Richard Helms, Director of Central Intelligence, 1966-1973

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 remains 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." Richard M. Helms, Director of Central Intelligence, 1966-1973. ... Richard M. Helms, Director of Central Intelligence, 1966-1973. ... March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in a leap year). ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... The Office of Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) was established on January 23rd 1946 with Adm. ... Type Bicameralism Houses Senate House of Representatives United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D, since January 4, 2007 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D, since January 4, 2007 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political groups (as of November 7, 2006 elections) Democratic Party Republican... The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA, colloquially known as The Company or simply, The Agency) is an intelligence agency of the United States Government. ...

Helms was born in Philadelphia in 1913. In 1936, a year after he graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, he was sent by the United Press to help cover 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 German and French. Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Cradle of Liberty, the City That Loves You Back, the Quaker City, The Birthplace of America Motto: Philadelphia maneto - Let brotherly love continue Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701  - Mayor... Williams College is a private, coeducational, highly selective (18% admission rate in 2006) liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. ... Williamstown is a town located in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. ... United Press International (UPI) is a global news agency headquartered in the United States filing news in English, Spanish and Arabic. ... The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, were held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. ... Institut Le Rosey, established in 1880, is the oldest private boarding school in Switzerland and one of the most exclusive private education institutions in the world. ...

He joined the advertising department of the Indianapolis Times; within two years he was national advertising manager. Wikibooks has more about this subject: Marketing Billboards and street advertising in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, (2005) Advertising is paid communication through a non-personal medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled. ... The Indianapolis Times was an evening newspaper that served the city of Indianapolis, Indiana from the late 1800s to 1965 when the paper ceased publishing. ...

During World War II he 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. Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total dead: 50,000,000 Military dead: 8,000,000 Civilian dead: 4,000,000 Total dead 12,000,000 World War II (abbreviated WWII), or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict... USN redirects here. ... The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency and was a lineage precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as for the Special Forces and Navy Seals, who have traced their lineage back to... Intelligence (abbreviated or ) is the process and the result of gathering information and analyzing it to answer questions or obtain advance warnings needed to plan for the future. ... Counter Intelligence A uk label started and owned by John Machielsen. ...

The OSO became a division of the CIA when that organization was created by the National Security Act of July 1947. Helms became Director of the OSO after the CIA's disastrous role in the attempted invasion of Cuba in 1961. 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.-1... Map showing the location of the Bay of Pigs. ... John, Robert, and Edward Kennedy The Kennedy family is a prominent family in American politics and government descending from the marriage of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. ... This is a Vietnamese name; the persons family name is Ngô, but should be properly referred to as Diệm. ... President Kennedy, with his wife, Jacqueline, and Texas Governor John Connally in the presidential limousine shortly before his assassination The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 p. ... Vice admiral William Francis Raborn, Jr. ...

The ease of Helm'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. Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908–January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was an American politician. ... Nixon redirects here. ... -1... Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923 in Fürth) is a German-born American diplomat, and 1973 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. ...

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. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Mind control (or thought control) has the premise that an outside source can control an individuals thinking, behavior or consciousness (either directly or more subtly). ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Nixon 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. This is a list of ambassadors from the United States. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Richard Helms, in the White House Cabinet Room, March 27, 1968.

Helms' ultimate undoing was the CIA role in the subversion of Chilean democracy and the overthrow, under Nixon's orders, of that country's president Salvador Allende in 1973. Helms had reportedly opposed this operation. DCI Richard Helms, in the White House Cabinet Room, March 27, 1968. ... DCI Richard Helms, in the White House Cabinet Room, March 27, 1968. ... March 27 is the 86th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (87th in leap years). ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ... Salvador Isabelino del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Allende Gossens[1] (July 26, 1908 – September 11, 1973) was President of Chile from November 1970 until his removal from power and death on September 11, 1973. ...

Helms' answers to Congress on the CIA's role in the Chilean affair were proved to be 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; his fine was paid by friends from the CIA. A suspended sentence is a legal construct. ...

Helms testified, under oath, in 1979, that Clay Shaw, the only man ever put on trial for John F. Kennedy's assassination, had, from 1948 to 1956, been a part-time contact of the Domestic Contact Division of the CIA; a claim that has remained unproven from Shaw's trial. Clay Laverne Shaw (March 17, 1913 - August 14, 1974) was a successful businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... For other persons named John Kennedy, see John Kennedy (disambiguation). ...

In 1979 the House Select Committee on Assassinations, HSCA cited Helms for perjury in its final report. He had lied about his knowledge of the John F. Kennedy assassination. When testifying before the Warren Commission in 1964 Helms swore he never remembered hearing the name Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination. The U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations was established in 1976 to investigate the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ... For other persons named John Kennedy, see John Kennedy (disambiguation). ... Warren Commission report cover page The Presidents Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as The Warren Commission, was established on November 29, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Lee Harvey Oswald diary Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was, according to four United States government investigations, responsible for the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. ...

"...I had all of our records searched to see if there had been any contacts at any time prior to President Kennedy's assassination by anyone in the Central Intelligence Agency with Lee Harvey Oswald. We checked our card files and our personnel files and all our records. Now, this check turned out to be negative. In addition I got in touch with those officers who were in positions of responsibility at the times in question to see if anybody had any recollection of any contact having even been suggested with this man. This also turned out to be negative, so there is no material in the Central Intelligence Agency, either in the records or in the mind of any of the individuals, that there was any contact had or even contemplated with him." (Warren Report volume V page 120)

However a declassified memo written by Helms on November 25, 1963, the day after Oswald’s murder states that, "As soon as I [blacked out] had heard Oswald's name," he recognized Oswald as a potential recruit. The name of the government agency, recruiter, and operation had been blacked out from the memo. (HSCA Report volume XI page 64.)

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan awarded Helms the National Security Medal. Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ... National Security Medal The National Security Medal is a decoration of the United States of America which was first created in 1947 by order of the United States National Security Council. ...

Following his death in 2002, Richard Helms was interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. [[ Historical Information Arlington National Cemetery Section 27 Facts Pvt. ... Arlington County is a county located in the U.S. state of Virginia (which calls itself a commonwealth), directly across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. By an act of Congress July 9, 1846, the area south of the Potomac was returned to Virginia effective in 1847 As of 2000...

See also: Operation Mockingbird. Operation Mockingbird is a Central Intelligence Agency operation to influence domestic and foreign media, whose activities were made public during the Church Committee investigation in 1975 (published 1976). ...

Trivia

Helms was portrayed by actor Sam Waterston in a memorable though deleted scene in the 1994 film Nixon. Samuel Atkinson Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an Oscar nominated American actor noted particularly for his portrayal of Jack McCoy on the long-running NBC television series Law & Order. ... Nixon is a 1995 film which tells the story of the political and personal life of former President Richard Nixon. ...

The character Richard Hayes, portrayed by actor Lee Pace in the 2006 film The Good Shepherd , was loosely based on Helms. Lee Pace (b. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

A Real Scumbag

External links

• Role in bringing Saddam Hussein to power
• Video of Helms discussing his role in Watergate

Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency
Souers • Vandenberg • Hillenkoetter • Smith • Dulles • McCone • Raborn • Helms • Schlesinger • Colby • Bush • Turner • Casey • Webster • Gates • Woolsey • Deutch • Tenet • Goss • Hayden