Editing Richard Helms (section)

==Personal life==
William Colby, who served under Helms and later became DCI, viewed Helms as a man of honor. In his book ''Honorable Men'' Colby's title evidently refers to Helms as representative of those officers who followed such an Agency ethic.<ref>Colby (1978) pp. 310, 459.</ref><ref>Yet Helms remained displeased with Colby for not keeping the secrets. Nicholas Dujmovic, editor, "Reflections of DCIs Colby and Helms on the CIA's 'Time of Troubles'" in ''Studies in Intelligence'' (1988) 51/3: 39–56, at pp. 50–51: "terrible judgment on Colby's part".</ref> President Richard Nixon, however, could find Helms pedantic and tiresome, because of his dull practice of reading his padded reports and 'news' at [[United States National Security Council|NSC]] meetings.<ref>Powers (1979) pp. 232, cf., 230.</ref> "There was no public servant I trusted more," wrote Henry Kissinger about Helms. "His lodestar was a sense of duty."<ref>Kissinger, "Foreword" pp. x, xii, to Helms (2003).</ref> He did not "misuse his knowledge or his power," Kissinger earlier had written. "Disciplined, meticulously fair and discreet, Helms performed his duties with the total objectivity essential to an effective intelligence service."<ref>Henry Kissinger, ''The White House Years'' (Boston: Little, Brown 1979) pp. 36–38, at 37.</ref> ''Slate'' called Helms "socially correct, bureaucratically adept, operationally nasty." Yet "Helms gained the confidence of presidents and the admiration of syndicated columnists."<ref>Jefferson Morley (2002).</ref>

[[File:Bob Woodward.jpg|thumb|100px|left|[[Bob Woodward]]]]
Journalist author [[Bob Woodward]] in his book on the CIA reports his meeting with Helms in 1980. Apparently the edginess of Helms was not nervousness, but indicated an exquisite awareness of his surroundings, wrote the investigative reporter. In 1989, Woodward called Helms "one of the enduring symbols, controversies and legends of the CIA".<ref>Woodward, ''Veil'' (1989) p. 24.</ref> Kissinger observed that Helms "was tempered by many battles" and "was strong as he was wary." Urbane and tenacious, "his smile did not always include his eyes."<ref>Kissinger, ''The White House Years'' (1979) p. 37.</ref> Former CIA official [[Victor Marchetti]] admired Helms for his office foresight, noting "that not a single piece of paper existed in the agency which linked Helms to ... the Bay of Pigs."<ref>Marchetti and Marks (1974, 1980) p. 31.</ref> Intelligence author [[Keith Melton]] describes Helms as a professional, always impeccably dressed, with a 'low tolerance for fools'; an elusive man, laconic and reserved. About Helms author [[Edward Jay Epstein]] writes, "I found him to be an elegant man with a quiet voice, who could come right to the point."<ref>Epstein (1989) p. 43.</ref>

During the 1950s, Helms served in the CIA when the agency was ostensibly perceived as 'liberal'.<ref>Helms (2003) pp. 359–361 (re CIA officer Cord Meyers, former head of ''United World Federalists'', in 1953 attacked as a security risk, but retained by CIA; Meyers had a long career at CIA).</ref><ref>Colby (1978) pp. 127–128: in mid-1950s Europe the CIA with a "firmly liberal coloration" in its efforts to contain the Soviets, supporting as an option an "opening to the Left" in which the "democratic socialism of the West" might also prevail in popular elections against the lure and "false promise of the Communists".</ref><ref>Jeffries-Jones (1989) pp. 71–72 (CIA as liberal elite, though this is qualified); pp. 74–75 (Senator McCarthy's 1953 attacks on the CIA), pp. 76–77 (citing with reservations Jack Newfeld, ''Robert Kennedy: A Memoir'' (1969) that in the 1950s liberals "found a sanctuary, an enclave at the CIA").</ref><ref>Vernon Walters, regarding as late as 1972, the year he became DDCI, estimated a preponderance of Democrats over Republicans at CIA, although most would strongly resist any partisan use of the Agency. Walters, ''Silent Missions'' (NY: Doubleday 1978) p. 592, cited by Ranelagh (1986) p. 535.</ref> After he retired, Helms continued his interest in the destiny of the agency, favoring William Casey as DCI during the Reagan administration when the agency took a 'conservative' direction.<ref>Woodward, ''The Veil'' (1987, 1988) p. 47. In the 1980s Colby was considered to be "the only politically liberal DCI", which impliedly casts Helms as a conservative. Nonetheless, under conservative DCI Casey the CIA became entangled in the notorious [[Iran-Contra]] scandal. Woodward, pp. 557–588 (Iran-Contra), esp. pp. 582–583, 585–586, 588 (re Casey).</ref><ref>Ranelagh (1986) pp. 657, 659 (Reagan's plans for an "ideological housecleaning" at CIA), at 559–671 (Reagan's ''Transition Team Report'' re CIA), pp. 672–675 (Reagan's campaign manager William Casey and his service as DCI).</ref> Yet Helms steered an informed course and kept his own counsel concerning the tides of political affairs, according to journalist Woodward.

<blockquote>Helms had calculated carefully. The danger, the threat to the CIA, came from both the right and the left. Maybe the left had had its way in the 1970s and the investigations, causing their trouble. But the right could do its own mischief.<ref>Bob Woodward, ''The Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981–1987'' (New York: Simon and Schuster 1987, 1988) p. 45 (quote). In making a personnel recommendation, it was important to Helms that the proposed nominee be "a man neither of the right nor of the left."</ref></blockquote>

In 1939 Helms had married Julia Bretzman Shields, a sculptor six years his senior. Julia brought two children into the marriage, James and Judith. Together, Helms and Julia had a son, Dennis, who as a young man briefly worked at CIA; he later became a lawyer. Julia apparently favored the Democratic Party. Helms was, of course, very non-committal politically. This marriage came to an end in 1967.<ref>Helms (2003) pp. 29, 295.</ref><ref>Powers (1979) pp. 18–20, 63–64.</ref> Later Helms married Cynthia McKelvie, originally from England. She would write two books, both of which included her public experiences during their long marriage.<ref>Cynthia Helms, ''An Ambassador's Wife in Iran'' (1981), and ''An Intriguing Life: A Memoir of War, Washington, and Marriage to an American Spymaster'' (2012).</ref>

[[File:Lyndon B. Johnson 1972.jpg|thumb|150px|Lyndon Johnson, 1972]]
[[File:Reagans talking in Oval Office cropped.jpg|thumb|100px|left|The Reagans]]

Following soon after the close of his CIA career, he and his wife Cynthia visited former President Lyndon Johnson at his Texas ranch. [[Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi|The Shah]], after his dramatic fall from power, was visited by the former ambassador and his wife at the shah's hospital room in New York City. In the mid-1980s, the couple hosted a small dinner party at their residence near Washington, with special guests President [[Ronald Reagan]] and his wife [[Nancy Reagan|Nancy]]. First, federal security officers arrived to inspect the house, survey the neighborhood, and sample the menu. Twenty-three vehicles came bearing the guests.<ref>Helms (2003) pp. 449–450. Also attending were [[Rex Harrison]] and his wife Mercia.</ref>

Although a reader of spy novels for diversion, as was common in the intelligence field, reportedly Helms did not like one well-known novel in particular. The cynicism, violence, betrayal, and despair in ''[[The Spy Who Came in from the Cold]]'' (1963) by [[John le Carré]] offended Helms. As a leader of professionals, Helms considered trust as essential to intelligence work. So strong was his negative reaction that Helms' son Dennis said he "detested" this novel.<ref>Powers (1979) pp. 63, 64, 66.</ref> Yet 20 years later, Helms included books by le Carré among "the better spy novels" in his memoirs.<ref>Helms (2003) p. 233.</ref>
[[File:Helms Letter - Flickr - The Central Intelligence Agency.jpg|thumb|Helms letter]]
While serving as an OSS intelligence officer in Europe in May 1945, Helms wrote a letter to his son Dennis, then three years old, using stationery he had recovered from [[Adolf Hitler]]'s office in the ruins of the [[Reich Chancellery]] in Berlin. He dated the letter "[[Victory in Europe Day|V-E Day"]] (May 8, 1945), the day Germany surrendered. Sixty-six years later, Dennis Helms delivered the letter to the CIA; it arrived on May 3, 2011, the day after the [[death of Osama bin Laden]]. It now resides at the private museum at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/how-a-letter-on-hitlers-stationery-written-to-a-boy-in-jersey-reached-the-cia/2011/10/25/gIQAeQAaaM_story.html How a letter on Hitler's stationery, written to a boy in Jersey, reached the CIA - ''The Washington Post'']</ref>

He was not related to the late-U.S. Senator [[Jesse Helms]] of North Carolina.