John K. Singlaub

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John Kirk Singlaub

Major General John K. Singlaub
Born (1921-07-10) July 10, 1921
Independence, California
Allegiance United StatesUnited States of America
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service 1943–1977
Rank Major General
Battles/wars World War II
Korean War
Vietnam War
Awards Distinguished Service Medal (2)
Silver Star
Legion of Merit (3)
Bronze Star (2)
Air Medal (2)
Purple Heart

John Kirk Singlaub (born July 10, 1921) is a highly-decorated former OSS officer and a retired Major General in the United States Army, and a founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He was a joint founder, with Congressman Larry McDonald, of the Western Goals Foundation, a conservative private intelligence dissemination network. Singlaub is a contributing author to several books and the author of his autobiography as well as numerous articles.

Biography

Singlaub was born in Independence, California on July 10, 1921.[1] After graduating from Van Nuys High School[citation needed] in 1939 he attended the University of California at Los Angeles and received after graduation his commission as a second lieutenant of infantry on January 14, 1943.[1]

As a member of the distinguished Operation Jedburgh (Singlaub was part of the three man team code name JAMES), Singlaub parachuted behind German lines in August 1944 to work with the French Resistance fighters or Maquis groups that had swelled the resistance ranks after the D-Day invasion during World War II. He headed CIA operations in postwar Manchuria during the Chinese Communist revolution, led troops in the Korean War, managed the secret war along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam, and worked with the Contras in Nicaragua.

In 1977, while Singlaub was chief of staff of U.S. forces in South Korea, he publicly criticized President Jimmy Carter's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the Korean peninsula. On March 21, 1977, Carter relieved him of duty for overstepping his bounds and failing to respect the President's authority as Commander-in-Chief.[2][3]

After retiring from the army, in 1979 Singlaub, with John Rees and Democratic Congressman from Georgia, Larry McDonald founded the Western Goals Foundation. According to The Spokesman-Review, it was intended to "blunt subversion, terrorism, and communism" by filling the gap "created by the disbanding of the House Un-American Activities Committee"[4]

Singlaub was founder in 1981 of the United States Council for World Freedom, the U.S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). The chapter became involved with the Iran–Contra affair,[5] with Associated Press reporting that, "Singlaub's private group became the public cover for the White House operation".[6] The WACL was described by former member Geoffrey Stewart-Smith as "largely a collection of Nazis, Fascists, anti-Semites, sellers of forgeries, vicious racialists, and corrupt self-seekers." Singlaub is credited with purging the organization of these types and making it respectable.[7]

U.S. Army General William Westmoreland described Singlaub as a "true military professional" and "a man of honest, patriotic conviction and courage."[citation needed] Congressman Henry J. Hyde (Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, and Intelligence Committees), described Singlaub as "a brave man, a thorough patriot, and a keen observer"; someone who had been "in the center of almost every controversial military action since World War II." Active for 40 years in overt and covert operations, he had private and secret interviews with many military and government leaders worldwide. He personally knew William Casey, Director of Central Intelligence during the Reagan Administration, as well as Oliver North, and was involved in the Iran–Contra affair.

Singlaub was President Reagan's administrative chief liaison in the so-called 'private' Contra supply effort. Through his chairmanship of the world Anti-Communist League (WACL) and its U.S. chapter, the U.S. Council for World Freedom (USCWF), he enlisted paramilitary groups, foreign governments, and American conservatives in the contra cause.

During his military service, Singlaub was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf clusters, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf cluster, the Air Medal with Oak Leaf cluster, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Purple Heart. His foreign decorations include the French Croix de Guerre with Palm and Bronze Star devices, British Mention in Despatches oak leaf, as well as decorations from China, the Netherlands, and South Vietnam.

He lived in Arlington, Virginia, and now lives in Franklin, Tennessee.

He is a member of the advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.[8]

Publications include

  • Hazardous Duty by Major General John K. Singlaub (with Malcolm McConnell). Autobiography, Summit Books, June 1991. ISBN 0-671-70516-4

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Singlaub's official site
  2. ↑ Carter / Singlaub (NBC) from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive
  3. ↑ Time Magazine - General on the Carpet
  4. ↑ "McDonald's peers note tragic irony", The Spokesman-Review, 1982-09-02, retrieved 2009-08-26 
  5. ↑ RightWeb Group Watch profile
  6. ↑ http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jzQtw1kATj1xCqPcAmwgCKDtNpDQD93LGSJG0[]
  7. ↑ McManus, Doyle (September 16, 1985). "Rightist Crusade Finds Its Way Into Spotlight: Led by Retired Gen. Singlaub, Anti-Communist League Is Funnel for Private Funds to Contras" (fee required). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-10-08. 
  8. ↑ "National Advisory Council". Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2011-05-20. 
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