General John K. Singlaub was born July 10, 1921 and died January 29, 2022. He served with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II and then with the CIA, becoming deputy chief in South Korea during the Korean War. He spent two years in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and was commander of the Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force (MACSOG). However, he strenuously denied having played any part in Operation Phoenix, the notorious assassination operation run by that unit.

In 1978, while serving as chief of staff of the United Nations Command in South Korea, Singlaub publicly criticized President Jimmy Carter’s decision to reduce the number of US troops in Korea and was forced to retire.

According to Third World Traveler’s The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in the Reagan Era, “Ten days before his retirement, in May 1978, Singlaub attended a meeting of right-wingers who ‘didn’t think the country was being run properly and were interested in doing something about it.’ The meeting was hosted by Mitch WerBell, a conspiratorial colleague of Singlaub from their OSS days together at Kunming in China. … Singlaub then began a series of co-ordinated visits to Central America, with Generals Graham and Sumner, laying the basis for Reagan’s current support of the contras in Nicaragua.”

In 1981, Singlaub founded a new US affiliate of the World Anti-Communist League after the previous affiliate had become discredited by its fascist connections. The United States Council for World Freedom (USWCF) was established with support from Joseph Coors and is also said to have received a $16,500 loan from the Taiwanese branch of WACL. USCWF soon became the most active branch of WACL.

Singlaub additionally served as WACL chairman from 1984 to 1986, during the period when it was a principal channel for covert support to the Nicaraguan Contras from the Reagan White House and Colonel Oliver North served as White House liaison to WACL. Singlaub was indicted for these activities in 1986 and 1988.

Singlaub was also a member of a number of other right-wing and anti-communist groups. In the late 1980s, he participated in attempts to uncover caches of “Japanese gold” allegedly secreted during World War II in Indonesia and the Philippines.