Richard Helms, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetRichard Helms
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Date of Birth: 30-Mar-1913
Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Date of Death: 22-Oct-2002
Profession: military officer
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Aries 
About Richard Helms
- Richard McGarrah Helms (March 30, 1913 – October 23, 2002) was an American government official and diplomat who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973.
- Helms began intelligence work with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II.
- Following the 1947 creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) he rose in its ranks during the presidency of Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy.
- Helms then was DCI under Presidents Johnson and Nixon.As a professional, Helms highly valued information gathering (favoring the interpersonal, but including the technical, obtained by espionage or from published media) and its analysis.
- He also prized counterintelligence.
- Although a participant at planning such activities, he remained a skeptic about covert and paramilitary operations.
- Helms understood the bounds of his agency role as being able to express strong opinions over a decision under review, yet working as a team player once a course was set by the administration.
- He saw it as his duty to keep official secrets from press scrutiny.
- While DCI, Helms managed the agency following the lead of his predecessor John McCone.
- In 1977, as a result of earlier covert operations in Chile, he became the only DCI convicted of misleading Congress.
- His last post in government service was Ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1977.
- Yet he was a key witness before the Senate during its investigation of the CIA by the Church Committee in the mid-1970s, 1975 being called the "Year of Intelligence".
- This investigation was hampered severely by Helms having ordered the destruction of all files related to the CIA's mind control program in 1973.
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