Military
Edward Lansdale
1908–1987 · U.S. Air Force general, CIA officer
Detroit-born Air Force officer and CIA operative who pioneered psychological warfare in the Philippines and South Vietnam in the 1950s.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
McLean, Virginia
aged 79- Birth name
- Edward Geary Lansdale
- Detroit years
- 1908–1910s
- Field
- Military
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Edward Lansdale was born in Detroit in 1908, the son of an automotive executive, and moved with the family as his father's career took them to New York and California; he went to school in Michigan, New York and California before settling in Los Angeles. After UCLA he worked in advertising, a background that shaped his later approach to propaganda. During World War II he served with the Office of Strategic Services, and after the war he joined the new Air Force while working closely with the CIA. In the early 1950s he advised Philippine defense secretary Ramon Magsaysay against the Hukbalahap insurgency, and in 1954 he set up the Saigon Military Mission to support Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam. He later led Operation Mongoose against Cuba. He retired in 1963 as a major general and is often cited as a model for characters in The Ugly American and The Quiet American.
Highlights
- Retired from the U.S. Air Force as a major general in 1963
- Advised Ramon Magsaysay against the Hukbalahap rebellion
- Founded the Saigon Military Mission in 1954
- Headed Operation Mongoose, the covert campaign against Castro's Cuba