CIA Fingerprints:  The Americans behind the Plot to Oust John Diefenbaker

Willis Coburn Armstrong
He was a translator at the U.S. embassy in Moscow (1939-1941); Minister-Counselor (ambassador's "right hand man" (1958-1962) and interim charge d'affairs in Ottawa (1962).  At least six of the U.S. diplomats that he selected for Canada had espionage backgrounds (Lisee, p.31). Armstrong told Lisee, that he had been an advisor to the CIA (p.175)¹  As Director of the State Department's Office of British Commonwealth and Northern European Affairs, he attended secret meetings on the Vietnam war with U.S. and U.K. heads of state and their top intelligence officials  (1964)²
1. Floyd Rudmin, U.S. "Ambassador Spies: 1960-1980," Jul.6, 1995.
2. www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/vol_i/28_69.html

George W. Ball
He was director of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, London (1944-45); served in JFK's successful campaign (1960) and became Deputy Secretary of  State under JFK and Johnson.¹ Ball was a friend of Mike Pearson.² He was stationed in Cuba (1962), Brazil (1964) and Iran (1978).³
1. Obituary by R. Curtiss, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/Aug. 1994 www.washington-report.org
2. Nash, p.241-242.
3.www.pir.org/quickie.html

McGeorge Bundy
He was a boyhood classmate of JFK. As a WWII intelligence officer, he helped plan the invasions of Sicily and France. Bundy's brother Bill  "scaled the ranks of the CIA and held senior posts in the Defense and State departments.".¹  As Special Assistant for National Security Affairs under JFK and Johnson, M. Bundy forcefully advocated expanding the Vietnam war and was a principal architect of U.S. foreign policy.  He played a major role in the invasion of Cuba, the Cuban missile crisis, the escalation of the Vietnam War and the U.S. military intervention in the Dominican Republic.2 He was posted to Chile (1964).³ 
1. Book Review of The Color of Truth, McGeorge and William Bundy by Kai Bird, Biography Magazine, Sept. 1998
2. Encyclopædia Britannica www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/3/0,5716,123343+1+113090,00.html  and
www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/3/0,5716,18343+1+18080,00.html
3.www.pir.org/quickie.html

William W. Butterworth
During WWII, he was an economic warfare specialist in Spain and Portugal and was one of two Office of Strategic Services (OSS) contacts with German chief of military intelligence, Walter Schellenberg.¹ The other was future CIA director, Allen Dulles. After the war, he was posted to China.² Butterworth was the U.S. ambassador to Canada (1962-1968). At least six espionage officers joined his staff in 1962. Source: Floyd Rudmin, "Questions of U.S. Hostility Towards Canada." 
1. A.C.Brown, Body Guard of Lies, Vol.1, 1975, p.507; Who's Who in America, 1965, p.300.
2. Biographic Register, 1968, p.78.

Louis Harris
In 1960, J. F. Kennedy was the "first national candidate to make important use of polling.¹  "As his personal contribution toward the defeat" of Diefenbaker, Kennedy "gave his unofficial blessing to Lou Harris - the shrewd public opinion analyst - to work for the Liberal Party.  Using a pseudonym [Lou Smith] and working in such secrecy that only half a dozen key people were aware of his activities, Harris...conducted extensive studies of Canadian voting behavior.  They were key contributions to the Liberal victory of 1963."²  Harris' "in person" polling was conducted by 500 women.³  David Moore, author of The Super Pollsters, cites Harris as "the biggest most flagrant example" of polling manipulation.⁴  Likewise, Professors L. Jacobs and R. Shapiro argue that the way Harris used polling during Nixon's campaign for presidency "violated professional standards of conduct."⁵
1. Theodore Roszak, The Cult of Information, 1994, p.213.
2. Peter Newman, Renegade in Powers, 1963, p.267.
3. Knowlton Nash, Kennedy and Diefenbaker, 1990, p.167.
4. Interview by B.Lamb with D.Moore, Booknotes Transcript, May 10, 1992.
5. "Presidential Manipulation of Public Opinion: The Nixon Administration and the Public Pollsters" (September 1995)

Livingston Tallmadge Merchant
He worked on war production issues for the State Department (1942).  As the U.S. exerted efforts to support the Nationalist forces, he was counselor at the embassy in China  (1948-49).¹  He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Far Eastern Affairs (1949-51) and State Department's liaison to the CIA's covert action arm, comprised of former OSS staff (1950).  He initiated counter-insurgency operations in the Philippines (1950);² was Assist. Secretary of State for European Affairs (1953-56, 1958-59) and U.S. ambassador to Canada (1956-58, 1961-62).  His First Secretary (1961) was Louis Wiesner, a former OSS officer. At least eight espionage officers joined his staff in 1961. He was U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs (1960-61).³  
Source: Floyd Rudmin, "Questions of U.S. Hostility Towards Canada."
1. W. Blum, The CIA: A Forgotten History, 1986, pp.15-20.
2. Z. Grant, Facing the Phoenix, 1991, p.89
3. Who's Who in America, 1964.

Merchant attended top secret meetings with J.F.Kennedy and top intelligence officials to destabilize Cuba.¹  He suggested the assassination of Fidel and Raul Castro and Che (1960).²  He was posted to the Congo (1960).³
1. www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/frusX/01_15.html
2. Thomas Powers, Strategic Intelligence www.strategicintel.com/dirty1.htm
3. www.pir.org/quickie.html

Lauris Norstad
He was Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence of General HQ Air Force (1940)¹ and was responsibility for planning the nuclear bombing of Japan.² He was director of the War Department's Plans and Operations Division (1947).  He helped draft the National Security Act that created the CIA and the National Security Council.³  He became Commander in chief, USAF Europe (1950); Commander in chief, U.S. European Command (1956-1963).⁴
1. www.af.mil/news/biographies/norstad_l.html
2. unitedstates-on-line.com/minnesota/norstad.html
3. CIA historian Arthur Darling, The C.I.A.
4. www.af.mil/news/biographies/norstad_l.html