General Reinhard Gehlen: The CIA Connection

This is the first authoritative account of the postwar relationship between General Reinhard Gehlen, a figure unique in the history of espionage, and American intelligence. Eleven years after the defeat of Germany, Gehlen, Hitler's chief of eastern front intelligence, became head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) for the democratic West German government of Konrad Adenauer. The core of his staff in the BND were the same officers who had served with him under Hitler. The instruments for this metamorphosis were agencies of Gehlen's former enemy: U.S. Army Intelligence and the CIA. How did this happen and why? Was there a Nazi connection? This book answers these questions in detail, combining the elements of a gripping novel of espionage with solid scholarship based on U.S. government documents and interviews with former G-2, CIC and CIA officers.