Records on Gen. Albert Coady Wedemeyer (1896-1989) were recently provided by the FBI to Expanding Frontiers Research as the result of a 2021 Freedom of Information Act request. The Bureau explained in its July 17 final response that 101 pages were reviewed and 61 of those pages were being released. The previously released material includes FBI memos and correspondence spanning decades, as well as a report published in January 1958 by the Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities about its consultation with the career intelligence officer.
FBI advised of the existence of another ten files in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration containing records potentially responsive to Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer. Expanding Frontiers Research submitted a FOIA request to NARA for the records.
Gen. Wedemeyer commanded troops in the United States Army and served in Asia from 1943 until the end of World War II. He was a key member of the War Planning Board, which formulated strategy for D-Day, a massive invasion of Normandy that went on to liberate Western Europe from occupation by fascist Germany. The initiative was known to planners as Operation Overlord.
Wedemeyer was an outspoken anti-Communist. In 1947 he returned to China to assess the circumstances and present a report to President Truman on proposed strategy. The general subsequently became deeply involved in the China lobby, adamantly opposing the forming of a Communist regime in China and its admission into the United Nations.
He would interestingly go on to be known as an advisor to the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), ostensibly incorporated as a UFO group in 1956. NICAP organizers included an almost certain CIA asset, Nicholas de Rochefort, who was an expert in psychological warfare and credited with founding The Committee of One Million, the most powerful and wealthy group in the Beltway China lobby, as covered by this writer in the book Wayward Sons: NICAP and the IC. The high-profile lobby group opposed Red China and de Rochefort was a recognized authority on the nation's political structure, as was Wedemeyer.
A NICAP magazine published in July 1957, as brought to our attention by writer and researcher James Carrion, described the UFO org's affiliation with Wedemeyer and characterized his activities as evaluation of UFO reports. However, fascinating questions arise in hindsight as the magazine further explained the general was leaving NICAP because he never wanted his involvement to be known publicly. “We regret that the general's name was released,” the announcement concludes:
Additional NICAP organizers of note include former State Department and CIA personnel, as well as others with interests in the Department of Defense, who shared ties to activities related to China. A number of these people, which include the very incorporators of the organization, vacated their NICAP positions within weeks of its October 1956 launch, as suggested in the above July 1957 references to "former management." Wedemeyer was apparently yet another.
In a 2021 interview conducted by Erica Lukes, James Carrion described his research which included Wedemeyer's potential involvement in disinformation surrounding purported UFO cases. James also favorably described this writer's work which is most appreciated. The discussion of 1940s events of interest and the later incorporating of NICAP takes place about 1:43:45 into the video:
Among the FBI records is a 1949 inner-agency memo to Director J. Edgar Hoover. It demonstrates Wedemeyer's expressed respect for the FBI director and the Bureau, as well as his seemingly intimate knowledge of certain operations, such as FBI personnel located in South America. The memo, pictured below, is coincidentally written by Special Agent in Charge Guy Hottel, a name UFO enthusiasts may recognize as the author of a 1950 Roswell-related FBI document.
Also provided is a 1960 letter from Wedemeyer to Hoover, advising the director on political developments and, specifically, activities related to 1964 presidential candidate Sen. Barry Goldwater. The Senator would go on to be a member of the NICAP Board of Governors.
In a 1967 letter to Hoover, Wedemeyer describes his attendance at the “Bohemian Club Encampment” in the redwoods of California, a reference to what became known as Bohemian Grove and its so-called secret society. The general informs Hoover about talk of subversive elements, questionable individuals, and circumstances of concern in the orbit of the University of California and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer of the Manhattan Project:
In a 43-page pdf containing Wedemeyer's consultation with the Committee on Un-American Activities and printed in early 1958, the general warned members of Congress about Soviet ideologies and advances in areas including science and psychological warfare. His role in combating this, he suggested, involved designing and implementing effective strategies.
“The term 'strategy' disturbs many people,” Gen. Wedemeyer explained, “just as the word 'propaganda' does. I define 'strategy' as the art and science of using all of a nation's available resources to accomplish national objectives. There are four major categories of resources: political, economic, psychological, and military. If the first three of these resources – that is, political, economic, and psychological – are employed intelligently and boldly in consonance with a well-thought-out plan, it may never be necessary to use actively our military force. Obviously that is exactly what we should do at all times...”
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