Helm's style was cool by choice and temperament; his instinct was to soften differences, to find a middle ground, to tone down operations that were getting out of hand, to give faltering projects one more chance rather than shut them down altogether, to settle for compromise in the interests of bureaucratic peace." Over the years, there would be more assignments with domestic political implications. Mr. Allende was killed in a 1973 military coup, which was followed by more than 16 years of military dictatorship. His passing, his defeat a boon to mankind. That reputation grew in 1973, when Mr. Helms clashed with President Nixon, who sought his help in thwarting an F.B.I. "I found myself in a position of conflict," Mr. Helms said. You cocksucker! Mr. Helms kept a low public profile as director of central intelligence, and he avoided publicity. Unaccustomed to such public scrutiny, Helms's cool demeanor had cracked under the pressure. . In 1976, Mr. Helms returned from Tehran, retired from government service and became an international consultant. Mr. Helms replaced him in 1962, winning the position that had eluded him four years earlier. Richard married Julia Shields in 1939, at age 25. The elected Marxist leader was eventually overthrown and died in a CIA-assisted coup in 1973. For more than 11 months, until the tunnel was detected by the Soviet Union, the C.I.A. Dennis couldnt help but notice how his dashing dad could evade any subject: If you asked my father what time it was, hed give you an answer about the weather., The standard conversation with my friends was like this: Uh, whats your dad do? Id say, He works at the State Department., But, they wondered, what does he do? Mr. Helms, who was allowed to receive his government pension, put his intelligence experience to use after his retirement. 's covert operations, or ''plans'' division, and by the early 1950's he was serving as deputy to the head of clandestine services, Frank Wisner. When Hitler spoke face-to-face, active salivary glands seemed to make his voice indistinct, Helms wrote in his memoir.). His years in Tehran coincided with the final period of the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, with whom Mr. Helms had a good relationship. As I recalled other events, I realized that . Love, Daddy.. His years at the agency covered a period in which CIA service was widely honored as a noble and romantic calling in the Cold War. More About Julia L. Bretzman and Frank Brown Shields: Private-Begin: Private . Richard M. Helms (1913-2002) was born on March 30, 1913 in Saint Davids, Pennsylvania to Herman H. Helms and Marion McGarrah Helms. So, theyd say, Oh, well, youre kinda dumb, the son said. At the close of World War II, top German spy Commander Reinhard Gehlen escaped the approaching Russians and fled to the Americans, bringing with him a treasure trove of Nazi and Russian intelligence files. . Soon after, he was transferred to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency, under the command of General William J. Donavan. Hypnosis and drugs were central elements of the programs that encompassed CIA mind control and behavior modification research of this era. But Helms wrote in his memoir that he was in France that day. Richard Helms's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. Dennis said he didnt know. But he kept being hauled before congressional committees to explain the CIAs efforts in earlier years to assassinate world leaders and disrupt socialist regimes abroad. Julia brought two children into the marriage James and Judith. Soon, this newly contracted legion of psychiatrists began to test mind-altering drugs in conjunction with hypnosis. 1 son, Dennis J.; married Cynthia McKelvie, 1968. Those included Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo. Most of the subjects tested did not know the nature of the tests being given to them. CIA officials knew that these activities were in violation of the agencys charter and, in a February 1969 letter to Henry Kissinger, then national security advisor, Helms urged that Chaos reports be kept top secret. . Initially, he held desk jobs in Washington and New York but later served in Britain and the European theater. On leaving the CIA, Mr. Helms served three years as ambassador to Iran, then in 1976 ended his government career. 'Killer Schorr' that's what they ought to call you.". TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. During most of his tenure as C.I.A. William R. Colby, who succeeded Schlesinger as director of central intelligence, quietly briefed House and Senate overseers on the contents of the report, which became known in the agency as "the family jewels." He rose quickly and became national advertising director within a year. His father signed off with a term that he rarely used for himself. Dad liked it that way.. Helms became deputy director. Another nonanswer from Helms and again, one that showed his arrogance when involved in discussions related to the assassinations transpired during the House Select Committee on Assassinations hearings in 1978. 0 The next year, Raborn -- who had little experience in foreign affairs or intelligence gathering -- resigned. Mar 1973 Thirty-five thousand people are killed outright, including 23,200-28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers. These individuals were picked because, due to their social and economic circumstances, they typically would have little recourse if they discovered the true nature of their predicament. Dennis Helms, now a 69-year-old intellectual-property lawyer in New Jersey. That particular letter is one that only agency employees and their guests can see. who was born in Indianapolis, Indiana to Charles Bretzman of Hannover, Germany and Berta W. Bretzman of Minnesota. Over the years, speculation has grown that Helms was the famous source known as Deep Throat, who helped guide Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of the Watergate scandal. Helms was convicted on only federal misdemeanor charges of misleading Congress after the Justice Department, in a rare move, sought a plea agreement to avoid a public trial in which top-secret information might be disclosed. chief, Mr. Helms received favorable, occasionally fawning attention from lawmakers and the press, who remarked on his professionalism, candor, and even his dark good looks. During most of his tenure as C.I.A. Richard Helms, a former director of central intelligence who defiantly guarded some of the darkest secrets of the Cold War, died Tuesday night (Oct. 22, 2002) of multiple myeloma. Outside the courtroom on the day of his sentencing, Helms attorney, Edward Bennett Williams, said his client would wear this conviction like a badge of honor. To the end, Helms believed deeply in the mission of the CIA. A Secret Order: Investigating the High Strangeness and Synchronicity in the JFK Assassination. Paralleling the CIA's experiments, it is estimated that thousands of US soldiers were exposed to dangerous chemicals, biological weapons experiments, and radioactive agent tests sponsored by the Pentagon in operations worldwide. Helms began intelligence work with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. %%EOF The couple were divorced in 1968, and Mr. Helms married Cynthia McKelvie later that year. As America's top spymaster, Powers wrote in his biography, Mr. Helms "is remembered as an administrator, impatient with delay, excuses, self-seeking, the sour air of office politics. When the CIA was established, Helms was one of the architects of the new organization. Richard McGarrah Helms was born in St. Davids, Pa., to a family of financial means. He is known for Frontline (1983), Les mercredis de l'histoire (1995) and Watergate (1994). ''I had found myself in a position of conflict,'' he told a federal judge at the formal proceeding after entering a plea agreement with the Justice Department. The gold-embossed letterhead features a swastika and the name Adolf Hitler. He served under such men as Allen W. Dulles, Richard M. Bissell, John A. McCone and Vice Adm. William F. Raborn. In 1940, she was 32 years old and lived in Washington, Indiana, with her husband, Richard, son, and daughter. In particular, Dennis loves the letters ending. See the article in its original context from. He became the CIA's deputy director for plans, the innocuous-sounding title of the chief of covert action. Helms, an OSS operative in World War II, was always vague about the letter. Mr. Helms was forced out of the agency in 1973 by President Nixon, who considered him insufficiently cooperative in providing C.I.A. ,&$vP1)Pcb`. This California farm kingdom holds a key, These are the 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles, New Bay Area maps show hidden flood risk from sea level rise and groundwater. After his federal retirement he served on a variety of government boards, panels and commissions, especially during the Reagan presidency. Related Products Contribute Resources Add your poems, quotes, or title ideas to share with other members. This is the same school the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, attended. chief, Mr. Helms received favorable attention from lawmakers and the press, who remarked on his professionalism, candor, and even his dark good looks. . When we got it, the hair on our arms stood up, said Toni Hiley, the CIA museums curator. had run a major secret operation in Chile that gave more than $8 million to the opponents of Mr. Allende, using the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation as a conduit. who are visiting Mrs. Wilson's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gwynn F. Patterson; Mrs. Julia Bretzman Shields, Richard Helms and Dr. : 'Walter Bruetsch. But I dont have the capacity or time to do stuff like that.. Oktober 2002 in Washington, D.C.) war ein US-amerikanischer Geheimdienstfunktionr, dessen Karriere ihren Hhepunkt in einer siebenjhrigen Amtsperiode als Director of Central Intelligence hatte. They were also the types of subjects who would not be prone to question if they had been unwittingly drugged, because drugs were a normal part of their culture anyway. Foreword by Dr. Henry C. Lee, Preface, Chapter 1: Richard Helms, The Strategist, Chapter 2: The Sociopathy Test, Chapter 3: James Angleton, The Tactician, Chapter 4: Assassinations Past, Chapter 5: Lee Harvey Oswald, An Unwitting Patsy, Chapter 6: November 22, 1963, the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Chapter 7: Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, an Involuntary Pawn, Chapter 8: June 5, 1968, the Assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Chapter 9: Conclusion, Notes, Index, Readers who cant get enough of speculation about the JFK and RFK assassinations should definitely give [CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys] a read . When the U.S. wartime intelligence forces merged into the CIA in 1947, Mr. Helms became one of the architects of the new organization. She serves as The Emily Program's family physician in our Intensive Day Treatment program and residential program in St. Paul, MN, the Anna Westin House. From the beginning, he worked in the agency's covert operations, or "plans" division, and by the early 1950's he was serving as deputy to the head of clandestine services, Frank Wisner. So-called terrorism may get a new lease on life. Links between unsavory Nixon White House activities and the CIA, including the agency's lending of disguises to Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt, prompted an internal examination ordered by Mr. I just wish there had been more such occasions.. He had multiple melanoma. In 1973, Helms was pushed out of the directorship by President Richard Nixon, who was reportedly angry that his CIA chief had not helped thwart the Watergate investigation. In 1939 Helms had married Julia Bretzman Shields, a sculptress six years his senior. He later married Cynthia McKelvie, who survives him. Under Helms's guidance, behavioral medicine scientists from across the US were recruited to investigate a curious mix of concepts: creating amnesia, understanding bioelectrics, and attempting to harness parapsychology. He died on October 22, 2002 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He later became an international consultant, specializing in trade with the Middle East. He was 89. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. To the lean, dapper and detached Helms that meant maintaining the rules of the game -- silence and loyalty. Anyone can read what you share. Under Johnson and then President Nixon, Helms headed Operation Chaos, which spied on American citizens linked to the increasingly powerful antiwar movement, looking for ties to foreign governments. He fancied a career in journalism, and went to Europe as a reporter for United Press. Heidorf / Roentgen Home Page:Information about Julia L. Bretzman Home Page |Surname List |Index of Individuals | |Sources Julia L. Bretzman Julia L. Bretzman (daughter of Charles Bretzman and Bertha Grauel).She married (1) Frank Brown Shields.She married (2) Richard McGarrah Helms. Heinz Warneke, Elegance, ca. Mr. Helms, who by nature had been cool and skeptical toward covert operations on such a large scale, had kept his distance from the Bay of Pigs. In 1940, she was 32 years old and lived in Washington, Indiana, with her husband, Richard, son, and daughter. Helms and Dulles, who was then Chief of Mission in Berne, Switzerland, met at General Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters when Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945. Born March 30, 1913, in St. Davids, PA; died of bone cancer, October 23, 2002, in Washington, DC; son of Herman and Marion Helms; married Julia Bretzman Shields, 1939 (divorced, 1968); married Cynthia McKelvie, 1968; children: (first marriage) Dennis. He went to London and became a European correspondent for United Press. He was known as a charming conversationalist, a gregarious partygoer and an accomplished dancer, and he and his wife continued to be familiar figures on the capital party scene. For several years, the CIA had tested the use of hypnosis in interrogations and on unwitting subjects under Operation ARTICHOKE. They divorced in 1968. Following the 1947 creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CI Frank Brown Shields.He married Julia L. Bretzman, daughter of Charles Bretzman and Bertha Grauel. Or find other results in the 1940 census forJulia Helms. In 1939 he married Julia Bretzman Shields, and they had a son, Dennis, who became a lawyer. Young Richard attended Carteret Academy. When World War II broke out, Mr. Helms was called into service by the Naval Reserve and because of his linguistic abilities was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the C.I.A. Helms was asked if the CIA had tried to interfere in the election of Chilean president Salvador Allende in 1970. But why be pessimistic?, He signed it Devotedly, The OM. (For Old Man.). He grew up in South Orange, N.J., and attended high school in Switzerland for two years, where he became proficient in French and German. It included the rending of the American social fabric and the antiwar protests of the Vietnam War era, and it ended during the Watergate crisis. He went to Europe as a reporter for United Press. His conviction, which resulted in a suspended sentence and a $2,000 fine, became a rallying point for critics of the Central Intelligence Agency who accused it of dirty tricks, as well as for the agency's defenders, who hailed Mr. Helms for refusing to compromise sensitive information. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. One part still confuses. A child can be proud of his parent but also frustrated by the lack of details, the opaque explanations about careers, the questions that cant even be asked. In a statement yesterday, Tenet described Mr. Helms as "clear in thought, elegant in style . . The prison term was suspended. Together they had a son Dennis, who as a young man briefly worked at CIA; he later became a lawyer. While Dennis was growing up in Washington, the letter went into family scrapbooks. In the early days of World War II, Helms was commissioned in the Navy with the rank of lieutenant. In addition to researching information based on North Korean field work, the CIA dug deeper, researching experiments found in captured Nazi documents. He became a consultant to businesses that made investments in other countries. Helms was enrolled in Le Rosey, a private preparatory school on Lake Geneva. It was said of Mr. Helms that throughout his career and into retirement, he was preoccupied with the Soviet Union and its CIA counterpart, the KGB. At that time, North Korea had developed so-called "brainwashing" techniques for use in obtaining "confessions" from American prisoners of war. . The substance of the briefing did not surface publicly for two years, until a combination of news media accounts, a presidential commission and congressional committees bent on public disclosure made it known. She married Frank Shields on 15 May 1929. Through much of his tenure, Helms -- with his solid background in the agency during the Cold War -- was well-regarded by congressional oversight panels and the news media. This psychopharmacological research involved the combined use of mescaline and hypnosis. Television host, razor sharp political pundit, and #1 bestselling author Bill OReilly focuses in on where we all stand in the Age of Obama in Pinheads and Patriots. In the face of the Communist challenge, the US military sought to prepare its soldiers for survival in the event they were captured by the enemy. He will be. I was simply trying to find my way through a difficult situation in which I found myself.''. She had once remarked succinctly, "It takes heart to be in political life." Pat Nixon used her position as First Lady to encourage volunteer service--"the spirit of people helping people." As the Cold War intensified, and the nation saw the rise of rabid anti-Communist Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a sense of paranoia emerged regarding the Soviet Union and Communist efforts in the field of mind control. He dated the letter V-E day for May 8, 1945. His autobiography, A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life In The Central Intelligence Agency, leaves the impression that he spent much of his time putting out fires; the fact that most were of his own making is left untold. He will be buried at Arlington National Ceremony on Nov. 20. There he had desk jobs in New York and Washington and later in London. He became a consultant to businesses that made investments in other countries. But the most contentious criticism of Mr. Helms centered on Chile. Dennis Helms included the letter in an album of correspondence and photos from his home that he turned over for the museums new exhibit highlighting the history of the Office of Strategic Services, the CIAs predecessor agency. The prison term was suspended. In 1936, he was with a small group of reporters who interviewed Adolf Hitler in Nuremberg. Helms was, of course, very non-committal politically. (Published 10/25/02). He grew up in South Orange, N.J., and studied for two years during high school in Switzerland, where he became fluent in French and German. Mr. Helms said outside the courtroom that he wore his conviction ''like a badge of honor,'' and added: ''I don't feel disgraced at all. Sure, theyd take that. Helms' first marriage to Julia Bretzman Shields ended in divorce. Helms, who was present at the creation of the agency in 1947 during the Cold War, was an important operations man in the agency for two decades. At Williams College, Mr. Helms excelled as a student and a leader. In pursuit of that goal, he paid his own fare to London, where he became a European reporter for United Press. Mr. Helms said he considered this award "an exoneration.". Father: Herman H. Helms Mother: Marion (McGarrah) Helms Spouse: Julia Helms was born about 1908. A year later, he was among a group of journalists who interviewed Adolf Hitler. Ian Shapira is a features writer on the local enterprise team. The leadership of BLUEBIRD changed hands soon after when Morse Allen, a rigid anti-Communist from Naval Intelligence, was brought in to run the program. An urbane and dashing spymaster, Mr. Helms began his career with a reputation as a truth teller and became a favorite of lawmakers in the late 1960's and early 70's. Right after Germanys surrender, Lt. Helms, an intelligence operative, sneaked into Hitlers chancellery in Berlin and pilfered the Fuehrers stationery. I didn't want to lie. In response to this request, the agency in 1967 launched a domestic surveillance program known as "Operation Chaos," which became the focus of intense controversy when it was disclosed publicly by The New York Times in 1975. Robert Kennedy found out in May 1962 and was told these plots had been terminated. In Elegance, Heinz Warneke captures the proud nature of the domestic cat. But thousands died that it might be so., Dennis was too young to remember receiving it, of course; he vaguely recalls reading it as a high-schooler in Bethesda, where he attended the Landon School in the 1950s. ex-husband Private child view all Julia Bretzman Shields's Timeline You killer! Later, Helms served as U.S. ambassador to Iran. I will miss his priceless counsel and warm friendship.". He became a consultant to businesses that made investments in other countries. James Angleton, another master spy who had spent World War II working with the OSS in Italy, also stayed. The couple were divorced in 1968, and Mr. Helms married Cynthia McKelvie later that year. He was married to Cynthia McKelvie and Julia Bretzman Shields. The Agency's behavior control program was built upon research experiments carried out during the Korean War (19501953). Mr. Helms was the first career intelligence professional to serve as the nation's top spymaster, and he was among the last of the remaining survivors of the CIA's organizing cadre, operatives who earned their espionage stripes as young men during World War II. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser, Richard Helms walked briskly from a hearing room in Washington, DC, on April 28, 1975. Blood, Money, & Power: How L.B.J. The operations he conducted that would have been fun to me to hear about, like reading a novel. Julia Helms was born about 1908. His role in those early years, authorities on the history of the agency say, was running covert operations. She spends her days providing medical services to clients, which may include performing physicals, reviewing lab work or doing EKGs when necessary. Other inmates died in pressure chambers designed to simulate high-altitude environments. . He was assigned to Berlin at the end of the war and worked for Allen Dulles, who would later become head of the CIA himself. In 1977, he pleaded no contest in a federal court to charges of failing to testify fully before Congress about the CIA role in the covert supply of money to Chilean anti-Marxists in 1970 in an effort to influence a presidential election. A separate inquiry by the Rockefeller Commission also faulted Mr. Helms for poor judgment for destroying documents and tape recordings that might have assisted Watergate investigators. Dennis is Dennis Helms, now a 69-year-old intellectual-property lawyer in New Jersey. had run a major secret operation in Chile that gave more than $8 million to the opponents of Mr. Allende, using the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation as a conduit. Together, Angleton and Helms would form a twenty-five-year partnership in covert operations. The committee, which was led by Senator Frank Church, Democrat of Idaho, accused Mr. Helms of failing to inform his own superiors of efforts to kill the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, which the Senate panel called ''a grave error in judgment.''. In his biography, The Man Who Kept the Secrets, Thomas Powers wrote that Helms style was cool by choice and temperament; his instinct was to soften differences, to find a middle ground, to tone down operations that were getting out of hand, to give faltering projects one more chance rather than shut them down altogether, to settle for compromise in the interests of bureaucratic peace.. They just dont want to hear too much about it.. %PDF-1.5 % After he left the C.I.A. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. He was accused by the panel of failing to notify senior administration officials of efforts to assassinate Castro. That was about it. Early in Mr. Helms's directorship, as the war in Vietnam and the antiwar protests were escalating, Johnson asked the CIA to determine whether antiwar activity in the United States was being financially or otherwise backed by foreign countries. During his war service in the US Navy, Lieutenant Helms was initially assigned to track enemy submarines off the coast of New York. After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Helms joined the Navy and moved his family to his parents' home in South Orange, New Jersey. With the election of Nixon as president in 1968, White House involvement with the CIA intensified. When questioned about these CIA-mob assassination conspiracies in the 1975 Senate investigation, Helms replied, "I'm really surprised I did not discuss it with him (Director McCone) at the time." Ancestry The col- lapse of that marriage in 1968 also became a factor in 'his role in government and in Washington society. In 1935, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College, where in his senior year he was president of his class, editor of the campus newspaper and the yearbook and president of the honor society. In 1965, Mr. Helms was named to the second-highest job at the agency, deputy director of central intelligence. On that night, more than two hundred synagogues were set aflame, ninety-one people were killed, and twenty thousand were arrested and taken to concentration camps. The captured Nazi research documents showed that the most gruesome Nazi experiments conducted at death camps were the so-called "aviation series" in which prisoners were used to test various survival factors for the military. For the normally reserved bureaucrat, publicly unleashing such a bizarre verbal assault seemed out of character. He had a chance to get in the bunker early and grab that stuff, Dennis said, shrugging during an interview at a restaurant in Princeton near his home. 1968, one son) Son: Dennis Helms Wife: Cynthia Ratcliff McKelvin (m. 1968) High School: Carteret School, Orange, NJ University: Williams College (1935) US Ambassador to Iran 1973-76 CIA Director 1966-73 CIA Deputy Director 28-Apr-1965 to 30-Jun-1966 OSS Agent The Indianapolis Times War-time intelligence [edit | edit source] Under Helms's guidance, behavioral medicine scientists from across the US were recruited to investigate a curious mix of concepts: creating amnesia, understanding bioelectrics, and attempting to . Dennis wanted to be like his father in some ways. He died on October 22, 2002 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. In his personal life, Mr. Helms was known as an avid tennis player and sports fan, with a dry wit that showed when he was with friends, and, with his wife Cynthia, he was active in the Washington. - 22 October 2002) ( his death) Richard Helms Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2020-2021. Asked for an example of Helms's characteristic utterance, three of his old friends came up with the same dry phrase, 'Let's get on with it.' For example, at Dachau, inmates were immersed in cold water to determine how long a downed pilot would last in frigid seas. During his three years in Iran, Mr. Helms would make more than a dozen trips back to Washington to testify before Senate committees investigating CIA activities during his directorship. By July 1952, Helms had been appointed acting chief of the CIA's Clandestine Division and in the following year became deputy to Frank Wisner, the Deputy Director of Plans. Patrick Nolan is a forensic historian that has dedicated his life to uncovering truths surrounding the JFK, MLK, and RFK assassinations of the 1960s. Mr. Allende died in a 1973 military coup, which was followed by more than 16 years of military dictatorship. However, in later years, it was publicly revealed that in reality the Soviets' work in this area had been much exaggerated. Helms, the first career intelligence officer to head the CIA, died Tuesday night at his Washington, D.C.-area home, the agency announced Wednesday. Julia Helms Julia Bretzman Web: Marion County, Indiana, Marriage Index, 1925-2012 Julia Shields Web: Marion County, Indiana, Marriage Index, 1925-2012 Indiana, Birth Certificates, 1907-1940 With his new assignment, he inherited a pressure campaign from the White House to get rid of Castro by other means. Web: Marion County, Indiana, Marriage Index, 1925-2012, U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967, Do not sell or share my personal information. In 1939 Helms had married Julia Bretzman Shields, a sculptress six years his senior. I believed in the importance to the nation of the function that the agency served. That resulted in a 693-page compendium of agency misdeeds, including assassination attempts, burglaries, electronic eavesdropping and LSD testing of people without their knowledge. At the height of McCarthy's fervid hunts for communists inside the government, Mr. Helms headed a CIA committee to protect the agency against McCarthy's efforts to infiltrate the CIA with his own informers. Richard Helms worked closely with the Gehlen network of former German spies to penetrate Soviet intelligence and uncover Communist activities in West Germany. Helms and his wife Julia had one child, a son named Dennis. But he eventually ran afoul of Congressional investigators who found that he had lied or withheld information about the United States' role in assassination attempts in Cuba, anti-government activities in Chile and the illegal surveillance of journalists in the United States. He left the agency in 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon asked for his resignation -- the result, Mr. Helms believed, of his refusing to permit the CIA to be used in the coverup of the Watergate break-in, which ultimately led to the president's resignation. The Hitler-chancellery letter, it turns out, was the beginning of an epistolary relationship that would span about 50 years. At Williams College, Mr. Helms excelled as a student and leader. When times changed and Congress demanded to know about CIA spying on American citizens, or efforts to kill Cubas Fidel Castro or to overthrow the government of Socialist President Salvador Allende in Chile, Helms felt no obligation to fully assist panels investigating those matters. In the early 1970s, the agency was further compromised when several of its employees were arrested in the break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington. Education: Williams College, B.A., 1935. Later in the war, Helms worked in intelligence offices in London and Paris. He grew up in South Orange, N. J., and studied for two years during high school in Switzerland, where he became conversant in French and German. But asked Wednesday about the speculation, Woodward -- now an assistant managing editor at the Post -- said Deep Throat wasnt Helms. In reality, Helms's field coordinator for the Castro assassination plots, William Harvey, continued to use the Mafia into 1963. Agents often turned to him in times of trouble, Powers wrote of Helms. Helms's unauthorized use of the Mafia in various operations was typical, particularly his attempts to eliminate Cuba's Fidel Castro. I didn't want to mislead the Senate. At the Camp David meeting, the president had asked Mr. Helms if he would like to be an ambassador, and the two men had agreed on Iran. His biggest scoop, he said, was an exclusive interview with Adolf Hitler. Divorces Julia Bretzman Shields. Helms notes in his autobiography that this was two years before the terror of the Nazi's plans became clear with the outbreak of anti-Semitic violence known as Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. The subjects chosen by the CIA included prisoners, foreigners, prostitutes, mental patients, and drug addicts. Helms would call up those people, invite them to dinner or lunch and he would more or less tell them how you live through this, and believe me, they were grateful, Powers said. His assignments included coverage of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. He lives with his wife in West Hartford, Connecticut. When Mr. Helms refused, according to the Powers book, Mr. Nixon forced him out and sent him to Iran as ambassador. Richard Helms was born on March 30, 1913 in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, USA as Richard McGarrah Helms. Over the next 20 years, Mr. Helms rose through the agency's ranks, and in 1966 he became the first career official to head the C.I.A. The artifact itself would have made any museum professionals day. Helms was also named to a panel to study counterintelligence breaches and later a presidential review board on security problems at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/23/obituaries/richard-m-helms-dies-at-89-dashing-exchief-of-the-cia.html. 1927, marble, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Julia Bretzman, 1972.171. Mr. Helms believed he had performed well in a job that, although many Americans considered it sinister and undemocratic, was nevertheless a cold-blooded necessity in an era of cold war. The committee's job was to monitor reports of covert approaches to CIA officers by McCarthy agents and to plug any leaks. He tended to work regular hours, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and his desk was always cleared when he left the office at night. For a man who considered himself a genuine patriot, it was a bleak note on which to end his professional career. Shortly thereafter, he returned to the United States and took a job with the Indianapolis Times newspaper, where by 1939 he had become national advertising director. Richard M. Helms, 89, the quintessential intelligence and espionage officer who joined the Central Intelligence Agency at its founding in 1947 and rose through the ranks to lead it for more than six years, died in his sleep Oct. 22 at his home in Washington. , , , . . After World War I, his parents, Herman and Marion, moved the family to New York City and later to South Orange, New Jersey, where his father worked as an executive with the Aluminum Company of America. He was known as a charming conversationalist, a gregarious partygoer and an accomplished dancer, and he and his wife. When the CIA was formed in 1947 with the passage of the National Security Act, Helms stayed on under the new umbrella agency. Please c, ontact . He was class president, editor of the school newspaper and the yearbook, and was president of the senior honor society. At the end of the war, he was posted in Berlin, where he worked for Allen Dulles. "I had sworn my oath to protect certain secrets. He would serve longer as director of central intelligence than anyone except Allen Dulles, the legendary spymaster who led the CIA from 1953 to 1961. He had graduated from Yale before the war and attended Harvard Law School for a year. During Iran-Contra, a lot of CIA people suddenly found themselves on the wrong end of an investigation. In that capacity, in 1955, Mr. Helms impressed his superiors by supervising the secret digging of a 500-yard tunnel from West Berlin to East Berlin to tap the main Soviet telephone lines between Moscow and East Berlin. He worked for the president and answered only to him. But he eventually ran afoul of Congressional investigators who found that he had lied or withheld information about the United States role in assassination attempts in Cuba, anti-government activities in Chile and the illegal surveillance of journalists in the United States. .Booklist. In The Terror Conspiracy Revisited, Reporting new and never-before-published information about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this investigation dives straight into the deep end, and seeks to prove the CIAs involvement in. Part of a new exhibit dedicated to the OSS has opened at the CIA in-house museum in McLean. . Francis Xavier Alexander Shields Sr. (November 18, 1909 - August 19, 1975) was an American amateur tennis player of the 1920s and 1930s, and an actor known for Hoosier Schoolboy (1937). The letter astounded the CIA museums curatorial staff when it was acquired in May and not only because Helms wrote with such paternal tenderness. During his CIA years and after, Mr. Helms followed a code that stressed maximum trust and loyalty to his agency and colleagues, maximum silence where outsiders were concerned. He covered the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and interviewed a number of the leading figures of the day, including skater Sonja Henie. In the title of his 1979 biography of Mr. Helms, Thomas Powers called him "The Man Who Kept the Secrets." He responded to the student, "Why should you care? Helms's interview with Hitler gave the young reporter's resume added credentials that would eventually aid his entry into the intelligence service following the US declaration of war in 1941. . .BooklistReaders who cant get enough of speculation about the JFK and RFK assassinations should definitely give [CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys] a read . He fancied a career in journalism, and went to Europe as a reporter for United Press. His life's ambition on leaving college was to own and operate a daily newspaper. Helms, who consistently opposed that plan to oust Castro, was named head of the plans division, the third highest position in the agency. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. He was 89. The agency later set up two additional programs to monitor dissident groups. They just dont exist. Richard McGarrah Helms (March 30, 1913 October 23, 2002) served as the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from June 1966 to February 1973. Even before the 1972 Watergate break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters, the White House had demanded and received CIA files on agency plots to assassinate foreign leaders during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Meanwhile, his friend Richard Helms was also on a fast track. As Deputy Director of Plans, Helms hid this information from President Kennedy and his CIA director John McCone. The letter happened to arrive at Langley the day after Osama bin Laden was killed in May. was able to eavesdrop on Moscow's conversations with its agents in the puppet governments of East Germany and Poland. At the time, Helms's maternal grandfather was a bank president in Basel, Switzerland. in 1973, Mr. Helms served until 1977 as the American ambassador to Iran under Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi, who was supported by the United States. But the fiasco proved to be Bissell's undoing, and he retired. CAREER: Consultant. The judge responded, ''You now stand before this court in disgrace and shame,'' and sentenced him to two years in prison and a $2,000 fine. , ' . Hollidays to Entertain at Dinner Indeed, Helms and Angleton's goal was much more than just defensive techniques and truth serums; they were intent on finding out if a human could be programmed to carry out "executive action" operations, which in CIA terminology meant assassination. He would later represent Iranian interests in Washington. Anyone can read what you share. His father, Lt. Col. James H. Angleton, had worked for a US firm in Italy and, with the outbreak of war, the elder Angleton also wound up working in intelligence under General Donovan. Helm's successor at the agency, James R. Schlesinger. People at the agency suppress their egos. Sources: Materials in collection. The following year, he was one of a group of foreign correspondents to interview Adolf Hitler. In part because of his foreign language skills, he was able to hook up with the United Press in London and soon after was sent to Berlin. Helms was named director, a post he would hold for six years. Two years later, he pleaded no contest to failing to testify fully before the committee. Although the Shah was six years younger than Helms, the fellow alumni became very close in their later lives, and particularly when Helms was appointed ambassador to Iran by President Richard Nixon in March 1973. 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So, how much is Richard Helms worth at the age of 89 years old? . But within a year he was transferred to the Office of Strategic Services, the intelligence forerunner of the CIA, largely based on his keen knowledge of foreign languages. Mr. Helms pleaded no contest in 1977 to two misdemeanor counts of failing to testify fully four years earlier to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He wasnt a guy who started stories by saying, You know, we were assembled at the checkpoint and we moved here and there. It was as if he landed from a spaceship and was beamed down., (It turns out that before he joined the OSS, Helms, who was fluent in German, was a United Press reporter and was among a group of journalists who got to interview Hitler in 1936 after one of his rallies. The committee, which was led by Senator Frank Church, an Idaho Democrat, accused Mr. Helms of failing to inform his own superiors of efforts to kill Fidel Castro of Cuba, which the Senate panel called "a grave error in judgment.". You Save 25%. (His father and mother, Julia Bretzman Helms, divorced in 1968, and she died in 1986.). Most likely, Dennis figures, his father got the stationery shortly after Germanys surrender and backdated the letter to confer historical sweep. While with the OSS dur- ing the war, Helms made contact with a handful of men who would remain influential . At CIA headquarters in Langley, one of the newest artifacts in the agencys private museum is a message from a father to his 3-year-old son. Beneath Helms's outward appearance of restraint (the Daniel Schorr outburst being a major exception), the career spymaster was the embodiment of ambition. It also conveyed a certain historical intuition about the evil that one man could do. colleagues, who gave him a standing, cheering ovation, then passed the hat and raised the $2,000 for his fine. investigation into the Watergate break-in. Six years later at a White House ceremony, Mr. Helms received the National Security Medal from President Reagan for "exceptionally meritorious service." For a short time, Helms worked closely with Allen Dulles, a World War I spymaster who would eventually become CIA director (1953 1961). Title: CIA CHIEF RICHARD HELMS Subject: CIA CHIEF RICHARD HELMS Keywords Julia B. Shields (1908-?) During the 1950s and early 1960s, he held high positions in the division responsible for clandestine operations. In 1977, Mr. Helms stepped down as ambassador to Iran and returned to Washington to plead no contest to charges that in 1973 he had lied to a Congressional committee about the intelligence agency's role in bringing down the Allende government. He was known as a charming conversationalist, a gregarious partygoer and an accomplished dancer, and he and his wife continued to be familiar figures on the capital party scene. I still do -- without regrets, without qualms, without apology, he told the Rockefeller Commission, which in 1975 investigated allegations of unlawful CIA activities in the United States. The man who might have written on this card once controlled Europe three short years ago when you were born. , 13). In 1940, she was 32 years old and lived in Washington, Indiana, with her husband, Richard, son, and daughter. Fifty years ago on November 22, 1963, in Dallas's Dealey Plaza, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated while traveling in a motorcade with his wife, Lee Harvey Oswald was not the assassin of President Kennedy. His dad never explained in full. It did not report the cause of death, but Helms had been in failing health for some time. In the early 1980s, attempts were made to restore Helms reputation. The letter writer was his father, Richard Helms, the CIA director during the Vietnam War and Watergate eras, who died in 2002. He did not welcome congressional inquiry or oversight. Mr. Helms, who was allowed to receive his government pension, put his intelligence experience to use after his retirement. Some Richard Helms images. The couple were divorced in 1968, and Mr. Helms married Cynthia McKelvie later that year. Under this operation, the CIA amassed files on tens of thousands of American citizens or groups. Nixon's reasons were never made public, but Power said in his biography that Mr. Helms was convinced "that Nixon fired him for one reason only -- because he had refused wholeheartedly to join the Watergate coverup.". Avoided publicity scoop, he works at the CIA museums curator up, said Toni Hiley, the title! Partnership in covert operations she spends her days providing medical Services to clients which! 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