Richard Helms
Richard McGarrah Helms was an American government official, intelligence officer and diplomat who served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1966 to 1973 and as United States Ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1976.
Helms served in the Office of Strategic Services, a wartime predecessor to the CIA, in Europe during World War II. After the war, he returned to Washington, DC, to become one of the founding officers of the CIA. Following the 1947 creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, he rose in its ranks during the presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. Helms then was DCI under Presidents Johnson and Nixon, yielding to James R. Schlesinger in early 1973.
During his tenure as head of the CIA under presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, Helms oversaw the agency's involvement in the Vietnam War, Six Day War, and efforts to undermine Chilean president Salvador Allende. Domestically, he directed surveillance of American radicals in Operation CHAOS and was a key figure in the earliest stages of the Watergate scandal, delaying the investigation into the initial break-in and distancing the CIA from public involvement, but ultimately declining to use state secrets privilege to complete the cover-up. He was forced to resign by Nixon in 1973 and appointed Ambassador to Iran, where he served from April 1973 to December 1976.
After leaving public office, Helms was subject to scrutiny for his tenure at the CIA during a period of growing distrust of American intelligence agencies. Helms was a key witness in the Church Committee investigation of the CIA during the mid-1970s, but the investigation was hampered severely by Helms's 1973 order to destroy all files related to the MKUltra program. In 1977, as a result of earlier covert operations in Chile, Helms became the only DCI convicted of misleading Congress.
Early life and education
Richard McGarrah Helms was born on March 30, 1913 in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. His father, Herman Henry Helms, was the son of Lutheran immigrants from Sudwalde, Lower Saxony and a senior executive at Alcoa. His mother, Marion Helms, was the daughter of Gates W. McGarrah, the first president of the Bank of International Settlements.Helms received part of his education in Switzerland and Germany, which contributed to his fluency in German and French. He attended Institut Le Rosey, a private boarding school in Switzerland. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts. After graduating from Williams College, he worked as a journalist in Europe and for the Indianapolis Times.File:Helms Letter - Flickr - The Central Intelligence Agency.jpg|thumb|Helms wrote a letter to his son Dennis, celebrating V-E Day, on stationery which had belonged to Adolf Hitler.|left|271x271px
World War II
Upon the United States entry into World War II, Helms joined the Navy. He was recruited to the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime intelligence agency of the United States, and served in Europe. Following the war, he was stationed with the OSS in Germany. While there, he wrote a letter to his son Dennis on stationery he had recovered from Adolf Hitler's office in the ruins of the Reich Chancellery. The letter was dated "V-E Day", the day Germany surrendered. In 2011, Dennis Helms donated the letter to the private museum of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.In 1945, the OSS was terminated, and Helms joined the Strategic Services Unit, which had been established to take over the work of the Secret Intelligence and X-2 Counter Espionage branches of the OSS. Helms focused on espionage in central Europe at the start of the Cold War and took part in vetting the Gehlen Organization in Germany. When intelligence and counter-espionage was transferred to the Office of Special Operations, Helms followed.
Early CIA career
Chief of Operations (194758)
In 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency was founded, and OSO was transferred into the new organization. Helms was made head of OSO shortly before Director of Central Intelligence Walter Bedell Smith merged OSO with the Office of Policy Coordination in 1952 to form the new Directorate of Plans. The Directorate was led by Frank Wisner as Deputy DCI for Plans until 1958, with Helms serving as his Chief of Operations. During its early period, the CIA had a reputation for political liberalism stemming from its opposition to fascism during World War II.In 1953, Allen Dulles was named DCI, and his brother John Foster Dulles was appointed United States Secretary of State. During this period, as Chief of Operations, Helms was specifically tasked with defending the CIA against threats from Senator Joseph McCarthy and the development of the controversial project MKUltra. He oversaw Operation Gold, a joint British-American effort to wiretap Soviet Army headquarters in Berlin using a tunnel into the Soviet occupation zone. The plan was revealed to the Soviets by a mole in MI6, George Blake, and the Soviets revealed their knowledge to the public in 1956, causing a media sensation. Because the Soviets could not publicly reveal their foreknowledge without risking Blake's cover, the mission was celebrated as a success in the United States, where Allen Dulles claimed that it had revealed order of battle plans and other information about communist operations behind the Iron Curtain.
As Chief of Operations, Helms generally focused on espionage and information-gathering, emphasizing long-term strategy over high-risk covert operations. However, Dulles and Wisner directed such operations to influence regime change in Iran, Guatemala and the Congo, which Helms oversaw. In Iran, regime change brought Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been Helms's classmate at Institut Le Rosey, to power.
In 1958, Wisner resigned from the CIA. Rather than elevating Helms, Dulles chose Richard M. Bissell Jr. as the new DDP. During the early presidency of John F. Kennedy, Dulles selected Helms to testify before Congress on the topic of Soviet forgery.
In 1961, the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion resulted in the resignation of Dulles as DCI. Although Helms, as chief of operations, was involved in the failed operation, he successfully distanced himself from its disastrous results. CIA official and author Victor Marchetti later noted that Helms had been meticulous to ensure "that not a single piece of paper existed in the agency which linked to... the Bay of Pigs."
Deputy Director for Plans (196265) and Deputy DCI (196566)
Following the 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco and resignation of Dulles as DCI, John F. Kennedy appointed John McCone as DCI and Helms was promoted to DDP. As DDP, Helms was assigned to manage the CIA's role in Operation Mongoose, a multi-agency effort to depose Fidel Castro as the leader of Cuba. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Helms supported McCone's contributions to the strategic White House discussions.After the 1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état, Helms was privy to Kennedy's anguish over the killing of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem. Three weeks later, Kennedy himself was assassinated. Helms worked to manage the CIA's complicated response during its subsequent investigation by the Warren Commission.
In 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson appointed William Raborn as DCI and Helms as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. After less than one year, Raborn resigned, and Johnson elevated Helms to DCI.
Vietnam and Laos
Earlier American intelligence operations in Vietnam dated back to OSS contacts with the communist-led resistance to Japanese occupation during World War II. After French withdrawal in 1954, CIA officers including Edward Lansdale assisted Ngo Dinh Diem in his efforts to reconstitute an independent government in the south. Early CIA reports did not present an optimistic appraisal of Diem's future. Many analysts concluded that a favorable outcome was more likely for the new communist regime in the north under its widely admired leader Ho Chi Minh. Nationwide elections were avoided, and the CIA continued to back Diem, though he refused to enact reforms recommended by the agency.During the 1960s, the CIA became fully engaged in political and military affairs in Southeast Asia, including intelligence-gathering and both overt and covert field operations. For example, the CIA organized armed minority Hmong in Laos, rural counterinsurgency forces in Vietnam, and minority Montagnards in the highlands. The CIA was also actively involved in South Vietnamese internal politics, especially after the 1963 coup which killed Diem. Helms personally traveled to Vietnam with DCI McCone in 1962.
In 1963, Helms directed the CIA effort to defend the Kingdom of Laos against the communist revolutionary Pathet Lao, which were supported by North Vietnam. Because both the CIA and North Vietnamese were in violation of the 1962 International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos, the efforts were conducted covertly. Several hundred CIA personnel were involved in managing a large scale paramilitary operation, largely in the form of training and arming native tribal groups, primarily the Hmong under Vang Pao. The efforts, which continued through Helms's term as DCI, were largely successful at maintaining the functional neutrality of Laos despite the presence of the Ho Chi Minh trail, and Helms later repeatedly referred to Laos as "the war we won." Despite this, the "secret war" later drew frequent political attacks, and CIA critics cite the operation as the origin of CIA involvement in alleged heroin trafficking throughout the Golden Triangle.
Helms was later highly critical of U.S. senators who claimed to be unaware of the CIA operations in Laos, including Stuart Symington, who had visited CIA stations in Laos twice, been briefed on the progress of the operations, and praised their success.
Director of Central Intelligence (196673)
Helms was appointed DCI by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966. He was the first homegrown DCI, having risen through the ranks from the agency's founding, and he would continue in the role through the first term of President Richard Nixon, leaving office in 1973.During his tenure as head of the CIA, Helms oversaw the agency's involvement in the Vietnam War and Southeast Asia, the Six Day War, subversive activities against the Salvador Allende presidency in Chile, and domestic surveillance of American radicals. After the Six-Day War, Helms became one of Lyndon Johnson's top advisors on matters of foreign policy, and increasingly pessimistic CIA assessments of the Vietnam War culminated in Johnson's decision not to seek re-election to the presidency, on advice from Helms and several foreign policy advisors relying on CIA intelligence. While he was a trusted advisor to Johnson, Helms came into conflict with the Nixon administration, particularly National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, over the agency's authority and strategy, as well as the Watergate scandal. Nixon eventually forced Helms to resign as DCI and accept a position as ambassador to Iran in April 1973.