Frank Wisner
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Frank Gardiner Wisner (1910 – October 29, 1965) was the head of the Directorate of Plans of the Central Intelligence Agency.
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[edit] Early life
Wisner was born in Laurel, Mississippi. He was educated at Woodberry Forest School in Orange and the University of Virginia.
[edit] Career
After graduating Wisner worked as a Wall Street lawyer. However, he soon became bored and enlisted in the United States Navy. He worked in the Navy's censor's office until he was able to get a transfer to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). [1] He was stationed first in Turkey, and then in Romania, with his main assignement being to spy on the Soviet Union. He learned that the Soviet Union planned to take over all of Eastern Europe and was disappointed at the U.S. failure to move to prevent it. He advised the Romanian royal family to go into exile. He was then transferred to Wiesbaden.
After World War II, he joined the New York City law firm of Carter Ledyard.
[edit] CIA
He was recruited in 1947 by Dean Acheson to join the State Department's Office of Occupied Territories.
In 1948, the CIA created a covert action wing, innocuously called the Office of Policy Coordination. Frank Wisner was put in charge of the operation and recruited many of his old friends from Carter Ledyard. According to its secret charter, its responsibilities include "propaganda, economic warfare, preventive direct action, including sabotage, antisabotage, demolition and evacuation procedures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world." [2]
Later that year Wisner established Operation Mockingbird, a program to influence the domestic and foreign media. In 1952, he became head of the Directorate of Plans, with Richard Helms as his chief of operations. This office had control of 75% of the CIA budget. In this position, he was instrumental in bringing about the fall of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala.
He worked closely with Kim Philby, the British agent who was eventually unmasked as a Soviet spy.
In 1956, Wisner suffered a breakdown and was diagnosed as a manic depressive. He underwent psychoanalysis and was subjected to electroshock therapy. When he was released in 1958, he was still too ill to return to his post. Instead, he was sent to England.
In 1962, he was recalled to Washington and agreed to retire from the CIA.
[edit] Personal life
He married Mary Knowles Fritchey (28 Jun 1912 - 9 Jul 2002). They had four children: Frank G. Wisner, Ellis Wisner, Graham Wisner and Elizabeth 'Wendy' Hazard.
Frank Wisner committed suicide using one of his son's shotguns.
