Operation Condor

Operation Condor was a United States-backed political and terrorism campaign involving intelligence operations and the assassination of key political opponents in South America. It was officially and formally implemented in November 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America, but the groundwork for the operation was laid during the latter years of William Branham's life.  Branham's ministry was one key part of the state-side operation to influence Americans during the early years and other leaders of the "Message" played a significant role in the operations staged in Chile during the late 1960s and 1970s.

In September 1954, Vice President Richard Nixon met with right-wing evangelical leaders at the Full Gospel Businessmen Convention Breakfast[1] and appealed to the attending ministers and evangelists that the United States Government needed their help.  It was during the height of the cold war, and Nixon described the greatest battle ever fought: the battle of the mind.  According to Nixon, the rise of communism was indeed a battle that was fought by military, economic, and political strategies, but in full disclosure, was a "battle for the minds, and the hearts, and the souls of men".

Now in the National Security Council, we consider, of course, the military policy, the economical policy, the political policies that the United States can adopt to meet this threat.  But all of us know that the great battle in which we are engated today is one which is not only military, economic, and political in character and it is that, but that in the final analysis, it is a battle for the minds, and the hearts, and the souls of men.[2]
- Richard Nixon, Full Gospel Business Men's Convention Breakfast

During his speech, Nixon described his top-secret work with the National Security Council[3] and explained the rising threat of revolution — even in the United States.[4]  One answer to preventing a revolution, according to Nixon, was to influence the hearts and minds of the young people in America using the platform of the healing revival as a mouthpiece.  Nixon described the intelligence collected during the interrogation of certain members of the communist community such as Alger Hiss, Lee Preston, Nathan Witt, Victor Purell, and Harry White, and appealed to the group by saying that the men had chosen to spy for the communist party as a result of their loss of faith in both American and God.

They were young then, six years ago when I was participating in the investigation of that case.  The other young men who came before the Committee on un-American Activities.  There was Alger Hiss, Lee Preston, Nathan Witt, Victor Pruell, Harry White.  These men came before the Committee and proof was established by their own testimony or by corroborating evidence that they had been members of the Communist conspiracy. 

I tried to analyze them all and said, "What was it in their make-up, that made them members of the Communist Conspiracy?"  And this is what I thought.  Every one of them had the best advantages that America could give them.  They were graduates of our great colleges.  They were not poor.  They had the best government jobs that they could have, running eight to ten thousand dollars a year.  They were individuals who had the advantages of coming from good families in the United States of America.  They did not do what they did for money.  Not one of them in this group that I have mentioned received money for what he did.  
Then how did he do it?  He did it because somehow, somewhere, something went wrong.  He lost faith in America.  He lost faith in God, if he ever had it.  And in losing that faith, he transferred his loyalty and his allegiance to the totalitarian doctrine of Communism.[5]
- Richard Nixon, Full Gospel Business Men's Convention Breakfast

William Branham sat at the head table during the Convention breakfast, collecting information from Nixon's speech and receiving his marching orders.  According to Branham, State Senators met with him in his home after the breakfast in Washington, apparently continuing the same conversation.[6]  Nixon's charge to warfare using the minds of youth in America through the sermons of the evangelicals brought significant change to key elements of Branham's stage persona, right down to his descriptions of his alleged "1933 prophecies" for which he would be recognized.  

The first time that William Branham mentioned his alleged 1933 prophecies was in May of 1955.[7]  During that first mention, Branham claimed that communism was a rising threat and would conquer all world systems.[8]  Prior to this, the only mention of anything even resembling his 1933 prophecies was Branham's description of a sermon claiming that the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini would bring an end to world peace and that either Facism, Communism, or Nazism would reign — Branham did not know which.[9]  As a doomsday prophet, there were always hints of war, death, and destruction, but until Nixon's speech, all of these predictions were vague and randomly associated with other world events and did not name Communism as the main threat.  After the Nixon speech, however, Branham began claiming that Communism was the main threat and that instead of casually mentioning it during a sermon, he had predicted it in 1933 during a series of seven prophecies.

Going to Sunday school one morning, I was caught away in a vision. And I said, 'Now…' Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I said, 'Now, there's going to be three great isms. Which is now in existence. One of them is in Rome, which is—is Fascism, and one of them is in Germany which is Nazi—Nazism. And the other one is in Russia, which is communism.' I said, 'Those three great isms is the unclean spirits that went out of the mouth of the false prophet, and the dragons, and so forth that will unite themselves together, speaking things that they should not, and they'll all beat at one another, until they'll finally wind up in one ism. And I predict that that will be communism. And communism will burn the Vatican city.[10]
- William Branham, May 1955

This is not to say that William Branham's position was consistent.  Branham had other versions of his stage persona already in play, some of which were strategically used for other organizations and agendas.  In his 1962 sermon, "The Greatest Battle Ever Fought", which appears to have been inspired by then-former Vice President Nixon's speech, Branham matched the Klan's position that the greatest threat to the battle of the mind was the Roman Catholic Church, which would defeat Communism[11] — the exact opposite of the prophetic claim.

Russia. I want to say this for the benefit of the veterans, and so forth, here, and you Bible students. What you fussing and hollering about Russia? Huh! You don't hear me telling you to build a bomb shelter, do you? What you fussing about Russia? Russia ain't nothing. They ain't going to win no wars. They ain't going to conquer no world. Communism isn't going to conquer no world. What's the matter with people? Can God's Word fail? Listen, this on tape now. To the world, I speak, or wherever these tapes may go. And to you people here, no matter whatever happens to me, you believe this. Russia, communism, isn't conquering nothing. God's Word can't fail. Romanism is going to conquer the world.[12]
- William Branham, March 1962.  

As the leader of the Healing Revival worldwide, however, Branham remained strategically positioned to influence the masses, both domestically and globally.  Not only was Branham touring throughout parts of the world, distributing recordings of his speeches describing the rising threat of communism, and convincing his listeners that Communist Russia would obliterate the United States through his newly-introduced claim to 1930's prophecy, Branham had key individuals strategically positioned to further that agenda.  By the time of Nixon's speech, Branham had established fifteen offices around the world.[13]  By the early 1960s, one of those offices would become critical to the operation that was later officially named "Operation Condor", specifically in the area of international terrorism.