Desmond Fitzgerald person
also: Des Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald, Desmond
Explore in graph → Export claims (CSV) ↓
Related entities (most co-mentioned)
CIAintelligence service · 41United Statescountry · 15Richard Helmsperson · 10Cubacountry · 9Chinacountry · 9William Colbyperson · 8Frank Wisnerperson · 7Robert F. Kennedyperson · 7Laoscountry · 6National Security Councilorganization · 6Thailandcountry · 5Dwight D. Eisenhowerperson · 5Tibetcountry · 5Allen Dullesperson · 5John F. Kennedyperson · 5Philippinescountry · 4Gordon Grayperson · 4Charles Cabellperson · 4John McConeperson · 4Rolando Cubelaperson · 4U.S. State Departmentorganization · 4Fidel Castroperson · 4Joe Califanoperson · 4McGeorge Bundyperson · 3
Claims (42)
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
5412 Group documented
“The president met to discuss Tibet with a group including Gordon Gray, Secretary Harder, Alan Dulles, Cabell, and Desmond Fitzgerald. Two weeks later, there was another discussion with the 5412 group. In May and June of 1960, mass defection…”
▶ The Colonels Corner President’s Secret Wars chapter 9, continued @ 29:48
Desmond Fitzgerald replaced
J.C. King book_quoted
“At this point, Fitzgerald, who had replaced King as the Latin American guy in charge, visited Santiago for a personal reconnaissance mission. He spent his time with the CIA station chief, Rudolph Gomez, reviewing CIA assets and operational …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Safe for Democracy Part 34 (36) @ 34:22
Desmond Fitzgerald recruited
Rudolph Gomez book_quoted
“At this point, Fitzgerald, who had replaced King as the Latin American guy in charge, visited Santiago for a personal reconnaissance mission. He spent his time with the CIA station chief, Rudolph Gomez, reviewing CIA assets and operational …”
▶ The Colonels Corner Safe for Democracy Part 34 (36) @ 34:22
Desmond Fitzgerald succeeded
Tracy Barnes documented
“They wanted to go to the highest level at headquarters, which meant the Far East Division Chief. The China mission became huge. At the same time, back in D.C., the Psychological Strategy Board was in its heyday. Fitzgerald finally returned …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 11 (12) @ 16:56
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
CIA documented
“equipped 14,000 soldiers in their paramilitary fight. Almost all of the active male population was still fighting in the Himalayas. Supplying the resistance without C-130s seemed an impossible task, but the CIA attacked it with some efficie…”
▶ The Colonels Corner President’s Secret Wars chapter 9, continued @ 32:47
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
CIA documented
“and Desmond Fitzgerald, the Far East Division chief, were almost daily on the phone with Gordon Gray during this period. The CIA was so well-informed because it had furnished an American radio operator who traveled with the Dalai Lama, the …”
▶ The Colonels Corner President’s Secret Wars chapter 9, continued @ 17:09
Richard Helms succeeded
Desmond Fitzgerald documented
“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…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Book Club Presidents_ Secret Wars Chap 13 @ 59:37
Desmond Fitzgerald spied_on
Robert F. Kennedy documented
“When the Secretary of Defense pressed for more information, the guy says, it's just an instinct. Fitzgerald later told Stuart Alsop, a reporter friend, about this conversation. And Alsop then printed a piece that said McNamara had a fixatio…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Book Club Presidents_ Secret Wars Chap 13 @ 1:00:33
Richard Helms appointed
Desmond Fitzgerald book_quoted
“choose who was going to be that new person. For the DO boss, the selection was between Helms' longtime associate, Thomas Karaminis, and Desmond Fitzgerald. When Desmond Fitzgerald saw what had happened, he marched into Helms' office to bid …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 29 (30) @ 9:42
Desmond Fitzgerald asserted
Che Guevara book_quoted
“caught the flavor of the dispute, but the agency wouldn't accept it. There were other Che Cavera sightings too, resulting in Langley's determination to get him at all costs. But not everyone believed. As late as May 1967, Desmond Fitzgerald…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 29 (30) @ 16:56
William Colby succeeded
Desmond Fitzgerald documented
“known as Operation Switchback. By the time Colonel Layton transferred to Thailand in 65, the program was well-established. They had up to 80 camps. And he goes to Thailand, where they're going to run all of the drugs out of. And then Colby …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 29 (30) @ 1:00:45
Desmond Fitzgerald succeeded
Frank Wisner host_asserted
“with all of the stay-behind units, including Otto Skorzeny. Desmond Fitzgerald got the Far East Division chief's position. Even Alan Pope, tried in December in 1959 to a life sentence in Indonesia, would fly again for the CIA. The disaster …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 14 (15) @ 55:04
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
Paul Helliwell host_asserted
“He just seems an intriguing guy to me. But anyway. So let me just give you the highlights. I have an outline in my research where I come across him. He was educated at one of those elite boarding schools, St. Mark's, Harvard graduate. And h…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 17 (18) @ 1:18:29
Desmond Fitzgerald carried_out_attack
Tibetan operation host_asserted
“he worked at a Wall Street, hold on, he worked at a Wall Street law firm. So, you know, you can just see the profile building itself. And he was part, as we articulated here, of the Tibetan operation. And he was very, very close to…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 17 (18) @ 1:19:00
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
William Colby host_asserted
“William Colby, very close. He conducted operations in the Philippines. He was also involved in the Korean operations. He was part of the approval process of the decision to arm the Hmong guerrillas in Laos.…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 17 (18) @ 1:19:27
Desmond Fitzgerald carried_out_attack
Philippines host_asserted
“William Colby, very close. He conducted operations in the Philippines. He was also involved in the Korean operations. He was part of the approval process of the decision to arm the Hmong guerrillas in Laos.…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 17 (18) @ 1:19:27
Desmond Fitzgerald carried_out_attack
Korea host_asserted
“William Colby, very close. He conducted operations in the Philippines. He was also involved in the Korean operations. He was part of the approval process of the decision to arm the Hmong guerrillas in Laos.…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 17 (18) @ 1:19:27
Desmond Fitzgerald supplied_arms_to
Hmong guerrillas host_asserted
“William Colby, very close. He conducted operations in the Philippines. He was also involved in the Korean operations. He was part of the approval process of the decision to arm the Hmong guerrillas in Laos.…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 17 (18) @ 1:19:27
Desmond Fitzgerald carried_out_attack
Rampart Magazine host_asserted
“what was going on in CIA operations. So he mounted an attack on them. And yeah, and we find them in the Cuba. He is also, like, this is one of the things that we do with War Hamster. You always look at who these people married. He married a…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 17 (18) @ 1:20:19
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
Patrick Dean host_asserted
“So I made note of that in my notes. So supposedly, to your point about how he died, it says that, I just looked this part up on Wikipedia. In 1967, while playing tennis with his wife, the British ambassador to the United States, Patrick Dea…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 17 (18) @ 1:20:50
Desmond Fitzgerald recruited
Sam Halpern book_quoted
“other track of the Cuba operation, i.e. assassination. Soon after Desmond Fitzgerald came on board, there was a scheme to get Fidel with an exploding seashell. Sam Halpern, whom Desmond Fitzgerald retained, questioned the legality of the en…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe For Democracy Part 28 (29) @ 8:07
Desmond Fitzgerald targeted_for_regime_change
Fidel Castro book_quoted
“The lawyers decided that if the project had been authorized by the president and attorney general, it would be legal. Now, Houston is the same guy that says no covert operations is legal. So just keep that in mind. The seashell plot never m…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe For Democracy Part 28 (29) @ 8:36
David Atlee Phillips succeeded
Desmond Fitzgerald book_quoted
“The Cuban task force stayed alive. Dave Phillips succeeded Fitzgerald and eventually Jim Flannery followed him. But the project accomplished little. As long as the exiles continued plotting and the agency needed to know, plus holding the ha…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe For Democracy Part 28 (29) @ 23:19
Richard Helms appointed
Desmond Fitzgerald documented
“Richard Helms had already decided on Harvey's replacement. He needed someone with stature with the field officers to show them their project was a priority. Someone who knew the inner workings at Langley. Helms selected Desmond Fitzgerald, …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 27 (28) @ 30:04
Desmond Fitzgerald headed
Operation Mongoose documented
“To get Desmond and avoid the impression that a Far East baron had taken a demotion to lead a task force, the Mongoose unit became a DO special staff. Desmond, simultaneously a deputy chief of a division responsible for Cuban matters. Genera…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 27 (28) @ 30:35
Desmond Fitzgerald ordered_assassination_of
Fidel Castro documented
“On August 18 and 19, gunboats struck one of Cuba's oil facilities. Desmond Fitzgerald has specifically made Castilla one of the targets, which showed that they had the set of targets from the CIA that they were using for this supposed group…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 27 (28) @ 51:30
Desmond Fitzgerald recruited
Bill Lair host_asserted
“Several Americans were vitally important to the Hmong future. When CIA's Methvin left for South Vietnam, Fitzgerald had promised him his choice of post, but reneged at the last moment. Methvin handed the Hmong account over to Bill Lair, a 3…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 30 (31) @ 41:11
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
CIA documented
“Inside of Burma and Leamy's operation had been dear to some of the CIA officers like Desmond Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was another member of the wartime Burma contingent. Having served there, he had been educated at private schools to include …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret War Chap 4 @ 1:25:09
Desmond Fitzgerald headed
CIA host_asserted
“with all of the stay-behind units, including Otto Skorzeny. Desmond Fitzgerald got the Far East Division chief's position. Even Alan Pope, tried in December in 1959 to a life sentence in Indonesia, would fly again for the CIA. The disaster …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 14 (15) @ 55:04
Desmond Fitzgerald worked_with
Air America book_quoted
“in covert CIA activities such as civil air transport, that throughout the 1950s, his Washington law firm of Corcoran and Youngman was not listed in the Martins Del Hubble law directory. In contrast, Desmond Fitzgerald, the CIA officer in In…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Drugs, Oil and War Part 9 a @ 56:26
Desmond Fitzgerald spied_on
Rolando Cubela documented
“The effort with Kubela would also involve a CIA asset falsely posing as a representative of the Attorney General of the United States, Robert Kennedy. Des Fitzgerald, this is a quote, Des Fitzgerald, posing as a personal representative of B…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Twilight of the Shadow Government Part 6 @ 49:44
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
CIA book_quoted
“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…”
▶ The Colonels Corner Safe for Democracy Part 34 (36) @ 35:21
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
CIA documented
“Ellsworth Bunker kept Washington apprised. But the best information came from the CIA because they're running the operation. During that period, General Charles Cabell or Desmond Fitzgerald was on the phone with Gordon Gray almost daily. On…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 16 (17) @ 30:31
Tom Karamanenis succeeded
Desmond Fitzgerald book_quoted
“not just in Bolivia, but in Washington. Desmond Fitzgerald had collapsed playing tennis and died. Tom Karamanis succeeded in leadership to the DO. It fell to him to take the news to Helms. Although Helms still refused to believe it, he coul…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 29 (30) @ 26:32
Desmond Fitzgerald headed
CIA documented
“led by Desmond Fitzgerald, who had desperately wanted a field assignment. The mission purported to be a theater command for actions against Beijing. The barons at headquarters disliked having anyone come between them and their station chief…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 11 (12) @ 16:27
Desmond Fitzgerald met_with
Hans Tofte book_quoted
“began its China operations. They sought him out. And Richard Stilwell basically was his recruiter. He definitely wanted him back on the team. Deputy Desmond Fitzgerald, who was Stilwell's deputy, and Stilwell met with him to try to get him …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner- Presidents Secret War Chap 4 @ 51:08
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
Brook Club host_asserted
“arose not because of the remoteness of Fitzgerald in the civil air transport from the center of power, but because of their proximity to it. Fitzgerald was a member of the New York's Brooks Club, where all of this shit started, and perhaps …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Drugs, Oil and War Part 13 @ 39:04
Desmond Fitzgerald headed
Far East Division book_quoted
“setup. The locale this time was going to be Tibet. It was technically part of China. In the Director of Operations area, China belonged to Fitzgerald's barony, meaning he was all things China. It fell in the Far East Division. Technically, …”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe For Democracy Part 15 (16) @ 19:18
Tom Karamessines succeeded
Desmond Fitzgerald book_quoted
“while playing tennis on his home court. The director of plans was awarded a post-humus national security medal, but his replacement was Thomas Karaminenz, a Helms protege from the espionage crowd. The secret warriors could no longer count o…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 40:24
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
United States documented
“Desmond Fitzgerald bore the brunt of Dulles' anger at what he fancied an unauthorized action by some agency cowboy. A few of the compas actually went to New Delhi, hoping to deliver a letter to Eisenhower. But all requests were rebuffed. Ei…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Safe for Democracy Part 16 (17) @ 50:03
Desmond Fitzgerald member_of
5412 Group documented
“In the summer of 1960, an international jurist commission established by the UN released a conclusion that genocide had been attempted in Tibet, lending momentum to the CIA's proposal for that fall. On September 15, 1960, the 512 group meet…”
▶ The Colonels Corner President’s Secret Wars chapter 9, continued @ 33:15
Desmond Fitzgerald carried_out_attack
Cuba host_asserted
“two cuba operations in the western hemisphere i think he may have i don't he wasn't head of western hemisphere but he was like very high up there with um whatchamacallit the head of western hemisphere and it's just in 1962 now kind of an in…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 17 (18) @ 1:15:30
Mentions (106)
▶ 24:56
was entirely a CIA responsibility. Their actor operational command was gradually transferred over to the military advisory command by the summer of 1963. So the CIA sets it up and then hands it off to the U.S. military. By then, Colby had l…
▶ 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…
▶ 1:00:03
In one of the encounters, McNamara told Des Fitzgerald, quote, you know, it's hard to make sense of this war, unquote. Fitzgerald responded, quote, Mr. Secretary, facts and figures are useful, but you can't judge a war by them. You have to …
▶ 1:00:33
When the Secretary of Defense pressed for more information, the guy says, it's just an instinct. Fitzgerald later told Stuart Alsop, a reporter friend, about this conversation. And Alsop then printed a piece that said McNamara had a fixatio…
▶ 1:01:01
There were no more briefings by the CIA after that. The elements of the CIA plan were adopted, but the ones we know about were carried out by special forces and not by the CIA. So you have the special forces using study and observation grou…
▶ 37:33
and the later follow-on Air America. At the same time, Desmond Fitzgerald, who is another name we come across almost in every story, entered the CIA from Citibank and a law firm of Samuel Sloan Dury, D-U-R-Y-E-E, Walker's cousin. Let's see.…
▶ 38:06
Samuel Sloan Walker and Walker's cousin is Samuel Sloan Dury as a director with Wolf of Citibank's investment subsidiary, which was called Citibank Farmers Trust. Fitzgerald, a former liaison officer with the Chinese Sixth Army.…
▶ 38:33
spent much of the next decade in Asia and had charge of the CIA Laos operatives in the field. That's where we first met him earlier in the story. When President Kennedy found Fitzgerald not to his liking because he didn't feel like he was f…
▶ 39:04
arose not because of the remoteness of Fitzgerald in the civil air transport from the center of power, but because of their proximity to it. Fitzgerald was a member of the New York's Brooks Club, where all of this shit started, and perhaps …
▶ 56:26
in covert CIA activities such as civil air transport, that throughout the 1950s, his Washington law firm of Corcoran and Youngman was not listed in the Martins Del Hubble law directory. In contrast, Desmond Fitzgerald, the CIA officer in In…
▶ 56:54
Yet we know that in practice, Fitzgerald spent many of the ensuing years in Vietnam or elsewhere in Asia. And so basically Corcoran was hiding in plain sight. I just thought both of those were fascinating. OK, Colonel, sorry for interruptin…
▶ 57:19
fascinating guy because in 1962, he moves from, as you know, Southeast Asian CIA to Western Hemisphere CIA, where he's in a key transition role to allow some of Nelson Rockefeller's Cubans to play here and others not to. And also his daught…
▶ 14:51
which are the Air Force Special Operations Command models that have the guns mounted to the aircraft. In all of these activities, Thailand played a vital role. One established at the beginning of the 1960s. The chief of the CIA station ther…
▶ 39:57
at least for the CIA. An era passed unheralded when a deeply depressed Frank Wisner put a shotgun to his head and killed himself in 1965. Lots of questions about that. It was Richard Helms, the professional espionage specialist, that then b…
▶ 25:45
And so then after World War II, he's in the CIA again, but he's wearing an army uniform. That's why this stuff is bullshit. Desmond Fitzgerald was another former officer who had been in Burma and an advisor to the Nationalist Army. As early…
▶ 51:08
began its China operations. They sought him out. And Richard Stilwell basically was his recruiter. He definitely wanted him back on the team. Deputy Desmond Fitzgerald, who was Stilwell's deputy, and Stilwell met with him to try to get him …
▶ 1:25:09
Inside of Burma and Leamy's operation had been dear to some of the CIA officers like Desmond Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was another member of the wartime Burma contingent. Having served there, he had been educated at private schools to include …
▶ 1:00:18
The disaster did finally sap the strength of Frank Wisner. The chief went to London as the station chief to be replaced in Washington by Richard Bissell. Al Umer went to Paris as station chief. His place at the Far East Division was taken b…
▶ 40:03
with them being neutral, like where they started. With the help of Avril Harriman, Roger Hilsman, and Dean Rusk, Kennedy achieved his aim in a 1962 Geneva Agreement. When Fumi Nocevan stood in the way, his American assistants evaporated and…
▶ 1:00:48
Des Fitzgerald, and went to Congress with a request to fund over 100 secret army units. Vang Pao actually had only a couple dozen at the time, but Langley, McGeehee, and other plans officers performed a paper reorganization of the clandesti…
▶ 40:05
And we took ours out from Turkey because that was the other reason that the Soviet unions was pithed is because we already had nuclear weapons in Turkey aimed at them. As for the covert forces in play, the CIA was ordered to reorganize agai…
▶ 16:36
for the forces to actually confront the Chinese, it's published in an Indian paper that it's going to happen. American Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker kept Washington apprised of the developments, but the best information came from the CIA beca…
▶ 29:16
The gifts were acknowledged orally, but because Gampotashi had not used quote-unquote channels considered by the embassy to give him official status, unquote, no other reply was necessary. Dwight Eisenhower wanted to continue his plausible …
▶ 32:47
equipped 14,000 soldiers in their paramilitary fight. Almost all of the active male population was still fighting in the Himalayas. Supplying the resistance without C-130s seemed an impossible task, but the CIA attacked it with some efficie…
▶ 29:38
in both Turkey and Greece. Ray Pearce, the chief of Wisner Station in Taiwan, had fought with the OSS Detachment 101 in Burma during the war. So you see what's playing out here. You basically have an army faction in the CIA and a former OSS…
▶ 30:10
And just for you guys that may be new, we're going to talk about him for just a second because he's a very interesting guy as well. Desmond Fitzgerald was, he eventually becomes the deputy director of plans, which is Wisner's outfit. And he…
▶ 30:37
and was educated at a grooming school called St. Mark's. He also went to Harvard and then graduated from Harvard Law. This is why War Hamster and I go through all of these people's background because they all look so similar. He spent time …
▶ 31:08
And he was personally recruited to Wisner's outfit by Wisner. He becomes good friends with William Colby, who, again, was involved in all of this as well. And he is part, Fitzgerald takes part in the Tibetan operation, where you remember we…
▶ 31:37
Colorado Springs, sending them through basically a guerrilla warfare camp. And they got caught in Colorado Springs doing that. And he also was involved in the initial failure of the first coup in Indonesia in 1958 against Sukarno.…
▶ 32:07
Fitzgerald also served time in the Philippines during that fiasco where we were talking on Alpha Warrior Show about them doing psychological operations to quell the resistance forces to the CIA US friendly president in the Philippines. So h…
▶ 32:38
in working with the Mongrelas in Laos in 1961. And then Fitzgerald moves on to Central America. And let's see, I think that's kind of the highlights of his career. But just so that you understand his total kind of…
▶ 33:14
northeast um uh pedigree he marries margarita peabody of the very rich peabody family and let's see i think that pretty much um kind of covers his um career so i just want to give you a flavor of…
▶ 14:55
to create a movement of influence in voting, beginning in the Philippines congressional elections in 1951. Oh, the CIA interfering in elections? What? Lansdale engineered a supposed grassroots movement to draft Massese as a presidential can…
▶ 15:57
had become the station chief in Manila. The CIA could not decide who to support in the contest. John Richardson replaced Arell in time for the next congressional elections, and this time they were the CIA favorites. Manila became an importa…
▶ 16:27
led by Desmond Fitzgerald, who had desperately wanted a field assignment. The mission purported to be a theater command for actions against Beijing. The barons at headquarters disliked having anyone come between them and their station chief…
▶ 16:56
They wanted to go to the highest level at headquarters, which meant the Far East Division Chief. The China mission became huge. At the same time, back in D.C., the Psychological Strategy Board was in its heyday. Fitzgerald finally returned …
▶ 6:38
Felt approval meant that they could rely on the Pacific Fleet for arms shipment right away. State Department had imposed certain restrictions. There could only be one team of Americans on the ground, one officer plus his radio operator. Des…
▶ 54:32
The man who made the original contact with the colonels, given his choice of post, went to London. Of course, that's the prized place for the CIA. Al Omer headed to Paris, and one of their other undercover officers went to Algeria. Now, wha…
▶ 55:04
with all of the stay-behind units, including Otto Skorzeny. Desmond Fitzgerald got the Far East Division chief's position. Even Alan Pope, tried in December in 1959 to a life sentence in Indonesia, would fly again for the CIA. The disaster …
▶ 18:47
not the answer to any of it. Because again, the CIA did whatever they wanted to. Chapter 10, Desmond Fitzgerald. Enthusiasm became vital to the next big campaign. Not only did this one involve many of the same secret warriors again and agai…
▶ 19:18
setup. The locale this time was going to be Tibet. It was technically part of China. In the Director of Operations area, China belonged to Fitzgerald's barony, meaning he was all things China. It fell in the Far East Division. Technically, …
▶ 19:58
A project in Tibet depended on logistics and training bases that Fitzgerald ran, but the theater of activity could be reached over land, at least by the CIA, only from places where Critchfeld was in charge. This is a turf war. This could ha…
▶ 21:27
This routinized the special arrangements previously required for the Far East to carry out activities in the Near East. Jim Critchfield did not mind having some of the people act primarily in support of the Far East, and Desmond Fitzgerald …
▶ 30:31
Ellsworth Bunker kept Washington apprised. But the best information came from the CIA because they're running the operation. During that period, General Charles Cabell or Desmond Fitzgerald was on the phone with Gordon Gray almost daily. On…
▶ 33:12
at what he was told was a Chinese military position. As the party neared India, the CIA radio operators passed on the Dalai Lama's request for asylum. The message reached Washington in the dead of night on a Saturday. Fitzgerald immediately…
▶ 50:03
Desmond Fitzgerald bore the brunt of Dulles' anger at what he fancied an unauthorized action by some agency cowboy. A few of the compas actually went to New Delhi, hoping to deliver a letter to Eisenhower. But all requests were rebuffed. Ei…
▶ 51:33
was sent, and Eisenhower preserved his plausible deniability. The following year, Washington again discouraged the Dalai Lama's request to come to the United States. Secret plans proceeded despite their refusal to associate publicly with th…
▶ 52:38
Desmond Fitzgerald countered that no brutality could be greater than that which the Hans were doing. Secretary of State Harder added that the project certainly was embarrassing Beijing. Eisenhower approved more weapons. Beijing pushed back.…
▶ 2:28
They were going to use it as a base from which the Tibetans could farm out into the countryside in small bands, not large units, you know, like stay behind units. Desmond Fitzgerald said that aircraft could still be useful if they did not e…
▶ 6:02
Switching to caravans moving over land. This meant a loss of volume delivery. But the agency had little choice. At least the CIA could use the stockpiles that it had already accumulated in Okinawa, Taiwan, and Thailand. Desmond Fitzgerald a…
▶ 7:04
another CIA project by then that was in full swing. One veteran recalled that on election day, the Far East chief, Desmond Fitzgerald, learned of Eisenhower's vow that Richard Nixon, if elected, would continue the Tibetan operation. Instead…
▶ 21:56
lost most of what it had gained after India's 1962 border war with China when W. Avril Harriman made a diplomatic tour of the region and sided with the ambassador. Not even Desmond Fitzgerald, Jim Critchfield, or John Noss, who were among h…
▶ 1:15:00
So it's important to look at, you know, all of these YouTube things and how they might interlap and over interconnect with each other. But also just in your mentioning of those different areas, one figure that has always interested me. And,…
▶ 1:15:30
two cuba operations in the western hemisphere i think he may have i don't he wasn't head of western hemisphere but he was like very high up there with um whatchamacallit the head of western hemisphere and it's just in 1962 now kind of an in…
▶ 1:16:00
you know, change here or overemphasizing it, but it's all, it's also perhaps noteworthy that, you know, Desmond Fitzgerald's daughter is on the editorial board of the nation magazine. And it's, I mean, I'm not, it's not really fair to, to b…
▶ 1:17:59
Yeah, and so, yeah, Desmond Fitzgerald, he's always struck me as interesting. I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts on him because he's often not widely mentioned. He died in 1967 in what I call the tennis court. He had a heart attack…
▶ 1:18:29
He just seems an intriguing guy to me. But anyway. So let me just give you the highlights. I have an outline in my research where I come across him. He was educated at one of those elite boarding schools, St. Mark's, Harvard graduate. And h…
▶ 1:19:00
he worked at a Wall Street, hold on, he worked at a Wall Street law firm. So, you know, you can just see the profile building itself. And he was part, as we articulated here, of the Tibetan operation. And he was very, very close to…
▶ 1:19:27
William Colby, very close. He conducted operations in the Philippines. He was also involved in the Korean operations. He was part of the approval process of the decision to arm the Hmong guerrillas in Laos.…
▶ 1:19:54
You can just see how he is involved in many of these operations. I also found an excerpt that he was part of the, in the mid 60s, he was part of an effort because Rampart Magazine during that period of time was kind of the go-to revelations…
▶ 1:20:19
what was going on in CIA operations. So he mounted an attack on them. And yeah, and we find them in the Cuba. He is also, like, this is one of the things that we do with War Hamster. You always look at who these people married. He married a…
▶ 1:20:50
So I made note of that in my notes. So supposedly, to your point about how he died, it says that, I just looked this part up on Wikipedia. In 1967, while playing tennis with his wife, the British ambassador to the United States, Patrick Dea…
▶ 38:38
With another program, when an army friend, a liaison with the CIA, put him in contact with Desmond Fitzgerald. The CIA's Far East Baron began the process of recruiting Lynch. But somewhere in the bureaucracy, the hire simply got lost. Retur…
▶ 41:06
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…
▶ 30:04
Richard Helms had already decided on Harvey's replacement. He needed someone with stature with the field officers to show them their project was a priority. Someone who knew the inner workings at Langley. Helms selected Desmond Fitzgerald, …
▶ 30:35
To get Desmond and avoid the impression that a Far East baron had taken a demotion to lead a task force, the Mongoose unit became a DO special staff. Desmond, simultaneously a deputy chief of a division responsible for Cuban matters. Genera…
▶ 38:23
Very likely, these seizures were intended as lessons to the others to follow the orders of their CIA controllers. In January of 63, Desmond Fitzgerald went to Miami and supposedly urged all U.S. authorities, not just Customs and Coast Guard…
▶ 40:16
The General Dynamics Corporation had a contract to design a shallow draft boat for inshore work that would be faster than anything Castro's navies had. Desmond Fitzgerald had worries too. The Cuban response to one exile pinprick exposed a C…
▶ 41:17
would be hashing out the issue. Both the CIA and Pentagon were present in force, Helms and Fitzgerald for the agency, Vance and Califano for the Department of Defense. McGeorge Bundy guarded the president's interest. Observers included Tom …
▶ 44:55
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…
▶ 45:23
introducing his new task force chief with the remarks that America needed to heighten hardship on Cuba and that measures to that end plus sabotage might create desperation. McCone was prepared for the CIA's role in this to become apparent. …
▶ 45:53
In July, Desmond Fitzgerald revised his proposal based on the standing group discussion. And on June 8th, revision built on the assumption that there would be no major U.S. intervention and included only things the CIA could do. But the pla…
▶ 46:26
and stimulating disaffection in Cuba, economic sabotage, and support an exile resistance program. The proposed hit and run attacks against selected targets, specifically the Cuban electrical power industry, its oil refineries or facilities,…
▶ 50:03
He demanded radio training right there on the base instead of his normal duties. Two gentlemen promptly showed up at Benning and did that. Yeah, that's not the way the Army works at all, so you know that wasn't Army. On July 16th, Desmond F…
▶ 51:01
Actually, the raids gave the CIA good cover for its own activities. In the Magic City, Shackley invented a phony Cuban exile group, Commandos Mambas, to take credit for the CIA raids. With Deputy David Morales and paramilitary officer Bob S…
▶ 54:07
Desmond Fitzgerald briefed the intelligence board on the program in early September. This culminated in a series of contacts with Joe Califani's request in which Fitzgerald let out bits of the CIA story and asked for help. For some time, th…
▶ 55:09
was attributed to Shackley's commando, Mambus, the fake thing. But the inertia level remained high in relations with the CIA, delicate between the Pentagon. On one occasion, Califano met Fitzgerald in a Miami hotel. Desmond opened the door,…
▶ 8:07
other track of the Cuba operation, i.e. assassination. Soon after Desmond Fitzgerald came on board, there was a scheme to get Fidel with an exploding seashell. Sam Halpern, whom Desmond Fitzgerald retained, questioned the legality of the en…
▶ 8:36
The lawyers decided that if the project had been authorized by the president and attorney general, it would be legal. Now, Houston is the same guy that says no covert operations is legal. So just keep that in mind. The seashell plot never m…
▶ 10:07
Over the months there, there were repeated indications that he may be a defector. Cubela in Spain, as the Cuban military attache, could travel freely and met with other CIA officers in Helsinki during the Mongoose period. He became a CIA ag…
▶ 12:25
feared the U.S. would walk away from the plot like they had done with the Brigade 2506. He wanted assurances from a senior U.S. official. A.M. Lash specified Robert Kennedy. He also wanted weapons, high-powered rifles with telescopic sights…
▶ 12:54
with instructions to present himself as a personal representative of Robert Kennedy. Fitzgerald's counterintelligence chief warned him that A.M. Lash might be an imposter working for Castro's G2. But that didn't seem to slow him down. The m…
▶ 13:58
Cabela, again, on November 22nd. Only hours later, JFK was killed. At the moment of Kennedy's murder, Desmond Fitzgerald sat in a Georgetown City Tavern club at lunch with a foreign diplomat who fed the agency gossip. When the Cuban task fo…
▶ 17:53
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…
▶ 18:49
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…
▶ 23:19
The Cuban task force stayed alive. Dave Phillips succeeded Fitzgerald and eventually Jim Flannery followed him. But the project accomplished little. As long as the exiles continued plotting and the agency needed to know, plus holding the ha…
▶ 9:42
choose who was going to be that new person. For the DO boss, the selection was between Helms' longtime associate, Thomas Karaminis, and Desmond Fitzgerald. When Desmond Fitzgerald saw what had happened, he marched into Helms' office to bid …
▶ 10:11
the CIA's clandestine services. Covert action. Helms exacted the promise that Desmond Fitzgerald would weed out useless covert operations. The Cuba Project was one of the first to take a hit. Subtle changes came to the special group as well…
▶ 16:56
caught the flavor of the dispute, but the agency wouldn't accept it. There were other Che Cavera sightings too, resulting in Langley's determination to get him at all costs. But not everyone believed. As late as May 1967, Desmond Fitzgerald…
▶ 26:32
not just in Bolivia, but in Washington. Desmond Fitzgerald had collapsed playing tennis and died. Tom Karamanis succeeded in leadership to the DO. It fell to him to take the news to Helms. Although Helms still refused to believe it, he coul…
▶ 1:00:45
known as Operation Switchback. By the time Colonel Layton transferred to Thailand in 65, the program was well-established. They had up to 80 camps. And he goes to Thailand, where they're going to run all of the drugs out of. And then Colby …
▶ 28:08
who had arrived from Japan in the summer of 59, met the Hmong military commander, Van Pao, at a hut of Filipino medical staff. Over a series of visits, Methvin convinced the Hmong leader to ally with the CIA. This became Project Momentum. O…
▶ 34:41
His CIA handler, Jack Hasey, disappeared. He got sent to the Congo. Oh gosh, that's interesting because we already fucked them up. Sorry. But his reassignment was much to the chagrin of Desmond Fitzgerald and William Colby. They didn't want…
▶ 41:11
Several Americans were vitally important to the Hmong future. When CIA's Methvin left for South Vietnam, Fitzgerald had promised him his choice of post, but reneged at the last moment. Methvin handed the Hmong account over to Bill Lair, a 3…
▶ 54:38
gladio operation of setting up these stay behind units and they just move from one hot spot to another doing exactly the same thing you know Desmond Fitzgerald shows up at all of these different places and that's not a coincidence William C…
▶ 3:59
Thailand matters at headquarters after he had spent years in Thailand, which of course we know what they do in Thailand. It has to do with the drug trafficking. Recalls being flattered one day when the division chief, William Colby, invited…
▶ 15:00
Desmond Fitzgerald, sitting in the agency, continued the discussion. Bundy pressed for a contingency paper on measures if Jagen won. The CIA drafted a paper not long after, and Bundy discussed it with Helms and the State Department on Septe…
▶ 33:22
The White House viewed this with caution. Ralph Dugan, a Kennedy holdover and political advisor whose special interest was Latin America and who would soon go to Santiago as ambassador, told Mac Bundy that he would not balk at three quarter…
▶ 34:22
At this point, Fitzgerald, who had replaced King as the Latin American guy in charge, visited Santiago for a personal reconnaissance mission. He spent his time with the CIA station chief, Rudolph Gomez, reviewing CIA assets and operational …
▶ 34:51
Formerly Colonel King's deputy had good lines to Langley and knew of King's earlier contact with politicians in Chile. He set up a meeting for Desmond to hear the party's needs directly that took place on May 5th. A few days earlier, while …
▶ 35:49
but primarily the Christian Democrat. There would be no CIA task force, but an interagency group that periodically reviewed political payments would monitor the election interference operation. At the CIA, Helms began daily sessions with De…
▶ 41:49
The dust had barely settled when, less than a month after the victory, the secret war managers argued over whether the use of the leverage gained by the support of Fry. At the State Department, the CIA brainstorming session on October 1st, …
▶ 7:37
meeting not only with retired CIA old buddies like Frank Wisner and Charles Cabell, but with a steady stream of top-ranked active-duty agency officials like Angleton Helms, Cord Meyer, and Desmond Fitzgerald. More surprisingly, Dulles also …
▶ 32:43
Still thick in the clandestine affairs, meeting with key officials from the CIA's covert side, like Desmond Fitzgerald, who, along with David Phillips, oversaw the violent intrigue swirling around Cuba. Angleton and his deputy, Cord Meyer, …
▶ 24:51
President Truman authorized Dulles to supervise the organization of the new agency. In keeping the OSS protocol, Dulles recruited almost exclusively from the elite millionaire businessmen, Wall Street bankers, lawyers, members of the nation…
▶ 49:44
The effort with Kubela would also involve a CIA asset falsely posing as a representative of the Attorney General of the United States, Robert Kennedy. Des Fitzgerald, this is a quote, Des Fitzgerald, posing as a personal representative of B…