LONG-TIME PROFESSIONAL SPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00161R000400210005-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 20, 2014
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: May 23, 1973
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

, IIEW YORK TIYES
Declassified and Approved For Release @50-Yr 2014/02/21 : CIA-RDP84-00161R000400210005-2
4 turn 14 1
La ng-Time Professional Spy
? Richard McGarrah Helms
By ?DAVID E. ROSENBAUM
Special to The Nov York nines
WASHINGTON, -.May 21-
1.k/hen Richard McGarrah
ilielms presented his creden-
tials as Ambassador to Iran
:to the Shah last month, the
- official press in neighboring
and not particularly friendly
Iraq described Mr. Helms as
an "ugly American." To an
outsider?one who had seen
- Mr. Helms's biog-
Man raphy but did not
know him per-
in the sonally?that ap-
News pellation might
?have seemed apt.
'He was a professional spy
for most of his adult life and
the Director of Central In-
telligence in the United States
for the last seven years be-
fore he became an ambassa-
dor.
In fact, he was a high.offi-
cial in the Central Intelli-
gence Agency in 1953 when
the agency engineered the
.overthrow of the Communist-
:oriented regime then in
power in Iran and the return
of the Shah to the throne.
? But to those who know
Mr.-Helms, the description of
him by the press in Iraq
could not have been further
:from' the truth.
Physically, the 60-year-old
envoy is slim and dark-com-
plexioned, with graying hair
that is just beginning to re-
cede. He keeps himself in
outstanding condition, and,
if it were not for a slightly
*jutting lower lip, he would
be strikingly handsome.
Personally, he is friendly,
gregarious and sensitive to
the feelings of others. Wo-
'men, young and old, find him
a charming dinner partner
and a smooth dancer. "He's
interesting?and interested
in what you're saying," says
,a woman who sees him often
oat social occasions. "He's
well-read and doesn't try to
substitute flirting for conver-
sation."
? Worried About Agency
Professionally, he worked
'diligently to improve the
public image of the C.I.A.,
worried about allegations
that the agency was over-
stepping the boundaries of
morality and managed to
maintain a re-putation as a
speaker of facts, while avoid-
ing the political fights that
often emerged around them.
Throughout his long career
at the C.I.A.. Mr. Helms was
highly regarded in Congress.
'cial situation?he 'Wanted to
get married and believed he
had to earn more money to
raise-a family?brought him
-back to the United States. In
1937, he became national ad-
vertising manager for The ?
Indianapolis Times.
-Joinee Naval Reserve
World War If ended Mr.
Helms's newspaper career..
Having joined the Naval Re-
serve, he was assigned, prin..
cipally because of his link
guistic talents, to the Office
of Strategic Services. He.
.
stayed in intelligence after
the war, with the Joint Stra-
tegic Services of the War De-
partment, which gave way in
1946 to the Central Intelli-
gence Agency. .
From 1946 1946 to 1966, he
served as Deputy and Assist-
ant Director of Central Intel- ?
?:ligence, and in 1966 he be-
came the first career official
to head the C.I.A.
; Mr. Helms's first marriage,
to the former Julia Shields of
Indianapolis, ended in divorce
in 1968 after a long separa-
tion. His son by that mar-
riage, Dennis,' is a lawyer.
? Mr. Helms is now married
to the former Cynthia Mc-
Kelvie, an English-horn red-
head with - four grown
children from a previous
marriage. Both Mr. Helms:
,?and his wife are fond of ten-
nis, playing regularly when
they are in ?Washington. In
the evenings, they often read
Juto loud to each other, get-
. . ..
ting special amusement from
The New York Time
A reputation as a speaker of facts ? ?
. (Ambassador Helms testifying yesterday)
And if was significant that a fact. that was to be -a
today, at the conclusion of guiding factor in his-career.
his testimony before the Sen- At-Williams College, from
ate Foreign Relations Corn- which .he graduated in 1935,
mittee about the agency's Mr. Helms was clearly the
involvement in the Water- outstanding member of his
gate scandal, he was warmly class?a member of Phi Beta
praised by several of the Kappa, class president, editor
Senators. ' . of the newspaper and year-
Stuart Symington, the Mis- book and president of the
souri Democrat who has en- senior honor society. He was ?
countered Mr. Helms dozens voted by his classmates the
of times across the witness member of the class most
table at Senate hearings and likely .to succeed, the one
has been with him countless who was most respected,
other times at private meet- the one who had done most
.ings, dinner parties and fam- ? for the college, the best
ily outings, told Mr. Helms: politician, the second most
today that he had "great. versatile and the third most
? faith" in the Ambassador'' popular.
ability and integrity. A man who was at Wil-
Richard Helms (he prefers hams with Mr. Helms recalls
not to use his middle name that "he had a warm smile
*or initial) was born to a lam- and a manner that was some-
ily of means in St. Davids, how princely-without a trace
Pa., on March 30, 1913. His of intellectual cr social super-
father was an Alcoa execu- ciliousness."
tive and his maternal grand- From Williams, Mr. Helms
father. Gates McGarrah, was went te Europe as a reporter
a leading international bank- for United Press and won a
cr. He was reared in South brief glimpse of reporter's
Orange. N. J., and spent two ' glory when he had an nett::
high school years in Switzer- sive interview with Hitler.
land, where he learned -But his pasonal. and finan-
s spy stories, according to Mrs.
Helms.
.There .are many Tumors,
?-. none of them confirmed as
accurate, about the reasons
for Mr. Helms's departure as
Director of Central. Intel-
ligence at the beginning of
this year..
Sortie Reasons Given ? '
One is that Mr. Helms had
always insisted on others re-
tiring from the agency at age
60 and that it was thus in-
cumbent upon him to do so.
Another is that Henry A.
KiSsinger, President Nixon's
national security adviser,
was dissatisfied with Mr.
-Helms's direction of intel-
ligence operations, a rumor
that Mr. Kissinger has
vigorously and publicly.
denied.
In ?the last week, another
opcd with disclosures that
Mr. Halms refused to co-
operate with H. R. Haldeman
and other White House offi-
cials in various domestic op-
erations.
When the Foreign Rela-
tions Committee asked Mr.
Helms today if that was why
he was removed from the
'C.I.A. and sent to Iran, he
responded, "I do not know."
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Declassified and Approved For Release @50-Yr 2014/02/21 : CIA-RDP84-00161R000400210005-2