Chapter Eleven-THE SECRET WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS : Nato's Secret Armies by Daniele Ganser

 

THE SECRET WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS

As in neighbouring Belgium, the stay-behind secret army of the Netherlands originated from the country's Second World War occupation experience. The Netherlands, as Dutch strategists later lamented, had not erected a stay-behind before the Second World War due to lack of money, lack of visions and concerns in the context of neutrality. Then in May 1940 the Netherlands were occupied by the German Army and the Dutch government together with the Dutch royals and privileged figures of the political, military and economic sphere had to leave Dutch soil hastily and chaotically for Great Britain. GS III, the Section Intelligence of the Dutch General Staff, had warned too late of the German attack and had thus failed bitterly in what would have been its most important task. Due to the hasty retreat there was logistic distress in many areas, and the Dutch ministers who in May 1940 arrived in London could hardly carry out their work for a lack of crucial documents. For many within the military and security services it was clear that such a chaotic escape was never to happen again and that after the war preparations against a potential future invasion had to be taken very seriously.

After the chaotic escape of the government in May 1940 the homeland was occupied for almost five consecutive traumatic years by the Germans. The Dutch government in London, which almost completely lacked reliable intelligence on its occupied home country, sent agents into the Netherlands with the task of collecting intelligence, organising resistance and engaging in small-scale covert action operations. As in Belgium these Dutch operations were carried out in close cooperation with the British, above all together with the newly created British Special Operations Executive (SOE). However, the Germans with disastrous effects quickly infiltrated the hastily created units. In one of the greatest disasters for the SOE, the so-called Englandspiel, the Dutch section of SOE was secretly penetrated by the Germans who thereafter controlled the transmitters and read the communication. Dozens of agents fell straight into enemy hands as a result and never returned.

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During the war the Dutch and the British established intimate ties and London

advised the Dutch on the reorganisation of their destroyed and chaotic secret service apparatus. According to the advice of the British two new services were

created in the early 1940s during the London exile. The Bureau Inlichtingen (BI) was established in November 1942 with the task of collecting intelligence. And the Bureau Bijzondere Opdrachten (BBO) was created with the task of carrying out special operations. Together with the British SOE special units, the BBO parachuted into the occupied country. When the war was over both the BI and BBO were closed down. But in subsequent years much of their personnel was directly involved in setting up the Dutch stay-behind. BI member C. L. W. Fock had insisted during the war that in the future the Netherlands had to be better prepared and in peacetime a stay-behind should be erected in the country. Also his superior J. M. Somer, chief of the BI in London, was convinced that after the end of the German occupation a stay-behind had to be erected in the Netherlands. 'I remember how Somer, Charles van Houten (Liaison officer between BI and Dutch Queen Wilhelmina), and I in 1944 already agreed that something like that must never happen again' Fock, aged 87, remem- bered during a Gladio interview in his apartment in the Hague in 1992. Looking back almost half-a-century later, Fock recalled: 'In this conversation it became clear that it would be better for the Netherlands to prepare for a new war. It was necessary to take actions into that direction as soon as possible.'

At the time of the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945 BI chief Somer figured amongst the most experienced men in the secret trade. Before the war he had served in the pre-war Dutch secret service GS III. During the war he had engaged in resistance operations on Dutch soil and in March 1942 had narrowly escaped the German Sicherheitsdienst, reaching safe haven London after an adventurous excursion. In London, Somer served as the first chief of the newly created Dutch wartime secret service BI. After the war Somer, now promoted to the rank of Colonel, put down his stay-behind thinking on paper and presented them to General J. Kruls, who in November 1945 had become Chief of the Dutch Chiefs of Staff. Somer's memorandum to Kruls was entitled: 'Lessons to be drawn from the period 1940-1945 in the field of Intelligence and Security Services.' A former involved remembers that 'It was one of the first pieces which Kruls as new chief of the Chiefs of Staff had to deal with in his new office.' Kruls was immediately won over for the idea. Fascinated by covert action Kruls in his book 'Peace or War' (Vreede of Oorlog) which he published a few years later during the time of the Korean War stressed that the 'greatest possible attention' had to be given to the 'preparations for covert action warfare'. As Kruls saw it Western Europe had to face 'the hard facts', meaning that if there should soon be a war, 'then the underground operations 2 might be the decisive factor'.

With the support of Kruls, Somer in September 1945 presented the stay-behind plan to Dutch Defence Minister J. Meynen. Somer did not stress the covert action and sabotage operations of a potential secret army but suggested the creation of

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an intelligence collection unit 'which should be able to collect military, political

and economic information and to send them by courier or on wireless networks'

to the military command outside the occupied country. Somer explained that men

should be recruited and trained in radio communication and encryption

techniques, and insisted that these men should not be part of the regular Dutch

military for only then they would be available for special operations in case of an

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invasion. Defence Minister Meynen agreed with the plan and Somer became the

first commander of the Dutch stay-behind with the specific task to set up a secret army. At the same time Somer was given the task of closing down the wartime secret service IB that he had previously directed. The task gave him the perfect cover for his clandestine preparations. He attached the new stay-behind service to the old pre-war Dutch military secret service GS III and therefore the first Dutch stay-behind received the cover name GIIIC.

After some months Somer started to dislike the organisational structure. He resented that his stay-behind network GIIIC was placed under the command of the Chiefs of Staff. Somer, little inclined to tolerate a section chief above him, stressed that such a structure represented a secrecy risk. 'Somer was of the opinion that his top-secret unit must exist, but can not officially appear', Dutch

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scholar Koedijk described the situation. In January 1948 it was therefore

decided that the stay-behind section should no longer be mentioned in organisa- tional charts of the Defence Ministry and the clandestine army came under the direct command of Somer. Furthermore the label of the Dutch Gladio was changed from GIIIC to G7. Somer furthermore insisted that his Gladio headquarters could no longer be in the headquarters of the Dutch General Staff which was located in the Prinses Juliana military complex half way between the Hague and the Dutch village Wassenaar. He was therefore allowed to search for an adequate building not too far from the headquarters of the Dutch General Staff. With less than total emphasis on secrecy he decided upon House Maarheeze in Wassenaar, an architectonic highlight and impressive villa built in 1916 by a Dutch businessman who had become wealthy in Indonesia. Located within an acceptable distance of five minutes' driving from the headquarters of the General Staff, Somer in May 1945 took up residence in the Villa Maarheeze, still officially under BI activities. In 1946 the Dutch Gladio GIIIC, shortly thereafter renamed G7, also moved into the same building.

Somer insisted that secrecy was of the utmost importance for the clandestine army. While he was in command no Roman Catholics for instance could become members of the secret unit, for Somer believed that their duty for confession stood in contrast to the principle of secrecy within the service. At the same time Somer made sure that the Dutch executive was informed of his clandestine preparations. Assisted by the Chief of Staff Kruls he debriefed Dutch Prime Minister Louis Beel when the latter took office in July 1946 to head the Dutch executive until 1948. Beel was soon convinced of the values of a stay-behind, and thus consented to the secret operation despite the fact that he considered the scenario of a Soviet invasion to be rather unlikely.

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As BI was being closed down by Somer, Villa Maarheeze, next to being the headquarters of the Dutch stay-behind G7, potentially provided enough space
also for other branches of the Dutch secret service establishment. The Dutch Second World War secret services BI and BBO were closed down. In their place two new Dutch Cold War secret services were created: The domestic secret service

BVD, short for B i n n e n l a n s d e V eiligheidsdienst, and the Dutch foreign secret 5 service IDB, short for Inlichtingendienst Buitenland. On the orders of the Prime Minister the task to set up the foreign secret service IDB was given to C. L. W. Fock, who during the war under Somer had been Vice Director of BI in London. When Fock was promoted to become first Director of IDB Somer asked him whether he was interested in erecting the new headquarters of his service in the Villa Maarheeze. Fock agreed and the IDB came into the villa and paid 60 per cent of the rent, while Somer's G7 paid the rest. Villa Maarheeze in subsequent decades became a symbol of clandestine operations and was strongly compromised when it was discovered that IDB had carried out illegal domestic operations and had cultivated links with Dutch right-wing circles during the Cold War. When it was furthermore discovered in 1990 that the mysterious Gladio secret army had been located in the same house as the IDB, Villa Maarheeze became a symbol of intrigues and manipulations. The Dutch foreign secret service IDB was closed down in 1994 by Prime Minister Lubbers and most of its functions were transferred 6 to the domestic secret service BVD.

From his headquarters in Villa Maarheeze stay-behind commander Somer travelled extensively through the Netherlands to recruit members for his secret army. Most of these early Dutch Gladiators shared a common Second World War experience. Many were drawn from the BBO units that during the war together with the British SOE special units had parachuted into the occupied country to carry out covert action operations. Other recruits were drawn from the wartime Dutch resistance OD (Ordedienst), which Somer had commanded during the war in the Dutch province West Brabant before he had been forced to flee to London in 1942. 'Somer searched the whole country for this purpose', a former agent remembers. 'He visited for instance an old commander of the OD, or a member of the illegal wartime intelligence unit Albrecht, met with them in hotel rooms, and there briefly discussed matters.' Obviously this was not the sort of fieldwork the chief of a super secret organisation would be expected to carry out himself. Yet as the personal contacts were the central elements of the operation, Somer insisted stubbornly that his recruitment tactic was the most efficient, while the former agent reasoned: 'In retrospect you can question such proceedings of 7 course.'

At all times Somer cultivated his clandestine contacts with the MI6 and CIA. When Somer asked the Dutch Ministry of Traffic and Energy as well as the Dutch General Directory of Telecommunications for a licence to operate radio receivers and transmitters and permission for several defined frequencies he highlighted the need for 'a fast secret and independent connection with the 8 EnglishandAmericanofficialsabroad'. Somerinhisrequestmadeitclearthat

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the 'desirability of such proceedings' had been requested by the United Kingdom

and the United States, whereupon the transmitters were quickly installed in the villa Maarheeze. At the same time as Somer was setting up the G7 a second stay-behind was being secretly erected in the Netherlands, independent of G7. Immediately after the Second World War Dutch secret service circles under the influence of the British MI6 had approached Prince Bernhard with the suggestion of erecting a stay-behind in the country with the tasks of sabotage, liquidation and armed resistance in case of invasion. Sympathetic to the suggestion Prince Bernhard saw to it that Louis Einthoven, the first chief of the Dutch post-war domestic security service BVD was to carry out the preparations. Einthoven with the consent of Dutch Prime Minister W. Schermerhorn set up the Dutch stay-behind 9 code-named 'O', recruited and trained agents and erected secret arms caches.

Born in 1896 Louis Einthoven had served as a senior officer with the Rotterdam police before the war and during the war was an active resistance fighter against the German occupation. Until his death in 1973 he remained an ardent Cold Warrior, repeatedly stressing the danger of Communism. He introduced 'security checks' in order to control the ideological reliability of his Gladio and BVD agents. Einthoven's position as chief of the BVD provided him not only with the perfect cover for his top-secret function as chief of the secret army. It also gave him during the 16 years that he directed both units, at least potentially, the opportunity to use the Gladiators domestically also in the absence of an invasion. Einthoven was constantly alert that his secret army could be infiltrated by agents of the Soviet Union and thus placed much emphasis on counter-intelligence. 'The double function of Einthoven as chief BVD and of O was of course very valuable 10 for us', a former Dutch Gladiator remembers. For as most domestic secret services, the BVD had the task to spy upon elements of the Dutch society that could pose a threat to the state and government and to collect and monitor political movements including that of the far right and the far left. As of now no documents or testimonies are available on Einthoven's secret army and what it did remains almost completely in the dark.

The two Dutch secret armies, the one commanded by Einthoven directly integrated into the BVD, and the other commanded by Somer located in Villa Maarheeze, in 1948 reached a formal agreement of cooperation with the MI6. A similar agreement on clandestine stay-behind cooperation was reached with the newly created CIA in 1949. Whether the agreements, as in other stay-behind countries, directed the two Dutch secret armies to fight Communism and political parties 11 on the left also in the absence of a Soviet invasion, has still not been clarified. But when the Dutch stay-behind network was discovered in 1990 these secret agreements lead to much criticism in the Netherlands as the argument was raised that MI6 and CIA had controlled the Dutch secret army, a suggestion which was unacceptable to most Dutch politicians valuing their sovereignty. In 1992 an unnamed former member of the Dutch Gladio insisted therefore that despite the close contacts with both London and Washington the Dutch secret armies

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had always been sovereign: 'Neither the British nor the Amnican secret service

should have been able to locate and agent of our stay-behind. That's the way it had to be. For if you pass the permission to use the network to, for instance, the 12 British, nobody would want to be part of it any longer.' Another former Dutch agent claimed, after the discovery of the secret army, that 'The CIA had only 13 a general idea of the strength of the s t a y - behind in our country.' Contrary to these claims rumours surfaced at the same time that the top-secret identity of all secret soldiers in all countries in Western Europe, including the Dutch stay-behind agents, was known to the CIA and the MI6.

In 1948 dramatic events overseas drew commander Somer away from his stay-behind activities in the Netherlands. Indonesia, the richest and oldest colony of the Netherlands, was at that time desperately and successfully fighting for independence, similar to many other European colonies. On the orders of General Spoor, covert action specialist Somer therefore left for the Far East and in late spring 1948 became Director of the dreaded NEFIS, the Dutch military secret service in Indonesia. NEFIS engaged in brutal covert action operations but was unable to stop Indonesia from becoming independent from the Netherlands in 1949. Somer returned to the Netherlands and wrote a book about 'his' service, the IB and his wartime memoirs. Published in 1950 under the title Zij sprongen buj nacht (They jumped by night), the book contained names of numerous agents and descriptions of several covert action operations. The Dutch Defence Department later criticised Somer for these disclosures.

'The Government knew of nothing', a former secret soldier highlighted the secrecy of both Dutch stay-behinds, adding that 'only very few Secretary Generals within the Executive were informed, as the Ministers above them could change 14 quickly'. army included at times the civilian Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and the Secretary-Generals if the stay-behind commanders trusted them, as well as regularly the military Chief of Staffs and the Directors of the foreign and domestic Dutch secret services. 'Politics can at times nominate strange people', another anonym- ous stay-behind agent reflected. 'But it is only normal that a new official is being informed on everything. Yet for these sensitive issues the civil servants make an 15 exception and first observe what kind of meat they have in their bowl.' Parliament and its specialised committees were kept in the dark. Neither the secrecy bound 'Permanent Commission for secret service and security services', nor the 'Ministerial Commission for secret service and security' of the Dutch parliament were 16 The evidence available suggests that those who knew of the secret informed on the existence of the stay-behinds before the 1990 revelations.

To replace Somer as commander of the secret army J. J. L. Baron van Lynden, a 35-year-old instructor with the Dutch cavalry was selected. Finding a successor had not been easy. Most former senior BI members refused, for they had simply no intention to again lead a secret life with all its awkwardness and double standards. When Baron van Lynden on June 1, 1948 officially replaced Somer as chief of the Dutch stay-behind G7 quite a few within the intelligence community were surprised about the choice. For van Lynden in total contrast to his predecessor

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Somer was a complete newcomer to the field. He had been suggested by IDB

Director Fock, who 40 years later recalled 'I am a bit proud of this finding of 17 mine', praising the Dutch stay-behind commander's excellent character traits. Van Lynden's glory was based on his wartime resistance In 1940 he had belonged to a small unit of 50 Dutch senior officers who in a group of 2,000 had refused to promise to the Germans that they would do nothing against the occupiers, whereupon he had been sent to a German prisoners of war camp. In the Stanislau prison in Poland he met with British War hero Airey Neave, a contact which both cultivated also after the war. For Neave after the war directed the SAS which in numerous instances trained with the national secret armies in Europe, until he was killed by an IRA car bomb in the parking of the British parliament in March 1979. At the time of van Lynden's nomination as stay- behind commander the Baron was working for Prince Bernhard, the husband of Queen Wilhelmina. Van Lynden continued his bonds with the Queen and the cavalry, both of which served as a handy cover for his secret main function as commander of the Dutch secret army. In 1951 he was nominated adjutant of the Queen, and several times a week he travelled to the royal palace in The Hague. The Baron was a very gifted horseman, a passion he shared with Prince Bernhard. In The Hague in 1951 van Lynden became Dutch champion in horseback riding and in Rotterdam in 1955 he was a member of the Dutch equip which won the international jumping contest, a success he was particularly proud of.

Although scepticism had surrounded the start of the newcomer, van Lynden took off well in the secret services community. 'He was a natural talent in security affairs', an admirer recalled. And people who knew him in his job and outside sketch a picture of a strong but friendly personality that united 'character, know- ledge and expertise'. Van Lynden's phlegmatic and philosophical views - during his time in the prisoner of war camp he had 'studied' with a woman who later was to become professor of philosophy - were not typical for the military and 18 secret services field. the mysterious G7 unit was doing in Villa Maarheeze next to the IDB of Fock, the Baron for secrecy reasons on July 1, 1949 changed the label of G7 to SAZ, short for Section for General Affairs (Sectie Algemene Zaken), which he thought sounded harmless. Van Lynden also thought that after an invasion it would have been comparatively easy for the Soviets to identify former resistance and secret service members and he therefore made it an imperative to recruit new faces and unknown names, replacing most of the former colleagues of Somer with unknown men. When speculations arose in the community what exactly

During his time in office van Lynden stressed that he needed more money to pay for the technical equipment of his stay-behind. Especially communication machines were expensive. Chief of the General Staff Kruls had asked already in 1946 for such funds. The money came in 1948 after Lynden had replaced Somer as chief of SAZ and sophisticated equipment was thereafter being developed in cooperation with departments of the Dutch technology firm Phillips. In exchange for their cooperation van Lynden saw to it that leading Phillips technicians

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involved in the development of SAZ high-tech equipment were not sent to the

19 brutal colonial battle in Indonesia. the SAZ stay-behind, was being kept unaware of the second and more mysterious stay-behind that his fellow Dutchman and BVD commander Einthoven was running. Tellingly it was the British who in 1949 informed van Lynden in London that a second parallel stay-behind network under the command of Einthoven existed in the Netherlands. Van Lynden, who was mightily surprised, immediately insisted that both secret armies must be coordinated, for otherwise serious complications could result. This advice was followed and van Lynden's SAZ was fused with Einthoven's stay-behind into the Dutch secret army 'Intelligence and Operations' (Intelligence en Operations), short I&O, the label under which the Dutch stay-behind also became known in 1990. The two branches were nevertheless kept apart. The SAZ net became synonymous with the I unit, while Einthoven's stay-behind was the O unit. According to internal sources, Einthoven who followed his own secretive agenda allegedly strongly resented the cooperation of his unit with van Lynden's SAZ and little cooperation between Intelligence and Operations took place as long as Einthoven was in command of 21 Operations. Interestingly enough van Lynden, leader of

As the Dutch secretly agreed with the British, I&O had the general task to function as a stay-behind in case of foreign occupation of the Netherlands. 'The main attitude at the time was that we were both [British and Dutch] facing difficult times, and that the British would solve it all, as they had the expertise in the field', 22 a former Dutch agent later recalled. split. The Intelligence (I) unit under van Lynden was responsible for the collection and transmission of intelligence from occupied areas, preparations and running of exile bases and evacuation operations of the royalty, the government and the security apparatus including personnel of I&O. The Operations (O) unit under Einthoven had to carry out sabotage and guerrilla operations, strengthen the local resistance and create a new resistance movement. Most sensitively O also had the task to make people sensitive to the danger of Communism during times of peace. O was therefore trained in covert action operations, including the use of guns and 23 explosives, and possessed independent secret arms caches. the Dutch stay-behind were covered by a secret budget of the Dutch Defence Ministry with the spendings being controlled personally by the chairman of the General Accountancy Department (Algemene Rekenkamer). Within the Dutch stay-behind tasks were Most of the costs of

During his time in office, Van Lynden actively sought a suitable exile base, where his SAZ Gladio unit would have taken the Dutch government and other selected individuals in the event of an occupation. England, a safe place during the Second World War, could not be assumed to be a safe place in a future war. Lynden searched for a suitable place for a long time. In the end he decided that in Europe only Great Britain and the Iberian Peninsula were potentially suitable, while more secure overseas bases included the Dutch colony Curacao in the Caribbean, as well as the United States and Canada. In the early 1950s van Lynden made several trips to the United States. The base could not be situated close to a strategic

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area, such as an industrial zone, or and important military facility, for these would

have ranged among the first Soviet targets. While the location of the base in the USA remains unknown it is known that van Lynden found a base and that important documents of the Dutch executive were copied and transferred to the secret exile base. The Dutch stay-behind headquarters had been set up in the USA with the consent of the CIA. A former Dutch official relates how reluctant the CIA was on the topic: 'When the time comes, one can speak about that', he recalls the first contacts. 'But we insisted that we had to talk now. Finally the CIA agreed after a few months to give us what we wanted', whereupon a Dutch stay- 24 behind command centre was set up in the USA.

Furthermore van Lynden set up a secret exile base in Spain then ruled by fascist dictator Franco. 'If he had allowed us we would have build our exile base 25 even in Franco's very home', a former Dutch secret soldier remembers. behind commander van Lynden convinced stay-behind commander Einthoven to carry out the sensitive mission, whereupon the latter disguised as tourist in 1959 travelled to Spain and with the help of the contacts of former Dutch ambassador to Spain, W. Cnoop Koopmans, set up a secret Dutch exile base. The evidence remains fragmentary and further contacts concerning an exile base seem to have taken place with Canada and Great Britain. The post-invasion escape prepara- tions were taken very seriously, and ships and airplanes were kept ready for that task. 'I remember that around 1950 I had to test and judge quite a few yachts whether they were seaworthy', a former member of the Dutch Marine and stay- 26 behind officer recalled after the discovery of the network in 1990. Stay-

Symbolising its strong connection to the British the official SAZ insignia of the Dutch Gladio featured the Tudor rose next to the motto of Somer 'We will never give up.' 'We had no intention of fighting the next war under British command', a former Dutch secret soldier nevertheless highlighted Dutch inde- pendence. 'Van Lynden was very strong. They could not push him aside. Neither could later the Americans do that as towards the end of the 1950s they started to play an increasingly important role. But van Lynden understood that a certain consensus had to be reached between the parties, and in his mind it was up to the respective chiefs who had to determine how they wanted to work together while 27 keeping at the same time their own sovereignty.' In the top-secret meetings in the NATO stay-behind coordination and planning centres ACC and CPC, the Dutch Gladio I&O at all times aimed to present itself as a single harmonic unit with two branches. The Dutch had some experience on how to work with the dominant MI6 and CIA, for after the war the United Kingdom and the United States had formalised their secret cooperation with the Dutch in a trilateral secret forum labelled TCH, in which the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands each had a seat. Parallel to the creation of this secret coordination committee on March 17, 1948 the so-called WUCC had been erected with the task of carrying out peace time preparations in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and France against an eventual Soviet invasion. In April 1951 the early stay-behind command centre WUCC handed over its functions

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to the CPC, closely linked to NATO, within which the Dutch secret service also

had a seat.

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Van Lynden during his time in office very actively promoted the contacts

between the European secret services and their secret armies and insisted that

cooperation was mandatory when it came to the erection of international escape

and evasion routes. To this purpose the Baron travelled Europe extensively for

numerous years after having become commander of the Dutch secret army. He

was much praised for his efforts among the security services and with this encourage-

ment admitted that he would much like to become the first secretary of the CPC.

Yet the British who distrusted the liberal and open-minded van Lynden blocked

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his nomination. In 1957 CPC members Great Britain, the United States, France,

Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands under the participation of van Lynden erected the so-called Six Powers Lines Committee, which like the CPC had the task to organise and coordinate stay-behind preparations with a focus on inter- national communication and escape lines. The Six Powers Lines Committee became the ACC, which was founded in 1958 in Paris. ACC coordinated the international Gladio exercises which were carried out clandestinely with the participation of the different networks. In case of an invasion there was an ACC basis in the United States, and one in the United Kingdom from where the units in the occupied territory could be activated and commanded. ACC manuals instructed stay-behind soldiers on common covert action procedures, encryption and frequency-hopping communication techniques, as well as air droppings and landings. The chairmanship of ACC changed every two years. Through the TCH,

the CPC and the ACC, the Dutch Gladio I&O had standing contacts with both the

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CIA and the MI6.

The CIA and the MI6 by the 1950s collaborated closely in covert action operations and in 1953 overthrew the Iranian government of Mossadegh who had attempted to distribute parts of the oil wealth to the population. At the same time the CIA and MI6 feared that European Communists and the Soviet secret service might apply the same techniques to Western Europe and hence they attributed much importance to their secret armies on the old continent. In 1953 the CIA instructed van Lynden that several changes had to be carried out in order to make his units more professional. 'It was literally a blue print, a collection of thick blue books' which were given to the Baron, a former agent recalls. 'Van Lynden studied the texts extensively. They contained information on take over techniques which the Soviets had practised in Eastern Europe. The examples illustrated which sort of persons the Soviets were particularly focusing on. Consequently such persons could obviously not be recruited as secret agents. On this basis van Lynden had to

terminate the contact to a certain number of agents, which had been recruited by

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Somer.'

Yet it was not only from the CIA but also from within the Dutch security apparatus that van Lynden faced pressure. In February 1951 General Kruls, who had been actively involved in the erection of the Dutch stay-behind as the superior of both Somer and van Lynden, was replaced after serious disagreements with

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Defence Minister H. L. Jakob on the future task and organisation of the Dutch

army. To the surpris and dislike of many inside the Dutch army, General B. R. P. F.

Hasselman succeeded Kruls as new Chief of the Dutch Chiefs of Staff. Van Lynden personally resented Hasselman. Already before the war Hasselman had been known for his pro-German attitudes. After the war rumours claimed that Hasselman had been a traitor within the Dutch General Staff before the German invasion of 1940. After the capitulation of the Netherlands Hasselman had cooperated with the Germans and had urged other officers including van Lynden to do the same. Van Lynden had refused. During a harsh consolidation effort of the German occupying army in 1942 a large segment of Dutch officers including Hasselmann were transferred to prisoner of war camps. In Stanislau Hasselman met van Lynden. Again Hasselman collaborated and the Germans promoted him to a leading position within the prison. After the war Hasselman was dismissed from the Dutch army for having cooperated with the German invaders. Yet he successfully appealed against this decision and to the surprise of many was promoted steadily, throwing an unfavourable light on the Dutch Defence Department.

Upon the nomination of Hasselmann in 1951, the Dutch cavalry, to which van Lynden belonged, had decided that none of its members was to shake hands with the compromised General, even if now nominally he was their boss. As section chief van Lynden had to meet his new commander during official procedures. He was so worried that he considered resigning. In the end he went to the meeting 32 and General Hasselmann was smart enough not to stretch out his hand himself. Hasselmann in subsequent years repeatedly blocked the promotion of van Lynden to higher ranks. Serious infighting resulted and Fock, then Secretary- General within the Ministry of General Affairs, had to intervene. T have spoken to Hasselmann in quite a rough and direct manner then', Fock recalled many 33 Despite the in-house fighting in the Defence Department, van Lynden remained focused on his task. 'I still remember the invasion of Hungary in 1956', a former Dutch secret soldier recalled a well-known operation of the Soviet forces. 'On that day van Lynden came into the office where much confusion and excitement reigned. He calmly said: "We have been building up this thing for years now. Why are you all so nervous?" Indeed I believe that we could have become operational 34 in 1956.' years later, whereupon the two men in subsequent years kept their distance.

Another historical moment in the Cold War saw van Lynden more distressed, When in 1961 it was revealed that the British agent George Blake had worked for the Russians ever since the early 1950s there was not only horror in London, but also considerable panic in the Dutch secret army. 'Van Lynden was scared to death when this was revealed', a former Dutch stay-behind soldier recalled. For as part of the intense cooperation with the British, Blake had spent a few months in The Hague immediately after the end of the Second World War engaging in clandestine operations. During that time Blake was also in Villa Maarheeze in Wassenaar, headquarters of the Dutch domestic secret service and the 'I' branch of

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the Dutch stay-behind. Van Borssum Buisman, later to become Gladio commander,

had talked to Blake. Allegedly 'Blake knew locations and persons' of the Dutch secret army, an unnamed Dutch agent later claimed. Contrary to this claim Blake himself in 1992 from his Moscow exile claimed in a conversation with former SAZ members: 'I have never known of these [stay-behind] activities. And I was never asked about them by the Soviets. Thus they [Dutch secret soldiers] need 35 not worry. The name van Borssum Buisman says nothing to me at all.'

After having commanded the SAZ or 'I' branch of the Dutch Gladio I&O for 14 years van Lynden resigned in March 1962. He went back to the Royal Palace for a full-time profession which the Queen had asked him to carry out. Van Lynden died in September 1989 aged 76. At the time of the Cuban missile crisis when the Cold War reached its climax in 1962 the command of the Dutch stay- behind I&O was restructured as both units received new commanders. The O branch of the Dutch secret army had been commanded for 14 years by Louis Einthoven who at the age of 66 left the BVD and retired. At the same time he also gave up his function as leader and commander of the top-secret O branch of the Dutch stay-behind. Twelve years later he died. General Major M. De Boer replaced him in April 1962. Chief of the Dutch General Staff van den Wall Bake had specifi- cally instructed De Boer to ameliorate the relationship between I and O which had suffered under Einthoven. Two years later a commission within the Defence Department under the chairmanship of Dr Marius Ruppert investigated whether De Boer had successfully carried out his task. The commission was made up of three men and next to Ruppert included Fock and Lieutenant Admiral Propper.

Ruppert, a member of the Dutch Parliament and a senior adviser to the crown, presented his report on the cooperation of the two Dutch secret armies in 1965. His findings were shattering. Given the poor cooperation between the two branches of the Dutch stay-behind, Ruppert suggested that the position of 'Co-ordinator of I&O' should be created and assigned this position to himself. Furthermore Ruppert advised to replace De Boer as chief of O and again assigned the job to himself. On the directive of Dutch Prime Minister J. Zijlstra, it was Ruppert who in 1967 became chief of the O branch of the Dutch stay-behind, a 36 position he held until 1975. When Fock was interviewed after the Gladio revelations in the 1990s, he confirmed that he had been a member of the secret commission, but claimed that he could not remember what was being discussed. He only recalled that they had met several times in the villa of Ruppert in the Dutch village Zeist.

Ruppert's manoeuvre was a shock for the SAZ, the I branch of the Dutch stay- behind. Much resentments arose between the unequal parts of the Dutch stay-behind, above all due to the fact that Ruppert, in his dual role of commander of O and coordinator of O&I, increased the strength and position of O at the expense of I. Ruppert saw to it that O lead the representation of I&O in the international ACC and CPC NATO-linked stay-behind committees. Cooperation between I and O remained less than perfect also in the years to come. Tensions concerning Ruppert's dual role relaxed only when a new coordinator for I&O replaced

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Ruppert. The position was, after Ruppert, repeatedly given to retired Marine

Officers who retire already at the age of 55, early enough for a second career in

the underground. In 1975 Th. J. A. M. van Lier who, somewhat unusual for the overall Gladio pattern, was a Socialist replaced Kuppert as commander of O. After the war van Lier had sat in the Dutch parliament for the Workers Party, and later was chief of the illegal secret service Albrecht, a function for which he was later arrested. At the time of van Lier I&O allegedly had an annual budget of around 3 million Dutch Guilders. But thereafter the units grew in size, and also cooperation between the two Dutch stay-behind increased. It is unknown who commanded the Dutch Gladio in the 1980s until the discovery of the network in 1990 as the names of the commanders are being kept secret as with all probability they are still alive and hold offices.

Not only the O branch but also the I branch of the Dutch Gladio featured significant changes in 1962. After Somer and van Lynden, van Borssum Buisman took over command of the I branch of the secret army in March 1962. With his moustache and fair hair the tall cavalerist van Borssum Buisman to many looked like the typical Dutchmen. During the Second World War he had been a liaison officer between the Dutch wartime secret service BI (Bureau Inlichtingen) and the Dutch resistance organisation OD (Ordedienst) under P. J. Six. In this func- tion van Borssum Buisman was captured by the Germans in February 1944, made a tour through several German prisons, but survived several questionings without revealing the identity of the members of the Dutch resistance. After having been sentenced to death by the Germans, he was able to escape from a running train heading for Germany. Injured, he made his way to Holland and re-established contacts with Six, whereupon some Germans considered van Borssum Buisman to have been the best Dutch secret agent.

Also after the war van Borssum Buisman did not leave the secret trade and was first stationed in Ceylon for some time, where he waited in vain with a special unit for employment in Indonesia. Back in the Netherlands the first commander of I, Somer, recruited Buisman into the secret stay-behind network. During van Lynden's time in the 1950s Buisman was vice commander of SAZ. Among his primary tasks ranged the design of escape routes from Holland to Franco's Spain through Belgium and France. Along the route he recruited agents and trained them, in France often exile Dutchmen, or Frenchmen who had once lived in Holland. He held the position of chief of I until May 1970, whereupon he retired and died in February 1991 aged 77. After the discovery of the secret Gladio networks in Europe in 1990 it was revealed that after Buisman the commander of O had been J. W. A. Bruins who directed the clandestine army from May 1970 to December 1981. The names of more recent commanders of I&O, who presumably 37 are still alive, were not revealed.

Personal strength of the I&O still remains somewhat vague. 'The building up of a stay-behind always takes years and consumes large investments in the form of training and schooling. Thus you must handle your agents carefully, use them as you would use your best troops, which you also save for the decisive battle', a

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former member of the Dutch secret army explained after the cover of the

35 members, plus an additional 150 trained SAZ agents. O had a standing body of network had been blown. SAZ alegedly had a standing body of but 25 staff

but 20 staff members, plus an additional 150 trained O agents with expertise in guerrilla warfare, explosives and sabotage operations. According to these figures, the Dutch stay-behind I&O thus possessed a nucleus of 350 members who in case

of war would have enlarged the secret army by recruiting and training new mem- bers. In order to be able to bargain under occupation conditions commander van Lynden had equipped his agents with gold and diamonds. Commander Einthoven had bought gold at the Dutch national bank which he transferred to the exile bases in Spain and the United States.

As a rule not even the wives and closest relatives of the Gladiators were allowed to know of the existence of the secret stay-behind armies. Van Lynden therefore advised his people to cultivate extensive hobbies, which could function both as a cover and a compensation for the awkward secret life. He himself cultivated horse riding, but also developed extensive skills as a bird specialist. Commander van Borssum Buisman for his part loved numismatics and pretended to develop an expertise in coins. All agents were strictly ordered to follow the need to know principle and thus active stay-behind agents often only had a vague idea of the overall pattern and structure of the secret European army they were a part of. Foreign secret warfare experts, above all the British, were involved in the training. 'Me too I have been on a little [British] island', a Dutch wartime veteran remembered his contact with the British. 'But there I did not learn anything, 39 which I did not already know from my time in the resistance.'

During training the secret soldiers had to refer to each other with cover names. 'The training had to take place completely during the leisure time', a former Dutch secret soldier remembered. 'Together with the instructor an adequate train- ing program was set up. Several different training locations had to be frequented, for you cannot do things like that on the attic. The training could not take place at 40 regular intervals because that would have been too obvious.' Motivation at times was a problem: 'The difficult dimension was that you had to prepare for a situation that might only take place in ten years time', a former Dutch secret soldier recalled. 'You had to keep motivation burning like a religion. Especially during times of relaxation and peaceful coexistence, that was very difficult. Also the other side [the Communists] were fighting a psychological battle. Thus the instructors had to be kept alert with the help of objective information [on the danger 41 of Communism], which they in turn handed over to the agents in the field.'

Of the twofold clandestine Dutch stay-behind I&O the mysterious O branch was the top-secret branch and still today only very limited data exists on it. 'The difference between I and O is that O must not "exist", it was a different affair', a former involved explained after the existence of the network was discovered in 42 1990. felt superior to I agents and in the evenings after the training refused to socialise. "They often considered themselves as the top of the top who would carry out the During exercises of the Dutch secret army the members of O allegedly

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43
real work in case of an occupation. In order to keep O as a secret as possible all

contacts to Dutch officials were carried out through I, which was not always appreciated by I. O was partly financed from private sources, above all multina- tional firms and the CIA. Apart from these funds O also received Dutch public funds which were covered as funds for I. The very few senior officials within the Dutch Defence Ministry who were aware of the secret I and its budget wrongly, and much to the resentment of van Lynden, thought that I was quite an expensive secret army. 'It [O] seemed a little bit like a 15th century nunnery', a former I agent recalls. 'You were not allowed to see each other, and everybody sat alone 44 in his cell.'

I was used as a front if O wanted a printing press, explosives or other devices. In these cases I was informed where a specific delivery, which in most cases came from England, had arrived. A military van then transported the material to a specified site of I where O agents took over the material. But if something went wrong the official Dutch secret services had to shoulder the blame as the existence of neither I nor O could be publicly admitted. In the 1980s stay-behind arms caches were discovered by accident in the Netherlands. In 1983 Defence Minister J. de Rujiter had to answer questions in front of TV cameras after a mysterious arms cache had been discovered in Rozendaal. De Ruijter at the time had asked the newspapers to give him some time for internal investigations and was briefed extensively. Towards the public the domestic secret service BVD shouldered the blame. Thereafter within the BVD everybody wanted to know which colleagues had such arms caches, and thus the version for internal BVD consumption was that a secret unit I was responsible. This of course was yet another lie, for in truth all weapons belonged to the top-secret O sabotage and covert action unit.

'While I was a politically independent unit O was known to be more ideologically oriented' a former Dutch agent testified, implying that O was an anti-Communist armed unit similar to the SDRA8 in neighbouring Belgium. This, however, does not mean that O was an illegal anti-Communist hit squad, another former O member was eager to stress: 'We based our struggle on the defence of values which were 45 written down in the constitution.' Dutch stay-behind expert Paul Koedijk found that O units also during times of peace specialised in what they called 'immunising' Dutch citizens. 'Against what exactly the citizens had to be immunised was more than clear: Communism in all its appearances.' O engaged in black propaganda and fake smear stories against Communists as part of its ideological struggle and to this purpose possessed a printing network. 'The assumption within O was that a Soviet occupation would be much worse than the German occupation which the Netherlands had experienced', a former involved recalls. 'Because also the few values which the Germans left untouched, for instance family and religion, would 46 have been threatened under Soviet occupation. We expected radical changes.'

When in late 1990 Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti revealed the existence of secret anti-Communist armies across Western Europe, the cover of the Dutch network was also blown. A former Dutch stay-behind member mused: 'We actually 47 were surprised as well that we could work so long undisturbed.' Dutch Prime

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Minister Ruud Lubbers of the Dutch DCI, in office ever since 1982, on

November 13, 1990 confirmed in a letter to the Dutch parliament that also the Netherlands had a secret army, a 'mixed civilian and military group', and that this army was still active. Lubbers in his letter claimed that 'there was never any NA TO supervision over this organisation' and with reference to the classical stay-behind function declared that 'contacts with other NATO countries, some of which had other structures, was limited on the Dutch side to how those goals 48 could be achieved'. Parliamentarians of both government and opposition parties agreed that Lubbers' letter was not good enough on explanation. Some of the parliamentarians remembered that in the 1980s mysterious arms caches containing grenades, semiautomatic rifles, automatic pistols, munitions and explosives had accidentally been discovered and requested more information on the alleged links to the secret army. Other parliamentarians critically insisted that the government should at least have informed the secrecy-bound Parliament Intelligence and Security Committee about the existence of the secret army. Lubbers and Dutch Defence Minister Relus Ter Beek thereafter briefed the Parliament Intelligence and Security Committee behind closed doors for the first time on the Dutch stay-behind I&O and hours later Lubbers addressed parliament. He confirmed that the secret arsenals discovered in the 1980s had belonged to the secret army. Lubbers highlighted that the Dutch stay-behind was responsible jointly to the Prime Minister, thus himself, and the Defence Minister, Ter Beek. 'Successive Prime Ministers and Defence Ministers have always preferred not to 49 inform other members of their cabinets or Parliament.' The Prime Minister took pride in the fact that some 30 Ministers had kept the secret, while some members of the Dutch parliament thought that this had been a violation of the Dutch constitution. Many parliamentarians did not reject stay-behind emergency preparations on general grounds. But they did object to having been kept in the dark. Dutch Labour Party MP Maarten van Traa in a representative statement declared: 'We need more clarification on what structures there are, and to what extent they have collaborated or still collaborate with NATO.' Ton Frinking, a member of Lubbers' Christian Democrats said he also wanted more information on the 'NATO perspective' of the Gladio group. He said he had noted Belgium's recent admission that they had chaired the last secret stay-behind meeting. 'The question is what that Belgian chairmanship really means', Frinking said.

Lubbers thereafter admitted that the Dutch secret army was still a member of the secret NATO committee that coordinated the stay-behind armies in Western Europe. Hans Dijkstal of the opposition Liberals said, 'I don't particularly worry that there was, and perhaps still is, such a thing. What I do have problems with is 50 that until last night Parliament was never told.' Some parliamentarians wanted to know who was a member of the secret army. Lubbers in response claimed that he had no personal knowledge who was part of the secret organisation. Some parliamentarians thought this to be a contradiction to his earlier statement in which he had maintained that it was his task together with the Defence Minister to control the secret soldiers. But Lubbers insisted that the need for secrecy would

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make it 'pretty much lethally dangerous if the prime minister... were to investi-

51

gate everyone personally'.
Lubbers was forced to confirm that members of the Dutch secret army had taken part recently in a training exercise on the Italian island Sicily at the headquarters

of the Italian Gladio.

In response to specific questions of parliamentarians

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There was no parliamentary investigation nor a public report and only in April

1992 the Dutch secret army I&O was closed down. Defence Minister Relus Ter

Beek in his personal letter thanked the secret soldiers for their services to the

53
country. The ghosts of the past came to haunt the Netherlands in December 1993

when a court in The Hague sentenced a 38-year-old man to three years prison. Together with him a 44-year-old Major of the Dutch Army was also found guilty for having blackmailed the Dutch baby food manufacturer Nutricia in spring
1993 for five million Dutch Guilders. Interestingly enough the lawyers acting on behalf of the defendants claimed that the two men were members of the top- secret Dutch stay-behind organisation which had been set up by the secret serv- ices in the Netherlands and other European countries. The Major of the Dutch Army during his defence claimed that in the past stay-behind agents apprehended by the police could rely on an agreement between the justice and defence author- ities, whereby no action was taken against them. He alleged that a number of Gladio missions had failed in the past without any charges being issued against those involved, implying that Dutch Gladiators had also operated

beyond oversight and legal limitations. The Major did not specify what kind of

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missions he was referring to.

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12
THE SECRET WAR IN LUXEMBURG