Milton Bearden

Milton Bearden a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer, author and film consultant. Bearden is President and CEO of the Asia-Africa Projects Group, a Washington, DC-based resource development and advisory services firm. As of 2003, Bearden lives in Reston, Virginia with his French-born wife, Marie-Catherine, a University professor

Bearden was born in Oklahoma and spent his early years in the Washington state, where his father worked on the Manhattan Project, and later moved with his family to Houston, Texas. After serving in the United States Air Force, he joined the CIA in 1964. Bearden is a member of the Yale Veterans Association and the University of Texas Exes.

Career with the CIA

During his 30-year career with the CIA Bearden was a station chief in Pakistan, Nigeria, Sudan and Germany. In Pakistan from 1986 to 1989, he became a CIA Field Officer in Afghanistan. He played a role in funding and training the mujahedeen to fight occupying Soviet forces.

Bearden appeared several times in the BBC Documentary by Adam Curtis called The Power of Nightmares where he talked of his involvement with the Mujahadeen, the Afghan Arabs and how he was assigned to the role by William Casey the then current Director of Central Intelligence. According to Bearden, Casey told him that Afghanistan seemed to be possibly one of the keys to winning. Casey said "'I want you to go to Afghanstian, I want you to go next month and I will give you what ever you need to win... He gave me the Stinger missiles and a billion dollars!"

Bearden was one of the senior CIA officials criticized in the 1994 "snitch fax". The fax was allegedly written by ex-CIA officer David Sullivan, and addressed to members of Congress investigating CIA issues, including the Aldrich Ames spy case.^[1]^[2]

He was later appointed the Chief of the Soviet/East European Division during the collapse of the Soviet Union. He received the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the Intelligence Medal of Merit and the Donovan Award for his CIA service. He received the Federal Cross of Merit from the President of the German Federal Republic for his service in Germany at the end of the Cold War.

Writer and commentator

Since retiring, Bearden has written books based on his experiences, commented on current events, and appeared on television, including Secret Warriors (Discovery Channel), Covert Action (BBC), The Power of Nightmares (BBC2) and Heroes Under Fire (The History Channel). Although generally supportive of the CIA and its mission, he has also been outspoken in his criticism of US actions in the War on Terrorism. He was co-author of one book with James Risen. Mr. Bearden is a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal, and has contributed to Foreign Affairs and to the book about September 11, 2001, How Did This Happen?, published by PublicAffairs. He is a consultant for CBS News.

In August 1999, he argued that the threat posed by Osama bin Laden had been blown out of proportion. He called for the U.S. to renounce "any plans for a unilateral military action against Osama bin Laden or for another cruise missile attack on Afghanistan." He called for a "serious dialogue" with the Taliban and said that they "have no more obligation to extradite Osama bin Laden to the United States than, say, the French do in the case of Ira Einhorn or the Israelis in the case of Samuel Scheinbein -- both of whom are fugitives from American justice in capital murder cases." ^[3]

Film consultant

He worked with Robert De Niro on Universal Studios’ smash-hit Meet the Parents, and worked with De Niro and screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Insider) on The Good Shepherd, released in December 2006. Universal Studios and De Niro’s Tribeca Productions have optioned The Main Enemy as a planned sequel to The Good Shepherd. He also worked with director Mike Nichols on the film Charlie Wilson's War, released in December 2007.

Books

The Black Tulip: A Novel of War in Afghanistan (1998) ISBN 0-375-76083-0
The Main Enemy, The Inside story of the CIA's Final showdown with the KGB, with James Risen (2003) ISBN 0-679-46309-7
How Did This Happen, Terrorism and The New War (2001) (contributor) ISBN 1-58648-130-4

References

↑ Wedge: The Secret War between the FBI and CIA, Mark Riebling, 1994, pub by Alfred A Knopf
↑ C.I.A. Officer's Suit Tells Tale of Betrayal and Disgrace By TIM WEINER, NY Times, September 01, 1996
↑ Making Osama bin Laden's Day 13 August 1999.

External links

Sunday (Australia) online chat
PBS interview (conducted late 1998 or early 1999 )

Cold War

USA USSR ANZUS NATO Non-Aligned Movement SEATO Warsaw Pact

1940s	Dekemvriana Yalta Conference Operation Unthinkable Potsdam Conference Gouzenko Affair Operation Masterdom Operation Beleaguer Operation Blacklist Forty Iran crisis of 1946 Greek Civil War Corfu Channel incident Turkish Straits crisis Restatement of Policy on Germany First Indochina War Truman Doctrine Asian Relations Conference Marshall Plan 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état Tito–Stalin Split Berlin Blockade Western betrayal Iron Curtain Eastern Bloc Western Bloc Chinese Civil War (Second round) Malayan Emergency

1950s	Bamboo Curtain Korean War 1953 Iranian coup d'état Uprising of 1953 in East Germany 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état Partition of Vietnam First Taiwan Strait Crisis Geneva Summit (1955) Poznań 1956 protests Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Suez Crisis Syrian Crisis of 1957 Sputnik crisis Second Taiwan Strait Crisis Cuban Revolution Kitchen Debate Bandung Conference Bricker Amendment McCarthyism Operation Gladio Iraqi July Revolution "We will bury you"

1960s	Congo Crisis Sino-Soviet split 1960 U-2 incident Bay of Pigs Invasion 1960 Turkish coup d'état Soviet–Albanian split Berlin Wall Portuguese Colonial War (Angolan War of Independence Guinea-Bissau War of Independence Mozambican War of Independence) Cuban Missile Crisis Sino-Indian War Sarawak Communist Insurgency Iraqi Ramadan Revolution 1963 Syrian coup d'état Vietnam War 1964 Brazilian coup d'état United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1965–66) South African Border War Transition to the New Order Domino theory ASEAN Declaration Laotian Civil War 1966 Syrian coup d'état Argentine Revolution Korean DMZ Conflict Greek military junta of 1967–74 USS Pueblo incident Six-Day War War of Attrition Cultural Revolution Prague Spring Malaysia Communist Insurgency War Invasion of Czechoslovakia Iraqi Ba'athist Revolution Goulash Communism Sino-Soviet border conflict Communist insurgency in the Philippines Corrective Move

1970s	Détente Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Black September in Jordan 1970 Syrian Corrective Revolution Cambodian Civil War Realpolitik Ping-pong diplomacy 1971 Turkish coup d'état Corrective Revolution (Egypt) Four Power Agreement on Berlin 1972 Nixon visit to China 1973 Chilean coup d'état Yom Kippur War Carnation Revolution Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Rhodesian Bush War Angolan Civil War Mozambican Civil War Ogaden War Ethiopian Civil War Lebanese Civil War Sino-Albanian split Cambodian–Vietnamese War Sino-Vietnamese War Iranian Revolution Operation Condor Dirty War Bangladesh Liberation War Korean Air Lines Flight 902 Seven Days to the River Rhine

1980s	Soviet war in Afghanistan 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts 1980 Turkish coup d'état 1986 Black Sea incident 1988 Black Sea bumping incident Solidarity Soviet reaction Contras Central American crisis RYAN Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Able Archer 83 Star Wars Invasion of Grenada People Power Revolution Nagorno-Karabakh War Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall Revolutions of 1989 Glasnost Perestroika

1990s	Mongolian Revolution of 1990 Breakup of Yugoslavia Dissolution of the Soviet Union Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Frozen conflicts	Abkhazia China Korea Nagorno-Karabakh South Ossetia Transnistria Sino-Indian border dispute

Foreign policy	Truman Doctrine Marshall Plan Containment Eisenhower Doctrine Domino theory Hallstein Doctrine Kennedy Doctrine Peaceful coexistence Ostpolitik Johnson Doctrine Brezhnev Doctrine Nixon Doctrine Ulbricht Doctrine Carter Doctrine Reagan Doctrine Rollback Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War

Ideologies	Capitalism Chicago school Keynesianism Monetarism Neoclassical economics Reaganomics Supply-side economics Thatcherism Communism Marxism–Leninism Castroism Eurocommunism Guevarism Hoxhaism Juche Maoism Naxalism Stalinism Titoism Liberal democracy Social democracy

Organizations	ASEAN CIA Comecon EEC KGB Non-Aligned Movement SAARC Safari Club MI6 Stasi

Propaganda	Active measures Izvestia Pravda Crusade for Freedom Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Red Scare TASS Voice of America Voice of Russia

Races	Arms race Nuclear arms race Space Race

See also	Brinkmanship NATO–Russia relations Soviet espionage in U.S. Russian espionage in U.S. Soviet Union–United States relations US–Soviet summits

Category Portal Timeline List of conflicts

War on Terror

War in Afghanistan • Iraq War • War in North-West Pakistan

Participants

Operational	ISAF Operation Enduring Freedom participants Afghanistan Northern Alliance Iraq (Iraqi Armed Forces) NATO Pakistan United Kingdom United States European Union Philippines Ethiopia

Targets	al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant al-Nusra Front Khorasan Abu Sayyaf Anwar al-Awlaki Al-Shabaab Hamas Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Hafiz Muhammad Saeed Hezbollah Hizbul Mujahideen Islamic Courts Union Jaish-e-Mohammed Jemaah Islamiyah Lashkar-e-Taiba Taliban Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

Conflicts

Operation Enduring Freedom	War in Afghanistan OEF – Philippines Georgia Train and Equip Program Georgia Sustainment and Stability OEF – Horn of Africa OEF – Trans Sahara Drone attacks in Pakistan

Other	Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present) Insurgency in the North Caucasus Moro insurgency in the Philippines Iraq War Iraqi insurgency Operation Linda Nchi Terrorism in Saudi Arabia War in North-West Pakistan War in Somalia (2006–2009) 2007 Lebanon conflict al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen Military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Operation Inherent Resolve War in Afghanistan (2015–present) Operation Resolute Support