This is coolbert: Fourth Arm, Part I.

At the end of World War Two [WW2], the various western powers saw the need for a "fourth arm". This was to be an addition to the other three "arms" of governmental military power, namely, ground, naval, and air forces. The three traditional military arms of governmental power would be augmented by this new "fourth arm".

The fourth arm was to consist of the forces of espionage, subversion, guerilla warfare, sabotage, psychological warfare. What we are talking about here is an effort to institutionalize forces that have been used by governments throughout history when in conflict with hostile foreign powers.

These sort of activities have been practiced by governments throughout history, as been said previously. And the Allied powers found them to be very useful during WW2, useful because the allied powers were weak in the three traditional arms of military power at the start of the war. When the German war machine was at the height of it's power, after conquering and subduing France, Britain, standing alone, did not have a real counter to German military power. Every single option available was analyzed so that a response could be formulated. And military force alone, the traditional three arms, was woefully inadequate and found to be lacking for the task.

Other means and methods had to be employed.

Fourth arm activities were devised as a way of bringing the war to the Germans in occupied Europe. To implement these activities, the British created agencies to carry out the fourth arm activities all throughout Europe. Special Operations Executive was one among many such agencies tasked with bringing the war to the Germans, employing every means possible to do so. Churchill had told his subordinates to "set Europe afire".

Numbers of trained agents were parachuted in France and other occupied countries in Europe to carry out a whole host of activities to defy German rule and let the occupied peoples know they had not been forgotten, and one day they would be liberated. Agents were sent in as spies, saboteurs, partisan fighters, etc. And the success of these agents was in my opinion mixed. There were successes, and there also many failures, with a very high rate of loss. With the participation of America in the war, the American OSS also began, in conjunction with the British, to sent agents all throughout Europe, to set "Europe ablaze". Again, I think the results were mostly mixed. That is my perception.

From their experiences, the victorious allied powers saw the fourth arm as a valuable tool and should not be and could not be dismantled after the end of the war. Policy makers from the onset saw the fourth arm as being a very useful tool in the cold war that was about to commence with the Soviet Union. Various western powers felt that ad hoc wartime agencies were no longer adequate. These fourth arm activities had to be institutionalized. And in such organizations as the CIA they were. Originally conceived as only an intelligence gathering and analysis organization, the CIA was eventually tasked with carrying out covert actions that included all the fourth arm activities. [Espionage has always been practiced by governments. Now, espionage was to be only included as a part of the entire range of activities encompassed by the fourth arm].

To be continued.

coolbert.