Paul Bernard Henze (29 August 1924, Redwood Falls – 19 May 2011, Culpeper) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

broadcaster, writer and

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

operative. He was involved with

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

and wrote ''The Plot to Kill the Pope'' which advocated the view that the Bulgarians were involved in an assassination attempt on

John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

in 1981. Henze encouraged

Zbigniew Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński ( , ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), or Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter' ...

in the formation of the Nationalities Working Group in 1978, of which Henze was appointed head. Influenced by his friend

Alexandre Bennigsen Alexandre Bennigsen (russian: Александр Адамович Беннигсен) (20 March 1913 – 3 June 1988) was a scholar of Islam in the Soviet Union. Biography Count Bennigsen was born in an aristocratic family in St Petersbur ...

, this group advocated the promotion of islamism as a tool for undermining Soviet hegemony in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

Works

Henze has published 156 works, including: * ''Layers of Time : A History of Ethiopia'' (35 editions, 1999–2004) * ''The Plot to Kill the Pope'' (18 editions, 1983–1985) * ''The Horn of Africa : From War to Peace'' (18 editions, 1991–2016)

References

1924 births 2011 deaths CIA and Islamism People from Redwood Falls, Minnesota People of the Central Intelligence Agency American broadcasters {{US-gov-bio-stub