CRESS
An Army-funded social science research organization at American University that ran from 1956 through the 1960s under the name SORO before being reorganized as CRESS following the Project Camelot scandal, maintaining two analytical divisions focused on counterinsurgency intelligence and area handbooks.
CRESS, the Center for Research in Social Systems, was the successor organization to SORO (the Special Operations Research Office), an U.S. Army-funded social science research center established in 1956 at American University in Washington, D.C. The organization operated as a federal contract research center, providing the Army with social scientific analysis in support of counterinsurgency, psychological warfare, and civic action programs. Its transformation from SORO to CRESS followed the Project Camelot scandal of 1965, which forced a reorganization and separation from the university.1
Founding as SORO
SORO was established in 1956 at American University with primary sponsorship from the Army. Its early research focused on Soviet bloc propaganda analysis and psychological vulnerability assessments of Eastern Bloc populations. By the early 1960s the emphasis shifted toward Third World counterinsurgency, driven by the Kennedy administration's doctrine of counterinsurgency as a central Cold War strategy.1
Theodore Vallance and Charles Windle transferred from HumRRO (the Human Resources Research Office) to SORO, bringing expertise in psychological research methodology and cross-cultural behavioral analysis. The organization maintained classified contracts and produced work directly used by Army Special Forces and related counterinsurgency units.1
Project Camelot
The most consequential episode in SORO's history was Project Camelot, an Army-funded initiative begun in 1964 that aimed to develop a predictive social science model for identifying conditions that lead to revolution in developing countries, with Chile as the initial study area. When the project became public in 1965, the resulting political controversy, both in Chile and in the US academic community, was severe. The Chilean government protested officially; US academic social scientists attacked the project as a violation of research ethics and an instrument of political control. The Army cancelled the project. Congressional investigations followed.1
Reorganization as CRESS
The Camelot scandal, combined with student demonstrations against war research at American University, forced the reorganization of SORO into CRESS. The organization separated from the university, became an independent federal contract research center, and formed a research connection with the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The name change was primarily cosmetic; the research function and much of the personnel were continuous.1
Operational Divisions
CRESS maintained two internal analytical divisions. CINFAC (the Cultural Information Analysis Center, also designated the Counter-Insurgency Information Analysis Center) was a rapid-response data retrieval system designed to answer operational queries from counterinsurgency commands on a short turnaround. CINFAC produced reports on demand; one documented example is a report by James Price and Paul Jureidini titled "Witchcraft, sorcery, magic and other psychological phenomena and their implications on military and paramilitary operations in the Congo," dated August 1964.1
The second division, SSRI (the Social Science Research Institute), was established to carry out studies of unconventional warfare, psychological operations, military assistance programs, and evaluations of foreign cultures. Its products were longer-form: handbooks, area studies, and bibliographies for use in psychological operations planning. SSRI products covered specific countries and regions and included assessments of psychological vulnerability, cultural norms relevant to propaganda, and political conditions.1
Classified Document Production
CRESS-connected classified documents in the record include a 1962 memorandum on propitious and non-propitious dates in the Vietnamese and Cambodian calendar, produced for use in timing psychological operations. The document illustrates the range of cultural-analytical tasks CRESS performed: translating ethnographic and calendrical data into operational guidance for psywar planners.1
A 1957 document by A.R. Ashkenasy titled "Analysis and synthesis of information on mass defection," produced by Psychological Research Associates, is closely related to the SORO research environment; Psychological Research Associates was one of several private contractors working in the same counterinsurgency social science space as SORO and later CRESS.1
Sources
- Peter Watson, War on the Mind: The Military Uses and Abuses of Psychology. Basic Books, 1978. pp. 388-416, 462-468 (Ch. 21, Ch. 22, App. II). ↩
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