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Played a major part in the the agency's most controversial period. Through CIA associates such as Richard Bissell and Sidney Gottleib he became involved in bizarre schemes to assassinate third world leaders and plans to interfere with the national interests of many foreign governments.
In August 1943 Helms was accepted into the ranks of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where he served in both England and France and, unlike many other OSS agents, Helms stayed on after VE day. Although the OSS was dismantled by President Harry Trueman in 1946, Helms remained at his post in Germany, as a station chief first for the Central Intelligence Group and then the CIA. Helms worked with Reinhard Gehlen's West German espionage operations and advised Washington in the early stages of the Cold War that the Russians had established a world-wide espionage network and were intent on using any and all means of covert operations to accomplish world domination of communism.
Returning to Washington, Helms served in CIA middle-management, until following the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1962, Helms was made Director for Plans at the CIA and served in this capacity until 1966 when he was named Director. It was Helms' bad luck that he became DCI at a time when President Lyndon B. Johnson was obsessed with Vietnam. The controversy still rages over whether or not Helms advised Johnson to stay out of Vietnam.
Helms was also compromised by Watergate, which involved the CIA's aid to an ex-CIA man, E. Howard Hunt . When it appeared that the CIA would be directly drawn into the Watergate affair, Helms did his utmost to protect the agency, a posture that President Richard Millhouse Nixon interpreted as treacherous, and one that caused Helms to be fired by Nixon on February 2, 1973. The firing of Helms was not unexpected; Helms had never been considered a leader or director, only a caretaker. More trouble was in store when Helms appeared before the Foreign Relations Committee, prior to his assuming the ambassadorship to Iran. He swore at the time that the CIA had no part in attempting to overthrow the government of Chile under President Salvador Allende.
The agency's subversion of Chilean democracy was Helms's undoing. For years the CIA had poured money into the country to ensure that the Christian Democrats held power. The 1970 elections, however, seemed likely to put Salvador Allende's Socialist Workers' party into office. Various multinationals, particularly International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), feared the loss of their assets, and backed the rightwing candidate. Without the knowledge of the State Department, and in defiance of official policy, Helms helped them channel their funds. When Allende still won, Nixon directly ordered Helms to overturn the result and, in the manoeuvring of the local CIA representative, a senior Chilean general was killed by military plotters.
When ITT's involvement was revealed in press reports two years later, Helms was questioned by Senator Stuart Symington at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Had the CIA tried to overthrow the government of Chile? No. Did you have money passed to the opponents of Allende? No. Investigation by the agency's inspector general showed that both answers were untrue and evidence supplied by CIA officials succeeding Helms proved him to be a liar.
Helms was found guilty of perjury in 1977. He was fined $2,000 and given a two-year suspended prison sentence.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found that he had not only been involved in illegal domestic surveillance and the 1961 murder of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, but of covering up his predecessors' misdemeanours, including secret drug-testing experiments on unwitting victims. President Ronald Reagan, however, attempted to rehabilitate Helm's much-tarnished reputation in 1983 by awarding him the National Security Medal. Helms, by then a consultant on Middle East investments, remarked: "I have no feelings about remorse or exoneration" However, Helms has gone to his grave with the sole knowledge of what Congress did not manage to uncover. |
