Reese, Mary Ellen. General Reinhard Gehlen: The CIA Connection. Fairfax VA:
George Mason University Press, 1990. 231 pages.
As Nazi Germany was collapsing, General Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler's chief
of eastern front intelligence, buried his files and waited to be captured.
He felt certain that access to his files was an offer the Americans couldn't
refuse. He was right, of course, partly because the Cold War was already
being planned, and partly because Gehlen's scientific collection and analysis
methods were very effective. He and his staff cut a deal with the CIA and
the Pentagon to absorb his networks and his expertise. As part of the deal,
Gehlen transferred his organization (the "Gehlen Org") to West Germany in
1955. He directed the BND until his retirement in 1968, and died in 1979.
Mary Ellen Reese offers the first book about Gehlen that concentrates
on the American connection. She interviewed former CIA and Army Intelligence
officers, and received "hundreds" of documents under FOIA from various
agencies. But her claim that this is the first undistorted "full" picture,
drawing on "wholly new information," seems unrealistic, as the CIA wouldn't
cooperate with her. We also know that PIR advisor Carl Oglesby has been
trying for years to sue for Gehlen records that the government considers
too sensitive.
ISBN 0-913969-30-3
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