RICHARD HELMS AS DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE

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0005307558
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RIPPUB
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U
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15
Document Creation Date: 
June 22, 2015
Document Release Date: 
December 10, 2008
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Case Number: 
F-2008-01836
Publication Date: 
January 1, 1993
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(b)(1) (b)(3) Robert M. Hathaway and Russell Jack Smith APPROVED FOR RELEASE DATE: 12-03-2008 RICHARD HELms As Director of Central Intelligence 1966-1973 /re t The DCI Historical Series RCHARD HELMS As Director of Central Intelligence 1966-1973 Robert M. Hathaway and Russell Jack Smith History Staff Center for the Study of Intelligence Central Intelligence Agency Washington, D.C. Warning Notice Intelligence Sources or s Involved (WNINTEL) National Security Information Unauthorized Disclos sect to Criminal Sanctions All material on this page is unclassified. Contents Editor's Preface ....................................................................................vii Chapter 1. Relations With the White House .....................................1 Chapter 2. Intelligence Production ..................................................... 23 Chapter 3. Helms's Management Style: Indochina and Operations ...................................................................59 Chapter 4. The 1970 Chilean Presidential Election .......................... 81 Chapter 5. Defectors and Hostile Penetration .................................. 101 Chapter 6. The Israeli Account ......................................................... 131 Chapter 7. Relations With Congress ................................................155 Chapter 8. Watergate .........................................................................187 Chapter 9. The Dismissal of Richard Helms ...................................207 Chapter 6 The Israeli Account Robert M. Hathaway cret 131 "A Z. ~e(ret 132 S ret 133 ret Richard Helms / rret 134 S ret 35 ret 136 /et r7 S cret /138 In many respects, the high point of Richard Helms's tenure as DCI came in the early days of June 1967. On 5 June, Israeli military forces launched a surprise attack against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, bringing to its climax a crisis that had been steadily building for months. For the Johnson administration, tied by political interest and emotional commitment to Israel, the Israeli strike raised grave questions: Could the Israelis triumph without active American assistance? Even should they win, would a costly victory sap Israel's future vitality? What role had the Soviet Union played in bringing on the crisis? How would Moscow react if Russia's Arab friends faced imminent defeat? What steps should the United States now take? Should Washington airlift military supplies to Israel-even at the cost of further undermining the American position in the Arab world? For the Johnson administration, sound and speedy answers to these questions were imperative. Even before fighting broke out on 5 June, the Israelis had been pressing the White House for public statements of sup- port; there had even been cautious suggestions of joint military operations against the Arabs. Faced on the one hand with great uncertainties, and on the other with high stakes and intense pressures, Lyndon Johnson, Helms recalls, finally "came to understand what intelligence could do for him."" For Helms, Middle Eastern developments first took on crisis propor- tions on 23 May 1967. A week earlier Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had ordered the United Nations peacekeeping force out of the Sinai and quickly moved Egyptian troops into the areas that United Nations units had vacated. On 22 May, Nasser announced that the Gulf of Aqaba would, hence- forth, he closed to Israeli shinning. effectively cutting off Israel's nort at of 23 May, Johnson summoned Helms from a briefing of the House Armed interview, 15 November 1984F--Iinterview, 16 November 1984. "Helms Oral History, 4 April 1969, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Austin, Texas. Sret /139