money to the South Vietnamese forces. It also authorized the Ameri-
cans to help the South Vietnamese identify communists and commu-
nist sympathizers, who would then be neutralized by the South Viet-
namese authorities. However, the operation quickly soured as
indiscriminate raids were launched, villagers were rounded up and tor-
tured, and those thought to be communists quickly executed.PHOTOGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE (PHOTINT).See IMAGERY
INTELLIGENCE.PIKE COMMITTEE. SeeSELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLI-
GENCE TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGATIONS OF ILLEGAL OR
IMPROPER ACTIVITIES OF FEDERALINTELLIGENCE AGEN-
CIES.PINKERTON, ALLAN (1810–1884).Allan Pinkerton was an Ameri-
can detective and a pioneer of U.S. intelligence during the Civil War.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Pinkerton immigrated to the United
States in 1842, settled in Chicago, and opened a detective agency in
1850 that evolved into his famous National Detective Agency in- He provided security for many of the railroad companies that
were laying track to the American West in the 1840s and 1850s. At
the beginning of the Civil War, Pinkerton claimed to have unearthed
an assassination plot against PresidentAbraham Lincoln.
During the war, Pinkerton offered to set up an intelligence service
for the Union side, but nothing came of his proposal. Union general
George McClellan subsequently asked Pinkerton to set up a private in-
telligence service to spy on the Confederacy, and Pinkerton did so. Al-
though he considered himself a master-spy and was fond of extolling
his own intelligence virtues, Pinkerton’s intelligence often was inaccu-
rate and many of his agents proved to be failures. However, he had
some successes in unearthing Confederate espionage. For example, he
is credited with catching Confederate spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow.
When General McClellan was relieved of command in 1862,
Pinkerton returned to his detective business, providing security for
the railroads. Some experts believe that Pinkerton developed the Se-
cret Serviceout of his own organization, under the assumed name of
Major E. J. Alien, but there is contradictory evidence on this score.
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