A Study On The U.S. Paramilitary Operation Policies Of The Truman Administration

After the World War II, the US-Soviet Union relations are becoming cold and Cold War is on the verge of breaking up. The US and Soviet Union who had been allied countries now became rivals. In this situation, the US changes its foreign policies greatly, attempting to disintegrate socialist camps and isolate Soviet Union through special means, and win the final victory of Cold War. Therefore, all previous US governments had been trying to pursue a policy that will impel other socialist countries to break away from Soviet camp and eventually give up socialism. The "Containment" policy of Eisenhower administration is different strategies adopted to secure the purpose, with paramilitary operation as an important post of both policies.As for this subject, there is no special research. Research on Covert Action both home and abroad are as rare as the stars at dawns, and even less the special researches on paramilitary operations—one of the important part of convert action. On the basis of generalizing the US recently declassified diplomatic files, this paper analyses the form, establishment and implementation of US paramilitary operations from the perspective of US strategy for Soviet Union and foreign policies for other countries (chiefly socialist countries), with the focus on the Far East and Eastern Europe in order to get an overall understanding of US paramilitary operations in this period.The paper consists of five parts, including introduction and conclusions. The introduction part gives the perspective of the paper subject, the research review both home and abroad and the points needed to explain.The second part elaborates on the causes of US paramilitary operations. Paramilitary operations, as a diplomatic means, have been there for long in American history, almost living together with the born of U.S.A. However, it has not been attached importance to by the decision makers for quite a long period of time in the past. Not until the World War II, did US and U.K. unite together to carry out large-scale paramilitary operations in Nazi's rear lines in France and Yugoslavia to interfere with German troops and effectively pin down the German troops and render strong support to the Allis's Normandy landing, and in Norway, to destroy the rail road running north and south through Norway and successfully prevent German troops from going down south to support German's metro politician territory. The operations eventually promoted the German collapse and the ending of World War II in Europe. The paramilitary operations are large-scaled and achieve a remarkable effect, but have not become the US independent foreign policy. Only after the end of World War II, when the layout of international relations changes sharply and cold war breaks out and gets increasingly intense, do paramilitary operations gradually become the US important policy tools against Soviet Union and its sphere of influence. This part also tries to define the connotation of paramilitary operation, holding the view that it refers to the operation between traditional military and non-military operations, including training and supporting the anti-government forces in enemy countries to undertake the armed destructive and subversive operations as well as the armed destruction and assassination against leaders in the enemy countries, which are executed by the secret agents of the country involved who are directly or indirectly trained by CIA's agents.The third part discusses the US paramilitary operations of Truman administration, focusing on the Far East and Eastern Europe. Taking Albania, Poland and Ukraine in East Europe as examples, this part analyses in detail the features and causes of the failure of US paramilitary operations. And it also discusses the most important US paramilitary operations carried out in the Far East, taking China and Korea as examples, with the emphasis on the Korean War.The fourth part, following the previous, makes an overall analysis on the paramilitary operations of Truman Administration, holding the view that in terms of their purposes the US paramilitary operations executed at this time is a dramatic and total failure. And it further makes an intensive analysis on the causes of the failure of paramilitary operations and argues that the reasons for the failure are as follows: 1. The strategic objective of the operation in early post-war years is not clear and disregards realities; 2. There are contradictions between Office of Policy Coordination(OPC) and Office of Special Operation(OSO), and the early operations are lack of coordination between US and Britain and fail to get the efficient cooperation from other departments of the government, especially from different branches of convert actions; 3. People who carry out the operations do not receive enough training; 4. Soviet Union has taken effective anti-spy action; 5. There is a lack of analysis on the specific situations in target countries, including their geology, history, cultures, politics and so on; 6. Donovan's tradition causes negative influence over the operations. The last part is a summary of the whole paper, presenting an overall comment on the paramilitary operation of Truman Administration. The paper argues that one of the important reasons for the failure of the operation abroad at that time lies in the ignorance of the change of international environment and that the strategic thoughts of Truman times is better to be regarded as an "integration" of different strategic thoughts, with strategy of containment being one of its main components. The author also believes that the US paramilitary operation in early Cold War years has achieved some success to some degree, not a total failure without any reward. Through the operation, the US policy-making body realizes the limitation of convert actions and that it is not enough to reach important political targets just by taking paramilitary operations and that the opportunity of success will greatly increase if covert actions are combined with diplomatic means. Besides, people concerned have accumulated rich experience in management and revised techniques needed through the carry-out of the operations and laid a social foundation for the effective similar operations in Guatemala and Iran in the late 1950's. Moreover, the operations also show the US determination against Moscow. That is, the Western World would never disregard Stalin's expansion, which is a point different from traditional views. The operations have also played an active role in putting an end to the Cold War.