Editing Richard Helms (section)

==Early career==
Helms was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He attended [[Institut Le Rosey]] in Switzerland. At this high school in Europe, Helms learned French and German. He returned and graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts. He then worked as a journalist in Europe, and for the&nbsp;Indianapolis Times. Married when America entered World War II, he joined the Navy. Then Helms was recruited by the war-time [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS), for whom he later served in Europe. Following the Allied victory, Helms was stationed in Germany<ref name="cia.gov"/> serving under [[Allen Dulles]] and [[Frank Wisner]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2018}} In late 1945, President Truman terminated the OSS. Back in Washington, Helms continued similar intelligence work as part of the newly instituted [[Strategic Services Unit]] (SSU) established to carry on the espionage and intelligence work of the OSS, which was subsequently transferred to a new ''Office of Special Operations'' (OSO). During this period, Helms focused on espionage in central Europe at the start of the [[Cold War]] and took part in the vetting of the German [[Reinhard Gehlen|Gehlen]] spy organization. The OSO was incorporated into the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) when it was founded in 1947.

In 1950 Truman appointed General [[Walter Bedell Smith]] as the fourth director of Central Intelligence (DCI). The CIA became established institutionally within the [[United States Intelligence Community]]. DCI Smith merged the OSO (being mainly espionage, and newly led by Helms) and the rapidly expanding [[Office of Policy Coordination]] under Wisner ([[covert operations]]) to form a new unit to be managed by the deputy director for plans (DDP). Wisner led the [[National Clandestine Service|Directorate for Plans]] from 1952 to 1958, with Helms as his ''Chief of Operations''.

In 1953 Dulles became the fifth DCI under President Eisenhower.  [[John Foster Dulles]], Dulles' brother, was Eisenhower's [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]]. Under the DDP Helms was specifically tasked in the defense of the agency against the threatened attack by Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]], and also in the development of "truth serum" and other "mind control" drugs per the CIA's controversial [[Project MKUltra]]. From Washington, Helms oversaw the [[Berlin Tunnel]], the 1953–1954 espionage operation which later made newspaper headlines. Regarding CIA activity, Helms considered information obtained by espionage to be more beneficial in the long run than the more strategically risky work involved in covert operations, which could backfire politically. Under his superior and mentor, the DDP Wisner, the CIA marshaled such covert operations, which resulted in regime change in [[Operation Ajax|Iran]] in 1953 and [[PBSUCCESS|Guatemala]] in 1954 and interference in the [[Congo Crisis|Congo]] in 1960. During the crises in [[Suez Crisis|Suez]] and [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungary]] in 1956 the DDP Wisner became distraught by the disloyalty of allies and the loss of a precious cold-war opportunity. Wisner left in 1958. Passing over Helms, DCI Dulles appointed [[Richard M. Bissell, Jr.|Richard Bissell]] as the new DDP, who had managed the [[Lockheed U-2|U-2]] spy plane.

During the Kennedy presidency, Dulles selected Helms to testify before Congress on Soviet-made forgeries. Following the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco]], President Kennedy appointed [[John McCone]] as the new DCI, and Helms then became the DDP. Helms was assigned to manage the CIA's role in Kennedy's [[Operation MONGOOSE|multi-agency effort]] to dislodge [[Fidel Castro|Castro]]. During the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], while McCone sat with the president and his cabinet at the White House, Helms in the background supported McCone's significant contributions to the strategic discussions. After the 1963 coup in South Vietnam, Helms was privy to Kennedy's anguish over the killing of [[Ngo Dinh Diem|President Diem]]. Three weeks later Kennedy was assassinated. Helms eventually worked to manage the CIA's complicated response during its subsequent investigation by the [[Warren Commission]].<ref>See text at [[Richard Helms, early career]] for references to sources.</ref>