert operations informally, but the NSC directives merely gave it authority to regulate the Office of Planning. That was Wisner's group. These procedures was dismantled by Eisenhower. Also gone was the Psychological Strategy …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret Wars chap 7 @ 5:51
Gordon Gray worked_for
Reynolds Tobacco host_asserted
“which was its entire purpose. Gordon Gray's appointment at the PSB came unexpectedly. Son of a president of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Gray had the luxury of being able to devote himself to selfless public service because he was a m…”
▶ The Colonels corner president’s secret wars chapter 5 @ 41:06
Mentions (110)
▶ 35:10
Go ahead. I'm sorry. Let me know when you're done. Yeah, he's just the perfect. He's got the right skill set to implement all these plans. It's warfare done with a tie on. Okay. So at this same time, post like in the immediate aftermath of …
▶ 38:08
in a Laos discussion that perhaps the time had come to use the plans that had been drawn up for airborne alert for strategic air command, which basically meant a nuclear strike. In parting, he insisted to the group, which included Alan Dull…
▶ 5:51
had approved covert operations informally, but the NSC directives merely gave it authority to regulate the Office of Planning. That was Wisner's group. These procedures was dismantled by Eisenhower. Also gone was the Psychological Strategy …
▶ 1:13:58
So it also goes on to say he was involved in covert arms as part of the National Security Council. He was the director and primary founder of this other entity. It talks about Gordon Gray, who we just talked about in this book. So they're c…
▶ 16:08
but the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the prominent civilian group to which Clark Clifford and Gordon Gray were soon appointed. And you guys remember who Clark Clifford is? Clark Clifford is the guy that goes on to facili…
▶ 35:17
Planning for propaganda and psychological warfare and later monitoring national efforts in that area was the job of a PSB staff office. The first staff director that Truman chose was Gordon Gray, G-R-A-Y, Gordon. And I would love to know wh…
▶ 35:45
that ran the PR firm that also ran a prostitution ring in Washington, D.C. under the guise of being a PR guy. So Gordon Gray had previously sat on the president's NSC while serving as the secretary of the army. Isn't that sweet? He was know…
▶ 36:14
All of them had worked in the same Wall Street law firm called Carter, Ledyard, and Milburn before World War II. Gray hired as his assistant in this psychological warfare area a guy by the name of Tracy Barnes, B-A-R-N-E-S.…
▶ 37:15
all of its ambitious aims, the PSB encountered bureaucratic opposition to psychological warfare planning at just about every turn. Truman had previously established the PSB, and they often found it difficult to get the interagency cooperati…
▶ 37:45
vigorously. In late December 51, Gray was forced to appeal to Walter Bedell Smith to send CIA representatives to the PSB office for meetings. Gray also sent Smith copies of his informational briefings on what their psychological warfare obj…
▶ 41:06
which was its entire purpose. Gordon Gray's appointment at the PSB came unexpectedly. Son of a president of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Gray had the luxury of being able to devote himself to selfless public service because he was a m…
▶ 41:29
A North Carolina state senator, both before and after the war, an assistant secretary at the Pentagon and then secretary of the Army, Gray left government service in 1950 to preside over the University of North Carolina. A few short months …
▶ 41:57
Smith said he wanted Gray to succeed him as the DCI and working at the PSB would make him the logical choice. Besides, said Smith, the president is serious about setting this up and we think that you'd be well equipped to do it. Gordon Gray…
▶ 42:26
a similar radio-free Europe communication center. Because of... Hold on. Goodness. I just swallowed wrong. Hold on. We love you. All right. Let's keep going. Because of his position, Gray began to spend half of his work week in the Capitol,…
▶ 43:13
because he had left so suddenly. So he's not even there half the time. And they were using funds drawn away from the Pentagon and the CIA basically to set up this unit. Gray was later able to get the PSB into its own building around the cor…
▶ 43:45
association in the intelligence field for Gordon Gray. His discretion and ability became legend, but in the early period, they could not field him from the interagency struggle between all of the different players. Gray thought the PSB had …
▶ 44:16
refused, while PSB was still at their original office, to make the short walk from his office to attend any of Gray's meetings. As for the State Department, Paul Nitz, N-I-T-Z-E, chief of the policy planning staff there, told Gray, look, yo…
▶ 46:00
It's like, boy, you saw that the very first three days were Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So it was the first three days of the years were WTF. Right. That's a very good point. Just saying. Yeah. Anyway, so basically, I need to do, I'm going…
▶ 52:23
And that's why like in the olden days, like if you go like, well, you were in Europe and stuff. That's why they used to eat on sterling silver, because silver was really important for us to have. I was blown away. So now I have copper utens…
▶ 52:53
Him being part of that whole operation was Merrill's marauders during Burma, which we talked about. At first, even the interest of senior generals like Dwight D. Eisenhower was insufficient to recreate such capabilities. Some senior officer…
▶ 54:19
effort to enter the psyops warfare arena himself, argued that the Army possessed the greatest capacity for propaganda in the form of outlets and audience than even the State Department did. And Assistant Secretary of the Army, Gordon Gray, …
▶ 54:47
which was the province of the Army G2 staff. The paramilitary side had been viewed with some distaste by the Army Secretary Kenneth Royal, who said at a June 1948 meeting that he wished his service to know nothing about covert operations. P…
▶ 1:03:04
Before the end of the conflict, the CIA and the military possessed paramilitary resource out the yin-yang. They had covert legions ready to undertake any type of operation anywhere, and operators like Frank Wisner and managers like Gordon G…
▶ 33:00
with two personal assistants, one Tracy Barnes, two Richard Bissell Jr. Barnes had been in the OSF in Switzerland working for Dulles. He later worked for Gordon Gray on the psychological strategy board that we talked about a couple of chapt…
▶ 11:55
At the December meeting, President Eisenhower made clear his view that the 5412 group should meet as a fort with minimum staff assistance from their own agencies. Everything depended on this group. One man working for the president made the…
▶ 12:21
Gray had once hoped to become the director of central intelligence, but any chance he had had expired with the Truman administration. He was a holdover as a board member and helped provided by. Gray's efficiency and discretion also pleased …
▶ 12:53
Cutler, Ike's special assistant for national security affairs, left the White House to return to his Boston bank. The president turned to Gray, though a Democrat, to fill this important post, because parties really don't matter at the end o…
▶ 13:19
As the president's special assistant, Gordon Gray was Eisenhower's representative on the 40-54-12 group. And remember, that was set up so that Eisenhower has plausible deniability. So this Gordon Gray, who's a Democrat, Eisenhower's a Repub…
▶ 13:45
He spent most of 58 observing the CIA's oversight in action. Though the DCI was officially only an advisor to the group, Gray found that the committee exercised virtually no initiative, which left the field largely open to Allen Dulles. The…
▶ 14:14
and the CIA with an eye towards revising the 5412-2 memo. After Christmas, Eisenhower met directly with Dulles and Gray. Eisenhower laid great stress on his arrangements for executive management of intelligence and clandestine operations wi…
▶ 14:45
thwart any effort by Congress to provide oversight to covert operations. Allen Dulles no doubt made appropriately conciliatory comments, but Gordon Gray was not satisfied. The semi-annual 5412 review for the president was presented May 15, …
▶ 15:10
Four days later, Gray sent a memo to Alan Dulles, the Secretary of State and the Pentagon rep on the 5412 group, which he said they were labeled as his random thoughts. But Gray's criticism was not random at all. They included the following…
▶ 15:38
A better understanding of the mission of the group was necessary. Quote, the criteria with respect to what matters shall come before the group are ill-defined and fuzzy. The committee needed to develop procedures to evaluate operations in a…
▶ 16:30
When Gray gave one of his regular briefings to Eisenhower somewhat later, like around June 1959, the president then referred to one particular activity which he was disturbed about, but said that he assumed it had been approved by the group…
▶ 10:53
Precisely timed to place a protective force around the Dalai Lama just as the Dalai Lama fled. Units of the NVDA partisans formed a rear guard behind the Dalai Lama's party throughout his trek to the Indian border. They also created a decoy…
▶ 13:47
The 5412 group considered in secret deliberations its answer to the policy question posed by Gordon Gray. Memoranda that remained classified from Alan Dulles to President Eisenhower dated January 22nd and March 3rd, 1959, concerned to bet. …
▶ 16:36
for the forces to actually confront the Chinese, it's published in an Indian paper that it's going to happen. American Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker kept Washington apprised of the developments, but the best information came from the CIA beca…
▶ 29:16
The gifts were acknowledged orally, but because Gampotashi had not used quote-unquote channels considered by the embassy to give him official status, unquote, no other reply was necessary. Dwight Eisenhower wanted to continue his plausible …
▶ 2:39
Project Hake served as an example of how things could go wrong. Robert Lovett, co-author of the board's previous covert study, pressed Eisenhower to transfer review authority to the 5412 group. Gordon Gray, the guy that we talked about earl…
▶ 3:09
Noted that the group had not been very active in accommodating the reviewers' critiques. Eisenhower insisted that the 5412 group should meet as a court, implying a capacity that they could review and potentially veto operations.…
▶ 10:09
back shop, and people that line the room. Everything was centered around the 5412 group. Gordon Gray made the 541 group his special concern. Having once hoped to become the CIA director, Gray had seen his chances expire at the end of Truman…
▶ 10:44
demeanor, efficiency, and discretion. In 1953, he took the political heat for the Oppenheimer security clearance cancellation. At the Office of Defense Mobilization, Gray had supervised the Gaither Report in 1957, when Robert Cutler, Eisenh…
▶ 11:14
left the White House to return to his Boston bank, the president turned to Gray, a Democrat, to fill this important post. Thus, Gordon Gray had suddenly catapulted over the CIA director's job, and now he was basically acting as Eisenhower's…
▶ 11:44
As the president's special assistant, which now is a designated national security advisor, Gordon Gray is functioning as that before it was created. He became Eisenhower's voice in the 5412 group. Although Allen Dulles officially functioned…
▶ 12:14
The special assistant openly raised his doubts in December 1958 in a meeting. After Christmas, Eisenhower met privately with both Gray and Dulles. They were now studying the CIA 5-4-1-2 group relationship. Eisenhower laid great stress on ma…
▶ 12:44
Because its purpose was to ensure there was no tendency for Congress to get involved. Alan Dulles made appropriate conciliatory comments, which he always does. We learned that in The Devil's Chessboard. He says whatever is necessary in meet…
▶ 13:13
The semi-annual covert operation review took place on 15 January 1959. Four days later, Gray sent a memo of random thoughts to Allen Dulles, the Secretary of State and the Pentagon representative on the 5412 group. Gray's criticisms were no…
▶ 14:12
And there was no written criteria of what needed to be reviewed there and what didn't. The 5412 needed procedures to evaluate operations in addition to approving them. He went on to say, quote, I strongly believe that the president would ex…
▶ 14:38
On December 26, 1958, the president had asked the group to have regular weekly meetings in place of the twice-a-year meetings. At one of Gray's regular briefings to Eisenhower on June 22, 1959, quote, the president referred to one particula…
▶ 25:29
Partisan units formed a rear guard behind the party through its trek to the Indian border region and also created a diversion for the PLA. On November 1st, 1958, Gordon Gray sent a note to the NSC executive secretary, James Lay. It read, qu…
▶ 27:30
the Nationalists being the Chiang Kai-shek's KMT army. Though the State Department believed it, quote, by no means suicidal, unquote, of Chiang Kai-shek to contemplate such raids. Despite limited possibilities, the 5412 group considered Gor…
▶ 30:31
Ellsworth Bunker kept Washington apprised. But the best information came from the CIA because they're running the operation. During that period, General Charles Cabell or Desmond Fitzgerald was on the phone with Gordon Gray almost daily. On…
▶ 36:44
in many of their engagements, and he compared the Tibetan people to Hungary of 1956. Tibetan sources maintained that Eisenhower's administration made important decisions in May of 1959. This correlates to all available records. Gordon Gray …
▶ 51:33
was sent, and Eisenhower preserved his plausible deniability. The following year, Washington again discouraged the Dalai Lama's request to come to the United States. Secret plans proceeded despite their refusal to associate publicly with th…
▶ 7:59
basically just killed Patrice Lumumba. There was also a discussion with Gordon Gray and Eisenhower on the morning of November 25th. Mr. Dulles reported to the president on certain consultations that he had had with respect to projected unde…
▶ 38:01
They just want the corrupt CIA-backed mafia that was propping up Batista out. But Dulles has already started the narrative that they're communists because anybody that is against us is a communist. There's no middle ground. Dulles said they…
▶ 38:34
watched at the December 30th meeting and was looking for all possibilities of what to do. Senior diplomats more favorable towards Castro than Ambassador Smith, nonetheless, would not oppose the third force efforts. Of course, Batista knew h…
▶ 1:01:16
Good Pastor told Harder on November 9th at the White House, knowledge would be confined to Good Pastor himself, Eisenhower's son, John S.D. Eisenhower, Gordon Gray, and one confidential secretary. When Gray proposed that the Hall board be b…
▶ 10:05
February 17th, and it became the first one he presented to Eisenhower. Direct action to eliminate Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Dulles met with the president and Gordon Gray. Accompanied by aides, Dulles went armed with schematic drawings o…
▶ 20:40
to be available for immediate deployment into Cuba to organize, train, and lead resistant forces recruited there after the establishment of one or two centers of resistance. A lot of that actually happened inside the United States, as we we…
▶ 33:34
Cabell expressed general satisfaction with the CIA progress on its covert operation, but warned that Castro's popularity remained very high. Economic warfare would be necessary to make Project ATE work. Around the end of June, Eisenhower to…
▶ 34:03
Gray reminded the president of what Allen Dulles had proposed, then reported the current thinking about the timetable and events. Weeks later, with Eisenhower at Newport, Rhode Island, Gray told him of a fresh CIA bid to expand the exile fo…
▶ 39:07
Hot debate over the use of Americans as part of a force ended with Alan Dulles, who said the decision could be put aside and reexamined later, meaning we're going to do whatever we want. Gordon Gray added that an abortive project would be w…
▶ 52:52
attended for the CIA. Guess who else was there? General Lansdale. He represented the Office of Special Operations at the Pentagon. Mr. Lansdale himself. Gordon Gray pushed members to report status. The Pentagon worried about the large Castr…
▶ 14:31
or the continuing popularity of Castro. And no one was talking about the deep division among the exile leaders. Participants instead emphasized their confidence in the troops, even though they were squabbling among themselves. Gordon Gray m…
▶ 25:14
and he knew that JFK would have to execute or cancel it. Eisenhower also knew that Kennedy lacked a detailed understanding that might have guided a decision to cancel it because it was all withheld from him. Eisenhower, not acting to halt t…
▶ 39:51
his presidency is going to be over in less than a year. Just open all the doors. His wording struck NSC staffer Robert Johnson as something like a presidential order for an assassination. A week later, Gordon Gray reminded the 5412 group of…
▶ 41:16
21st, three days after Washington's decision. Yeah, I knew it wasn't in like June when it first started happening. In a fresh cable in August 26th, following Gray's exchange with the 5412, Director Dulles declared that Lumumba's removal had…
▶ 38:51
The Intelligence Board chairman, James Killian, created and his successor, Clark Clifford, continued a subcommittee on covert operations. This group finally received the agency's general briefings. The panel included Gordon Gray, who had re…
▶ 33:10
At a morning meeting on Laos on December 31st, 1960, Eisenhower joked that perhaps the time had come to use existing plans for airborne alert for strategic air command. In parting, he told the group, which included Alan Dulles and Gordon Gr…
▶ 22:46
The National Security Council staffer of the period observed that in her experience in two and a half years across the hall, she never saw the door open to that office ever. The board retained some dedicated members, in particular Gordon Gr…
▶ 28:05
and render a report in the style of those that British consultant Sir Robert Thompson had supplied to Nixon about Vietnam. The board did just that and had a smaller group meeting with the president on July 18th. Admiral Anderson had focused…
▶ 30:29
Gordon Gray studied drug use by American soldiers in Vietnam, yet the Presidential Advisory Board remained entirely unaware of the drug running by the U.S. CIA in Laos. A year later, Burke recalls the board never heard of and did not see th…
▶ 33:37
Yet Kissinger then refused the board access to the 40 committee minutes and the NSC's records that would have shown that the covert actions were approved and carried out. So how are you going to review something if you're not allowed to see…
▶ 34:08
facilities without encountering the impact of the hunt for alleged Soviet moles that had been tearing apart the CIA for years. Gray's report contained no criticism whatsoever of Langley and its counter-spy, James Angleton, the operator behi…
▶ 13:47
And its greatest claim to fame in 1905 was when it hired FDR. At Carter Ledyard, Frank Wisner labored for seven years, eventually becoming a partner. There he met other associates like William Jackson, Gordon Gray, and Tracy Barnes. Jackson…
▶ 14:18
The war clearly approached in mid-1941 before Pearl Harbor. Wisner volunteered for the Navy Reserve. Gray took up psychological warfare. Jackson became a senior officer in the Army G2. So, we've got a trifecta there. Tracy Barnes went into …
▶ 40:37
Guy that would have been in charge was Gordon Gray. General Walter Bedell Smith and William Jackson brought the word. Jackson, a Gray associate since 1930s, represented the token of trust. General Smith told Gray that he, Smith, wanted Gray…
▶ 41:06
strategy board would make him the logical choice to do so. Bedell Smith also said the president is serious about setting up this board and we think that you are the most equipped to do it. An insider's insider, Gordon Gray's discretion was …
▶ 41:30
From the president's point of view, revising his NSC covert action directive had the purpose of designating a new subcommittee of the National Security Council as the lead authority on approvals. Gray would be chief of that unit. Truman kne…
▶ 41:58
He had become the head of the University of North Carolina in February of 1950, yet actually did not give up his Army post until April. And even then, he stayed on as a special assistant until November. President Truman Summons became only …
▶ 42:27
Gray was the son of Bowman Gray, a tobacco baron and chairman of R.J. Reynolds. Bowman's son could have gone anywhere but chose a state college. Yale Law followed and Gray worked a couple of years at Frank Wisner's Wall Street firm, Carter …
▶ 42:54
and then became a newspaper publisher. His two papers, the Winston-Salem Journal and the Twin Cities Sentinel, he also had a radio station, which eventually morphed into a media empire. All the while, one of these guys. In 1937, Gray ran fo…
▶ 43:25
but refused a commission. He entered the army, enlisted. The military gave Gray a commission anyway. He was assigned to intelligence and a public affairs officer at Fort Benning before heading to Europe. He set up propaganda radio broadcast…
▶ 43:55
Shortly before Congress created the CIA, Gray, from his post with the Army, nominated himself for director of the CIA to replace Hoyt Vandenberg. This major departure from his usual manner suggests how serious Gray must have been about the …
▶ 44:24
after that bold move. But Truman had such confidence in him that when it came time to set up the new National Security Council subcommittee, the president could not be dissuaded from appointing him. After Sowers left Washington early in 195…
▶ 44:49
that he had had high expectations for the effectiveness of the psychological strategy board until he learned who Truman had picked to lead it, making out that Gray's appointment was a patronage. Sowers recalled complaining to the president,…
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The Psychological Strategy Board staff under Gordon Gray constituted a central planning authority. In effect, the staff aimed to become the U.S. command center for all psychological operations. But something went wrong along the way. Genera…
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The best the Psychological Strategy Board finally achieved was to help prevent interagency rivalries from crippling ongoing field efforts. Gray brought an OSS veteran, Tracy Barnes, as his deputy director. By 1952, the Psychological Strateg…
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than the NSC itself. The CIA viewed this board as a paper mill. Gordon Gray tried to make the PSB work. Starting from three small buildings across Jackson Square from the White House, within months, Gray moved the Psychological Strategy Boa…
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That put his people right in with the spooks and could have encouraged cooperation. Better than that, Gray had been Frank Wisner's colleague at the Wall Street firm. Deputy Tracy Barnes had also been with Wisner on Wall Street, as well as A…
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If Frank Wisner needed to know anything from the board, he would go to Tracy Barnes, who became something of a CIA spy at the board. Thus, Director Smith arranged through the board for other agencies to assist CIA in their expanded program …
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but only made Beadle Smith more angry. In November of 1951, Gray began to host private luncheons of the Psychological Strategy Board members where differences could be thrashed out before the monthly meeting. In December, Gray held a briefi…
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Gray appealed to Smith to ensure the CIA's representatives would attend the meetings, but Smith refused. In January of 52, Gray resigned. He would be succeeded by Raymond Allen, president of the University of Washington. Allen's background …
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agency had not cooperated with the board the final director of the psychological strategy board was admiral alan kirk who with his background in naval intelligence might have improved the cia relationship but by that time the white house ha…
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Gordon Gray's staff had orders to assemble overall regional country and subject plans that the board could review. Planning for propaganda and psychological warfare and later monitoring national efforts in this regard became the job of the …
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the intelligence framework, and finally, the actual inventory. First, the intelligence component had to be dropped when it aroused the CIA's anger. The inventory panel's draft report finished that fall ran 100 pages long. Director Gray made…
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Gordon Gray countered that he would take the issue to Truman. Statewood then went the other way, heaping work on the board to overwhelm it, sending mounds of papers, scheduling meetings, briefings, consultations with diplomats and returning…
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Were to use a baseball analogy, putting a batter in the box who already had one strike against him. As for the State Department, Paul Nitz, N-I-T-Z-E, now chief of policy planning staff, told Gordon Gray, quote, look, you just forget about …
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namely the military experts on unconventional warfare, for whom Gordon Gray had toiled while still at the Pentagon. In the early post-war years, there was little support for these methods in the armed forces. Army Ranger units and Merrill's…
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Instead of the occupation, gradually lifted controls on the German media and the U.S. military steadily dismantled the PSYOPs units. Soon the subject was scarcely even taught in service schools. In 1950, there were only seven officers in th…
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by consultants like Paul Leinbarger that argued for better articulation of capabilities. Appeals for help from Frank Wisner at the CIA also had their uses within the Army hierarchy. Gray went further, knocking heads together, demanding prog…
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There is also the issue of unconventional warfare capabilities, or as they are known today, special operation forces. At first, paramilitary operations were considered part of this psychological warfare function. The province of the Army's …
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a June 1948 meeting that he wanted his service to have nothing to do with covert operations. Prodded by Gray and others, Royal soon allowed participation in overt and even covert propaganda. By March of 49, Gray could tell his boss that we …
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Covert legions were ready to act on command, like Gladio units. Operators like Frank Wisner and managers like Gordon Gray were equipped to make the most of these available resources. Through his enthusiasm for psychological warfare, Preside…
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Ike replaced him at the agency with Alan Dulles, the same guy that was just representing Sullivan and Cromwell in Iran. John Foster Dulles became Secretary of State. The Iran covert project moved ahead. Although Gordon Gray may have been di…
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That is unions preceding Bill Colby at that institution. You know, another spy at the entity that is in charge of unions. Then came home spending three years with a Providence, Rhode Island law firm. It was Gordon Gray, who we've already ta…
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as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Army. Gray left his position as secretary just as Barnes arrived. But Barnes stayed on under Clifford Alexander. A year later, Gray reappeared as director of the Psychological Strategy Board. H…
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had basically staged this entire thing and said that he should be fired. What did I do? He yelled at his son, told him to drop dead. The younger Eisenhower since his father rage came from the realization that he should have fired Dulles a l…
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set of recommendations for getting Alan Dulles' CIA under control. This time, the president's board of consultants on foreign intelligence activities, which urged the spy agency to de-emphasize the cloak and dagger adventures of which Dulle…