vault backup: 2026-10-15 14:01:13

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Edward Lansdale.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 created: 2026-05-15
-updated: 2026-10-14
+updated: 2026-10-15
 title: Edward Lansdale
 aliases:
   - Edward Geary Lansdale
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ relations:
     role: "special assistant to the ambassador, later senior liaison officer"
     start: 1965-08
     end: 1968
-    fn: 55
+    fn: 56
 ---
 
 Edward Geary Lansdale (1908-1987) was an [[United States Air Force]] officer and intelligence operative whose counterinsurgency work in the [[Philippines]] and [[Vietnam]] shaped American counterinsurgency doctrine, and who served as chief of operations of [[Operation Mongoose]], the Kennedy administration's covert program against [[Fidel Castro]], from November 1961 until the program was suspended after the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].[^1]
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ Parrott, an assistant to the president's military representative, testified befo
 
 Lansdale testified in 1975 that "touchdown play," a phrase in his memoranda, was a breezy way of referring to a Cuban revolt to overthrow the regime, and the committee reports that the examples in his January 1962 memorandum contained no indication of assassination.[^37]
 
-On February 20, 1962 Lansdale detailed a six-phase schedule designed to culminate in October 1962 with "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime." For its "Resistance" phase he listed "attacks on the cadre of the regime, including key leaders," with the notation that "Gangster elements might provide the best recruitment potential for actions against police G-2 officials" and that chemical warfare agents should be fully considered. Lansdale testified that the "actions" and "attack" in that component meant killing. He testified that early in the program he had suggested to working-level representatives of the participating agencies that they contact "criminal elements" for intelligence and for "possible actions against the police structure" in Cuba, and he conceded that his proposal to recruit gangster elements for attacks on "key leaders" contemplated the targeted killing of individuals.[^42] On January 30, 1962 Craig forwarded to Lansdale a concept called Operation Bounty, a system of financial rewards for killing or delivering alive known Communists, with leaflets listing rewards from $5,000 for an informer to $100,000 for government officials and a reward of 2 cents for Castro. Lansdale testified that the figure was designed to denigrate Castro and that he tabled the concept, which he never brought before the Special Group (Augmented).[^43]
+On February 20, 1962 Lansdale detailed a six-phase schedule designed to culminate in October 1962 with "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime." For its "Resistance" phase he listed "attacks on the cadre of the regime, including key leaders," with the notation that "Gangster elements might provide the best recruitment potential for actions against police G-2 officials" and that chemical warfare agents should be fully considered. Lansdale testified that the "actions" and "attack" in that component meant killing. He testified that early in the program he had suggested to working-level representatives of the participating agencies that they contact "criminal elements" for intelligence and for "possible actions against the police structure" in Cuba, and he conceded that his proposal to recruit gangster elements for attacks on "key leaders" contemplated the targeted killing of individuals, and he testified that he never took up assassination with the attorney general or the president.[^42] On January 30, 1962 Craig forwarded to Lansdale a concept called Operation Bounty, a system of financial rewards for killing or delivering alive known Communists, with leaflets listing rewards from $5,000 for an informer to $100,000 for government officials and a reward of 2 cents for Castro. Lansdale testified that the figure was designed to denigrate Castro and that he tabled the concept, which he never brought before the Special Group (Augmented).[^43]
 
 ### Operation NORTHWOODS and the pretexts question
 
@@ -182,23 +182,25 @@ The August 13, 1962 memorandum that the Church Committee quotes directed Harvey
 
 Harvey testified before the committee that during the October 1962 crisis he ordered agent teams into Cuba to support any conventional U.S. military operation, that Robert Kennedy "took a great deal of exception" to the order, and that McCone ordered the agent operations stopped. On October 30, 1962 the Special Group ordered a halt to all sabotage operations, citing Lansdale's memorandum for the record.[^50] The committee's chronology records that Operation Mongoose ended in November 1962.[^51] The program was formally reduced in scope after the crisis.
 
-Harvey was appointed chief of the CIA station in Rome, effective on or about June 30, 1963.[^52] [[Evan Thomas|Thomas]] wrote that Robert Kennedy had exiled Harvey to Rome.[^53] Lansdale retired from the Air Force on October 31, 1963, was awarded a second Distinguished Service Medal for his counterinsurgency work, and became a consultant to the director of Food for Peace at the White House.[^2]
+A Church Committee staff index summarizes Lansdale's special memorandum of November 11, 1962 for the Special Group (Augmented), which records that when the CIA was asked on October 30 and 31 for the status of all operations it reported all militant operations ordered held at a stop and did not mention the Matahambre operation, and his memorandum of November 13, 1962, which states that the CIA mentioned two action teams inside Cuba, one small team in central Cuba and one with about 200 men in western Cuba, under orders to collect intelligence and not to take actions.[^52]
+
+Harvey was appointed chief of the CIA station in Rome, effective on or about June 30, 1963.[^53] [[Evan Thomas|Thomas]] wrote that Robert Kennedy had exiled Harvey to Rome.[^54] Lansdale retired from the Air Force on October 31, 1963, was awarded a second Distinguished Service Medal for his counterinsurgency work, and became a consultant to the director of Food for Peace at the White House.[^2]
 
 ### Return to Vietnam, 1965 to 1968
 
-Lansdale returned to Vietnam in 1965. A CIA memorandum for the record, of August 1965, summarizes a Washington meeting on his mission, attended by officials from State, including [[Walt Rostow]], from the White House, from [[United States Agency for International Development|AID]] and [[United States Information Agency|USIA]], and from the CIA, including [[William Colby]]. At that meeting Lansdale described his concept of the mission as finding out what the Vietnamese thought, what they wanted and what they would do, and as unifying the efforts of the American mission.[^54]
+Lansdale returned to Vietnam in 1965. A CIA memorandum for the record, of August 1965, summarizes a Washington meeting on his mission, attended by officials from State, including [[Walt Rostow]], from the White House, from [[United States Agency for International Development|AID]] and [[United States Information Agency|USIA]], and from the CIA, including [[William Colby]]. At that meeting Lansdale described his concept of the mission as finding out what the Vietnamese thought, what they wanted and what they would do, and as unifying the efforts of the American mission.[^55]
 
-Congressional remarks by Representative [[Claude Pepper]], reprinting a Washington Post item of August 20, 1965, described Lansdale as being sent to South Vietnam as a special assistant to Ambassador [[Henry Cabot Lodge]].[^55] The Pentagon Papers state that Lansdale "never got to Vietnam until Cabot Lodge brought him out later in 1965," despite four requests from Diem and recommendations from Cottrell, the Taylor report and William Bundy that he be sent.[^56] In late August 1965 Lodge announced Lansdale's appointment as chairman of the U.S. Mission liaison group to the South Vietnamese government's CRCC.[^57]
+Congressional remarks by Representative [[Claude Pepper]], reprinting a Washington Post item of August 20, 1965, described Lansdale as being sent to South Vietnam as a special assistant to Ambassador [[Henry Cabot Lodge]].[^56] The Pentagon Papers state that Lansdale "never got to Vietnam until Cabot Lodge brought him out later in 1965," despite four requests from Diem and recommendations from Cottrell, the Taylor report and William Bundy that he be sent.[^57] In late August 1965 Lodge announced Lansdale's appointment as chairman of the U.S. Mission liaison group to the South Vietnamese government's CRCC.[^58]
 
-His 1965 post carried less operational authority than his earlier mission. A New York World Journal Tribune article of March 26, 1967 reported that Lansdale had returned to Vietnam in September 1965 with Lodge, under the unusual and rather vague title of senior liaison officer, with ministerial rank, as a member of a ten-man mission council.[^58] The senior liaison office staff worked on winning support in the Vietnamese countryside, and President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] also appointed Lansdale a minister. From 1967 to 1968 he was an assistant to Ambassador [[Ellsworth Bunker]] at the U.S. Mission in South Vietnam.[^2] Lansdale was recalled in 1968 without the political reform he believed essential to South Vietnam's survival.[^1]
+His 1965 post carried less operational authority than his earlier mission. A New York World Journal Tribune article of March 26, 1967 reported that Lansdale had returned to Vietnam in September 1965 with Lodge, under the unusual and rather vague title of senior liaison officer, with ministerial rank, as a member of a ten-man mission council.[^59] The senior liaison office staff worked on winning support in the Vietnamese countryside, and President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] also appointed Lansdale a minister. From 1967 to 1968 he was an assistant to Ambassador [[Ellsworth Bunker]] at the U.S. Mission in South Vietnam.[^2] Lansdale was recalled in 1968 without the political reform he believed essential to South Vietnam's survival.[^1]
 
 Lansdale died in McLean, Virginia, on February 23, 1987.[^2]
 
 ### Fletcher Prouty's claims
 
-Col. L. Fletcher Prouty wrote about Lansdale in two publications, one placing him in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the other connecting him to the story of President Kennedy's assassination. In a 1986 article in [[Freedom (magazine)|Freedom]], Prouty wrote that he and Lansdale flew to [[Fort Gordon]], Georgia, on November 1, 1960 to collect elements of a Civil Affairs and Military Government curriculum, and that both were then assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Prouty described Lansdale as a principal proponent of what he called the "Mao doctrine" of counterinsurgency, which he wrote was introduced into the White House under the guise of a mutual security program.[^59]
+Col. L. Fletcher Prouty wrote about Lansdale in two publications, one placing him in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the other connecting him to the story of President Kennedy's assassination. In a 1986 article in [[Freedom (magazine)|Freedom]], Prouty wrote that he and Lansdale flew to [[Fort Gordon]], Georgia, on November 1, 1960 to collect elements of a Civil Affairs and Military Government curriculum, and that both were then assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Prouty described Lansdale as a principal proponent of what he called the "Mao doctrine" of counterinsurgency, which he wrote was introduced into the White House under the guise of a mutual security program.[^60]
 
-In his 1992 book on the assassination and Vietnam, Prouty asked where the Joint Chiefs, Lansdale and [[Allen Dulles]] were when the guns sounded in the streets of Dallas. He wrote that Cuban exile groups from Louisiana and their instructors became suspects in the investigation, that many of them were later recruited into the larger program Operation Mongoose under Lansdale, and that the identification of [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] as the scapegoat served as a cover story.[^60]
+In his 1992 book on the assassination and Vietnam, Prouty asked where the Joint Chiefs, Lansdale and [[Allen Dulles]] were when the guns sounded in the streets of Dallas. He wrote that Cuban exile groups from Louisiana and their instructors became suspects in the investigation, that many of them were later recruited into the larger program Operation Mongoose under Lansdale, and that the identification of [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] as the scapegoat served as a cover story.[^61]
 
 ### Footnotes
 
@@ -253,12 +255,13 @@ In his 1992 book on the assassination and Vietnam, Prouty asked where the Joint
 [^49]: *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963*, vol. X, doc. 378, Memorandum of Meeting, Washington, August 16, 1962, prepared by McCone. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v10/d378
 [^50]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 148, citing Harvey's testimony of July 11, 1975, pp. 80-81, on the agent teams and McCone's order, and citing Lansdale's memorandum for the record of October 30, 1962 on the halt. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
 [^51]: Church Committee, *Alleged Assassination Plots*, S. Rept. 94-465, chronology, p. 293, "November: Operation MONGOOSE ends." https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
-[^52]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Appointment of Mr. William K. Harvey Chief of Station, Rome, Italy," June 12, 1963. CIA reading room document 01228805. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01228805
-[^53]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA*. Simon & Schuster, 1995.
-[^54]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record, "Lansdale Mission to Vietnam," August 1965, participants including Unger, Lansdale, Rostow, Colby and Bohannan. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80R01580R001603420030-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01580r001603420030-5
-[^55]: Congressional Record, 89th Congress, August 1965, remarks of Rep. Claude Pepper extending remarks with a Washington Post item of August 20, 1965, on Lansdale's appointment as special assistant to Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00001R000300430053-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000300430053-0
-[^56]: *Pentagon Papers*, Gravel ed., vol. II, pp. 126-130, on Lansdale's arrival in Vietnam in 1965 and the four requests from Diem. https://archive.org/details/pentagonpapers025197
-[^57]: *Pentagon Papers*, Gravel ed., vol. II, pp. 364-366, on Lodge's announcement in late August 1965 of Lansdale as chairman of the U.S. Mission liaison group to the GVN CRCC. https://archive.org/details/pentagonpapers025197
-[^58]: *New York World Journal Tribune*, March 26, 1967, on Lansdale's title and position in the U.S. Embassy. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00001R000300430002-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000300430002-6
-[^59]: Prouty, L. Fletcher. "Building to the Final Confrontation: John F. Kennedy vs. the CIA," *Freedom*, July 1986, on the Fort Gordon trip of November 1, 1960 and the "Mao doctrine." https://archive.org/details/building-to-the-final-confrontation-john-f.-kennedy-vs.-the-cia-by-l.-fletcher-p
-[^60]: Prouty, L. Fletcher. *JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy*. Carol Publishing Group, 1992, chapters on the Kennedy-era covert programs and on the assassination. https://archive.org/details/jfkciavietnamplo0000prou_r5p5
+[^52]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, staff index cards on Operation Mongoose documents, June 1975, National Archives JFK Records 157-10011-10002. https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/jfkfiles/jfk2023/157-10011-10002.pdf
+[^53]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum "Appointment of Mr. William K. Harvey Chief of Station, Rome, Italy," June 12, 1963. CIA reading room document 01228805. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-01228805
+[^54]: Thomas, Evan. *The Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA*. Simon & Schuster, 1995.
+[^55]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum for the record, "Lansdale Mission to Vietnam," August 1965, participants including Unger, Lansdale, Rostow, Colby and Bohannan. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP80R01580R001603420030-5. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp80r01580r001603420030-5
+[^56]: Congressional Record, 89th Congress, August 1965, remarks of Rep. Claude Pepper extending remarks with a Washington Post item of August 20, 1965, on Lansdale's appointment as special assistant to Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00001R000300430053-0. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000300430053-0
+[^57]: *Pentagon Papers*, Gravel ed., vol. II, pp. 126-130, on Lansdale's arrival in Vietnam in 1965 and the four requests from Diem. https://archive.org/details/pentagonpapers025197
+[^58]: *Pentagon Papers*, Gravel ed., vol. II, pp. 364-366, on Lodge's announcement in late August 1965 of Lansdale as chairman of the U.S. Mission liaison group to the GVN CRCC. https://archive.org/details/pentagonpapers025197
+[^59]: *New York World Journal Tribune*, March 26, 1967, on Lansdale's title and position in the U.S. Embassy. CIA reading room document CIA-RDP75-00001R000300430002-6. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp75-00001r000300430002-6
+[^60]: Prouty, L. Fletcher. "Building to the Final Confrontation: John F. Kennedy vs. the CIA," *Freedom*, July 1986, on the Fort Gordon trip of November 1, 1960 and the "Mao doctrine." https://archive.org/details/building-to-the-final-confrontation-john-f.-kennedy-vs.-the-cia-by-l.-fletcher-p
+[^61]: Prouty, L. Fletcher. *JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy*. Carol Publishing Group, 1992, chapters on the Kennedy-era covert programs and on the assassination. https://archive.org/details/jfkciavietnamplo0000prou_r5p5