U.N.C.L.E.

U.N.C.L.E. is an acronym for the fictional United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, a secret international intelligence agency featured in the TV series "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." and "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.". Both were 1960s TV series produced in the United States.

U.N.C.L.E. is an organization consisting of agents of all nationalities. Involved in maintaining political and legal order anywhere in the world, it is multinational in makeup and international in scope, protecting and defending nations regardless of size or political persuasion. U.N.C.L.E. operates in Communist and Third World countries the same way that it does in the Western nations. Its primary opponent is the independent international criminal organization, THRUSH.

Headquarters

U.N.C.L.E. headquarters is in New York City near the lowerEast 40's United Nations.

U.N.C.L.E. HQ has four levels: one ground level; two higher levels (Waverly's office is on the top floor) and one sub-level. The roof has radar, a laser beam weapon, a helipad and communication antennas, disguised as billboards, that have a world-wide reach. Below the sub-level, there is an underground docking area and a tunnel that runs under the United Nations headquarters giving U.N.C.L.E.'s boats access to the East River.

The HQ is designed as a fortress hidden in the center of a block of buildings with Brownstone apartments serving as the exterior facade. On one end of the block is a public parking garage (complete with machine gun bays hidden in the ceiling). On the other end is a three-story whitestone building. The first and second floors of the whitestone are occupied by The Mask Club, a sort of Playboy Club-like, members-only "key club" in which the waitresses wear masks. On the third floor are located the offices of U.N.C.L.E.'s propaganda front, a charity fundraising organization.

There are four primary entrances to U.N.C.L.E. HQ. In the daytime, field agents are admitted by way of Del Floria's, a small, nondescript tailor/dry-cleaning shop located one flight below street level. The agents go to the single fitting booth and turn the coat hook on the back wall. Outside in the shop, an operator activates a mechanism on the pressing machine that releases the disguised armored door. The wall swings inward and an agent finds him/herself in the main admissions area. There, a receptionist pins on a security badge (white or later, yellow for highest security clearance; red and green for low clearance and visitors). A chemical on the receptionist's fingers activates the badge. There are also entrances through the Men's and Women's lockers at the rear of the parking garage (admissions for non-field personnel). After hours, when Del Floria's in closed, agents may also enter through the Mask Club or through the offices of the charitable organization.

Logo

The official logo of the organization is a black globe with some lines of longtitude and latitude picked out in white. Black concentric rings surround the globe; to the right of it is the black silhouette of a man in a black suit holding a gun at his side, and a black band beneath the globe and the man features the name "U.N.C.L.E." in outlined letters. The logo is normally superimposed on a map of the world--yellow-brown continents with no country borders (a tribute to the one-world philosophy of U.N.C.L.E.) and blue seas--but is also used plain or with tones inverted on official U.N.C.L.E. documents.

tructure

U.N.C.L.E. is subdivided into eight sections:

ection I: Policy and Operations

This is the administrative branch. It contains the five chiefs of U.N.C.L.E. as well as all sector and station chiefs. There is a conference for everyone in this section yearly as well as an annual meeting of the five chiefs alone.

The five chiefs administer the business of U.N.C.L.E. from five regional offices that correspond loosely (but not exactly --- there is overlap) to the five major continents. The five offices are: New York, Caracas, Nairobi, New Delhi and Berlin. Alexander Waverly is the head of the New York regional office.

ection II: Operations and Enforcement

This is the section that contains the field agents like Napoleon Solo, Illya Kuryakin, April Dancer and Mark Slate. It seems that each of the regional offices has a Chief of Enforcement who functions as second-in-command. Solo is Waverly's Chief of Enforcement.

ection III: Enforcement and Intelligence

These are the lower level field agents, junior enforcement agents, couriers and the like.

ection IV: Intelligence and Communications

This is the beginning of the support personnel sections. Any agent who works at a computer terminal or provides information for the field agents are members of this section.

ection V: Communication and Security

This section contains more support people, such as all the secretaries and communication people.

ection VI: Security and Personnel

Security guards and those who handle personnel matters (like hiring and medical insurance processing) are members of this section.

ection VII: Public Relations and Propaganda

Ironically, little is known about U.N.C.L.E.'s public relations front other than it is located on the third floor of the whitestone building adjacent to the N.Y. headquarters and functions as U.N.C.L.E.'s propaganda front and charity fundraising organization.

ection VIII: Research and Development

Known more colloquially as "The Lab."

External links

* [http://www.interlingua.com/historia/diverse/themanfromuncle.htm 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.] , Interlingua
* [http://www.manfromuncle.org/ 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E. .org]
* [http://www.hmss.com/otherspies/Uncle/ 'Interview with Jon Burlingame - the producer of the four volume CD set of the original TV and movie soundtrack]