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A protege of Allen Dulles, Bissell had no espionage background before joining the CIA.
A former Professor of Economics, working in post war Germany, Bissell also held a position with the Ford Foundation in Washington, D.C. His initial speciality at the CIA was to be in photographic reconnaissance and in 1954, Bissell supervised the U2 spy plane project approved by the Eisenhower administration with the aircraft becoming operational the following year. With the coming of the space age however, Bissell foresaw the use of spy satellites and began ordering unique camera equipment to operate in special CIA satellite projects.
Bissell also became involved in many covert operations, including a coup d'tat that overthrew the Guatemalan government of President Jacobo Arbenz after that country nationalized the assets of the United Fruit Company a lucrative monopoly, which controlled all the banana plantations. Bissell's position at the CIA was gravely weakened after the disastrous Bay of Pigs operation which Bissell had played a large part in planning, failed in its aim of overthrowing the Cuban regime. A desperate Bissel had tried to persuade the President to support the flagging invasion with a massive intervention of US forces, but Kennedy refused and the invasion became a fiasco that would eventually cost Bissell and his boss, Dulles their jobs and according to some, the President his life.
Part of Bissell's plans had involved assassinating Castro and he had considered many bizarre murder schemes put forward by his chief adviser, the decidedly odd Dr Sidney Gottleib. Assassinations of Third World leaders believed to take an anti-American stance were also reportedly planned by Bissell and Gottleib. It has been suggested that these were aimed at General Kassem of Iraq, the Dominican Republic's Dictator Rafael Trujillo and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo. This latter operation was eventually believed to have been carried out by Belgian Intelligence officers with British assistance. These operations were eventually revealed in reports from the Church Commission, which studied alleged assassination plots of foreign political chiefs. Following the Cuban invasion fiasco, Kennedy in November 1961 forced the venerable Dulles to leave the CIA. His protege Bissell resigned three months later and returned to private business.
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