RICHARD HELMS
Name: Richard McGarrah Helms
Born: 30 March 1913 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died: 23 October 2002
Richard McGarrah Helms (March 30, 1913 – October 23, 2002) was the Director of
Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973. He was the only director to have
been convicted of lying to Congress over Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
undercover activities. In 1977, he was sentenced to the maximum fine and
received a suspended two-year prison sentence. Despite this, Helms remained a
revered figure in the intelligence profession. CIA Historian Keith Melton
describes Helms as a professional who was always impeccably dressed and had a "low
tolerance for fools."
Helms was born in Philadelphia in 1913. In 1935, after he graduated from
Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, he got a job at the United
Press in London.. The depression in London, however forced Helms to find work in
Germany, where he covered the Berlin Olympic Games; he had spent two of his high
school years at the prestigious Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland where he
learned to speak French and later Realgymnasium in Freiburg, where he became
fluent in German. He joined the advertising department of the Indianapolis Times;
within two years he was national advertising manager.
During World War II Helms served in the United States Navy. In 1943, he was
posted to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) because of his ability to speak
German. In the aftermath of the war, he was transferred to the newly formed
Office of Special Operations (OSO), where at the age of 33 he was put in charge
of intelligence and counter-intelligence operations in Austria, Germany, and
Switzerland.
The OSO became a division of the CIA when that organization was created by the
National Security Act of July 1947. In 1962 Helms became Director of Plans after
the CIA's disastrous role in the attempted invasion of Cuba. After falling out
with the Kennedys, he was sent off to Vietnam where he oversaw
the coup to overthrow President Ngo Dinh Diem. Following the assassination of
John F. Kennedy, Helms was made Deputy Director of the CIA under Admiral William
Raborn. A year later, in 1966, he was appointed Director.
Richard Helms, in the White House Cabinet Room, March 27, 1968.
The ease of Helms's role under President Lyndon Johnson changed with the arrival
of President Richard Nixon and Nixon's national security advisor Henry Kissinger.
After the debacle of Watergate, from which Helms succeeded in distancing the CIA
as far as possible, the Agency came under much tighter Congressional control.
Nixon, however, considered Helms to be disloyal, and fired him as DCI in 1973.
Helms then served from 1973 to 1976 as US ambassador to Iran in Tehran.
Helms's ultimate undoing was the CIA's role, at Nixon's behest, in the
subversion of Chile's socialist government (Project FUBELT), and the overthrow
of that country's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, on
September 11, 1973. According to Helms, Nixon had ordered the CIA to support a
military coup to prevent Allende from becoming president in 1970. However,
following the assassination of Army Conmmander-in-Chief General René Schneider
by elements of the military, public support swung behind Allende, and he took
office in October 1970. Subsequently, the CIA funneled millions of dollars to
opposition groups and striking truck drivers in a continuing effort to
destabilize the Allende government.
During his ambassadorial confirmation hearings before the Senate, Helms was
questioned concerning the CIA's role in the Chilean affair. Because the
operations were still secret and the hearings were public events, Helms denied
that the CIA had ever aided Allende's opposition. However, later information
uncovered by the Church Committee hearings showed that Helms's statements were
false, and he was prosecuted and convicted in 1977. He received a two-year
suspended sentence and a $2,000 fine. He wore the conviction as a badge of honor,
and his fine was paid by friends from the CIA.
In 1972, Helms ordered the destruction of most records from the huge MKULTRA
project, over 150 CIA-funded research projects designed to explore any
possibilities of mind control. The project became public knowledge two years
later, after a New York Times report. Its full extent may never be known.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan awarded Helms the National Security Medal.
After he died of bone cancer in 2002, Richard Helms was interred in Arlington
National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
Name: Richard McGarrah Helms
Born: 30 March 1913 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died: 23 October 2002
Richard McGarrah Helms (March 30, 1913 – October 23, 2002) was the Director of
Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973. He was the only director to have
been convicted of lying to Congress over Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
undercover activities. In 1977, he was sentenced to the maximum fine and
received a suspended two-year prison sentence. Despite this, Helms remained a
revered figure in the intelligence profession. CIA Historian Keith Melton
describes Helms as a professional who was always impeccably dressed and had a "low
tolerance for fools."
Helms was born in Philadelphia in 1913. In 1935, after he graduated from
Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, he got a job at the United
Press in London.. The depression in London, however forced Helms to find work in
Germany, where he covered the Berlin Olympic Games; he had spent two of his high
school years at the prestigious Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland where he
learned to speak French and later Realgymnasium in Freiburg, where he became
fluent in German. He joined the advertising department of the Indianapolis Times;
within two years he was national advertising manager.
During World War II Helms served in the United States Navy. In 1943, he was
posted to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) because of his ability to speak
German. In the aftermath of the war, he was transferred to the newly formed
Office of Special Operations (OSO), where at the age of 33 he was put in charge
of intelligence and counter-intelligence operations in Austria, Germany, and
Switzerland.
The OSO became a division of the CIA when that organization was created by the
National Security Act of July 1947. In 1962 Helms became Director of Plans after
the CIA's disastrous role in the attempted invasion of Cuba. After falling out
with the Kennedys, he was sent off to Vietnam where he oversaw
the coup to overthrow President Ngo Dinh Diem. Following the assassination of
John F. Kennedy, Helms was made Deputy Director of the CIA under Admiral William
Raborn. A year later, in 1966, he was appointed Director.
Richard Helms, in the White House Cabinet Room, March 27, 1968.
The ease of Helms's role under President Lyndon Johnson changed with the arrival
of President Richard Nixon and Nixon's national security advisor Henry Kissinger.
After the debacle of Watergate, from which Helms succeeded in distancing the CIA
as far as possible, the Agency came under much tighter Congressional control.
Nixon, however, considered Helms to be disloyal, and fired him as DCI in 1973.
Helms then served from 1973 to 1976 as US ambassador to Iran in Tehran.
Helms's ultimate undoing was the CIA's role, at Nixon's behest, in the
subversion of Chile's socialist government (Project FUBELT), and the overthrow
of that country's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, on
September 11, 1973. According to Helms, Nixon had ordered the CIA to support a
military coup to prevent Allende from becoming president in 1970. However,
following the assassination of Army Conmmander-in-Chief General René Schneider
by elements of the military, public support swung behind Allende, and he took
office in October 1970. Subsequently, the CIA funneled millions of dollars to
opposition groups and striking truck drivers in a continuing effort to
destabilize the Allende government.
During his ambassadorial confirmation hearings before the Senate, Helms was
questioned concerning the CIA's role in the Chilean affair. Because the
operations were still secret and the hearings were public events, Helms denied
that the CIA had ever aided Allende's opposition. However, later information
uncovered by the Church Committee hearings showed that Helms's statements were
false, and he was prosecuted and convicted in 1977. He received a two-year
suspended sentence and a $2,000 fine. He wore the conviction as a badge of honor,
and his fine was paid by friends from the CIA.
In 1972, Helms ordered the destruction of most records from the huge MKULTRA
project, over 150 CIA-funded research projects designed to explore any
possibilities of mind control. The project became public knowledge two years
later, after a New York Times report. Its full extent may never be known.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan awarded Helms the National Security Medal.
After he died of bone cancer in 2002, Richard Helms was interred in Arlington
National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.