Col. Ulius Louis Amoss (1895–1961) was a US

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 b ...

officer who wrote the original essay on

Leaderless Resistance Leaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a Rebellion, social resistance strategy in which small, independent groups (Clandestine cell system, covert cells), or individuals (a solo cell is called a "Lone wolf (terrorism), lone wolf"), ch ...

in the 1950s after he retired and was upset with what he wrote was bad operational practices of the

Central Intelligence Agency 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, ...

Career

International Services of Information Foundation, Inc.

Amoss operated a private intelligence organization called International Services of Information (ISI) Foundation, Inc."''INFORM''."

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

. . On October 30, 1962, its official periodical ''INFORM'' described ISI as "a private, non-profit foundation that has been providing independent intelligence from other lands for over sixteen years." ''INFORM'' was edited by Ulius Amoss from its inception in 1955 to October 1961, whereupon Mary Veronica Amoss stepped into the role the following month.

Leaderless Resistance

According to Amoss, resistance cells with members who made contact with U.S. intelligence agents or émigré ethnic anticommunist organizations were being penetrated by Soviet and

Soviet Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

intelligence agencies, broken up, the members tortured, and sometimes executed. Therefore, Amoss urged U.S. intelligence policy be shifted from an old-fashioned hierarchical model such as that used in

World War II 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 opposin ...

with resistance organizations, and refocused on encouraging Leaderless Resistance to destabilize and subvert Soviet occupation of Eastern European countries such as

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, the example he cites in detail in his essay. Amoss warned that traditional hierarchical underground cells organized by the CIA in Eastern Europe were being penetrated and liquidated by Soviet and Eastern Bloc counterintelligence operations. Amoss: "we do not need 'leaders'; we need leading ideas. These ideas would produce leaders. The masses would produce them and the ideas would be their inspiration. Therefore, we must create these ideas and convey them to the restless peoples concerned with them." In 1961 leaflets were airdropped over Cuba by anti-

Castro Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''. ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

n exiles and their allies with close ties to the Central Intelligence Agency. The leaflets used the concept of Leaderless Resistance and called for the creation of "Phantom Cells" (Celulas Fantasmas). There was no apparent connection between Amoss and the leaflets, according to Michael Paulding, who is writing a book on an early OSS figure and has studied Amoss and his work. Amoss died in November 1961, a few months after the failed CIA-orchestrated

Bay of Pigs invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fina ...

of Cuba. Amoss's Leaderless Resistance essay is republished posthumously in 1962 in the INFORM newsletter, having been rewritten from the 1953 original by a freelancer, according to Paulding.

Personal life

Amoss married Mary Veronica Amoss.Panos, Lou. "Familiar Ring to MIG-Napping." ''The Evening Sun'' altimore, Mary.(Sep. 15, 1976), p. A15.

Works

* ''Leaderless Resistance: New Tactics for an Old War''. . ** Originally published in ''Inform'', no. 6205 (Apr. 17, 1962).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amoss, Ulius Louis 1895 births 1961 deaths Military intelligence Guerrilla warfare United States Army soldiers