‘“Mutual Appreciation and Friendship”. The American-Dutch Intelligence liaison from the 1940s to the 1970s’.

Abstract

In the late afternoon of September 13, 1974, three armed men stormed the French Embassy in The Hague. The hostage takers were members of the Japanese Red Army, an international terrorist organization with a long track record of violent acts. The incident took place directly opposite the office of the Chief of Station of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and became a test case for the traditionally very close connection between the Dutch and the American intelligence community. Howard T. Bane, CIA's chief of station in The Hague, put his office in the US Embassy at the disposal of Dutch authorities. Thus, the cooperation, which until then had been mainly taken place in the domain of counterintelligence, poored over into the field of counterterrorism. This article examines how, why and how exactly this change came about. This will provide a detailed insight into the dynamics of intelligence cooperation.