RICHARD HELMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100190003-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Content Type: BIO

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100190003-9
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.
On 7 March 1969 President Nixon visited the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency to address its employees. He
stated on that occasion:
"It has been truly said that the CIA is
a professional organization. That is one of
the reasons that when the new administration
came in and many changes were made, as they
should be made in our American political system
after an election, and a change of parties, as
far as the executive branch is concerned, I did
not make a change.
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"I surveyed the field. I checked the
qualifications of all of the men, or, for that
matter, any women who might possibly be the
Director of the CIA. That could happen.
"But I concluded that Dick Helms was
the best man in the country to be the Director
of the CIA and that is why we have him here."
Mr. Helms took the oath of office in 1966 in the
East Room, The White House, following his unanimous con-
firmation by the Senate, Lyndon B. Johnson, then Presi-
dent of the United States, said on that occasion:
"It is a very special pleasure to me, to
one who has spent thirty-five years in the Fed-
eral Government (not always under the protective
arm of the Secret Service or the Civil Service)
to see one of the high positions in this Govern-
ment 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.
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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 crit-
ical office with better qualifications."
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 to Phi Beta Kappa. While in college he was
editor-in-chief of the yearbook, GULIELMENSIAN, and also
editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, THE WILLIAMS
RECORD. He was a correspondent in Europe for the United
Press. Mr. Helms interviewed Hitler, 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.
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During the winter of 1942, 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
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 1962, he was
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appointed Deputy Director for Plans by John A. McCone.
In 1965 he received the career service award of
the National Civil Service League.
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