Office of Policy Coordination

The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) was a United States covert psychological operations and paramilitary action organization. Created as an independent office in 1948, it was merged with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1951.

OPC was created in 1948 under the United States National Security Council document NSC 10/2. The OPC's directors included representatives of the State and Defense departments and the CIA. Though a unit of the CIA, the OPC Director reported to the State Department.^[1]

State Department official George F. Kennan was the key figure behind OPC's creation.^[1]

The OPC's executive director was Frank Wisner,^[2] a former OSS figure in Romania and later an assistant secretary of state for refugee affairs.^{[citation needed]}

The OPC grew rapidly during the Korean War. In April 1951, US President Harry Truman established the Psychological Strategy Board in order to coordinate all US psychological warfare strategy.^[3]

In 1952, the office came under the direct control of the CIA and was merged with its Office of Special Operations to form the Directorate of Plans.

See also

• Operation Mockingbird
• National Clandestine Service
• Carmel Offie
• Charles W. Thayer

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Miscamble, 199
2. ^ Will Brownell and Richard N. Billings, So Close to Greatness: A Biography of William C. Bullitt (NY: Macmillan Publishing, 1987), 299
3. ^ "Foreign Relations 1964-1968, Volume XXVI, Indonesia; Malaysia-Singapore; Philippines: Note on U.S. Covert Action Programs". United States Department of State. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/johnsonlb/xxvi/4440.htm. 

Sources

• Peter Grosse, Operation Rollback (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000)
• Wilson D. Miscamble, George F. Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, 1947-1950 (Princeton University Press, 1992))
• Richard C.S. Trahair, Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004)