Miles Axe Copeland Jr. (July 16, 1916 – January 14, 1991) was an American musician, businessman, and

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

(CIA) founding member best known for his relationship with Egyptian leader

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 a ...

and his public commentary on intelligence matters. Copeland participated in numerous covert operations, including the

March 1949 Syrian coup d'état The March 1949 Syrian coup d'état was a bloodless coup d'état that took place on 30 March. It was the first military coup in modern Syrian history and overthrew the country's democratically-elected government. It was led by the Syrian Army ch ...

and the

1953 Iranian coup d'état The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d'état (), was the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953. Led by the Iranian army and supported by the United States and the United Kingdom, the co ...

. A

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

who was influenced by the ideas of

James Burnham James Burnham (November 22, 1905 – July 28, 1987) was an American philosopher and political theorist. He chaired the New York University Department of Philosophy. His first book was ''An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis'' (1931). Bur ...

, Copeland was associated with the American political magazine ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich L ...

''. In a 1986 ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' interview, he stated "Unlike ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Victor Marchetti and Philip Agee, my complaint has been that the CIA isn't overthrowing enough anti-American governments or assassinating enough anti-American leaders, but I guess I'm getting old."

Early life

The son of a doctor, Copeland was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

.Cook, Joan (Jan. 19, 1991)
"Miles Copeland, 74, Expert on Mideast, Writer and Ex-Spy"
(

obituary An obituary (wikt:obit#Etymology 2, obit for short) is an Article (publishing), article about a recently death, deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as Article (publishing), news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on p ...

). ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. p. 18. Archived fro
the original.
/ref> He did not graduate from college. According to the history professor Hugh Wilford, there is nothing in Copeland's CIA files to suggest he was a professional musician, but "several relatives and friends have testified to his musical ability." Copeland's books contain "several impressive statements about his days as a jazz musician," including that "he spent a week playing fourth trumpet in the

Glenn Miller Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band conductor, arranger, composer, trombonist, and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces ...

orchestra," but that claim has been discredited. Copeland was married to the archeologist Lorraine Adie. He was the father of the music manager

Miles Copeland III Miles Axe Copeland III (born May 2, 1944) is an American music and entertainment executive and former manager of The Police. Copeland later managed Sting's musical and acting career. In 1979, Copeland founded the I.R.S. Records label, producing ...

; the booking agent Ian Copeland; the film producer Lorraine (Lennie) Copeland; and the drummer

Stewart Copeland Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is an American musician and composer. He is best known for his work as the drummer of the British rock band the Police from 1977 to 1986, and again from 2007 to 2008. Before playing with the Polic ...

, a founding member of the rock band

The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Within a few months of their first gig, the line-up settled as Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar, primary songwriter), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussi ...

Career

Foundation of CIA

At the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Copeland joined the

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

and contacted Representative

John Sparkman John Jackson Sparkman (December 20, 1899 – November 16, 1985) was an American jurist and politician from the state of Alabama. A Southern Democrat, Sparkman served in the United States House of Representatives from 1937 to 1946 and the United ...

of Alabama, who arranged a meeting with

William J. Donovan William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat. He is best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to ...

. The two hit it off immediately, but Copeland was not recruited to Donovan's

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed 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 ...

(OSS) and instead joined the Corps of Intelligence Police in Europe, which became the

Counterintelligence Corps The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...

(CIC) in January 1942. Meyer, Karl E. and Shareen Blair Brysac (2009). ''Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East''. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. pp. 348–380. . Copeland was stationed in London and reportedly gained the top-secret " Bigot" clearance and took part in discussions about

Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The ope ...

. After the OSS was converted into the

Strategic Services Unit The Strategic Services Unit was an intelligence agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States government that existed in the immediate post–World War II period. It was created from the Secret Intelligence Branch, Secret ...

on 1 October 1945, Copeland joined what would become part of the

(CIA). Serving in London, he became a lifelong

Anglophile An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents. In some cases, Anglophilia refers to an individual's appreciation of English history and traditional English cultural ico ...

. He married Lorraine Adie, a Scot he had met during the war while she was serving in the

Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...

CIA career

After the end of World War II and the creation of the CIA, Copeland was asked to organize the agency’s information-gathering unit in the Middle East. He was stationed in Damascus, Syria, as a CIA case officer under the cover title "cultural attaché," beginning a long career in the Middle East. With Stephen Meade (1913–2004), he supported the

. With Kim Roosevelt, he arranged Operation Ajax, the 1953 overthrow of Prime Minister of Iran

Mohammad Mosaddegh Mohammad Mosaddegh (, ; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author, and lawyer who served as the 30th Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, elected by the 1950 Iranian legislative election, 16th Majlis. He was a membe ...

.Buckley, Priscilla L. (Feb. 11, 1991)
"Miles Copeland, R I P - former CIA official"
(

). ''

''. In 1953, Copeland returned to private life at the consulting firm

Booz Allen Hamilton Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (informally Booz Allen) is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American company specializing in intelligence, AI, and digital transformation. It is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washing ...

and remained a non-official cover operative for the CIA. He traveled to Cairo to meet

, who had overthrown King Farouk and taken power in Egypt. He became a close advisor to Nasser on the development of the Mukhabarat secret police and other topics. With Richard P. Mitchell, Copeland conducted espionage activities on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. In 1957 in Beirut, he was friends with

Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that had divulged British secr ...

and Nicholas Elliott and keeping an eye on Philby for

James Jesus Angleton James Jesus Angleton (December 9, 1917 – May 11, 1987) was an American CIA officer who served as chief of the counterintelligence department of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1954 to 1975. According to Director of Central Intelligence ...

, Counterintelligence Chief for the CIA. Copeland opposed major paramilitary CIA operations such as the failed

Bay of Pigs Invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called or after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April 1961 by the United States of America and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front ...

of Cuba in 1961 on the grounds that they were impossible to keep secret because of their size. Copeland was known for his "Machiavellian sense of pessimism about human nature," which he derived in part from ''The Machiavellians'', a book written by his "intellectual mentor," the

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

-turned-conservative

. Copeland requested Burnham's "advice about ways to shore up revolutionary governments" and distilled Burnham's teachings into three key points: The major priority of any government is perpetuating its rule; political leaders must remain cognizant of the irrationality of their subjects; and a successful revolution requires political repression although it is more advantageous if repression is kept to a minimum. In ''The Game Player'', Copeland recounted that he was sent to Egypt to assess the feasibility of assassinating Nasser "on the tacit understanding that he would reach a negative assessment" and thus "discourage any British attempt."

Arriving in Cairo, Miles immediately confessed his mission to Nasser, whereupon the old friends began gaming out possible assassination plots. "How about poison?" the American asked the Egyptian. "Suppose I just wait until you turn your head and then slip a pill into your coffee?" "Well, there's Hassan standing right there," replied Nasser. "If I didn't see you Hassan would." "But maybe we could bribe a servant to poison the coffee before bringing it in?" "The coffee would only kill the taster." And so the conversation carried on—at least in Miles's recollection.

Retirement

Copeland retired from the CIA in May 1957 to start the consulting firm Copeland & Eichelberger in Beirut, with his CIC and CIA colleague James Eichelberger, but he continued to perform assignments for the CIA on request. Copeland and his family returned to London in 1970. He made regular appearances on British television as an intelligence expert and pursued work in journalism, wrote books on foreign policy and an autobiography, and contributed to the

American magazine ''

''. He helped

Waddingtons Waddingtons was a British manufacturer of card and board games. The company was founded by John Waddington of Leeds, England and the manager, actor and playwright Wilson Barrett, under the name ''Waddingtons Limited''. The name was changed i ...

design a board game, ''The Game of Nations'', in which superpowers compete for influence in "the imaginary region of Kark"; the game was loosely based on Copeland's book of the same name. Copeland's memoirs have a strong literary quality and contain many embellishments, which make it difficult to gauge the historical accuracy of the covert operations that he describes. He was active in 1970s political efforts to defend the CIA against critics, including the

Church Committee The Church Committee (formally the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) was a US Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence ...

. In 1988, he wrote an article titled "Spooks for Bush," which asserted that the intelligence community overwhelmingly supported

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

for president; he had named Bush his favorite CIA director.

Books

''The Game of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics''.
New York:

Simon and Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

; London:

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld ...

(1969).
''Without Cloak or Dagger: The Truth About the New Espionage''.
New York:

(1974). ** Published in the United Kingdom as ''Real Spy World''. London:

Weidenfeld and Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld ...

(1974). * ''Beyond Cloak and Dagger: Inside the CIA''. New York: Pinnacle Books (1975). *
The Game Player: Confessions of the CIA's Original Political Operative
'. London:

Aurum Press The Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publishing group founded in 1976. It is domiciled in the United States and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Quarto creates and sells illustrated books for adults and children, across 50 countri ...

(1989).

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* Copeland, Miles, Jr. (1969) ''The Game of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics''. * Copeland, Miles, Jr. (1989). ''The Game Player: Confessions of the CIA's Original Political Operative''. London:

. * * Meyer, Karl E. and Shareen Blair Brysac (2009). ''Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East''. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. pp. 348–380. . *

External links

Jazz, Spies and Games: The Extraordinary Life of CIA Founding Member Miles Copeland
at

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copeland, Miles Jr. American Cold War spymasters 1916 births 1991 deaths Military personnel from Birmingham, Alabama Musicians from Birmingham, Alabama American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters American spies Booz Allen Hamilton people Cold War spies American board game designers 20th-century American trumpeters The Police Copeland family Jazz musicians from Alabama American anti-communists American male jazz musicians Central Intelligence Agency founding member CIA operatives in Iran American expatriates in Iran American expatriates in England Alabama National Guard personnel CIA activities in the Middle East 20th-century American male musicians People of the Office of Strategic Services