Title:: James H. Critchfield Papers 1941-2003

Access and use

Location of collection:
College of William and Mary
Special Collections Research Center
Earl Gregg Swem Library
College of William and Mary
400 Landrum Drive
PO 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
Contact for questions and access:
Phone: (757) 221-3090
Fax: (757) 221-5440
Restrictions:

Collection is open to all researchers.

Terms of access:

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Preferred citation:

James Critchfield Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Summary

Extent:
16.00
Creator:
Critchfield, James H., 1917-2003 arrangement
Abstract:
Acc. 2004.09: (15 boxes): Documentation and drafts for James Critchfield's book, <i>Partners at the Creation the Men behind Postwar Germany's Defense and Intelligence Establishments</i>. Includes oral history transcripts and documents relating to the Berlin Crises (1958-1961), founding of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), declassified Central Intelligence Agency documents (1945-1949), a German-English intelligence glossary, biographical files and correspondence.
Language:
The papers are in: English German
Preferred citation:

James Critchfield Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Background

Scope and content:

Acc. 2004.09: (15 boxes): Documentation and drafts for James Critchfield's book, <i>Partners at the Creation the Men behind Postwar Germany's Defense and Intelligence Establishments</i>. Includes oral history transcripts and documents relating to the Berlin Crises (1958-1961), founding of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), declassified Central Intelligence Agency documents (1945-1949), a German-English intelligence glossary, biographical files and correspondence.

Acc. 2009.367 (1 box) consists of 2 copies of vol. 1 of a photocopy of "Foreign Intelligence and Partnership:CIA and the origins of the BND, 1945-49", and once copy of vol. 2; one bound and one loose-leaf set of copies of correspondence relating to Critchfield's post-war Intelligence tasks.

CIA and the Origins of the BND. CIA history of relationship with German Federal Intelligence Service.

Volume I

Part I Firsthand Accounts

Part II Stunde Null (Zero Hour, June 1945)

Part III Vandenberg Report

Part IV Bossard Report

The report gives the history of the relationship between the CIA and the BND, beginning with General Gehlen, a German officer who started an organization during the war to preserve German intelligence records on the Soviet Union after Germany’s defeat. The U.S. Army worked with Gehlen’s organization after the end of the war, in a project called “Operation Rusty”. The Vandenberg report was an evaluation by the CIA in 1947 of the merits of the CIA taking over this operation, which rejected the idea. The Bossard report was a later CIA follow up which was more favorable to the idea. In 1948 James Critchfield, head of the Munich Operations Based prepared the “Critchfield Report” which recommended the CIA take over Gehlen’s operation , and this policy was put into effect in 1949. “Year of Decisions” the final section of the report consists of memos and reports between the CIA and the BND during 1949 as the policy was being carried out.

Bound copy of Item 1.

Volume II

Part V Critchfield Report

Part VI Year of Decisions

Bound book with copies of documents and reports relating to the CIA-BND operations, with a cover letter from Eberhard Blum, head of the BND from 1982-1985, to his “dear friend” James Critchfield

Looseleaf copy of Item 4

Biographical / historical:

James H. Critchfield was a United States Army officer during World War II who remained in Germany and Austria as an army intelligence officer and joined the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency where he was the principal CIA officer working with the Gehlen Organization until its emergence as the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).He was born January 30, 1917 and graduated from North Dakota State University. He retired from the CIA in 1974 and died April 23, 2003.

Acquisition information:
The materials were acquired by Special Collections Research Center from Lois Critchfield on 00/00/2004.
Processing information:

Processed by Matthew Hopper during 2003-2004. Addition minimally described by Ute Schechter in August 2009.