U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B is an alleged classified appendix to a U.S. Army Field Manual that describes top secret counter insurgency tactics. In particular, it identifies a "strategy of tension" involving violent attacks which are then blamed on radical left-wing groups in order to convince allied governments of the need for counter-action. It has been called the Westmoreland Field Manual because it is signed with the alleged signature of General William Westmoreland. It was labelled as supplement B (hence "30-31B"), although the publicly released version of FM30-31 only has one appendix, Supplement A.
U.S. government and academic sources describe the document as a forgery by Soviet intelligence services.. The document first appeared in Turkey in the 1970s, before being circulated to other countries. It was also used at the end of the 1970s to implicate the Central Intelligence Agency in the Red Brigades' kidnapping and assassination of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro.
Video U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B
History
The first mention of the document was in the Turkish newspaper Bar?? (sometimes anglicized to Barish), in 1975.
A facsimile copy of FM30-31B then appeared a year later in Bangkok, Thailand, and in various capitals of north African states. In 1978, it appeared in various European magazines, including the Spanish Triunfo and El Pais. The Italian press picked up the Triunfo publication, and a copy was published in the October 1978 issue of L'Europeo.
A wide range of field manuals, including 30-31, can be accessed through websites that catalog U.S. field manuals. However, 30-31B is not among the field manuals published by the military.
The "Westmoreland Field Manual" was mentioned in at least two parliamentary commissions reports of European countries, one about the Italian Propaganda Due masonic lodge, and one about the Belgian stay-behind network. The latter says that "the commission has not any certainty about the authenticity of the document".
At a 1980 hearing of the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee of Oversight, CIA officials testified that the document was a singularly effective forgery by the KGB and an example of Soviet covert action. According to Elizabeth Pond of The Christian Science Monitor, in discussing the relative effectiveness of "disinformation", "forgeries ... have been used by the Soviets since soon after the 1917 revolution."
Maps U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B
Authenticity
U.S. official sources, including the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, and the U.S. State Department, state that it is a forgery. Peer Henrik Hansen, a scholar specializing in Cold War intelligence and stay-behind missions, also affirms that the document is a forgery.
The discovery in the early-1990s of Operation Gladio (NATO stay-behind networks) in Europe led to renewed debate as to whether or not the manual was fraudulent. According to Daniele Ganser who popularized the history of Gladio stay-behind networks, Licio Gelli, the Italian leader of the anti-Communist P2 freemason lodge told the BBC's Allan Francovich, "The CIA gave it to me". Ganser's work has been heavily criticized by scholars, who have characterized it as a conspiracy theory.
References
External links
- Belgian parliamentary report concerning the stay-behind network, partial copy of FM 30-31B on pp. 80-82.
- US Field Manual 30-31B, in German
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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