Author: Carter McLellan – Date: April 16, 2025

Contents

1. Origins and history of the Crusade for Freedom
2. The Texas chapter and JFK assassination ties
3. Additional ties
4. Conclusion
5. Notes

Origins and history of the Crusade for Freedom

Immediately after the end of World War II, the Cold War began between the West and communism of the East. In February 1946, Radio in the American Sector (RIAS) began broadcasting in the German language to Berlin and Soviet-occupied Germany. Several months later, the US State Department proposed the idea of American radio broadcasting into the Soviet Union, in addition official Voice of America. However, Deputy Military Governor of Allied-occupied Berlin rejected the idea in favor of RIAS.

In 1947, NSC-A approved the newly established CIA to begin psywar operations against Communists, including covert-backed radio broadcasting. In May 1948, State Department Director of Policy Planning Staff George Kennan proposed to the National Security Council “The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare” in opposition to Soviet psywar against the US. The concept would involve the creation of liberation committees, underground activities behind the Iron Curtain, and support of anti-communist natives. In response, President Truman approved the creation of the Office of Special Projects at CIA, which became the Office of Policy Coordination by September 1948.

The first director of this new office became Frank Wisner, who was appointed by Kennan, and reported to DCI Roscoe Hillenkoetter. Kennan proposed the OPC work through an “American freedom committee” to deal with anti-Communist emigre groups in the United States, in order to develop operations abroad. The plan was to raise private funding for these selected emigres, so that they could help oppose the Soviet’s control in eastern Europe, but without official US backing.

On April 29, 1949, Sullivan & Cromwell submitted a certificate of corporation in New York for a non-profit company called the Committee for Free Europe, Inc. (CFE). Its primary purpose was to assist eastern European emigres. The first meeting of the CFE was held on May 17, 1949, in order to adopt corporate by-laws and to select directors. The CFE’s first President was Allen Dulles, who resigned after a few weeks to become Chairman of the Executive Committee. Its second President was DeWitt Clinton Poole, with Directors including Dwight Eisenhower, DeWitt Wallace and Henry Luce. The Chairman of the Board was Joseph C. Grew.

On June 2, 1949, the CFE rebranded as National Committee for Free Europe, Inc. (NCFE), with support from Senator Herbert Lehman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson. In July, five committees were set up: General Administrative, Intellectual Activities, Radio and Press, American Contacts, and National Committees for eastern Europeans. The advertising committee was advised by Howard M. Chapin and radio committee was chaired by Frank Altschul. Poole and Chapin met to discuss ways of obtaining funding and suggested meeting with Dulles. In August 1949, Erwin Turhill, Vice President of John Price Jones Company, contacted NCFE Director Charles Taft to inquire about fund raising efforts. It was eventually decided by Poole that it would be ideal to appeal toward a broader base of donations, instead of specific large sums.

In January 1950, Lucius Clay was elected to the NCFE Board. It was soon decided that they needed a symbol to rally behind, so they began working with Harry Bullis, Abbot Washburn and Nate Crabtree of General Mills Corporation. They settled on the idea of a “Crusade for Freedom”. With that concept they began moving forward on an actionable fund raising plan.

On April 3, 1950, the NCFE changed its name to the National Committee for a Free Europe, Inc. In May 1950, the NCFE board agreed to adopt the “Freedom Bell” as their symbol. On July 4, 1950, Radio Free Europe (RFE) began broadcasting into eastern Europe.
On September 4, 1950, the Crusade for Freedom was launched as an NCFE subsidiary and chaired by Lucius Clay. The main goal of the crusade was to raise funds for Radio Free Europe, as cover for CIA funds, and to generate American support for Cold War policies. Its first event was a nationwide radio address by Eisenhower urging Americans to support the crusade. The money raised would be directed to entities connected to RFE and Radio Liberty, but reportedly laundered US government funds into use for Eastern European insurgents. There was also an Asia version of this whole effort, but I won’t be going into that here for now.

In 1952, Henry Ford II succeeded Clay as Chairman of the Crusade for Freedom. Other members included Frederick Osborn, Gardner Cowles Jr., Rabbi Bernard Bamberher, and Archbishop Francis Spellman. Members in 1952 also included William Donovan and C.D. Jackson. Others involved have included J. Peter Grace, H. J. Heinz II, and George C. McGhee. In May 1952, the Psychological Strategy Board assumed ultimate control over the project, as well as other propaganda and psywar operations.

Running all kinds of campaigns across the country and with support for both sides of the political spectrum, the Crusade’s most successful year was in 1954. These massive fund raising campaigns included rallies and marches and gained support by media and hundreds of national and local organizations. It appears that the Crusade for Freedom drive had declined and ceased by 1960. However, CIA subsidies toward the NCFE persisted. The NCFE President from 1961 to 1968 was John Richardson, Jr. It wasn’t until 1971, when Senator Clifford P. Case revealed that it was receiving covert assistance. This resulted in RFE being re-chartered as a public corporation with funding and oversight responsibilities transferred to the Board of International Broadcasting.

The Texas chapter and JFK assassination ties

At the moment, available information about the Crusade for Freedom Texas chapter is extremely limited. But, it seems like it was probably established by 1952. What is currently known about its supporters is incredibly intriguing for the events in Dallas after the Crusade seemingly ended in 1960. Perhaps Russ Baker, in ‘Family of Secrets’, described it best when he states “members of the Texas Crusade for Freedom would become a who’s who of Texans connected to the events surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy.“

The quickest way to arrive to this network is to look at the connections of the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. From September 1962 to April 1963, Oswald was acquainted with George de Mohrenschildt, a member of the White Russian emigre community in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. George was quite an intriguing fellow, with a background in petroleum geology. He had allegedly been connected to intelligence activities, including his brother Dimitri, who helped set up Radio Free Europe. George had even been acquainted with Jacqueline Bouvier’s family, the later wife of President Kennedy.

George had moved to Dallas in 1951, having made friends with Paul M. Raigorodksy, a leader in the white Russian emigre community in DFW. Raigorodsky, who was also in the oil business, invited George to join the Dallas Petroleum Club, where he would have made contact with numerous prominent oilmen.

First of all, Raigorodsky, who moved to Dallas in 1950, was a supporter of the the Texas Crusade for Freedom. After the assassination, in 1964, both de Mohrenschildt and Raigorodsky would give testimony to the Warren Commission. There were a number of other highly intriguing connections here among these oilmen, most likely all belonging to the Dallas Petroleum Club

One of these men was D. Harold Byrd, another supporter of the Texas Crusade for Freedom. Byrd’s wife was on the board of National Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis in Dallas established by George de Mohrenschildt in 1962, which also included Raigorodksy and Jacqueline Kennedy as honorary chairman. Notwithstanding the fact that Oswald was reportedly distantly related to Byrd, in 1941 Byrd helped establish the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), which Oswald briefly joined in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the year 1955; also where he reportedly met David Ferrie. Furthermore, in February 1963, de Mohrenschildt put the Oswalds in contact with Ruth Paine, who in October 1963, helped get Oswald a job at the Texas School Book Depository Building (TSBD), from where he would take a firing position on November 22, 1963. That building was owned by Byrd since 1939.

More Oswald connections show up during his activities in New Orleans, between April to September 1963. Oswald had worked for the Reilly Coffee Company, whose owners were backers of the Information Council of the Americas (INCA). During August, Oswald had printed pamphlets to promote the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) and had seemingly attempted to infiltrate the CIA-backed DRE office of Carlos Bringuier. After a confrontation, the two went on a radio debate along with Edward Butler, director of INCA. This INCA outfit was founded by Dr. Alton Ochsner, a friend of Clint Murchison, Sr., who provided seed money for the Ochsner Foundation Hospital (OFH) and INCA. De Mohrenschildt had also worked for Murchison after he moved to Dallas. Furthermore, Murchison was a member of the Dallas Petroleum Club and backer of the Texas Crusade for Freedom.

De Mohrenschildt had also been a member of another highly intriguing organization called the Dallas Council on World Affairs. It was founded in 1951 by H. Neil Mallon, the head of Dresser Industries and fellow member of the Skull & Bones Society at Yale with Prescott Bush. Mallon, a supporter of the Texas Crusade for Freedom, was said to have been a CIA recruiter for Allen Dulles. In 1952, John Foster Dulles gave a speech to the Council, followed by Allen Dulles in 1953, as well as in October 1963, a month before the assassination. Dulles would later become a member of the Warren Commission. An interesting fact is that Ruth and Michael Paine’s family were friends with Mary Bancroft, a lover of Allen Dulles. It is also interesting that the President of the Dallas Council on World Affairs from 1958 to 1959 was George C. McGhee, a member of the National Committee for a Free Europe.

Another interesting supporter of the Texas Crusade for Freedom was H. L. Hunt, whose family has been involved deeply over the decades with the Dallas Council on World Affairs (today the World Affairs Council of DFW) and the Dallas Petroleum Club. De Mohrenschildt was said to have known H.L. Hunt. In 2023, the Dallas Petroleum Club moved to the Hunt headquarters and have been represented in recent years at the World Affairs Council of DFW’s Board of Advisors. Oswald was supposedly in contact with a “Mr. Hunt”, although its never been established who it was.

The Mayor of Dalles, Earle Cabell, was a supporter of the Texas Crusade for Freedom and had served on the board of directors of the Dallas Council on World Affairs. Earle’s brother was Charles Cabell, Deputy Director of the CIA under Allen Dulles. Charles Cabell had reportedly been in contact with INCA Director Edward Butler, as well as the spooky Dr. George White, who was reportedly involved in MK-ULTRA type blackmail operations in New Orleans. Earle Cabell was reportedly involved in the New Orleans Foreign Policy Association, alongside Clay Shaw.

Sponsors of the Dallas Council included DeGolyer and MacNaughton, founded by Everette DeGolyer and Lewis MacNaughton, both backers of the Texas Crusade for Freedom.

Another interesting backer of the Texas Crusade for Freedom was Fred Florence, who sat on the Dallas Council on World Affairs’ Board of Directors in the 1950s and headed the Republican National Bank of Dallas, which was reportedly a covert repository of CIA-connected ventures in Dallas. Florence was at one point the Mayor of Dallas, was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Freemason and member of the Shriners.

One of the members of the Dallas Council’s board was R. Gerald Storey, a supporter of the Texas Crusade for Freedom who later became the liaison between Texas law enforcement and the Warren Commission.

Another sponsor of the Texas Crusade for Freedom was Bernard L. Gold, who owned Nardis Sportswear which employed George de Mohrenschildt’s wife and Abraham Zapruder, who filmed the infamous Zapruder film and was at some point on the board of the Dallas Council on World Affairs.

Yet another reported Texas Crusade for Freedom member was Ted Dealey, whose father Dealey Plaza was named after, owner of A.H. Belo which owned Dallas Morning News and WFAA radio.

Additional ties

Without digging too deeply into the national chapter and parent organization, there are numerous intriguing observations to be made, in additional to the more localized Dallas connections.

George Kennan had been an important instigator behind the establishment of the NCFE, when he served as the first Director of Policy Planning from 1947 to 1949 under President Truman. He was the 8th Counselor of the US State Department from 1949 to 1950, Ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1952 and Ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1961 to 1963 under President Kennedy. Kennan was a non-resident member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), since 1946. He would later be involved in a number of NGOs

The other key figure in establishing the Crusade for Freedom subsidiary was Frank Wisner, an OSS veteran who served as head of the Office of Policy Coordination from 1948 to 1950. Then taking over from Dulles as the Directorate for Plans in 1951. Wisner was also a member of the CFR since 1946.

As the third Director of CIA, Roscoe Hillenkoetter, would have overseen the development of the Crusade from 1947 to 1950. He later became a leading figure in a UFO research organization NICAP. The CIA Director from 1950 to 1953 was Walter Bedell Smith.

The fifth CIA Director was Allen Dulles, serving from 1953 to 1961. Dulles, as we’ve already discussed, was a key co-founder of the NCFE and it’s Crusade for Freedom subsidiary. Allen Dulles had been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1927 and serves as it’s President from 1946 to 1950. Following Dulles as head of the NCFE was Dewitt Clinton Poole, a non-resident member of the CFE since 1931.

One of the key co-founders of the NCFE and its Crusade was Herbert Lehman, who had served as Governor of New York from 1933 to 1942, then as the New York Senator from 1949 to 1957. Lehman was a founding member of the CFR in 1922. He had been involved with the Committee for the Marshall Plan to Aid European Recovery Executive Committee, from 1947 to 1949, alongside Allen Dulles, Frank Altschul, and Dean Acheson. Other members of of this organization included William Donovan, H. J. Heinz II, Nelson Rockefeller and others. He was also on the board of the American Committee on United Europe (ACUE), which was founded in 1948 to send funds to the European Movement of Josef Retinger. The ACUE was co-founded by Allen Dulles and was financed by the Rockefeller family, Ford Foundation and CIA.

The first Chair of the Crusade, from 1950 to 1952 was General Lucius Clay, a member of the CFR since 1949. He would end up as a director of the ACUE, as well as other organizations, including The Economic Club, Links Club, and other organizations.

Clay was succeeded is Chair of the crusade by Henry Ford II, who led the Ford Foundation and had been a member of the Book and Snake Society at Yale. He later would become a member of the 1001 Club and worked at JPMorgan Chase.

Another person involved in the Crusade and NCFE was Frederick Osborn, a CFR member since 1951. Osborn was a trustee at Rockefeller University and the Carnegie Corporation of New York since 1936. He was a member of the International House and was director of the ACUE. He also was a member of the Eugenics Society and Population Control.

Dwight Eisenhower‘s involvement in the Crusade was very prominent and the first real drive in the public campaign. From 1951 to 1952, he was Supreme Allied Commander Europe, then from 1953 to 1961, he was President of the United States, before Kennedy. Eisenhower was a member of the CFR since 1949, a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace from 1948 to 1952, and had been involved in many of the elite clubs.

One interesting member of the NCFE was William “Wild Bill” Donovan, a CFR member since 1932. An OSS veteran, Donovan chaired the ACUE and was involved in the Committee for the Marshall Plan to Aid European Recovery.

Evidently aiding in the NCFE’s domestic propaganda campaign was likely C.D. Jackson, another CFR member since 1950 and early Bilderberg attendee. He worked with Time Life magazine and was involved in obtaining the Zapruder film following the JFK assassination, shortly before his death. He had experience in psychological warfare.

Additionally, the Time Life owner, Henry Luce, was also a member of the NCFE. Luce was part of the Skull & Bones Society at Yale and a member of the CFR since 1934, and a member of the Pilgrims Society along with Allen Dulles, the Rockefellers and others. His wife, Clare Boothe Luce was a member of the Knights of Malta and American Security Council. Luce also knew Allen Dulles’ lover Mary Bancroft, who was close friends with Ruth Paine’s mother-in-law Ruth Forbes Paine.

Another NCFE member was Frank Altschul, a founding member of the CFR and member of the Pilgrims Society. He was a financier who would have aided the effort to obtain funds. He was also involved in the Committee for the Marshall Plan to Aid European Recovery.

Another NCFE member was Clark Clifford, the White House Counsel from 1946 to 1950. After serving as Chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board from 1963 to 1968, and as Secretary of Defense from 1968 to 1969, he would later appear connected to the BCCI. This places a direct link between the cover money laundering during the NCFE/Crusade period, to the later BCCI/Iran Contra period from the 1970s to 1990s.

Yet another character at the NCFE was Joseph Grew, a CFR member since 1928. He was involved with the Century Association and “The Family” club. He had served in a number of diplomatic positions since 1920, serving as Secretary of State in 1945.

Later on the NCFE included J. Peter Grace, a member of the Skull & Bones Society at Yale and CFR member by 1950. He was a member of the Knights of Malta and later became a member of the 1001 Cub, the Council for National Policy and AmeriCares.

Another later figure at the NCFE was H. J. Heinz II, a CFR member since 1952, a Pilgrims Society member and Bilderberg attendee, as well as a later member of the 1001 Club.

Another interesting character at the NCFE was George C. McGhee, who had been a CFR member since 1953 and attended Bilderberg from 1954 to 1967. He served as the President of the Dallas Council on World Affairs from 1958 to 1959. He was a Rhodes scholar and had worked in the oil business, including for DeGolyer and MacNaughton. He had also worked with Pantepec Oil of the Buckley family. He would also hold several diplomatic positions.

Following the end of the Crusade, the NCFE’s President from 1961 to 1968 was John Richardson, Jr., a CFR member by 1959. He was also involved in the International Rescue Committee (IRC), CSIS, and later the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Richardson had worked at Sullivan & Cromwell and served as President of Radio Free Europe.

Conclusion

The Crusade for Freedom had a tremendous impact on the public of the US during the 1950s. We illustrated how many of the key figures involved in its Texas chapters were tied into the background of the Kennedy assassination in 1963. Members involved in the parent organization, the NCFE, were almost all involved in the CFR and would be tied into numerous other scandals throughout the Cold War.

Notes