Lucien Conein, Legendary OSS, Special Forces and CIA Officer - Forgotten by the USASOC History Office?

The USASOC History Office caused quite a stir in the US Special Forces and Intelligence community with its eyebrow-raising article about OSS influence on Special Forces, published in Veritas in 2018. Troy Sacquety, author of this article, concluded that “a grossly disproportionate share of the pioneering influence” was incorrectly attributed to the OSS veterans who joined early Special Forces. Sacquety also noted - in no uncertain terms - that this erroneous conferment was the result of “disinformation and exaggeration by the active force and veteran associations”.

Sacquety’s research methodology was simple: by-name comparisons between the list of OSS personnel, against the rosters of personnel assigned between 1952 and 1954 to the SF Department at the Psychological Warfare Center and School (PWCS), the 10th Special Forces Group (SFG); officers assigned to the 77th SFG; and 99 SF-trained personnel sent to serve in Korea. The data revealed that only fourteen former OSS members were part of the early Special Forces (SF). Sacquety subsequently remarks that “the total number of former OSS veterans in SF was less than one percent of the total of 1,169 SF soldiers”.

David S. Maxwell, a retired US Army Special Forces Colonel, responded in Small Wars Journal by noting that rather than only assess the numbers of OSS members in early SF, USASOC History Office would “do a great service by reminding readers that today’s SF assessment and selection, organization (especially the ODA), training, doctrine, and most important the foundational mission of SF, unconventional warfare, are directly related to and descended from the OSS”. Maxwell was also right in remarking that USASOC History Office undermined its own argument by emphasizing that the five former OSS instructors (identified in the Veritas’ article), were the ones “who provided the most influence from their OSS experiences on the developing force”. Finally, Maxwell adds that there were at least fifteen - not fourteen - former OSS who served in SF from 1952 to 1954: USASOC History Office's list failed to include Robert McDowell, who served with the OSS in Yugoslavia.

One could argue about Sacquety’s conclusion whether OSS influence on SF is exaggerated or not, his quantitative analysis of the number of OSS veterans in early SF is interesting. However, what exactly constitutes “early SF”? Why did Sacquety’s limit the time period to 1952-1954? What if he had included 1955, 1956, or the late fifties - when SF was still in its “pioneering” phase? Would this have led to different research findings? The answer is “yes”.

One example of an OSS veteran who joined SF in 1956 - and is thus not included in the Veritas’ article - is the legendary CIA officer Lucien Conein (see photo at right). When Conein passed in 1998, major newspapers, worldwide, devoted obituaries. The Washington Post even included a photo of Conein - wearing a beret with an SF flash. Who was this Conein and what was his contribution to early SF?

Lucien Emile Conein was born on 29 November 1919 in Paris. He grew up in Kansas city, having been sent there at age five by his widowed mother to be raised by his World War I-bride aunt. He joined the U.S. army in 1939 but transferred to the French army - Conein had retained his French citizenship - at the outbreak of WW2. After the fall of France, he returned to the US and became part of the 143rd Field Artillery Regiment. In the spring and summer of 1943, Conein went through Officer Candidate School at Ft. Benning. In October that year, he volunteered for service with the OSS. Conein became a Jedburgh officer and was parachuted in occupied France in the late summer of 1944. After VE-Day, Conein was sent to French Indochina by the OSS and fought with guerrillas against Japanese forces.

In 1946 and 1947, Conein served in several (counter-)intelligence units but was eventually transferred to the CIA in 1948. Conein retained his military rank and position as a cover. In the early fifties, Conein was assigned to the Saigon Military Mission, which was headed by the renowned CIA officer Edward Lansdale - another former OSS officer. Among other things, Conein formed stay-behind groups that were to become operational when the Viet Minh would take over. In 1955, Conein returned stateside and served briefly in Washington. On 6 November 1956, the CIA officer was suddenly transferred to the 77th Special Forces, where he would stay until May 1959.

How did Conein, as a fulltime CIA officer, suddenly wind up with the 77th Special Forces Group? Conein himself clarified:

“I had been on detail to the OSS and the SSU, CIG [sic], and CIA since 1943, and there it was 1956. I had not had troop duty in the proper sense, so the Army informed me that if I wanted to get promoted from a major that I had to go back to school and I had to go and take troop duty. So in typical Army fashion they wanted me to get away from everything that has to do with the CIA or anything like a special operations or anything like that. I’ll be darned. My orders came up, I had to go to down and take the advanced course at Fort Benning, which I had not taken. Then I was assigned to the 77th Special Forces Group. I said “What?”. They got me out of what I’m doing so that I wouldn’t do this anymore and do strictly military and here I’m going to play hide the weinie with troops with green beanies on their heads”.

According to the Veritas’ article ‘Training the Trainers’ (2009) Conein was one of four senior officers who was recruited by SF in the second half of the fifties “to get the 77th SFG up to the standard”. Experienced officers were needed because the Special Forces “could not perform their primary wartime mission”. Conein, together with his new colleagues, was to “add impetus to a soon to be established accelerated training program”.

Major Conein soon acted as project officer of the Basic Free Fall Parachuting Course and became the first officer in charge of Military Free Fall training within the Special Warfare Center. In 1958, Conein became Commanding Officer of Detachment FC-2. Later that year, he commanded Detachment FC-1. Conein’s last duty in Fort Bragg was Assistant Group Executive Officer for HQ Company 77th Special Forces Group. Later, Conein returned to Vietnam for the CIA - now in the rank of lieutenant colonel - and was appointed by Henry Cabot Lodge (President Kennedy's ambassador to Vietnam) as liaison with the generals that plotted the coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem. Conein retired from the CIA in 1968 and ended his career with the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The above has shown that Lucien Conein - former OSS officer - was a senior figure within early SF. His contribution to SF should not have been overlooked by USASOC History Office. When OSS veterans such as Conein and McDowell have been omitted by USASOC History Office, the following question arises: who else is not included? Let’s hope this article “adds impetus” to a more thorough analysis of former OSS personnel that served with the Special Forces.

This article was written by Jelle Hooiveld, who is a PhD Candidate of Military History at Leiden University (The Netherlands), a Security & Intelligence Lecturer/Adviser, and the author of two books about Dutch Jedburgh teams.

Posted on the Small Wars Journal

LTG Tovo to Lead US Army Special Operations Command

Army Special Operations will welcome a new leader this week in a ceremony on Fort Bragg. Lt. Gen. Charles T. Cleveland will relinquish command of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command to Lt. Gen. Kenneth E. Tovo on Wednesday, officials said.

The U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) is the immediate higher headquarters for: the U.S. Army Special Forces Command (USASFC); U.S. Army John F Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (USAJFKSWC&S); the 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger); the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR); Military Information Support Operations Command; the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade; and, the Special Operations Sustainment Brigade.      

Cleveland had led the three-star command since July 2012. He will retire, ending a 37-year career, officials said. Tovo was most recently the military deputy commander for U.S. Southern Command in Miami. The Fort Bragg-based command overseas the nation's Special Forces, Rangers and other elite units, including civil affairs and psychological operations forces.

Tovo is a 1983 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who began his career on Fort Bragg with the 82nd Airborne Division. After completing the Special Forces Qualification Course, also on Fort Bragg, he became a Green Beret and served as detachment, company, battalion and group commander within the 10th Special Forces Group.

Other local assignments include serving as plans officer for the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, commonly known as Delta Force, and as chief of staff for USASOC. Tovo deployed during the first Gulf War, for refugee relief operations in Northern Iraq, noncombatant evacuation operations in Sierra Leone, peacekeeping operations in Bosnia on two occasions, five tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. The latter deployment was as commander of the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan and NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan.

Cleveland was commissioned in 1978, after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Before assuming command of USASOC, he was commanding general of Special Operations Command Central at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, from 2008 to 2011 and commanding general of Special Operations Command South from 2005 to 2008.

Previously, Cleveland served as chief of staff and acting deputy commanding general of USASOC and held numerous positions within the 10th Special Forces Group. At the helm of USASOC, he maneuvered the command through a time of growing threats and tightening purse strings.

During a March speech at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Cleveland said he was faced with tough choices in 2013, when the command, like others in the military, was hit with deep cuts from sequestration. Cleveland was commanding 30,000 soldiers, with plans to add 12,000 more at the time, but those plans had to change to address the roughly $260 million that was cut from USASOC's budget.

"The growth had to come to an end," Cleveland said. "We were faced with a bill . The only thing I had to pay that with was people. We had to stop growing." But Cleveland said he used the cuts to help transform the command to better serve the nation in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under his plans, Army special operations units became more self-sustaining and leaders took extra steps to better communicate the unique skills the command's elite forces could offer. That includes direct action against enemies, but also working alongside indigenous forces, fostering cooperation and increasing military and civil capabilities. "Those are the twin sides of the special operations community," he said.

Under Cleveland's command, USASOC outlined the various overlapping missions and, for the first time, wrote doctrine to better spell out to other Army leaders how its unconventional warfare fits into the Army's core competencies.

In the face of ever-changing threats, special operations soldiers are more important than ever, Cleveland told students at UNC. He said special operations forces presented a "new way of fighting" that he compared to the rise of air power during World War II.

"We have a requirement to build, maintain and then deploy a global network of land power capabilities. Not only ours but those of our allies, friendly nations and surrogate forces," he said. "We're not fighting the way we did back then. Waiting for large scale combat . We can't afford to wait that long."

Article by Drew Brooks of the Fayetteville Observer.