The army became fed up with the Gehlen Organization, but there was no way out. Its operatives were professional double-crossers and liars—many were also alleged war criminals—and now they had the army over a barrel. Decades later it would emerge that General Gehlen was reportedly earning a million dollars a year. In late 1948, CIA director Roscoe Hillenkoetter met with army intelligence to discuss the CIA’s taking charge of the Gehlen Organization. The two parties agreed, and on July 1, 1949, the CIA officially assumed control of Gehlen and his men.
That same summer, the CIA created the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI), and its first director, Dr. Willard Machle, traveled to Germany to set up a program for “special interrogation methods” against Soviet spies. The CIA had intelligence indicating that the Soviets had developed mind control programs. The Agency wanted to know what it would be up against if the Russians got hold of its American spies. In an attempt to determine what kinds of techniques the Soviets might be using, the CIA set up a Top Secret interrogation program at Camp King. The facility offered unique access to Soviet spies who had been caught in the Gehlen Organization’s web. Revolutionary new interrogation techniques could be practiced on these men under the operational code name Bluebird.
A limited number of official CIA documents remain on record from this program. Most were destroyed by CIA director Richard Helms. Initially the CIA envisioned Operation Bluebird as a “defensive” program. Officers from Scientific Intelligence were “to apply special methods of interrogation for the purpose of evaluation of Russian practices.” But very quickly the Agency decided that in order to master the best defensive methods it needed to first develop the most cutting-edge offensive techniques. This sounded like doublespeak and was indicative of the Cold War mind-set that was taking hold in intelligence circles and also in the military. The CIA believed it needed to develop the sharpest sword to create the strongest, most impenetrable shield. Operation Bluebird was just the beginning. Soon the program would expand to include mind control techniques and Nazi doctors recruited under Operation Paperclip.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Hall of Mirrors
In the fall of 1948, in Germany, one of the most unusual press conferences of the Cold War took place. Major General Walter Schreiber, the former surgeon general of the Third Reich, had last been seen on the stand at Nuremberg testifying against fellow members of the Nazi high command. Then, on November 2, 1948, he reappeared at a press conference. After three years, five months, and three days in Soviet custody, Schreiber had allegedly “escaped” from his Soviet captors. Now the vaccine specialist said he had important news to share with the free world. The press conference opened with Schreiber delivering a brief statement about what had happened to him—he’d been a prisoner of the Soviets since the fall of Berlin and had recently escaped—followed by a lengthy question-and-answer period with an American official acting as translator. The first question asked by a reporter was, How did Schreiber manage to escape?
Schreiber said he had “broken free” of his Communist guards in “a life or death situation” but hesitated to say more. With him now, in the safety of U.S. protective custody, he said, were his wife, Olga, his fourteen-year-old son, Paul-Gerhard, and one of his two grown daughters.
“How was it possible the Russians let him get out?” asked another member of the press, a question on everyone’s mind. In the two years since General Schreiber’s stunning testimony at Nuremberg, he’d been made starshina, or elder, in the Soviet military. It was almost inconceivable that a major player like Schreiber simply slipped away from his Soviet guards. Yet here he was.
“I’m not asking the details,” the reporter clarified, “but how was it possible he was able to escape?”
In November 1948, Berlin was a city under psychological and physical siege. For more than four months now, the Soviets had blocked all rail, canal, and road access between East and West Berlin. To feed the civilians in the western zone, the Americans were flying in airplanes full of food. Schreiber’s “escape” happened during the height of the Berlin Blockade.
“For reasons of security, [I] would not like to answer this question,” Schreiber said.
“I don’t want to ask any details,” repeated the newsman. “But is it possible for others who are in the same position to get out?”
“The question was answered,” said Schreiber.