covert actionsin Africa and elsewhere, and launched a covert war in
Nicaragua to unseat the Sandinistaregime that had come to power
in 1979.
During his second term, President Reagan began softening his
anti-Soviet stance—in his first term, he had branded the Soviet Union
the “evil empire”—in response to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s
initiatives to open up the Soviet Union. The two leaders met four
times between 1985 and 1987, when they concluded the Intermediate
Nuclear Force (INF) Missile Treaty, which not only sharply reduced
medium-range nuclear forces but also sought to eliminate an entire
class of weapon system.
President Reagan’s second term, however, was marred by the
Iran-Contra Affair, which broke in late 1986 and involved the
White House’s complicity in the illegal diversion of profits from
arms-for-hostage deals with Iranto the Contraguerrillas fighting
the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.RED CELL. The Red Cell is a unit of the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) established after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001
to engage in the analysis of low probability, high-risk alternative sce-
narios. The Red Cell is comprised of analysts from the Directorate
of Intelligence(DI), although the unit is organizationally located in
the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), not within
the organizational structure of the CIA.RED SOX/RED CAP (OPERATION). Acovert actiondesigned by
Frank Wisner, the Central Intelligence Agency’s(CIA) deputy di-
rector for plans (DDP), to foment rebellion by the East Europeans in
the late 1950s against the Soviet occupiers. According to the plan,
once the rebellions sufficiently weakened Soviet forces, North At-
lantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops were then to be sent in
as peacekeepers to conduct democratic elections. However, the
whole plan began to come apart when the CIAwas ordered not to as-
sist in the Hungarian revolt of 1956, thus bringing the operation’s le-
gitimacy and usefulness into question. President Dwight D. Eisen-
howereventually terminated the program in the late 1950s.ROCKEFELLER COMMISSION.Formally known as the president’s
Commission on CIAActivities within the United States, the Rocke-170 • RED CELL05-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 170