Covert Operations

Military or political activities undertaken in a way that disguises the identity of the perpetrator or permits the perpetrator to deny involvement with those activities. Covert operations are not a new phenomenon; the ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu described the basic principles of covert warfare in his classic book The Art of War. Nations including the United States have long used covert tactics against opponents when open warfare was politically or militarily risky. Since World War II, however, covert operations have become a major part of U.S. national security policy.

Types of Covert Operations

The term “covert operations” covers a wide variety of both military and political actions. These may include paramilitary activities, political and economic subversion, propaganda and disinformation campaigns, and assassinations and coups d'état. Covert operations are not only undertaken against one's enemies, they are often directed at allies to secure their support or to influence their domestic or foreign policy.

In a paramilitary operation, a nation trains, supports, or advises military forces in another country. Sometimes a nation will provide this kind of assistance to the military forces of one of its allies. In other cases, a nation may train and arm forces in the hopes of overthrowing the government of one of its foes. The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion is an example of the latter type of paramilitary operation. After the Communist guerilla leader Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed a plan to arm and train a force of Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro. The invasion took place in April 1961, but the Cuban army easily defeated the inexperienced and poorly equipped exile forces. Because the U.S. government did not wish to reveal its part in the operation, U.S. naval and air forces that might have changed the outcome of the battle were not allowed to support the invasion.

Political subversion involves efforts to weaken the government of a rival state or the political opponents of a friendly government. In one of its first covert activities after World War II, the United States provided substantial amounts of money and advice to middle-of-the-road Italian political parties in 1948. At the time, the Soviet Union was offering similar assistance to Italian Communists, and the U.S. government feared that the Communists would take power in the Italian elections that year. Throughout the Cold War, the CIA gave a great deal of money to politicians in places such as Iran, Chile, and Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of Congo) who were friendly to U.S. policies.

The goal of economic subversion is to undermine a rival state by weakening its economy or currency. During World War II, Nazi Germany hatched a scheme to destroy the Western Allies' economy by attacking the British currency, the pound. The Germans planned to print millions of counterfeit £10 notes, the most widely used banknote in the world. By flooding the market with fake notes, they hoped to destroy confidence in Britain's currency, which was the strongest in the world at the time. Had the plan succeeded, the Allied powers would have faced extreme difficulty financing their military efforts during World War II.

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