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British Security Co-ordination (BSC) was a covert organisation set up in New York City by the British
Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligen ...
(MI6) in May 1940 upon the authorisation of the Prime Minister,
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...
. Its purpose was to investigate enemy activities, prevent sabotage against British interests in the Americas, and mobilise pro-British opinion in the Americas. As a 'huge secret agency of nationwide news manipulation and black propaganda', the BSC influenced news coverage in the ''
Herald Tribune ''Herald'' or ''The Herald'' is the name of various newspapers. ''Herald'' or ''The Herald'' Australia * ''The Herald'' (Adelaide) and several similar names (1894–1924), a South Australian Labor weekly, then daily * ''Barossa and Light Herald ...
'', the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was establishe ...
'', ''
The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'', and Radio New York Worldwide. The stories disseminated from the organisation's offices at
Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
would then be legitimately picked up by other radio stations and newspapers, before being relayed to the American public. Through this, anti-German stories were placed in major American media outlets to help turn public opinion. Its cover was the British Passport Control Office. BSC benefitted from support given by the chief of the US
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
,
William J. Donovan William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat, best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bur ...
(whose organisation was modelled on British activities), and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt who was staunchly anti-Nazi.


Beginnings

The declaration of war upon Germany by the British in September 1939 forced a break in liaison between SIS (MI6) and the FBI because of the Neutrality Acts of 1930s.
William Stephenson Sir William Samuel Stephenson (23 January 1897 – 31 January 1989), born William Samuel Clouston Stanger, was a Canadian soldier, fighter pilot, businessman and spymaster who served as the senior representative of the British Security Coo ...
was sent to the US by the head of SIS to see if it could be rekindled to an extent that SIS could operate effectively in the US. While J. Edgar Hoover was sympathetic, he could not go against the State Department without the President's authorisation; he also believed that if it was authorised, it should be a personal liaison between Stephenson and himself without other departments being informed. However, Roosevelt endorsed co-operation. The liaison was necessary because Britain's enemies were already present in the US and could expect sympathy and support from German and Italian immigrants, but the authorities there had no remit or interest in activities that were not directly against US security. Stephenson's report on the American situation advocated a secret organisation acting beyond purely SIS activities and covering all covert operations that could be done to ensure aid to Britain and an eventual entry of the US into the war. Stephenson was given this remit and the traditional cover of appointment as a 'Passport Control Officer' which he took up in June 1940. Although the existing setup in New York was lacking, Stephenson could call upon his personal liaison with Hoover, the support of Canada, the British ambassador, and his acquaintances with US interventionists.


Operation

The office, which was established for
intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be ...
and propaganda services, was headed by Canadian industrialist
William Stephenson Sir William Samuel Stephenson (23 January 1897 – 31 January 1989), born William Samuel Clouston Stanger, was a Canadian soldier, fighter pilot, businessman and spymaster who served as the senior representative of the British Security Coo ...
. Its first tasks were to promote British interests in the United States, counter
Nazi propaganda The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi pol ...
, and protect the Atlantic convoys from enemy
sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
. The BSC was registered by the State Department as a foreign entity. It operated out of Room 3603 at
Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
and was officially known as the British Passport Control Office from which it had expanded. BSC acted as administrative headquarters more than operational one for SIS and the
Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its ...
(SOE) and was a channel for communications and liaison between US and British security and intelligence organisations. BSC used a number of legitimate outlets for its work. In 1940, a German agent, Gerhard Alois Westrick, who was cultivating support and possible sabotage among American oil companies, was effectively exposed through news articles placed in the ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
''. A wave of public outrage was followed by Weldrick's expulsion from the US and the forced resignation of the head of
Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an independent company un ...
( Torkild Rieber). Through third parties, BSC developed the independent and non-profit WRUL shortwave radio station foreign-language broadcast capability and then fed it stories it wanted disseminated worldwide. The station had a large number of listeners who corresponded with the station, which made it possible for reactions to the broadcasts to be directly monitored. For a period, the station was unwittingly the agent of BSC; after the US entered the war, the WRUL operation was turned over to US control. Although the British and
Americans Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Am ...
were co-operating at the
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
-
President President most commonly refers to: * President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...
level at the time, the arrival of "British spies" in the United States infuriated J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
, and displeased the
US Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other ...
. Stephenson and Hoover did not see eye to eye but had cooperated in a number of operations against espionage activities by
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
in the US. The British hired Americans despite promising otherwise. The Americans who were recruited in the BSC were given British identification numbers beginning with the digits 4 and 8, apparently representing the 48 states. In 1939, Stephenson arranged for the Hamilton Princess Hotel to become a censorship centre. All mail, radio and telegraphic traffic bound for Europe, the U.S. and the Far East were intercepted and analyzed by 1,200 censors, of ''British Imperial Censorship'', part of
British Security Coordination British Security Co-ordination (BSC) was a covert organisation set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940 upon the authorisation of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Its purpose was to investigate ...
(BSC), before being routed to their destination. With BSC working closely with the FBI, the censors were responsible for the discovery and arrest of a number of Axis spies operating in the US, including the Joe K ring. It was through the BSC that the British acquired the powerful "Aspidistra" transmitter that was used for propaganda by the
Political Warfare Executive During World War II, the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) was a British clandestine body created to produce and disseminate both white and black propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of countries occupie ...
(PWE), BBC overseas broadcasts and by the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) a ...
(RAF) in the war against Germany. BSC also sourced a transmitter for it to communicate with the UK which was operated under the code name "
Hydra Hydra generally refers to: * Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed serpent in Greek mythology * ''Hydra'' (genus), a genus of simple freshwater animals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria Hydra or The Hydra may also refer to: Astronomy * Hydra (constel ...
" at Camp X, BSC's Special Training School No. 103, a
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
installation in
Whitby, Ontario Whitby is a town in Durham Region. Whitby is located in Southern Ontario east of Ajax and west of Oshawa, on the north shore of Lake Ontario and is home to the headquarters of Durham Region. It had a population of 138,501 at the 2021 census. I ...
for training covert agents in the methods of "secret warfare". The Hydra station was established in May 1942 by engineer
Benjamin deForest Bayly Benjamin deForest "Pat" Bayly (June 20, 1903 – 1994) was a Canadian electrical engineer and a professor at the University of Toronto. During World War II he invented a cypher machine called the Rockex and handled communications at the secret inte ...
; he also invented a very fast coding/decoding machine for telegraph transmissions labelled the
Rockex Rockex, or Telekrypton, was an offline one-time tape Vernam cipher machine known to have been used by Britain and Canada from 1943. It was developed by Canadian electrical engineer Benjamin deForest Bayly, working during the war for British ...
. Camp X had been established in December 1941 by Stephenson to train Allied agents in methods of clandestine operations; many graduates would be dropped behind enemy lines in Europe by SOE. The British novelist William Boyd, in a 2006 article for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', stated that although the total number of BSC agents operating in the US in the early 1940s is unknown, he estimated there were at least "many hundreds" and had seen "the figure of up to 3,000 mentioned".
Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combina ...
saw Stephenson, colloquially known as "Little Bill", at the end of July 1940 when on a world entertainment and propaganda tour. He wrote that the "suite in the Hampshire House with the outsize chintz flowers crawling over the walls became pleasantly familiar to me..." and that Stephenson "had a considerable influence on the next few years of my life". Stephenson offered him a job but was overruled by London.


Counter-smuggling and "shipping security"

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
was an important neutral source of trade for the Axis forces; its importance would increase after the US entry into the war in 1941. The Italian airline LATI operated a transatlantic service - between Rome and Rio de Janeiro - which was a conduit for high-value goods (platinum,
mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...
, diamonds, etc.), agents and
diplomatic bag A diplomatic bag, also known as a diplomatic pouch, is a container with certain legal protections used for carrying official correspondence or other items between a diplomatic mission and its home government or other diplomatic, consular, or other ...
s. London instructed the BSC to do something about that. The airline had connections with the Brazilian government through the President's son-in-law, and it was supplied, despite the US State Department protests, by
Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...
in the US, making official channels ineffective. To curtail LATI's activities, the BSC decided that the Brazilians themselves would have to take measures - sabotage would be only a temporary inconvenience. Accordingly, the BSC constructed a forged letter of such accuracy that its authenticity could not be questioned even under forensic examination. The letter purported to come from LATI's head office to an executive of the company stationed in Brazil. The contents included disparaging references to the Brazilian president and to the US, and implied connections with a fascist opposition party in Brazil, the
Party of Popular Representation The Popular Representation Party ( pt, Partido de Representação Popular, PRP) was a political party in Brazil. The PRP was founded by Plínio Salgado on 26 September 1945. He reassembled the former members of the Brazilian Integralism, and was ...
(founded in 1945). Following a "burglary" of the executive's house, a photostat of the letter was placed with an American
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newsp ...
reporter, who immediately took it to the American Embassy, which then showed the letter to the President of Brazil,
Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...
. LATI's operations in Brazil were confiscated and its personnel interned - the airline ceased transatlantic flights in December 1941. Brazil broke off relations with the Axis and joined the Allies in 1942.


Notable BSC employees

*
Cedric Belfrage Cedric Henning Belfrage (8 November 1904 – 21 June 1990) was an English film critic, journalist, writer and political activist. He is best remembered as a co-founder of the radical US weekly ''National Guardian''. Later Belfrage was referenced ...
*
Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has b ...
– after he was transferred to Washington, D.C. as Assistant Air Attaché. * Dick Ellis – deputy-head, post-war accused of being spy for the Germans and the Soviets *
Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar '' James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., ...
* Alexander Halpern — Menshevik and ex-Freemason * Gilbert Highet – historian, professor of Greek and Latin at Columbia University * H. Montgomery Hyde – counter-espionage Intelligence Corps officer * Dorothy Maclean * Eric Maschwitz – screenwriter, lyricist and broadcaster, Intelligence Corps officer * David Ogilvy – applied Gallup audience research techniques * John Arthur Reid Pepper * Ivan T. Sanderson * Herbert Sichel * Betty Thorpe – spy, codenamed "Cynthia" * Harold Phillips


See also

* Camp X * British Information Services, the corresponding white propaganda operation


Notes


References

* Boyd, William
"The Secret Persuaders
" ''The Guardian'', 19 August 2006. * Conant, Jennet ''The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington'' (Simon and Schuster, 2008) * Hodgson, Lynn Philip, (foreword by Secret Agent Andy Durovecz), ''Inside Camp X'' (2003) – * Macdonald, Bill, ''The True Intrepid: Sir William Stephenson and the Unknown Agents'', (Raincoast, 2001) – This book contains interviews with several Canadian employees of BSC in New York. * Mahl, Thomas E., ''Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939–44'', (Brassey's Inc., 1999) * Stephenson, William Samuel, Roald Dahl, Tom Hill and Gilbert Highet (introduced by Nigel West), ''British Security Coordination: The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas, 1940–1945'', Fromm International (June 1999) – (first published in the UK in 1998
Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb (National Endowment for the Humanities)
December 1999. * Stevenson, William (no relation to Stephenson), ''A Man Called Intrepid, The Secret War'', (Harcourt Brace Javonovich, 1976) – {{ISBN, 0-15-156795-6. Military history of Canada during World War II Covert organizations Intelligence services of World War II World War II propaganda British propaganda organisations Ministry of Economic Warfare Special Operations Executive British intelligence services of World War II United Kingdom–United States relations