International Rescue Committee - Covert network: progressives, the International Rescue Committee, and the CIA

To my son, Jeff

Kindred Operations

The International Rescue Committee was only one of several organizations working within the same segment of the covert network, which handled refugees from the Soviet bloc countries. To survive, the IRC had not only to project its own distinctive program but also to maintain working relations with kindred operations, or suffer the consequences of destructive vendettas. In general, the IRC energetically exercised its mandate for refugee relief, expanding its purview beyond the limits of this narrowly defined jurisdiction. During the Cold War decades, the Committee eagerly sought to develop innovative projects that would gain the approval of the intelligence community and yet would not directly infringe on the existing programs of neighboring organizations.

Thus, a case study of the IRC necessarily includes a review of other organizations within the same sector of the covert network. Two of these organizations, the National Committee for a Free Europe (NCFE) and the American Committee for Liberation (AMCOMLIB), functioned as Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) proprietaries, operations originated and directly controlled by those within the intelligence community. Others, such as the East European Fund, an affiliate of the Ford Foundation, were similar to the Committee in being privately initiated projects enmeshed in a cooperative, working relationship with the CIA. Finally, there were several other refugee relief agencies in direct competition with the IRC, including some that had their roots in the exile communities of specific nationalities. For example, supporters of the Tolstoy Foundation, which reflected the interests and perspective of Russian monarchists, perceived the Committee as an immediate threat and, at one point, attempted to undermine it as a rival.

While the International Rescue Committee usually functioned as a refugee relief agency, it sometimes went beyond that role to sponsor covert operations with more provocative missions. In the 1950s, the IRC sponsored the Fighting Group Against Inhumanity, a West Berlin-based organization. During this period of instability and confrontation, the Fighting Group carried out a detailed plan of action intended to destabilize the East German regime, a plan that encompassed acts of terrorism and sabotage. In the 1960s, the Committee solicited funds for those digging large tunnels under the Berlin Wall, a method of escape that would be shelved after a lethal firefight between East German soldiers and one set of tunnel diggers. During the war in Vietnam, the Committee fostered the creation of the American Friends of Vietnam (AFVN), which organized a propaganda campaign extolling the South Vietnamese regime and its autocratic ruler, Ngo Dinh Diem. When the ties between the AFVN and the Diem regime were exposed, White House aides reporting directly to President Lyndon Johnson initiated the formation of a new organization, the Citizens Committee for Peace with Freedom in Vietnam, which operated along similar lines.

Social Democratic Ties

Throughout the most volatile confrontations of the Cold War, the International Rescue Committee was there, undertaking open and covert programs to advance U.S. foreign policy in the contested zone. Still, the Committee differed from most Cold War operations in that it unstintingly cultivated its ties to European social democrats, ties that had been first established in the period leading up to the outbreak of World War II. Furthermore, the IRC buttressed its credibility by encouraging the continuing participation of liberals and social democrats in leading positions within its ranks. Although a few of these prominent activists were themselves former refugees from occupied Europe, several of them emerged from the ranks of the American socialist movement.