CIA East Asia Division

The East Asia Division, earlier the Far East Division, is a former component of the CIA’s clandestine service.

Organisational history

The geographical divisions of the clandestine service were created following the 1952 merger of the Office of Special Operations (OSO) and the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) into the Directorate of Plans.¹

OPC’s Far East operations had been headed by Richard Stilwell,² The OSO’s by Lloyd George.³ It was George who emerged as head of the new division.⁴

The Far East Division appears on a CIA organisation chart dating for 1963.⁵ By the time of William Wells’ re-organisation of the Directorate in 1976 it had become the East Asia Division.⁶

The East Asia Division was still in existence immediately prior to John Brennan's re-organisation of the Directorate of Operations in March 2015.⁷ Following that restructuring it may have been replaced by an East Asia & Pacific Mission Center, integrating analysts with clandestine officers.⁸