The team brought sophisticated equipment and specially outfitted
helicopters and was subsequently successful in tracking the Red
Brigade terrorists and uncovering the location of Dozier. Colonel
Dozier was rescued by Italian security on 28 January 1982.WISNER, FRANK G. (1909–1965).A former Office of Strategic Ser-
vices (OSS) operative in Eastern Europe, Frank Wisner was the first
head of U.S. covert actionsbefore and after the establishment of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1947. Trained as a lawyer, Wis-
ner ran spies in Rumania, Turkey, and Italy during World War II. Af-
ter the war, he became assistant director of policy coordination with the
specific mission of combating Sovietcovert actions, especially those by
Soviet front organizations. In 1949, Wisner conceived of and set up Ra-
dio Free Europe(RFE). He also masterminded the recruitment and es-
tablishment of the Gehlen Organization, which was comprised of for-
mer German military and intelligence officers. Wisner was one of the
CIA chiefs responsible for Operation Success, the coup in Guatemala
in 1954.
Wisner reveled in his ability to mastermind and run covert opera-
tions. As head of the CIA’s Office of Special Operations (OSO), he
initiated Operation Gold, the Berlin Tunnel caper, which monitored
all military and diplomatic phone calls in East Berlin. He was also re-
sponsible for obtaining the 1956 secret speech Premier Nikita S.
Khrushchevgave in the Kremlin in which he denounced Josef
Stalin. In addition, Wisner and his operatives subsidized anticom-
munist West German politician Willy Brandt and supported organ-
ized guerrilla bands in Eastern Europe.
Wisner helped direct radio propagandainto Soviet-occupied Hun-
gary in 1956, causing the Hungarians to revolt against Soviet occupa-
tion forces, driving them briefly out of power. At the time, Hungarian
anticommunist leaders had been promised that American forces would
come to the aid once they revolted. Wisner had envisioned a widespread
anticommunist revolt that would unseat the Soviets in all of the Eastern
Bloc countries. When this did not happen, the Russians returned in force
and crushed the Hungarian revolt. Wisner consequently had numerous
nervous breakdowns. He stayed on with the CIA for a time, even be-
coming chief of station (COS) in London, but resigned from the CIAin
1962 and shot himself dead in 1965.220 • WISNER, FRANK G.05-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 10:40 AM Page 220