The Umbrella of Control: Allen Dulles and the Fifth Function


Introduction

From his work as an attorney with his brother in New York, to his involvement in such operations during and after WW2 as Operation Paperclip, the OSS and creation of the CIA, his time and disagreements with JFK, working as CIA Director, authorizing such projects as MKUltra, etc, no one has meant more or shaped the world of intelligence in America than Allen Walsh Dulles who was born in Watertown, NY in 1893.

After WWII, the government overhauled its intelligence agencies just as modern UFO sightings began. This perfect storm allowed a "Shadow State" to creep in and operate in complete secrecy, entirely hidden from public oversight for decades. Starting with the recruitment of Nazi assets like Reinhard Gehlen in 1945 and the formal creation of the CIA under the 1947 National Security Act, Allen Dulles built an "Umbrella" of control that integrated domestic psychological experiments like MKUltra with the management of air phenomena. 

This systemic control was refined during Dulles’s tenure as Director of Central Intelligence and maintained even after his resignation, notably during the summer of 1964 when he utilized his family’s cottage in Henderson Harbor NY, referred to by his family as “Greyledge”, as a remote workspace to vet sensitive Warren Commission files away from D.C. headquarters. Ultimately, the destruction of records in 1973 and the subsequent 1970s Senate investigations revealed a permanent intelligence apparatus designed to operate as a self-protecting organism, ensuring that the deepest secrets of the "Fifth Function" remained buried long after the architects had left the stage.

Here is a timeline of important dates and events in our history that helped shape the intelligence community and how we see our world today 

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Timeline

1942

  • 1942–1945: Born in Watertown NY on April 7, 1893, Allen Dulles operates in Bern, Switzerland as OSS station chief, focusing on Nazi intelligence contacts and negotiations in Europe 


1945

  • May 1945: End of WWII in Europe in the End of World War II in Europe

  • Late 1945: U.S. intelligence begins screening and recruiting former German intelligence assets

  • Late 1945: Reinhard Gehlen surrenders and offers Soviet intelligence archives to U.S. forces - When World War II ended, the U.S. military found itself facing a brand-new adversary in the Soviet Union, but it lacked a reliable intelligence network behind the Iron Curtain. Reinhard Gehlen, a former Major General in Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht who had headed Fremde Heere Ost (Foreign Armies East), filled that void perfectly. He had spent the war collecting vast intelligence on the Soviet military, and as the Reich collapsed, he meticulously buried his files and surrendered to the Americans with a pitch: I have the network you need for the next war. 

  • October 1, 1945: The Office of Strategic Services is formally dissolved by presidential order after WWII ends. 

1946

  • 1946: U.S. Army Intelligence formally funded Gehlen’s network completely outside of Congressional oversight. While Gehlen did not birth American white supremacy or the national security state, his organization served as a foundational blueprint for Deep State autonomy and provided the ideological cover, protection, and paranoia that fueled the rise of the modern far-right. 

  • 1946: Early Cold War intelligence cooperation structure begins forming in Europe 

  • January 22, 1946: The Central Intelligence Group (CIG) is established. This is the immediate interim intelligence body created to replace OSS functions temporarily. It reports directly to the President and coordinates intelligence, but is not yet the CIA. 

1947 

  • 1947: Creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA precursor work begins earlier, formal structure later in 1947)

  • June 24, 1947: Kenneth Arnold sighting (modern UFO era begins)
    “flying disc” terminology enters public consciousness

  • July 1947: Roswell incident in New Mexico. Roswell UFO incident. U.S. military initially reports recovered “flying disc,” then retracts, catching the attention, and imagination of millions.

  • September 18, 1947: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is officially created. Central Intelligence Agency was formally established under the National Security Act of 1947. 

  • September 20, 1947: The CIA officially begins operations under the newly created National Security framework (implementation phase begins immediately after signing and organizational setup) 

1948

  • 1948: Gehlen Organization expands under U.S. sponsorship as U.S. military helped Gehlen relocate his entire operation to a highly secure, permanent headquarters in Pullach, just south of Munich. Gehlen’s vetting process went completely out the window. He needed experienced interrogators, radio operators, and field handlers and begins to aggressively opened its doors to high-ranking former SS, SD (Nazi Security Service), and Gestapo officers who were hiding from war crimes prosecutors. 

  • 1948: Mantell UFO incident (Kentucky pilot fatal crash while pursuing object)
    Mantell UFO incident

  • 1948: BLUEBIRD begins 

1949

  • Late 1940s: Gehlen network becomes fully operational as a Cold War intelligence asset in West Germany (U.S.-funded, anti-Soviet focus)


1951

  • 1951: Project ARTICHOKE expands 


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1952 

  • 1952: Washington, D.C. UFO incident (radar + visual confirmation over capital)

  • 1952: Heightened UFO wave across the U.S.; Air Force investigations intensify

1953


  • January 21, 1953: John Foster Dulles (older brother of Allen Dulles) appointed Secretary of State immediately following President Dwight D. Eisenhower's inauguration 

  • March 1953: Allen Dulles becomes Director of Central Intelligence
    (CIA enters its most expansionist covert operations phase)

  • April 13, 1953: Allen Dulles authorizes Project MKUltra 

  • April–May 1953: Funding and subprojects begin immediately. LSD testing starts being integrated into experiments 

  • Early 1950s: Gehlen Organization reaches peak size and operational integration with Western intelligence systems

  • 1953 - 1955: MKUltra early expansion phase - 

  1. LSD experimentation begins in earnest

  2. Prison, hospital, and university testing begins

  3. Front organizations used to conceal funding

  • 1953: Late that year Project Pandora begins (Initial research phase begins - The U.S. military (primarily the Army and later CIA-linked researchers begins exploring whether Soviet microwave transmissions could affect : cognition, behavior, physiological response. This is the period where “PANDORA” concepts are first formed, but it’s not yet a formal long-running project.

1955

  • 1955: Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter (Kentucky “humanoid beings” claim)
    Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter

  • 1955: (approx. mid-year) — Major expansion into “subproject system”

  1. Dozens of parallel experiments created

  2. Behavioral control, hypnosis, and sensory manipulation studies expand

  • Mid-1950s: CIA consolidates psychological and behavioral research programs (early MKUltra-era environment forming)

1956

  • 1956: Gehlen Organization officially transitions into West Germany’s intelligence service:
    Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) - When West Germany became a sovereign nation and wanted its own official intelligence agency, it was Allen Dulles who helped negotiate the transition. 

  • 1956: The Soviet microwave bombardment of the U.S. Embassy begins, which later triggers Project Pandora 

1957

  • 1957: Levelland UFO wave (Texas vehicles reportedly stall near glowing objects)
    Levelland UFO case

1961

  • April 17–20, 1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion fails.

  • May 1961: JFK privately informs Allen Dulles he must step down.

  • September 19, 1961: Betty and Barney Hill abduction claim (first major U.S. abduction narrative) Betty and Barney Hill abduction

  • Sept 27, 1961: Public announcement of Dulles's resignation (McCone named successor).

  • Nov 29, 1961: Allen Dulles’s final day at the CIA.

1962

  • July 1962: Dulles spends two weeks at Greyledge in Henderson Harbor, NY before beginning "Shadow" meetings at his Q Street home in D.C. 



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1963

  • 1963 (January–December): Internal CIA review and scaling down MKUltra begins. Concerns raised about legality, oversight, and control of experiments 

  • November 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas. 

  • November 29, 1963: Just seven days after the assassination, LBJ issued Executive Order 11130 creating the Warren Commission.

  • Nov 29, 1963: Allen Dulles is appointed to the Warren Commission by LBJ. 

  • December 5, 1963: The members met for the first time at the National Archives Building in D.C. to lay out the "ground rules."


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1964

  • February 1964 - September 1964: This was the heavy lifting. They heard testimony from 552 witnesses. While the staff did the legwork, the "Big Seven" (including Dulles) met in D.C. for the high-profile depositions 

  • April 1964: Lonnie Zamora incident (Socorro, New Mexico police sighting with physical traces) Lonnie Zamora UFO incident

  • 1964 (Summer): Dulles utilizes Greyledge  in Henderson Harbor, NY as a remote workspace to research and prepare for the Warren Commission. 

  • September 24, 1964: The Commission officially presented the 888-page "Warren Report" to President Johnson at the White House.

  • September 27, 1964: The report was made public, famously concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

1965

  • 1965: Kecksburg UFO incident (multi-state fireball + alleged crash retrieval activity)
    Kecksburg UFO incident

  • 1956: Operation Pandora, a top-secret, Cold War-era CIA and military research initiative launched in the 1960s to determine whether the Soviet Union's low-level microwave bombardment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was being used as a weapon for biological disruption or psychological mind control, begins. 

1967

  • 1967: Malmstrom Air Force Base incident (alleged nuclear missile system disruptions during UFO reports)
    Malmstrom UFO incident

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1970


  • 1970: Project Pandora is officially shut down in 1970 after researchers concluded that the signal was primarily being used for espionage (activating hidden bugs inside the embassy walls) rather than active mind control, though controversies over health effects lingered for years. 



1973

  • January 1973: CIA records destruction order. Large volumes of MKUltra documentation deliberately destroyed 


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1975

  • January 1975: Senate investigation begins. Church Committee launched 


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1977

  • August 1977: Formal Senate hearings on MKUltra. CIA provides partial admissions and surviving documentation 


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Analysis


The data suggests that the mid-20th century was not merely a period of separate "spy" and "UFO" stories, but rather a singular era of consolidated institutional autonomy.

  1. The Integration of Nazi Intelligence: By recruiting Reinhard Gehlen and his network immediately after WWII, U.S. intelligence inherited a "ready-made" apparatus that functioned outside traditional democratic oversight. This set the precedent for using "front organizations" to conceal funding and operations.

  2. The Dual-Front Expansion: 1953 represents a critical "Power Peak." With the Dulles brothers controlling both the State Department and the CIA, the agency launched MKUltra, a program that weaponized psychology and chemistry against the American public. This happened exactly as the military was grappling with a massive escalation in UFO sightings, such as the 1952 Washington, D.C. flyovers.

  3. The Geography of the "Fix": The timeline highlights Henderson Harbor/Greyledge as a critical node of shadow power. Dulles did not just "retire" there; he used the isolation of Jefferson County to vet sensitive files—including those related to Castro plots—away from the oversight of the Commission’s D.C. headquarters.

Summary

The narrative arc of these records reveals a transition from the OSS (wartime intelligence) to a Permanent Intelligence State. The convergence of the 1947 National Security Act and the birth of the UFO era created a permanent "need for secrecy" that shielded projects like MKUltra and Project PANDORA from public view. Ultimately, the destruction of records in 1973 was a final attempt to preserve the "Umbrella" of control that Allen Dulles spent his career building, ensuring that even under investigation, the full extent of the "Fifth Function" remained obscured.