RICHARD HELMS THE DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00161R000400210063-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 20, 2014
• Sequence Number: 63
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/02/21 : CIA-RDP84-00161R000400210063-8
RICHARD HELMS
The Director of Central Intelligence
Richard McGarrah Helms became the Director of
Central Intelligence on 30 June 1966. He had been the
Deputy Director since 28 April 1965. He was originally
appointed by President Johnson on 18 June 1966, then on
16 December 1968 President-elect Nixon announced that he
would be retained.
Having been unanimously confirmed by the Senate,
Mr. Helms took the oath of office in the East Room, The
White House, following remarks by Lyndon B. Johnson, the
President of the United States, who said on that occasion:
"It is a very special pleasure to me, to
one who has spent thirty-five years in the Federal
Government (not always under the protective arm
of the Secret Service or the Civil Service) to see
one of the high positions in this Government
filled by a man who has devoted his entire career
to the public service of his country. Dick Helms,
the man we are naming to this post, is such a man.
HS/HC- 7, 9_ 8-1
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? -
"Although he has spent more than twenty
years in public life attempting to avoid publicity,
he has never been able to conceal the fact that he
is one of the most trusted and most able and most
dedicated professional career men in this Capitol.
No man has ever come to this high critical office
with better qualifications.
"I think it was Patrick Henry who said, 'The
battle is not to the strong alone, it is to the
vigilant and to the active and to the brave,' and
it is to Dick Helms and to the Agency that he will
now head that we must look for this vigilance. His
own record and the past achievements of his Agency
give us full confidence in the future operation of
the Central Intelligence Agency with judgment, with
intelligence and above all with great public
integrity."
Mr. Helms was born in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, 30 March
1913. He attended Carteret Academy in Orange, New Jersey;
Le Rosey School in Rolle/Gstaad, Switzerland; and the
Realgymnasium of Freiburg i/Breisgau, Germany. He was
graduated in 1935 from Williams College where he was elected
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to Phi Beta Kappa. While in college he was editor-in-
chief of the yearbook, GULIELMENSIAN0 and also editor-
in-chief of the college newspaper0 THE WILLIAMS RECORD.
He was a correspondent in Europe for the United Press, Mr.
Helms interviewed Hitler0 and his story "Hitler and Mars
Incorporated" was published in the INDIANAPOLIS TIMES.
In-1937 he joined the Indianapolis Times Publishing Company
and later became its national advertising manager. Mr. Helms
was a member of the Literary Club in Indianapolis.
During the winter of 19420 he was active in the public
relations efforts of the Navy Relief Society fund-raising
drive in New York City..
Mr. Helms was commissioned Lieutenant (jg), United
States Naval Reserve on 1 July 1942. After attending Naval
Training School, Harvard University, he was assigned as
Operations Officer, Headquarters', Eastern Sea Frontier.
In August, 1943 he was assigned to the Office of Strategic
Services and served in Washington, England, France, and
Germany.
Upon discharge from the United States Naval Reserve
in 1946, Mr. Helms was a civilian employee in the Strategic
Services Unit, War Department, which was the successor
organization to a major part of the Office of Strategic
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(.0)
Services. He was employed there until the establishment
of the Central Intelligence Group, to which he was trans-
ferred. He was then assigned to the Central Intelligence
Agency when it was established on 18 September 1947. In
August of 1952 he was appointed by General Walter Bedell
Smith, then Director of Central Intelligence, as Deputy
to the Deputy Director for Plans. On 17 February 19620 he
was appointed Deputy Director for Plans by John A. McCone.
4
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