Richard Helms

Uncommon card · No. 98313

Richard McGarrah Helms (March 30, 1913 – October 23, 2002) was an American government official, intelligence officer, and diplomat who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973 as well as United States Ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1976. Helms served in the Office of Strategic Services, a wartime predecessor to the CIA, in Europe during World War II. After the war, he returned to Washington, DC, to become one of the founding officers of the CIA. Following the 1947 creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Helms rose in its ranks during the presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. Then, Helms was DCI under Presidents Johnson and Nixon, yielding to James R. Schlesinger in early 1973. During his tenure as head of the CIA under presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, Helms oversaw the agency's involvement in the Vietnam War, Six Day War, and efforts to undermine Chilean president Salvador Allende. Domestically, he directed surveillance of American...

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