DESMOND FITZGERALD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000200060017-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 17, 1999
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: July 26, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved F- WWO" 7 : C
HERALD
JUL 2 6 1967
CPYRGHT
STATINTL
wand FitzGerald
Nothing in the recent burst of publicity can
take away from the fact that over the years the
Central Intelligence Agency has rendered arduous
services to the Nation, often brilliantly and almost
always without public recognition or acclaim. And
nothing can take away from the fact that it 11a:,
been managed, by and large, by exceptionally abl:
and dedicated men, with a rare gift for derivin
satisfaction from a career in anonymity. Desmond
FitzGerald, who held perhaps the most sensitive
and pressure-filled high office in the agency, was
one of these.
Only a very few people within the Government
could know what power and influence he wielded,
or with what skill and tact and integrity. Those
who knew would call him, as Walt W. Rostow
did, "one of a handful of Americans who-year in
and year out-looked after the Nation's vital in-
terests with professionalism, sensibility and simple
patriotism." He abandoned a successful law career
in 1951, at the outbreak of the Korean War and
out of a deep concern for the way of the world, to
serve that branch of the Government which offers
the least outward and tangible reward for achieve-
ment and success, At the time of his death last
Sunday, he was one of CIA's most senior men-
"hardly replaceable," in the words of Deputy De-
fene Secretary Nitze, tiwIio found in Mr. FitzGerald
a unique balance of dash, courage, care and wis-
dom."
His loss will be felt deeply by all who knew
him.
The Government's loss can be fully appreciated
only by those who knew.
Approved For Release 1999/09/07: CIA-RDP75-00001 R000200060017-2