Paul Bernard Henze (29 August 1924,

Redwood Falls Redwood Falls is a city in Redwood County, located along the Redwood River near its confluence with the Minnesota River, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 5,102 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat. History As the immig ...

– 19 May 2011, Culpeper) was a writer,

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

operative and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

broadcaster with

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

. Henze was the CIA station chief for

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

during the 1960s and 1970s. Henze graduated from

St. Olaf College St. Olaf College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American pastors and farmers led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after the King and th ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

.Paul B. Henze During the

Carter Administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 39th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Jimmy Carter, his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democratic Party ...

he served as a deputy to National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. He was encouraged

Zbigniew Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński (, ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), known as Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter's National Securi ...

in the formation of the Nationalities Working Group in 1978, of which Henze was appointed head. Influenced by his friend

Alexandre Bennigsen Alexandre Bennigsen () (20 March 1913 – 3 June 1988) was a scholar of Islam in the Soviet Union. Biography Count Bennigsen was born in an aristocratic family in St Petersburg in 1913. After the Bolshevik Revolution, his family left Russia ...

, this group advocated the promotion of

Islamism Islamism is a range of religious and political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is superior to communism ...

as a tool for undermining Soviet hegemony in

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. Henze wrote ''The Plot to Kill the Pope'' in which advocated the view that the Soviet Union was involved in an assassination attempt on

John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

in 1981.

Works

Henze has published 156 works, including: * ''Layers of Time : A History of Ethiopia'' (35 editions, 1999–2004) * ''The Plot to Kill the Pope'' (18 editions, 1983–1985) * ''The Horn of Africa : From War to Peace'' (18 editions, 1991–2016)

Personal Life

Henze died on May 19, 2011 (aged 86) in

Culpeper, Virginia Culpeper (formerly Culpeper Courthouse, earlier Fairfax) is an incorporated town in Culpeper County, Virginia, United States. It is the county seat and part of the Washington–Baltimore–Arlington, DC–MD–VA–WV–PA Combined Statistical ...

due to complications from a stroke.https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/paul-b-henze-former-cia-and-national-security-specialist-dies-at-86/2011/06/02/AG4mSYHH_story.html

References

1924 births 2011 deaths CIA and Islamism People from Redwood Falls, Minnesota People of the Central Intelligence Agency American broadcasters {{US-gov-bio-stub American anti-communists St. Olaf College alumni Harvard University alumni