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PERSON FILE · 30 March 1913 – 23 October 2002

Richard Helms

A career clandestine officer who rose from OSS to Director of Central Intelligence (1966–73), Richard Helms ran the CIA through Vietnam and Chile and later became the only DCI convicted over testimony to Congress.

1913–2002

3 min read · 7 sources, 6 primary

Richard McGarrah Helms
CIA Director Richard Helms (left) with Ambassador Walworth Barbour in the White House Cabinet Room, 27 March 1968. Yoichi Okamoto. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Richard McGarrah Helms was the first Director of Central Intelligence to have spent his whole career inside the agency. Born in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, on 30 March 1913, he was partly schooled in Switzerland and Germany, which gave him fluent German and French, and graduated from Williams College. He worked as a journalist in Europe and for the Indianapolis Times before joining the Navy in the Second World War, from which he was recruited into the OSS7.

The clandestine service

After the war Helms stayed with the remnants of OSS that became the CIA's espionage arm. By 1953 he was chief of operations in the Directorate of Plans, and he sat in on the agency's internal debriefing of the Iran coup on 28 August 1953 alongside Frank Wisner and Kermit Roosevelt (Operation Ajax (TPAJAX))3.

When Richard Bissell left after the Bay of Pigs, Helms replaced him as Deputy Director for Plans in February 1962, which made him the superior of William Harvey, who ran both the CIA side of Operation Mongoose and the agency's contacts with the Mafia figure John Rosselli5. Testifying to the Church Committee in 1975, Helms said he had "reluctantly" approved Harvey's operation against Castro in 1962 and, although he did not recall approving the poison pills, "I must have authorized them in some fashion." The committee found that the Director, John McCone, was not told; Helms said he could not explain why he had not informed him5. See The plots against Fidel Castro.

Director, 1966–1973

Helms became Deputy Director of Central Intelligence on 28 April 1965 and Director on 30 June 19661. His years as DCI were dominated by Vietnam and Laos (The secret war in Laos, The Phoenix Program); a 1966 report from his Far East chief, William Colby, praised the CIA's paramilitary operations in Laos as a model6. At home, the CIA under Helms ran Operation CHAOS, which gathered information on American antiwar groups in search of foreign influence (Operation CHAOS)7.

On 15 September 1970 Nixon called him to the White House and ordered the CIA to try to prevent Salvador Allende from taking office in Chile. Helms's handwritten notes of the meeting, including "make the economy scream," survive in the record (Track II and Chile, 1970)4. Helms later told the Church Committee he had left with the impression that the President "wanted something done, and he didn't much care how"4.

Nixon replaced him early in 1973 with James Schlesinger and named him Ambassador to Iran, where he served from April 1973 to December 19762,7. Before leaving the CIA he ordered the destruction of the files of the drug-testing program MKUltra, which later hampered investigators (Project MKUltra)7.

Testimony and conviction

At his confirmation hearing for Iran in February 1973, senators questioned Helms about CIA operations in Chile. Regarding them as a state secret, he denied that the CIA had aided Allende's opponents, and repeated the denial days later before a subcommittee investigating ITT's role in Chile. The Church Committee's findings in 1975 contradicted him7. In 1977 the Justice Department charged him, and Helms pleaded nolo contendere to two misdemeanor counts of failing to testify "fully, completely and accurately" before Congress. He received a two-year suspended sentence and a $2,000 fine. The judge, Barrington Parker, told him that public officials who set out to disobey the law put the country in jeopardy; his lawyer, Edward Bennett Williams, said Helms would "wear this conviction like a badge of honor"7.

Helms remained respected by many former colleagues, and President Reagan awarded him the National Security Medal in 19837. He died of multiple myeloma on 23 October 2002 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery7.

Key dates

  1. 28 August 1953 Attends the CIA's internal debriefing on the Iran coup as chief of operations in the Directorate of Plans.
  2. February 1962 Succeeds Richard Bissell as Deputy Director for Plans.
  3. 28 April 1965 Becomes Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.
  4. 30 June 1966 Becomes Director of Central Intelligence.
  5. 15 September 1970 Receives Nixon's order to try to block Allende in Chile.
  6. 1973 Leaves the CIA and becomes Ambassador to Iran.
  7. 20 November 1975 Church Committee publishes its assassination report, drawing on his testimony.
  8. 1977 Pleads nolo contendere to two misdemeanor counts of failing to testify fully to Congress.

Sources

  1. FRUS FRUS, 1964–1968, volume XXVIII, Laos: List of Persons, US Department of State, Office of the Historian (1998).
  2. FRUS FRUS, 1969–1976, volume XXI, Chile: List of Persons, US Department of State, Office of the Historian (2014).
  3. FRUS FRUS, 1951–1954, Iran, Document 307: Record of Meeting in the Central Intelligence Agency, 28 August 1953, US Department of State, Office of the Historian (1953-08-28).
  4. FRUS FRUS, 1969–1976, volume XXI, Chile, Document 93: Editorial Note on the White House meeting of 15 September 1970, US Department of State, Office of the Historian (2014).
  5. Congress Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, Part III.B: Cuba (chapter scan), Church Committee; copy hosted by the Assassination Archives and Research Center (1975-11-20).
  6. FRUS FRUS, 1964–1968, volume XXVIII, Laos, Document 246: Report by Colby to DCI Helms, 16 August 1966, US Department of State, Office of the Historian (1966-08-16).
  7. Wikipedia Richard Helms, Wikipedia.
  8. Wikipedia English Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking).

Elsewhere in the files

Read next

United States · 1947 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) The US civilian intelligence service, created by the National Security Act of 1947 to coordinate foreign intelligence, which within a year also became Washington's instrument for covert action. 1893–1969 Allen Dulles OSS spymaster in wartime Switzerland and Director of Central Intelligence from 1953 to 1961, Allen Dulles presided over the CIA's era of coups and covert wars until the Bay of Pigs ended his tenure. 15 September – 24 October 1970 Track II and Chile, 1970 In September 1970 President Nixon ordered the CIA to try to provoke a military coup that would stop Salvador Allende taking office in Chile. The effort ended with the killing of General René Schneider. August 1960 – 1965 The plots against Fidel Castro Between 1960 and 1965 the CIA pursued at least eight plots to kill Fidel Castro, using poison pills, gangsters and a Cuban insider. None succeeded, and who authorized them was never settled. 30 November 1961 – October 1962 Operation Mongoose The Kennedy administration's 1961–62 covert program to overthrow Fidel Castro, run by Edward Lansdale under Robert Kennedy's eye, which aimed at a revolt in Cuba by October 1962. 1920–1996 William Colby OSS parachutist, CIA station chief in Saigon and head of the Phoenix program, Colby became Director of Central Intelligence in 1973 and chose to open the Agency's files to the investigations of 1975.