HIS MISSION IS FACTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000300340114-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2001
• Sequence Number: 114
• Publication Date: April 15, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2001/03%i:'1C A!RDP80-016
His Mission ' Is Facts
Richard McGatrah Helms
WASHINGTON, April 14- Kappa, class president. school
In early 1969, Secretary of newspaper editor and year-
Defense Melvin R. Laird told book editor. His classmates
the Senate Foreign Relations voted him "most likely to
Committee the Soviet Union succeed," "most respected,"
was "going for a first-strike "the one who had done the
capability" in building new most for Williams" and "class
intercontinental missiles. At ? politician."
about the same tinge, the He went to Europe as a
committee heard Richard Mc- cub reporter with United
Garrah Helms, Di- Press and soon made a name
Alan rector of Central for himself by getting an ex-
Intelligence, give clusive interview with Hitler.
in the a professional es- Financial and personal
News timate that the problems cut short his career
Soviet Union was as a foreign correspondent,
concentrating on defensive' however, and he returned to
missiles. Later, on June 23, the United Staten in 1937 as
shortly before the Senate be- national advertising manager
gan a debate on an antibal'.is- of The Indianapolis Times.
tic-missile system, both r.-,en War a Turning Point
appeared at the same clos.d World War 11 was a turn-
session of the committee to ins point for Mr. Helms. He
STATINTL
According to reports from his linguistic and other tel-
some of those who attended ents and has done nothing
the session, Mr. Laird retreat- but intelligence work since.
ed partly from his original After the war, he began to
position, while Mr. Helms do- move up the ranks of the
ferred to the Administration's newly created Central Intel-
view without changing his ligence Agency. Associates
earlier testimony. say it was his capacity for
Respected Figure work, his patience, his knowl-
edge and understanding of
This ability to keep intact government and his "proles-
his reputation as a speaker sionalism" - traits they say
of facts, while avoiding the they still admire in him-that
political fights that emerge brought him quickly to a top
around them, makes the 58- position in the agency in the
year-old, tall and dark Mr. early nineteen-fifties.
Helms one of the most re- He stayed near the top for
pectcd men in Washington. nearly 15 years under such
"Helms is great with Con- men as Allen Dulles, Richard
gress," a Senate staff offi- M. Bissell, John A. McCone
cial said recently. "He ad- and Vice Adm. William F.
mits when he doesn't know Raborn.
something. He never lies." Then, in 1966, President
President Nixon went out Johnson named Richard
of his way last May in a -Helms-lie prefers his middle
television news conference to name not be used-as Direc-
emphasize that "Director tor of Central Intelligence.
Helms" played a key role in Besides the role of senior in-
the Administration as one of telligence adviser to the Pres-
his advisers. ident and Congress, the job
And today, many members entails biting chairman ~oAthe
of the American Societ of United States Intelligence
Newspaper Editors Appeared Board and head of the C.I.A.
to consider it a greater coup Mr. Helms was married
that Mr. Helms gave at their several years ago to Cynthia
convention his first public McKelvie, 47. It is the second
speech since becoming,intel- marriage for both. .Mr. Helms
ligence director in 1966 than has a son, Dennis, who is a
that Mr. Nixon is scheduled Washington layer, and Mrs.
to address the meeting later Helms has four children by
this week. - ? her previous marriage.
Reared in Jersey The Helmses are-frequent-
ly seen on the Washington
- Mr. Helms was born March social scene, at small em-
.30, 1913, in St. David's, Pa., bassy dinners and on the
and reared in South Orange, tennis courts. .
N.J. He spent two high school Mrs. Helms once told a re-
years in Switzerland and porter that she and her hus-
Germany, learning ' French band liked to relax by read-
Approved For'Rba20b1we1 C} -..'F~~t 600300340114-9
He graduated from Williams "They often are a nit far
College in 1935 with an out- out, aren't the, she said