Correspondence, 1937-1965

Correspondence files, 1937-1965, with business, government, media, and personal contacts, which are arranged alphabetically by the correspondent’s last name or by the subject matter of the correspondence. The folder descriptions may list many correspondents but are not exclusive. There is also correspondence in the Series 4. Accretions 1 and 2.

The correspondence in the collection relates to ventures in which Wisner was acting as a consultant and an attorney to promote and protect companies in diversifying their interests and making investments for himself and his family. Incorporated into the business correspondence are many letters with agents, diplomats, scholars, and journalists that contain brief references to high-level government officials and important world events. The contents are often cryptic and do not mention specifics e.g. “I agree with what you said the other day” or “with the 3rd sentence of your last paragraph.”

Correspondents include or mention C. I. A. Directors, State Department officials, and agents, Allen W. Dulles, John McCone, John Bross, Richard Helms, William Raborn, William J. Donovan, William J. Casey, Charles “Chip” Bohlen, David and Evangeline Bruce, Llewelyn “Tommy” Thompson, Adolph A. Berle, Clark Clifford, W. Averill Harriman, Paul Nitze, Bronson Tweedy, Richard M. Bissell, Jr., Burton Y. Berry, Walt Whitman Rostow, Desmond Fitzgerald, Brigadier General Lauris Norstadt, General Charles Pearre Cabell, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Archibald “Archie” Alexander, Clare Boothe Luce, Gerry Miller, James Jesus Angleton, C. Tracy Barnes, Charles Thayer, Gilbert Highet, Julius “Junky” Fleischman, H. A. R. “Kim” Philby, Oleg Penkovsky, Richard Sorge, and Sam Papich, as well as F. B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover.