John McCone person
also: McComb, McCone, John McComb, new CIA Director, Director McCone, the director, the director of central intelligence, Director McComb, CIA Director John McCone, Alex, Alex McCone, CIA Director McComb, Bissell
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
CIAintelligence service · 75John F. Kennedyperson · 26Allen Dullesperson · 26Richard Helmsperson · 22Robert F. Kennedyperson · 17Cubacountry · 16United Statescountry · 13Lyndon B. Johnsonperson · 12Operation Mongooseoperation · 11Fidel Castroperson · 10Washington, D.C.place · 8Edward Lansdaleperson · 7Warren Commissionorganization · 7National Security Councilorganization · 7International Telephone and Telegraphorganization · 6Richard M. Bissell Jr.person · 6Robert Kennedy assassinationevent · 6John Richardsonperson · 5William Colbyperson · 5Soviet Unioncountry · 5Chilecountry · 5United States Armed Forcesorganization · 5Averell Harrimanperson · 4Salvador Allendeperson · 4
Claims (41)
Allen Dulles succeeded
John McCone documented
“John McCone became his replacement. He was an engineer and successful businessman from the West Coast. Unlike Dulles, Dulles had no compunction of assassination or paramilitary force. McCone really wanted to focus on the intelligence gather…”
▶ Operation Gladio - Indonesia Part 2 @ 50:47
John McCone headed
CIA documented
“By early 62, the Directorate of Operations had a new boss, as did the CIA itself, the Deputy Director for Operations of Professional Intelligence Officer Richard Helms. He had stayed out of the limelight of the Bay of Pigs and managed to su…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy CIA Secret Wars Part 1 @ 46:42
John McCone member_of
CIA documented
“of the CIA, McCone, occasionally took Klein along to meetings. McCone solicited his advice and permitted Klein to discuss matters with his analyst. Although the director of intelligence did not write papers for the project, knowledge enable…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 27 (28) @ 3:55
Lyndon B. Johnson appointed
John McCone documented
“even if the California mostly a stranger to the clubby, blue-blooded world of men like Dulles, who had always run the spy agency, faced a steep learning curve. After JFK's assassination in Dallas in November 1963, President Lyndon Johnson k…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Twilight of the Shadow Government Part 6 @ 2:56
John McCone headed
RAND Corporation documented
“stories you know that's part of operation gladio um is as kind of a a low-level introduction to it is the dita beard affair um where where i mean what's not mentioned in um devil's chess board is that mccone leaves the cia and he goes on to…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Devil’s Chessboard Part 19 @ 1:26:06
John McCone member_of
CIA documented
“It's one of those stories where you can basically, it's an easy way to say, hey, Trump had nothing to do with this. This isn't like Russian propaganda. This is Jack Anderson. He's the guy who gave the Washington Post his name for investigat…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Devil’s Chessboard Part 19 @ 1:27:24
J.C. King proposed
John McCone book_quoted
“Montalva and begged for agency money to fund their campaign. Colonel King, receptive, on Christmas Eve sent Director McCone a proposal. The bid involved half a million dollars. That was going to be quite a big Christmas present. McCone want…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Safe for Democracy Part 34 (36) @ 31:53
John McCone succeeded
Allen Dulles documented
“He replaced veteran spymaster Alan Dulles as director of the CIA in November 1961. After JFK had forced Dulles out following the CIA's bungling of Fidel Castro and the Bay of Pigs, McCone had one overriding mission, restore order to the bes…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Twilight of the Shadow Government Part 6 @ 2:31
John McCone succeeded
Allen Dulles documented
“for the CIA. Let me read that again. In the Pentagon, there were 700 to 1,000 areas where the CIA was. The singular headache was the array of CIA proprietaries. When McComb succeeded Dulles, preparations were already in place for the latest…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 25 (26) @ 43:35
John McCone funded
Chile host_asserted
“Looking ahead to the 70 campaign, the National Security Council special group approved another $700,000 in CIA funding from 69 to 70. John McCone, now representing private interests as the chairman of ITT, increased the secret election fund…”
▶ The Colonels corner president‘s secret wars, chapter 15 cont @ 37:29
Richard Helms succeeded
John McCone documented
“Near the end of his life, Dulles told Helms that not making him the DDO was his worst mistake. Dulles' choice reflected Eisenhower's preference for covert action. But after the Bay of Pigs, the man who kept the secrets could not be denied. …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 31 (33) @ 35:01
Lyndon B. Johnson removed_from_power
John McCone documented
“increasingly cut out FaceTime in the Oval Office for him. This annoyed McCone. By early 65, John McCone was at loggerheads with LBJ over Vietnam access, and he'd had enough, so he quit. A few days later, Johnson's aide, Marvin Watson, telep…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 31 (33) @ 36:34
John McCone succeeded
Allen Dulles documented
“By then, a new director held the reins at the CIA. Despite the direct relationship between the mess and his own appointment, John McComb gave Kirkpatrick's report short shrift. Then the IG presented it on November 20th. He met Kirkpatrick a…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 23 (24) @ 11:00
John McCone criticized
Jean Kirkpatrick documented
“By then, a new director held the reins at the CIA. Despite the direct relationship between the mess and his own appointment, John McComb gave Kirkpatrick's report short shrift. Then the IG presented it on November 20th. He met Kirkpatrick a…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 23 (24) @ 11:00
John McCone criticized
Allen Dulles documented
“fail to protest repeated orders to reduce the noise level of the operation. So as to avoid hardening the president's leanings against it. Dulles, who rejected Kirkpatrick's IG report, accepts its key criticisms in his drafts. His successor,…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 23 (24) @ 16:46
John F. Kennedy appointed
John McCone book_quoted
“During the key mongoose briefing were CIA officers Richard Helms and William Harvey. Lansdell had asked John McCone to let them in, but the CIA director nixed the idea. McCone had made Richard Helms his lieutenant for Cuba, and the new depu…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 26 (27) @ 23:21
John McCone appointed
Richard Helms book_quoted
“During the key mongoose briefing were CIA officers Richard Helms and William Harvey. Lansdell had asked John McCone to let them in, but the CIA director nixed the idea. McCone had made Richard Helms his lieutenant for Cuba, and the new depu…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 26 (27) @ 23:21
John McCone member_of
International Telephone and Telegraph book_quoted
“put in $350,000 of its own money into the election. John McCone, former CIA director, just so happened to be sitting on the ITT board at the time. What interesting information. John McCone sitting on the ITT board while the ITT is advocatin…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Safe for Democracy Part 34 (36) @ 1:07:33
John McCone succeeded
Allen Dulles documented
“was the array of CIA proprietaries, meaning other companies, fake companies. When John McCone succeeded Alan Dulles in November 1961, preparations were already in place for the latest addition. What became a complex web of insurance and inv…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents’ Secret Wars Chap 12 @ 56:42
John McCone spied_on
John F. Kennedy host_asserted
“and designating conservatives to do liberal things, particularly in the case of John McCone. In March, the president's secret White House recording system picked up a heated conversation between the Kennedy brothers about their increasing d…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Devil’s Chessboard Part 20 @ 28:31
John McCone succeeded
Allen Dulles book_quoted
“Suggestion, as Dulles pointed out, I might have a little problem on that, he said. Having been the CIA director until November 1961, there was a simple solution, however. Put his successor, John McCone, on the witness stand. That was fine w…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Devil’s Chessboard Part 26 @ 15:02
John F. Kennedy recruited
John McCone host_asserted
“The summer following the Bay of Pigs, Prescott Bush, the CIA's man in the Senate, and his wife, Dorothy, invited Dulles to dinner at their Washington home. The spymaster showed up with John McCone, the Republican businessman and former Atom…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Devil’s Chessboard Part 19 @ 17:31
John F. Kennedy appointed
John McCone documented
“He picks John McComb, who was awful. Now it was Schlesinger's time to erupt. Putting an Eisenhower retread in charge of the CIA would be a disastrous move, he warned Kennedy. It would send the wrong signal at exact moment when the agency ne…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Devil’s Chessboard Part 19 @ 48:30
John McCone ordered_assassination_of
Fidel Castro host_asserted
“Far East was the largest because, you know, we're running a war in Vietnam and a drug empire. They had about 1,500. Africa was the smallest with 300. Apart from the CIA director's contingency fund, the director for operations spent almost 6…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 25 (26) @ 57:33
John McCone covered_up
1963 South Vietnamese coup host_asserted
“A fresh briefing in September featured CIA big guns, not just Cord Meyer, but Richard Helms and Desmond Fitzgerald. In September and November, John McCone at the Intelligence Board defended the CIA's role in South Vietnam against publicly r…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 25 (26) @ 41:06
John McCone covered_up
CIA host_asserted
“When it came to the latest Cuba project, the Intelligence Board found, because the CIA had not briefed on it, that no overall plan seemed to exist. By late 1962, the Killian Board wanted access to the special group's records. This happened …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 25 (26) @ 37:24
John McCone headed
CIA documented
“In Washington, an array of top representatives of the U.S. government were edgy. The March 31st telecon to Gordon came from Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, the General of the Army Maxwell Taylor, General Andrew Amaro, CIA Director John McCone, …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Hidden Terrors by AJ Langguth Part 5 @ 36:15
John McCone headed
CIA documented
“Kennedy famously told him that if America had had a parliamentary government, he, the president, would resign. But given the presidential system, Bissell had to go instead. McCone came on board to replace Dulles in November of 61, and then …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 23 (24) @ 22:13
John McCone member_of
CIA book_quoted
“During the key mongoose briefing were CIA officers Richard Helms and William Harvey. Lansdell had asked John McCone to let them in, but the CIA director nixed the idea. McCone had made Richard Helms his lieutenant for Cuba, and the new depu…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 26 (27) @ 23:21
John McCone member_of
CIA book_quoted
“And now you know why the former director of the CIA is on as a board member of ITT, because ITT is a front company. It's another way of spying on the world. McCone had joined ITT less than a year after leaving the CIA, but remained a consul…”
▶ Operation Gladio in Chile @ 9:47
John McCone member_of
International Telephone and Telegraph book_quoted
“What he told me, the board member later said, was that he was prepared to put as much as a million dollars in support of any plan that was adopted by the government for the purpose of bringing about opposition to Alente. That board member w…”
▶ Operation Gladio in Chile @ 9:23
John McCone covered_up
CIA Assassination Plots against Castro book_quoted
“And quietly declassified last fall, the spy agency acknowledged what others were convinced of a long time ago, that McCone and other CIA officials were complicit in keeping incendiary information from the Warren Commission. According to the…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Twilight of the Shadow Government Part 6 @ 5:24
John McCone reassigned
William Harvey documented
“as there had been on October 4th of mining Cuban harbors. McCone soon packed Bill Harvey off to the Rome station, getting him out of the line of fire. And we all know what he did there. All this time, the exiled prisoners from the Bay of Pi…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 27 (28) @ 26:50
John McCone targeted_for_regime_change
Fidel Castro documented
“This was the moment to act if they were going to. The agency had completed more proposals for covert sabotage. Bobby Kennedy proposed the U.S. aim at ousting Castro, causing as much trouble as possible. The director of central intelligence …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 27 (28) @ 43:23
John McCone removed_from_power
Jean Kirkpatrick host_asserted
“Lyman Kirkpatrick, removed as inspector general because he told the truth, became the CIA's executive director, another of McCone's new post, but found the job not to his liking. So he left in 1964 to become an academic. Robert Emery depart…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 23 (24) @ 25:15
John McCone ordered_assassination_of
Fidel Castro book_quoted
“Meanwhile, Washington's belly thumping culminated in a series of meetings in the Joint Chiefs of Staff Operations Room on August 8th and 9th and at the State Department on August 10th. At the last of these, McComb recollected in 1967 that C…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 27 (28) @ 12:40
John McCone covered_up
Operation Mongoose book_quoted
“McCone insisted he protested instantly that he went to Robert McNamara's office right afterwards and reiterated the protest. McCone's special assistant said that he did protest, but not immediately. Okay, let's see. And that no such suggest…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 27 (28) @ 13:11
John McCone founded
Bechtel book_quoted
“Great, great work for you and Bridget. I mean, keep going. You're active duty whether you want to know it or not. Yeah. So I also failed to mention the reason why that book that that lady wrote about Bechtel is so important. McComb happened…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Devil’s Chessboard Part 19 @ 1:33:03
John McCone founded
Committee on Present Danger book_quoted
“as part of their intelligence gathering that always support the CIA going doing covert shit. And McCone is supposedly behind the founding of that as well, which I found fascinating. Who's next? Why are you so mad? Go ahead. Great space toda…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Devil’s Chessboard Part 19 @ 1:31:05
John McCone targeted_for_regime_change
Salvador Allende host_asserted
“Going off to Palacu in Chile when Allende tries to take over his assets, his telecommunications assets inside the country. And then, of course, he works alongside Bank of America and a number of other institutions to try and make business l…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner The Devil’s Chessboard Part 19 @ 1:27:54
Allen Dulles succeeded
John McCone host_asserted
“until 1973 but had also been replacing Bissell before then you get a lot of kind of change there that is significant and then of course one of those guys in that very short period is Mr. Colby as head of CIA which his conflict with Angleton…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Twilight of the Shadow Government Part 2 @ 1:19:03
Mentions (120)
▶ 12:23
the U.S. ambassador in Ghana, participated in a candid discussion in Washington with CIA Director John McCone and the Deputy Chief of the CIA Africa Division, whose name has been withheld. Significantly, the African Division was part of the…
▶ 13:54
He warned because of a tendency to procrastinate, any specific date that they should accept, any specific date they should set would be, there would be reservations about the particular date. In a reversal of what some assume to be the trad…
▶ 2:01:22
And I can tell you that when I am on Telegram picking up information from different places around the country, around the world rather, it has been invaluable. So those are two sources. If you're worried about translating, I just happen to …
▶ 2:01:50
worked at ITT before he joined the CIA and became the CIA director in 1961 to 65. And then he goes back and he becomes the chairman of ITT. And he's the guy who's referenced by Jack Anderson, you know, is trying to plot the Chilean coup, yo…
▶ 2:05:37
So going back to the ITT thing, I do want to make a comment on that. It is, and again, this is completely speculation to a point. What I have learned is the scenario that Illini just brought up where you have McCone as a CIA, he's at ITT, h…
▶ 9:23
What he told me, the board member later said, was that he was prepared to put as much as a million dollars in support of any plan that was adopted by the government for the purpose of bringing about opposition to Alente. That board member w…
▶ 9:47
And now you know why the former director of the CIA is on as a board member of ITT, because ITT is a front company. It's another way of spying on the world. McCone had joined ITT less than a year after leaving the CIA, but remained a consul…
▶ 10:17
for him to be the link between ITT and the government. McCone was able to see Kissinger, the president's national security advisor, immediately to convey Guinan's million-dollar offer. Although Kissinger did not accept it, he was impressed …
▶ 37:51
News agencies sowed discord within popular United Fronts and published anti-Alente books, pamphlets, and leaflets. As the presidential campaign intensified in Chile, Harold Guinan, the ITT chairman, decided to try to influence its outcome. …
▶ 50:47
John McCone became his replacement. He was an engineer and successful businessman from the West Coast. Unlike Dulles, Dulles had no compunction of assassination or paramilitary force. McCone really wanted to focus on the intelligence gather…
▶ 1:16:27
He was able to manipulate everything. But with McCone in there, and not that McCone was a, he was less of a swamp person. Obviously, I think everybody was than Alan Dulles. But he would not be able to do all of the stuff that he had done wi…
▶ 1:00:21
Bush is the first guy playing gatekeeper to American companies who want to do business in China from day one. Pretty damn interesting position to be in. After having been at the UN. Oh, and his next position, of course, was Nixon names him …
▶ 53:11
They had labeled the communists as the target. Keogh says there needs to be more awareness of the role the U.S. played in the carnage. And speaking the truth, he says, should not be a means to be punished, but rather a path toward reconcili…
▶ 53:37
calls Jeju the core of the post-1945 conundrum and collapse of what still continues to be a Pax Americano. She told someone, Inkstick, that Jeju was arguably the precursor to the Korean War, which began after widespread civil conflict and b…
▶ 54:05
had already occurred elsewhere in Korea, meaning this went on everywhere. The Jeju Massacre stands as history for what a total bloodbath looks like. Jeju was huge because the sheer violence was supported by the U.S. military and pushed, bas…
▶ 54:37
And the war that had just passed and the fact that, you know, basically they were trying to get their lives put back together only to be attacked again after they had been in prison for 35 years. And the whole thing is just crazy. Today, as…
▶ 55:07
What took place was a model for the scorched earth policies in other parts of the world, like Vietnam, Central America and the Middle East. And she's not wrong, actually. She implores Americans to learn the history of Jeju to better underst…
▶ 55:31
You frame the people, you divide the people, you target the people, and you justify the killings. Those are her words. And she just described Operation Gladio. So according to her, peace activists on Jeju are still targeted under South Kore…
▶ 26:25
A veteran secret warrior, it was Richardson who, in the denouncement of the Albanian campaign, had been given the job of closing down the operation. Richardson's style was not unlike that of John McCone, who let his subordinates carve out e…
▶ 30:51
However, reported back through CIA channels that the ambassador had regarded the cable as an order to support a coup d'etat. Richardson opposed this. At Langley, William Colby backed him up. John McCone was on vacation but was quickly infor…
▶ 31:18
a CIA officer by the name of Alfonso Spero, S-P-E-R-O, to tell the Vietnamese generals that the substance of Hillman's cable and to say the U.S. would not oppose a coup if they could conduct one. McCone went on to oppose the coup initiative…
▶ 58:22
LBJ's search for Vietnam options. You have John McCone, who at that time is now the CIA director, presenting a 12-point program for political action developed under Richard Helms, who is his chief of plan. Breaking with the image of the CIA…
▶ 59:37
liked his options, qualified, and analyzed. A veteran of this time of half a dozen inspection visits and command conferences at Honolulu, McNamara also periodically was briefed by the CIA. At about this time, Richard Helms was promoted to d…
▶ 36:15
In Washington, an array of top representatives of the U.S. government were edgy. The March 31st telecon to Gordon came from Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, the General of the Army Maxwell Taylor, General Andrew Amaro, CIA Director John McCone, …
▶ 56:42
was the array of CIA proprietaries, meaning other companies, fake companies. When John McCone succeeded Alan Dulles in November 1961, preparations were already in place for the latest addition. What became a complex web of insurance and inv…
▶ 1:00:15
was chaired by Lawrence Houston and included representatives of the plans area and the comptroller's office. Houston had already, in the summer of 1954, headed a management study for all of the air companies and argued in 1956 that the CAT …
▶ 37:06
raids against Cuba after they've already been doing them. One commando struck a power plant and sharp arguments erupted as the Mongoose meeting in October 4th, when John McCone, the new director of central intelligence charged that the NFC …
▶ 37:29
Looking ahead to the 70 campaign, the National Security Council special group approved another $700,000 in CIA funding from 69 to 70. John McCone, now representing private interests as the chairman of ITT, increased the secret election fund…
▶ 38:01
And what happened to Bridget? Did we knock her out? Bridget, if you wouldn't mind putting up McCone's bio in the notes, because he is a key figure. So ITT, again, stands for International Telephone and Telegraph. They had the monopoly conce…
▶ 56:51
Meanwhile, feelings favored regulatory action on intelligence peaked in Congress during the middle of the years of the Carter administration. When charters were considered at hearings, the vast majority of the CIA officials testified agains…
▶ 46:42
By early 62, the Directorate of Operations had a new boss, as did the CIA itself, the Deputy Director for Operations of Professional Intelligence Officer Richard Helms. He had stayed out of the limelight of the Bay of Pigs and managed to su…
▶ 53:08
Does CIA think they can carry out a really covert operation, an operation which, whatever suspicions Jagen might have, will leave no visible trace that he can cite before the world, whether he wins or loses, as evidence of U.S. intervention…
▶ 54:08
Okay, there's nothing about this that's democratic. We've messed with everything. The appearance of democratic processes. On July 25th, CIA Director John McComb saw the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board for a general review of…
▶ 1:07:18
deny any assistance coming into Jagan, even though they were basically arranging economic boycotts. June 21st, President Kennedy reviewed the state of play. John McComb and Richard Helms attended for the CIA, and Helms took notes. According…
▶ 48:53
Recently declassified records of phone conversations with John McCone, Allen Dulles' successor, who dealt with both Dulles and the White House during the controversy and advised Kennedy officials on public statements, indicated that private…
▶ 11:00
By then, a new director held the reins at the CIA. Despite the direct relationship between the mess and his own appointment, John McComb gave Kirkpatrick's report short shrift. Then the IG presented it on November 20th. He met Kirkpatrick a…
▶ 11:27
Then he arranged for the IG to supply an additional memo pointing a finger at the U.S. government, meaning the Kennedy administration, where the IG's original report did not point. McCone also promised the DO that a rejoinder would be bound…
▶ 12:25
and by three Cuba task force officers. All these circulated with Kirkpatrick's report. Then Director McCone had the copies collected. McCone had all saved, one destroyed. Years later, in his memoirs, Richard Bissell reconsidered his view of…
▶ 13:49
under JFK like they had been under Eisenhower. That was stuffy. Stuffy discussions and negotiations when you're talking about killing people. Imagine that. Richard Helms, who had a better opinion of Lyman Kirkpatrick's critique, also sided …
▶ 16:46
fail to protest repeated orders to reduce the noise level of the operation. So as to avoid hardening the president's leanings against it. Dulles, who rejected Kirkpatrick's IG report, accepts its key criticisms in his drafts. His successor,…
▶ 20:44
Lynch and Cabell's contention is representative of a view held by participants ranging from Jack Hawkins to exile pilot Eddie Farrow to observers like John McComb. But bombers were not about to conquer Havana. Air superiority was necessary …
▶ 22:13
Kennedy famously told him that if America had had a parliamentary government, he, the president, would resign. But given the presidential system, Bissell had to go instead. McCone came on board to replace Dulles in November of 61, and then …
▶ 22:40
and the new director felt he needed some stability. He phoned Bissell from California, where McCone attended the funeral, and asked the DO to stay until he returned. In early 1962, with the president's blessing, Bobby Kennedy met with Bisse…
▶ 25:15
Lyman Kirkpatrick, removed as inspector general because he told the truth, became the CIA's executive director, another of McCone's new post, but found the job not to his liking. So he left in 1964 to become an academic. Robert Emery depart…
▶ 33:05
And that's talking about the Tibet operation. As deputy director for operations, Helms also had to contend with a new boss, John McComb. He took over as director of the CIA in November of 61. A Californian and from outside the agency, a 59-…
▶ 33:34
Archie Roosevelt, Kermit's cousin, newly returned from a tour in Madrid where Otto Skorzeny is. Isn't that interesting? Archie Roosevelt is in Spain with Otto Skorzeny. Looked at McCone and saw in him just the director the agency needed at …
▶ 34:10
businesses that had agency interest. You know, like being a CEO of a shipping company. McCone understood power in Washington, having been chairman of Eisenhower's Atomic Energy Commission and an Air Force official during Truman's time. He w…
▶ 34:41
problem on covert operations with the president's foreign intelligence advisory board. The day after the Bay of Pigs, the president instructed the board to monitor every aspect more closely. Allen Dulles had begun swinging the back door, te…
▶ 35:09
refused to furnish data to the special group using the excuse that they were his own pursuit. Neither Kim, Jim Killian, nor fellow board members accepted that the president's panel should be denied any data for inquiries because they were w…
▶ 36:18
a comment on the Congo there. To placate them, McCone told Killian he had spoken to the president and JFK agreed with him. Killian shot back that he had talked to him himself, and that was not true. National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy,…
▶ 37:24
When it came to the latest Cuba project, the Intelligence Board found, because the CIA had not briefed on it, that no overall plan seemed to exist. By late 1962, the Killian Board wanted access to the special group's records. This happened …
▶ 37:54
exhibiting only records of aerial surveillance on Cuba. Again, from the U2. On March 25th, 1963, McCone told Kennedy the Killian board reports created a misleading record that might leak and be very damaging to the CIA because you're a bunc…
▶ 42:36
just before the special group was supposed to decide on them. So no staffing, no looking into the plausible success, nothing. Just, hey, here's what we're going to talk about tomorrow. The CIA admitted this practice and justified it by sayi…
▶ 43:35
for the CIA. Let me read that again. In the Pentagon, there were 700 to 1,000 areas where the CIA was. The singular headache was the array of CIA proprietaries. When McComb succeeded Dulles, preparations were already in place for the latest…
▶ 54:26
The drug people are on the board of a CIA proprietary. Headquarters management was vested in the domestic operations division. On February 5th, 1963, Director McCone created the Executive Committee for Air Proprietary Operations to get a ha…
▶ 56:00
It is reported, strikingly, that the CIA could not establish exactly how many aircraft they owned. As director of the CIA, John McComb made no pretense to micromanagement. A California businessman, he understood that experts like Houston an…
▶ 59:17
So McCone knew that they were lying to him. They gave him a list of here's our proprietaries, here's what they do. And I mean, within a very short period of time, that was revealed in one of the other books. There was actually like a huge b…
▶ 23:21
During the key mongoose briefing were CIA officers Richard Helms and William Harvey. Lansdell had asked John McCone to let them in, but the CIA director nixed the idea. McCone had made Richard Helms his lieutenant for Cuba, and the new depu…
▶ 23:51
was highly unusual. McCone may have wanted to keep the play in his own hands, or he may have anticipated the fight over the guidelines and wanted no witnesses. Or perhaps, just like Jack and Bobby, McCone felt the CIA had made a poor showin…
▶ 26:19
which of course we know to be Operation Northwood. In mid-December 1961, John McCone had to explain to JFK when the press reported a new covert, Operation Snafu. The eight-man team intended to carry out Operation Well had suffered an engine…
▶ 26:48
leading to press attention when panicked operatives tried to hush up the episode. Eyes must have widened when McCone said that he could not establish who had given the order for the raid. What? What? Yeah, they're just off doing their own s…
▶ 3:27
Intelligence supports improved from what it had been a year earlier, but continued to have difficulties. Ray Klein, CIA's deputy director for intelligence, after Amory, knew of every aspect of Mongoose, save the assassination plots. Right. …
▶ 3:55
of the CIA, McCone, occasionally took Klein along to meetings. McCone solicited his advice and permitted Klein to discuss matters with his analyst. Although the director of intelligence did not write papers for the project, knowledge enable…
▶ 4:54
There were restrictions that RFK had set telling McCone that Mongoose had lots of data but little to show for it. At the time, Mongoose remained mired in phase one. Lansdale worried that the agencies were protecting their interests and that…
▶ 6:17
did not. They were swayed by McCone, who held out the scepter of the Hungarian revolt and warned that the U.S. would risk another slaughter. In the context of the rapid buildup of Soviet forces already beginning, McCone's argument had merit…
▶ 12:40
Meanwhile, Washington's belly thumping culminated in a series of meetings in the Joint Chiefs of Staff Operations Room on August 8th and 9th and at the State Department on August 10th. At the last of these, McComb recollected in 1967 that C…
▶ 13:11
McCone insisted he protested instantly that he went to Robert McNamara's office right afterwards and reiterated the protest. McCone's special assistant said that he did protest, but not immediately. Okay, let's see. And that no such suggest…
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Recollection improved before the church committee where Lansdale testified that the idea had been shot down on the August 10th meeting, but that he had included it in the instructions to Harvey because it might be a possibility someplace do…
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worried about the meager results and that he, RFK, wanted massive activity. McCone countered that the National Security Council had been holding the forces back. Bobby Kennedy said, to the contrary, the special group had urged and insisted …
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Bobby went ahead with mongoose meetings to preserve the appearance of normalcy. Every bit as bloody as Helms feared, the review featured Robert Kennedy again declaring the president's anger. Acting for recently married John McCone in Califo…
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The EXCOMM discussed the operation and McComb personally briefed the landings. President Kennedy and McGeorge Bundy both spoke of reorienting Mongoose. Bobby went to Langley and denounced everyone except Bill Harvey. On October 30th, the Wh…
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the subversion. Bundy at least allowed for the possibility of improving relations with Castro, but deliberations never went there. Instead, Kennedy had full NSE consider other options. Four days later, McNamara told the group that Castro's …
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This was the moment to act if they were going to. The agency had completed more proposals for covert sabotage. Bobby Kennedy proposed the U.S. aim at ousting Castro, causing as much trouble as possible. The director of central intelligence …
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but he wanted the Soviets and their weapons out of Cuba. The director felt that we must not, under any circumstances, dismiss the possibility of a second confrontation. He had the same feeling about the SAM sites in Cuba. The CIA director a…
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The Board of National Estimates did a report. Bundy also instructed the agency to study effective interference with the Cuban economy. On May 28th, the NSC standing group listened to Fitzgerald present his fresh covert plans. There were two…
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had gotten permission to pull together all the Cubans in the army and create a combat unit in the army of Cuban exiles. The press had already connected RFK to our time and others in the operation. Bobby suggested floating so many rumors tha…
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The Cuban operation began dying as sensitivity to the problems of control increased. Around the time Califano saw Oliva, Desmond Fitzgerald sent McComb a paper that went over the options. In March, Desmond Fitzgerald reported again on the s…
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But he wanted discussion of future sabotage missions, both the CIA and the exiles, autonomous ones. Well, if you're being briefed on them, they're not very autonomous. John McComb referred to Fitzgerald's integrated program to argue the mar…
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Pre-occupied with strikes, raids, and condemnations of those he worked for, Shackley never pauses to explain how his Cuba operations, any more than all of the other failures, could bring down Castro. Official support only encouraged the Cub…
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But the special group finally deferred action to John McCone and approved it because, again, they do whatever the CIA wants. So the CIA wanted them funded, so they're going to eventually get money. Yet the CIA and African specialists ultima…
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and impairing any good relations that could exist between the two governments. Johnson, in turn, reassured that both the CIA and his ambassador was on the same sheet of music. But Washington's record was not innocent. As early as February 6…
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the Ghana government. The two men speculated on the possibility of concocting a covert operation with MI6. When the State Department proposed an action program, it had the explicit purpose of thwarting any activity that the current presiden…
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And there were dated documents saying they were attempting to do exactly that. LBJ went ahead with the damn aid, but he may well have approved undermining the government as well. During a home visit in March of 1965, Ambassador Mahoney met …
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John McComb over disputes with the president, William Rayburn, perhaps for lack of them. But in 1965, when President Johnson appointed Admiral Rayburn, he simultaneously made Richard Helms deputy director of the CIA. His departure for the s…
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the French and had thought it was haunted. He then wondered why the Vietnamese wouldn't visit him there because so many of them had been killed in the house. With a style not unlike John McCone, who let subordinates carve out entire empires…
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and CIA officer Alfonso G. Sparrow to tell the generals the U.S. was fine with the coup. Richardson reported the maneuver through CIA channels. McCone went on to oppose, supposedly, the coup initiative. Washington scuttled the Hillsman Cabl…
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He and Colby had overlapped for a year at Columbia University. Director McComb approved Da Silva's appointment at the end of 1963, then made the suggestion to LBJ and recalled Da Silva to Washington, D.C. He took Da Silva to meet LBJ.…
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In the Central Highlands, the DIDG effort continued to expand. In June of 64, Mac Bundy asked Director McComb to turn back the clock to before switchback to have the CIA re-enter Vietnam, as it were. Of course, they're already there. Lots o…
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Laos, South Vietnam, and South America. Helms showed that he could play the covert operations game as good as anyone. And he became John McComb's deputy along the way. The CIA director sometimes took Helms to meetings at the White House. Wi…
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that he had had with JFK. Johnson remained suspicious. A man of the Senate, LBJ, probably resented how McComb threw his weight around on Capitol Hill in 1963 at the time the Senate was debating arms control agreements. He was staking out a …
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increasingly cut out FaceTime in the Oval Office for him. This annoyed McCone. By early 65, John McCone was at loggerheads with LBJ over Vietnam access, and he'd had enough, so he quit. A few days later, Johnson's aide, Marvin Watson, telep…
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The startled spook that John McComb had resigned. LBJ appointed Vice Admiral Rayburn as the successor. But Rayburn, a Navy rocket specialist, knew nothing about the intelligence agency. Johnson wanted someone to back him up. Richard Helms w…
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Montalva and begged for agency money to fund their campaign. Colonel King, receptive, on Christmas Eve sent Director McCone a proposal. The bid involved half a million dollars. That was going to be quite a big Christmas present. McCone want…
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of the CIA activities. Richard Helms related that Fitzgerald had learned what he had learned to the special group, which met again on April 14th, directing McCone to disburse $1.25 million from his contingency fund to fund election interfer…
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put in $350,000 of its own money into the election. John McCone, former CIA director, just so happened to be sitting on the ITT board at the time. What interesting information. John McCone sitting on the ITT board while the ITT is advocatin…
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So we left off yesterday with the Chilean coup and we learned that John McCone, former CIA director, is sitting on the board of ITT, which is paying to overthrow the government because Salvador Allende does not want the company ITT in Chile…
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into the valley of death. So dramatic. When Helms saw Kissinger again, their conversation on track two was perfunctory. Rather, the national security advisor expressed himself as more concerned with economic pressure and could be brought to…
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Similarly, ITT executives discussed their follow-up with John McCone. They would take it to Kissinger in the State Department. Kissinger himself proceeded with the Chilean policy review that he had ordered in August. And that led to a Nixon…
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Meanwhile, the congressional support for regulatory action on intelligence peaked during Carter's middle years. When the charters were taken up at hearings, the vast majority of CIA professionals testified against excessive restrictions on …
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The summer following the Bay of Pigs, Prescott Bush, the CIA's man in the Senate, and his wife, Dorothy, invited Dulles to dinner at their Washington home. The spymaster showed up with John McCone, the Republican businessman and former Atom…
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was surprised to see McComb, whom he would later recall in a letter, we had not thought of as a particular friend of Allen's. But Allen broke the eyes promptly and said that he wanted Bush to meet his successor. The announcement came the ne…
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J. Peter Grace, who Warhamster and I just covered. It was an almost unbelievable list of people. Dulles looked a bit lost and forlorn as he waved to Kennedy's departing helicopter from the front steps of the headquarters he would never occu…
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Or so he thought. But it soon became clear that the Dulles dynasty was not entirely dismantled. In truth, the Kennedy purge had left the ranks of Dulles loyalists at the CIA largely untouched, like Angleton and Helms. They continued to call…
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He picks John McComb, who was awful. Now it was Schlesinger's time to erupt. Putting an Eisenhower retread in charge of the CIA would be a disastrous move, he warned Kennedy. It would send the wrong signal at exact moment when the agency ne…
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He sees the world in terms of a set of emotionally charged stereotypes, Schlesinger said. Schlesinger tried to cheer himself up, but without much success. The possibly consoling thought is that president has a habit of designating liberals …
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and possibly my concern will turn out to be unwarranted. But it didn't. In October, still puzzling over McCone's selection, Schlesinger brought up the subject again with Kennedy in the Oval Office. He asked the president if he knew him well…
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He was very critical of Dulles, Schlesinger wrote, and implied after Dulles, anybody would be better. If Kennedy thought he was getting in McComb a respectable Republican front man who would readily do his bidding at the CIA, he was sorely …
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banker diplomat W. Averill Harriman, an old Democrat Party wise man who had served as FDR's ambassador to Moscow and who was now serving JFK as a globetrotting ambassador at large. Harriman gave Schlesinger an evaluation of the new McComb r…
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This was clear, Harriman confided, from looking at the policy maneuvers around Laos, the Southeast Asian sideshow in which Kennedy was determined not to get involved. JFK's policy of neutrality was being systematically sabotaged by both the…
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was not sweeping enough. The president had lopped off the head of the top three men, but all of his deputies were still there. And McCone, a CIA outsider who largely shared the former regime's views, was not going to change anything. McCone…
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mischievous ideas and projects. Two years into McCone's tenure as CIA director, syndicated newspaper columnist Henry Taylor published a surprisingly critical piece of the intelligence agency calling it a sick elephant and urging it to quit …
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Quote, certainly you must know that any attack on you by me is inconceivable. No one has served this country with greater distinction or selflessness and success than you. This is supposedly an independent reporter basically kissing Alan Du…
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Because McCone wasn't running the CIA, Dulles was. This is precisely what Schlesinger was afraid of when McCone took over the CIA in November of 1961, that the Dulles era would continue undisturbed. That month, as Kennedy's special assistan…
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The White House advisor was disgusted to hear McCone talk against Kennedy's economic policy, which the former industrialist regarded as too pro-labor. I quote, I have rarely seen a man more completely out of sympathy with the administration…
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Well, it's Bush's dad, Prescott Bush. It's Bush's dad. Yes. I'm sorry. I should have qualified. Yeah. I find that very troubling that he wouldn't have known. Prescott Bush was a senator. Why would he know? I sort of took that as, okay, when…
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this whole time yep and i'm sitting here to hope and like hell nobody's reading jfk's war book okay that's what i got yeah align i go ahead hey colonel one of my um mccone comes up in the book um a decent amount um and and one of my favorit…
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stories you know that's part of operation gladio um is as kind of a a low-level introduction to it is the dita beard affair um where where i mean what's not mentioned in um devil's chess board is that mccone leaves the cia and he goes on to…
▶ 1:26:35
Yeah, no, that's fascinating. You know, seven years later, what's going on is McCone is the chairman of IT&T, and William Merriman is having lunches with the quote-unquote McLean agency, i.e. the CIA, and discussing what do we do about this…
▶ 1:27:24
It's one of those stories where you can basically, it's an easy way to say, hey, Trump had nothing to do with this. This isn't like Russian propaganda. This is Jack Anderson. He's the guy who gave the Washington Post his name for investigat…
▶ 1:29:44
they tried to do a merger with them that, interestingly, got blocked by the Department of Justice by Lyndon Johnson's administration. It is kind of interesting, though, how this big conglomerate is trying to stick all of its fingers in all …