Early CIA Cold War Foreign Intelligence Operations in Lithuania, Part One ©

AEGEAN was the cryptonym for a joint Office of Policy Coordination (OPC)-Office of Special Operations (OSO) project that began in November 1948. It was created to support the “Lithuanian Resistance Group” (The Supreme Committee for Liberation of Lithuania –Vyriausiasis Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas (VLIK). OPC supported VLIK for political and psychological warfare (PP); OSO was responsible for foreign intelligence (FI) activities: 

1. Procure information from Lithuania and the Baltic generally. 
2. Procure information from other parts of the USSR. 
3. Use the Lithuanian facilities as a channel for two-way movement of personnel in OSO service and, as necessary, for the movement of equipment, documentary data, and instructions. 
4. Use the Lithuanian facilities for such intelligence activities of OSO interest as may become necessary, to which the Lithuanian facilities, in the West or in the homeland, will lend themselves. 

The AEGEAN project was approved on June 21, 1949: "This project calls for the use at appropriate seasons (usually spring and autumn) of air and sea dispatch facilities. The necessary support equipment consists of wireless transmission equipment, secret writing supplies, personal arms, medical equipment, medical supplies, and negotiable items, such as watches, venereal drugs, and jewelry. Documentation needs will normally be taken care of by the project participants themselves. "

There were two objectives in the project plan that was under the control of the CIA's Munich Operational Base (MOB):  

 

1. Procurement of intelligence from the Baltic States and contiguous areas. 
2. Development of support base in the Lithuanian SSR as a transit point for agents to be dispatched into RSFR, Belorussian SSR, and Ukrainian SSR.

 

There were four targets: 

 

1.   Development of Special OSO-controlled morse code communications from the Lithuanian SSR to the American Zone in Germany and Sweden. 

2.   Development of sea, land, and/or air courier routes - between the American Zone in Germany and the Lithuanian SSR for the two-way movement of personnel, material, and information. 

3.   Development of safe areas, houses, and routes in the Lithuanian SSR to transit personnel, material, and information to and from RSFSR, Belorussian SSR, and Ukrainian SSR. 

 

The project operations were set to begin on July 1, 1949. The OPC project was approved by ADPC Frank Wisner. on July 23, 1949, under the cryptonym BGLAPIN. The project's first year was devoted primarily to the recruitment, training, and briefing of agent personnel. 

Lithuanian General Paulius Plechavicius then residing in the British zone of Germnay was to be the CIA contact person. Plechavicius was chief of the operating (military) section of VLIK. He had experiences in Lithuania during WWII in anti-Soviet activities. He was to move to Munich. The VLIK Operational Section personnel in Sweden was to be integrated into the project as were VLIK operational personnel assigned to the French intelligence service for the parachuting operations into Lithuania. 

 

On October 4, 1950, one team of three men was dropped by parachute into the area of Branischusen, Kaliningrad Oblast. The plane was an unmarked C-47 piloted by two Czech WWII veterans.

The first agents were Juozas Luksas, Benediktas Trumpys, and Klemensas Sirvys. French Intelligence had initially been selected for a mission in 1949, but the French decided to abandon the mission. CIA took it over. 

The mission of the first team was, "Establish wireless transmission as well as secret writing communications with the American Zone of Germany, and to reorganize the underground organization in LSSR into a support organization for American-controlled procurement activities." The three had been trained at a camp in Kaufbeurren, and learned Morse code, radio communications, and sabotage. For the operation, they were given weapons (Schmeisser MP-32 sub-machine gun), grenades, radios, cyanide tablets, ten watches, 3,000 rubles, 2,000 dollars, and food.