ADM. ROSCOE HILLENKOETTER, FIRST DIRECTOR OF U.S. INTELLIGENCE, DIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100060030-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: June 21, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/02 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100060030-4
ARTICLE r, RE
ON FAGS_
NEW YORK TIMES
21 JUNE 1932
Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter,
First Director of U.S. Intelligence, Dies
By PETER KIHSS
:.. Vice. Adm_ Roscoe. B. Hillenkoetter,
the first director of the Central Intelli-
gence Agency, died Friday night at
Mount Sinai Hospital. He was 85 years
old and had lived in Weehawken, N.J.,
since his retirementfrom the Navy in
Ilenkoetter served as commander of a
.Navy task force in the Korean War:
Capt. Joshua L. Goldberg: of- the:
Navy, the former Third Naval District
chaplain,' said yesterday that the adml-'
ral was "a symbol of-what an American
should be." He said the admiral, while a
Naval attache to the Vichy Government:
of France in 1940 and 1941, had worked
with..-the' French -- underground .. and
helped men hunted by the Germans to
escape to safety.
"%e": was - modest;' and people, who.
served under him just loved him," Cap..
fain Goldberg said. A former C.IA..oifi-
cial, Lyman ' B.. Kirkpatrick,- has - re-.
called him as "an able officer, an enjoy-.
able person.
Wounded at Pearl Harbor....:
Admiral Hillenkoetter was wounded
In the attack an Pearl Harbor, when'the
battleship West Virginia, of which he
was executive officer, was sunk. He or-
ganized an intelligence network for
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz and com-
manded a destroyer in Pacific combat.
during the war. ..
He later served as the Navy's diec? .
for of planning and control in Washing-
After his C.I.A. service, Admiral Hil-
ton and was awarded the Legion' of'
eJ-
M
ft
A
er the war, he commanded the
battleship Missouri on a good-will
cruise to the Mediterranean, and com-
manded the Navy Yard in Brooklyn and
the Third Naval District.
The.C.IA. was established by Con-
gress in 1947 as a successor to the World
War II Office of Special Services and
'the peacetime Central intelligence
Group..: Rear. Adm. Sidney W. Souers,
the first director: of the Central Intelli-
gence Group,, was succeeded by Gen.
Hoyt S. Vandenberg of -the Air Force
and then by Admiral Hillenkoetter, who
was appointed by President Truman an
May 1,1947. - .
After the C.I.A. was established in
September 1947, Admiral Hillenkoetter
served as the director until he was sun
ceeded.by Gen. Walter Bedell Smith of
the Army in October 1950:
Soon after - Congress formed .. the
C.IA, the National. Security Council
adopted~a directive on Dec.' 19,19471 or
dering "covert activities" to oppose .
Communist and leftist parties in Italy's
forthcoming parliamentary elections.
Despite an opinion from the,counsel
for the CXAL that his agency had no
such power legally, Admiral Hillenkoet.
ter authorized money to be provided to
November 1950 until September 1951
commanded the heavy cruiser St. Pr
and a task force that provided cover foz:
South Korean forces advancing up the
eastern coast, for their retreat before
Chinese Communist invaders, and fo#
the landing. at Inchon of forces led by
General of the Army Douglas MacAr;
thur.
Admiral Hillenkoetter was born in StA
Louis, Mo., May 8
1897
He
rad
f
,
.
g
ua
e4
from the United States Naval Academy
in 1919 aft
h
er
aving served with the At-
lantic fleet in World War I.
Admiral Hillenkoetter served as chief
executive officer of the American Ban;
ner Line, which operating to, Belgium
and the Netherlands in 1958 and 1959.14
chairman. - - -----.?, ??J
?"?~
Cemetery at 11 A.M. Th sday.??-
~`.
Italy's centrist political parties, which .
remained in power. - -
The security council on June 10, 1948,
ordered further covert programs to
counter Soviet efforts, specifying that,
if detected, they could be disavowed by
the United States. Included were
"Propaganda, economic warfare; pm
ventive direct action, including sabo-,
tage, anti-sabotage, demolition and '
evacuation measures; subversion
against hostile states, including assist,
ante to underground resistance -groups
and support of indigenous anti.Comma. `
nist elements in threatened countries of
the free world..'
After North Korean forces invaded
South Korea in June 1950, the admiral-:
asked to be returned to sea duty. From.
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