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Peer de Silva (d. 1978) was a station chief in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During World War II he served as an Army officer and worked in the Manhattan Engineer District, the undercover project which sought to build the first atomic bomb. After the war, he joined a pre-CIA intelligence service, eventually rising to the rank of Chief of Station (COS) in the CIA. Having learned Russian, he worked in central Europe during the 1950s, then as CIA chief in Vienna. Later, he headed the CIA's station at the American Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, where he played a role in two major events. First was the democratic April Revolution in 1960. Yet in 1961 a successful May coup d'etat installed General Pak Chung Hee (head of state, 1961-1979). Following the 1963 military overthrown of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem (head of state, 1954-1963), President Johnson personally selected de Silva as the CIA's new Chief of Station in Saigon.〔See notes in text below for source references.〕 ==Early career== Born and raised in San Francisco, California, de Silva entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating probably in the class of 1941. As an Army officer in personnel security, he protected the scientists and technicians in the Manhattan project. He carried to Tinian, an island in the western Pacific, "the pluonium sphere". It was then assembled into the device that horrifically obliterated central Nagasaki. Following the surrender of Japan, Lieutenant Colonel de Silva escorted a team of civilians who conducted a scientific survey at the sites of the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In October 1945 de Silva returned to Washington, D.C., for reassignment in the War Department.〔de Silva (1978): San Francisco, p. 289; USMA, pp. ix, 76; Manhattan project, pp. 3, 4, 4-5.〕〔Helms (2003), p. 76 (de Silva: USMA, Manhattan project).〕 The OSS, the major American intelligence agency during World War II, interested de Silva. Although the OSS had been abolished (late 1945), for a time core OSS functions were absorbed by a new military unit in the War Department: the SSU. It was headed by General John Magruder, formerly a deputy director of the OSS. In 1947 these core "operation" functions were folded into the newly-created Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).〔Montague (1992), p. 21 (John Magruder as Donovan's Deputy at OSS); pp. 78:note-c, 87-88, 221:note-d (the OSS clandestine services transferred to SSU, at same E Street offices).〕〔Ranelagh (1986), p. 100-101. Magruder at War heads SSU containing the "operations side" of disbanded OSS, while analysis side of OSS at State. Yet severe cut-backs, e.g., SSU personnel declines from 3,000 to about 800.〕 In the meantime, General Leslie Groves of the Manhattan Engineer District agreed to transfer de Silva. At SSU, General Magruder assigned de Silva to "X-2" the counterintelligence section. From his war-time work, de Silva knew of the Soviet espionage assault on the Manhattan atomic bomb project. An assignment to Europe was considered for de Silva, in the effort to counter Soviet attempts to malappropriate scientific information.〔de Silva (1978): OSS, and SSU under John Magruder, pp. 3-4; Europe, p. 5.〕〔Powers (1979), p. 28: the SSU under Magruder contained two sections: x-2 (counterintelligence) and SI or Secret Intelligence.〕 An opportunity arose, however, for Russian language instruction at Columbia University in a 3-year Army program. In 1946 de Silva obtained a temporary Army transfer and began his study of Russian. In mid-1948 he was sent to Allied-occupied Austria.〔Ranelagh (1986), p. 138: At that time Vienna was "second only to Berlin as a point of East-West conflict."〕 There he minded an unpleasant Russian colonel permitted to travel widely in the American zone, in order to speak with displaced persons; the Soviet offered them return to the USSR, an very unpopular option. During 1949 de Silva repeatedly flew between Helsinki and Moscow, while carrying classified documents as a diplomatic courier. Associated with the Army per his Russian language ability, de Silva nonetheless made contact with various CIA agents stationed in central and eastern Europe, very tense terrain during the early years of the Cold War.〔de Silva (1978): language, pp. 5-7; Russian colonel, pp. 7-14; courier, pp. 16-17, 24-27; CIA agents, pp, 5, 17.〕 As "an Army officer on detail to the CIA" de Silva, from late 1949 to mid-1951, became deputy to the chief at a CIA base in Pullach, near Munich, in the newly independent Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Then CIA was replacing Army intelligence in its role doing liaison work with the reconstituted Gehlen organization, that it had performed during the Allied occupation of Germany. Headquartered in Pullach, this West German intelligence group was administered by Reinhard Gehlen, who had in World War II led German military intelligence in the east.〔de Silva (1978), pp. 38, 53 (quote, CIA Pullach office); Gehlen was nicknamed the "Doctor" (p. 42).〕〔Murphy, Kondrashev, Bailey (1997), pp. 111, 416 (Gehlen Org. run by U. S. Army in late 194Os).〕 A major part of de Silva's job in Pullach was to assist in various West German efforts to collect information from the occupied Soviet Zone of Germany. The chief target was the Russian military establiishment, its intentions and capabilities. Deputy de Silva frequently met with Gehlen, a shy introvert, but intense and dedicated. They worked to recruit German agents (known as ''V-manner''), sent to or already living in the Soviet Zone. Awareness of the status of these agents was tricky, as sometimes a ''V-mann'' might be turned or doubled by opposing Communist officials, corrupting any subsequent information. In 1956 Gehlen became the first chief of West German intelligence, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).〔de Silva (1978): pp. 40-41 (German agents); 37-41, 42-43 (Gehlen); 39, 40 (BND).〕〔Helms (2003), p. 76 (de Silva's vetting of Gehlen's agents).〕〔Murphy, Kondrashev, Bailey (1997), p. 430 (Gehlen and BND); cf. p. 19 (early pro-West German agents in Soviet Zone, and doubled Communist agents).〕 Back at CIA headquarters, then located in Washington near the Lincoln Memorial, de Silva in 1951 briefly worked in the ''Foreign Intelligence Staff'' under the veteran Eric Timm. Later de Silva was appointed chief of operations in the ''Soviet Russia Division''. At that time the CIA possessed no assets (intelligence agents) in the USSR. Without much success, the CIA had been parachuting Russian-speaking volunteers into the Soviet Union, with false papers. Almost all of them, however, were being captured and forced to serve the Soviets; any further information received was doctored, or worthless. One CIA operation in Russia that did meet with success involved a joint reconnaissance mission with the Navy, sending a small team to a newly-built Soviet airfield in eastern Siberia. On occasion the CIA encountered the defection of a Soviet agent, which caused excitement but required a studied reception, patient observation, and a careful response based on a calibrated trust. In 1955 an increase in defections kept the ''SR Division'' busy.〔de Silva (1978): HQ, pp. 53-54; FI Staff, p. 54; no assets, p. 5; SR Div., pp. 54-55; volunteers, pp. 55-57; Siberia, pp. 58-61; defection, pp. 62-66, 68-70, 84-85.〕〔Powers (1979), p. 42, no assets: Soviet Russia for awhile "remained a 'denied area' which resisted penetration" by the CIA.〕 With the purpose of resigning as an Army officer de Silva had in 1951 been interviewed by formidable General Walter Bedell Smith, then the DCI. Routine orders to Army officers could interfere with duties at CIA. In 1953 de Silva spoke with the new DCI Allen Dulles. He was honorably discharged by the Army. Accordingly, de Silva then became a civilian at CIA.〔de Silva (1978): 75-76. After discharge, de Silva signed with the Army Reserve Corps.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peer de Silva」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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