Edward Lansdale
Edward Lansdale | |
---|---|
Birth name | Edward Geary Lansdale |
Born | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. | February 6, 1908
Died | February 23, 1987 McLean, Virginia, U.S. | (aged 79)
Allegiance | United States |
Service/ | United States Army United States Air Force |
Years of service | 1943–1947 (USA) 1947–1963 (USAF) |
Rank | Major (USA) Major General (USAF) |
Battles/wars | World War II Hukbalahap Rebellion |
Awards | Distinguished Service Medal National Security Medal Philippine Legion of Honor Philippine Military Merit Medal |
Spouse(s) | Helen Batcheller (m. 1933–1972) Patrocini[a] Yapcinco (m. 1973–1987) |
Relations | 2 sons |
Edward Geary Lansdale (February 6, 1908 – February 23, 1987)[1] was a United States Air Force officer until retiring in 1963 as a major general before continuing his work with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Lansdale was a pioneer in clandestine operations and psychological warfare. In the early 1950s, Lansdale played a significant role in suppressing the Hukbalahap Rebellion in the Philippines. In 1954, he moved to Saigon and started the Saigon Military Mission, a covert intelligence operation which was created to sow dissension in North Vietnam. Lansdale believed the United States could win guerrilla wars by studying the enemy's psychology, an approach that won the approval of the presidential administrations of both Kennedy and Johnson.
Early life
Lansdale was born in
Career
Philippines
Lansdale served with the
In 1950, President Elpidio Quirino personally requested that Lansdale be transferred to the Joint United States Military Assistance Group, Philippines, to assist the intelligence services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in combating the Communist Hukbalahap. Lansdale was an early practitioner of psychological warfare. Adopting a tactic previously used in the Philippines by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, Lansdale spread rumors that Aswangs, blood-sucking demons in Philippine folklore, were loose in the jungle. His men then captured an enemy soldier and drained the blood from his body, leaving the corpse where it could be seen and making the Hukbalahap flee the region. [5]
Lansdale became friends with Ramon Magsaysay, then the secretary of national defense, and with his help Magsaysay eventually became President of the Philippines on December 30, 1953.[6] Lansdale is said to have run Magsaysay's campaign for the CIA in the 1953 Philippines General Election.[7] Lansdale helped the Philippine Armed Forces develop psychological operations, civic actions, and the rehabilitation of Hukbalahap prisoners.
Vietnam
After the end of the left-wing Huk insurgency in the Philippines and after building support for Magsaysay's presidency, CIA director
Operation Passage to Freedom changed the religious balance in Vietnam. Before the war, the majority of Vietnamese Catholics lived in North Vietnam, but after the operation the South held the majority, 55% of which were refugees from the North.[8] Lansdale accomplished that by dropping leaflets in the Northern hamlets stating that "Christ has gone to the South" and other leaflets showing maps with concentric circles emanating from Hanoi suggesting an imminent nuclear bomb strike on the Northern capital.[8]
During his time in Vietnam, Lansdale quickly ingratiated himself with Ngo Dinh Diem, the leader of South Vietnam. Diem, typically suspicious of anyone not in his immediate family, invited Lansdale to move into the presidential palace after which they became friends.[8] In October 1954, Lansdale foiled a coup attempt, cutting General Nguyễn Văn Hinh's communication off from his top lieutenants by moving them to Manila.
Lansdale mentored and trained
Anti-Castro campaign
From 1957 to 1963, Lansdale worked for the
Late career and personal life
Lansdale retired from the Air Force on November 1, 1963. Yet from 1965 to 1968, he was back in Vietnam where he worked in the
Lansdale's biography, The Unquiet American, was written by Cecil Currey and published in 1988; the title refers to the common, but incorrect, belief that the eponymous character in Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American was based on Lansdale.[13] According to Norman Sherry's authorized biography of Greene The Life of Graham Greene (Penguin, 2004), Lansdale did not officially enter the Vietnam arena until 1954, while Greene wrote his book in 1952 after departing Vietnam. It is more likely that he was the inspiration for the character Colonel Hillandale in Eugene Burdick's and William Lederer's joint novel The Ugly American published in 1958.[14] Many of Lansdale's private papers and effects were destroyed in a fire at his McLean home in 1972. In 1981, Lansdale donated most of his remaining papers to Stanford University's Hoover Institution.[15]
Lansdale died of a heart ailment on February 23, 1987.[1] He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[16] He was twice married and had two sons from his first marriage.
Works
Books
- ISBN 978-0823213146.
Correspondence
- Memo to Wesley R. Fishel (Sep. 6, 1955).
- Memo to Wesley R. Fishel (Dec. 19, 1954).
- Letter to Wesley R. Fishel (May 1, 1961).
References
- ^ a b c Pace, Eric (February 24, 1987). "Edward Lansdale Dies at 79; Advisor on Guerrilla Warfare". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved December 29, 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-593-29520-5.
- ISBN 978-0-593-29520-5.
- ^ a b "Major General Edward G. Lansdale, U.S. Air Force". www.af.mil.
- ^ Barnes, Bart (February 24, 1987). "Edward Lansdale, prototype for Ugly American Dies". Washington Post. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
- ISBN 9780399117886.
- ^ Tharoor, Ishaan (13 October 2016). "The long history of the U.S. interfering with elections elsewhere". The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
- ^ OCLC 1085930174.
- ^ Tim Weiner (1995-12-10). "The C.I.A.'s most Important Mission: Itself". The New York Times.
- ^ "Daniel Ellsberg Interview". Conversations with History. Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley – via globetrotter.berkeley.edu.
- ISBN 978-986-5729-39-4.
- ^ Lansdale, In the Midst of Wars (New York: Harper and Row 1972; reprint Fordham University 1995) p. 365.
- ^ Boot, Max (2018-01-10). "Meet the Mild-Mannered Spy Who Made Himself the 'American James Bond'". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
- ^ "Lodge Aide Is Man of Legend For Exploits in South Vietnam; Lansdale, Insurgency Expert, Said to Have Played Key Role in Saigon in 1954". New York Times. August 19, 1965.
- ^ "Register of the Edward Geary Lansdale papers". www.oac.cdlib.org.
- ^ "ANC Explorer". ancexplorer.army.mil.
Further reading
- Boot, Max (2018). The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam. Liveright/W.W. Norton & Co.
- Louis Menand, "Made in Vietnam: Edward Lansdale and the war over the war" (review of Max Boot, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam, The New Yorker, 26 February 2018, pp. 63–69.
- Currey, Cecil B. Edward Lansdale, the Unquiet American (Houghton Mifflin, 1988).
- Fish, Lydia M. "General Edward G. Lansdale and the folksongs of Americans in the Vietnam War." JSTOR 541780. Archived from the original.
- Freedman, Lawrence D. "The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam." Foreign Affairs 97.3 (2018): 195.
- McAllister, James. "The lost revolution: Edward Lansdale and the American defeat in Vietnam 1964–1968." Small Wars and Insurgencies 14.2 (2003): 1–26.
- Nashel, Jonathan. Edward Lansdale's Cold War (Univ of Massachusetts Press, 2005).
External links
- Official Air Force Biography
- James Gibney, "The Ugly American." Review of Edward Lansdale's Cold War, by Jonathan Nashel. New York Times, January 15, 2006.
- Marc D. Bernstein, History.net, Ed Lansdale's Black Warfare in 1950s Vietnam
- Imperial War Museum Interview
- Register of the Edward Geary Lansdale papers at the Online Archive of California