George "Guv" S. Musulin (April 9, 1914 – February 23, 1987) was an American army officer of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) who in 1950 became a CIA operative.

Early life

George Musulin was born into a Serbian family in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and grew up in

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, Johnstown is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, whi ...

. He graduated from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

, where he played with the university's football team during their national championship year of 1937. After college he played professional American football in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Second World War

Musulin became a captain in the OSS during the

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 ...

. In mid-October 1943, Musulin, as part of a U.S. military mission, parachuted into

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

to the headquarters of General Draža Mihailović. In January 1944 Musulin was a delegate on the Ba Congress organized by Draža Mihailović.:"Конгресу је присуствовао и Џорџ Мусулин, делегат амери- чке војске и председника Рузвелта." On 29 May 1944, Musulin, aided by Chetniks, was evacuated along with the British and American mission and 40 rescued Allied airmen to Bari, leaving General Mihailović without support. In Bari Musulin proposed another rescue of American airmen shot down over Yugoslavia. He again parachuted into Chetnik territory, near the village of

Pranjani Pranjani is a village in the Municipalities of Serbia, municipality of Gornji Milanovac, Serbia. In 1944, Pranjani was the site of Operation Halyard. In 2019, a small wooden guest house was transfer by truck to a new location, in the churchyard, w ...

, where there were several hundred American airmen rescued by Chetnik forces and hidden from the Germans. Musulin successfully commanded the airlift

Operation Halyard Operation Halyard (or Halyard Mission), known in Serbian as Operation Air Bridge ( sr, Операција Ваздушни мост), was an Allied airlift operation behind Axis lines during World War II. In July 1944, the Office of Strategic S ...

, the rescue from the air of about 447 U.S. airmen from Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia, from 10 to 29 August 1944. Although this operation was successful due to cooperation from General Mihailović, Musulin had been ordered not to give the Chetniks political promises, an order he violated when he allowed members of General Mihailović's political mission to board the plane. At this time the British were the main Allied authority in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, and their

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 pu ...

(SOE) complained to Musulin's superiors in the OSS, who decided to expel him from the service. In late 1944 Musulin was transferred to the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

as part of the naval intelligence service, where he stayed until the end of the war.

Post war years

After the war the CIA conducted its own investigation into Musulin, which concluded that he had acted appropriately and that he had been the victim of

James Klugmann Norman John Klugmann (27 February 1912 – 14 September 1977), generally known as James Klugmann, was a leading British Communist writer and WW2 Soviet Spy, who became the official historian of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Background ...

and other British agents in the SOE with communist sympathies. For his efforts, Musulin was awarded the Legion of Merit. Musulin enlisted in the Office of Naval Intelligence and joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1950, where he remained until he retired in 1974. Musulin continued to serve as a field operations officer. He was part of a team that was responsible for recruiting and training Cuban exiles to fight against the regime of Fidel Castro. He was disappointed with the failure of the

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 fin ...

and the loss of human life. Musulin died of complications of diabetes at the age of 72.

References

Sources

External links

THE O.S.S. SOCIETY, INC, Spring 2005.The O.S.S. Society, Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2007.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Musulin, George 1914 births 1987 deaths People of the Office of Strategic Services American people of Serbian descent People of the Central Intelligence Agency Recipients of the Legion of Merit Chetniks