Editing Ray Cline (section)

==World War II and Early Intelligence Career==
Cline’s intelligence career began during World War II. From 1942 to 1943, he served as a cryptanalyst for the U.S. Department of the Navy. In 1943, he joined the newly created Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the CIA. By 1944, he was appointed Chief of Current Intelligence, a role he held until 1946. During this period, he traveled to Kunming, China, where he worked alongside notable OSS officers, including John K. Singlaub, Richard Helms, E. Howard Hunt, Paul Helliwell, Robert Emmett Johnson, and Lucien Conein.

In China, Cline was involved in operations supporting anti-Japanese and anti-communist efforts. According to historian Sterling Seagrave, Cline noted that OSS officers Paul Helliwell and Robert Anderson managed the movement of looted gold from the Philippines, creating 176 “black gold” banking accounts in 42 countries to fund future U.S. operations. This early exposure to covert financing mechanisms may have influenced his later CIA work.

After the war, in 1946, Cline was assigned to the Operations Division of the U.S. Department of War’s General Staff, where he wrote the official history of the division, published as Washington Command Post (1951).