Unreliable Allies

Abstract

Chapter 11 turns to a crucial challenge faced by the CIA-backed Russian exiles: the shifting political situation in West Germany, the crucial place d’armes for Cold War political operations against the Soviet bloc. The two main Russian organizations funded by the agency, the NTS and TsOPE, attempted with great persistence to gain the sympathy of West German political and academic elites in the 1950s. German anti-Russian sentiment limited the success of the émigré charm offensive, however, while the shifting form of the Cold War in Europe weakened their position in the country. In the second half of the 1950s, CIA operations utilizing exiles came under scrutiny and pressure from the now sovereign West German state, which sought to safeguard its new diplomatic relationship with the USSR.