Powers, Thomas. The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA.
New York: Pocket Books, 1981. 508 pages.
When Allende was elected president of Chile, Nixon gave Richard Helms,
CIA director from 1966-1972, his marching orders. "Make the economy scream,"
read Helms' notes of the September 15, 1970 meeting. Later Helms said, "If
I ever carried a marshall's baton in my knapsack out of the Oval Office, it
was that day." In early 1973, Helms was asked by Congress whether the CIA
was involved in Chile, and he denied it. The coup in Chile happened several
months later, and it was nasty. Although the major media swallowed the
official denials for another year, cracks in the story began to appear. By
1975 the Church Committee was taking a closer look at Chile, and in 1977
Helms was allowed to plead no contest to two misdemeanor charges for
withholding information. Retired CIA officers gave Helms a standing ovation
and paid his fine. His attorney Edward Bennett Williams said that Helms
would "wear this conviction like a badge of honor," and Helms agreed.
Powers covers much more than Helms and Chile; he follows this
quintessential career man through the entire history of the CIA, including
the Cold War spying of the 1950s, the assassination attempts in the 1960s,
the illegal surveillance of the student movement, and on through Watergate
in the 1970s. When it first appeared in 1979, this book was widely regarded
as one of the best ever written about the CIA.
ISBN 0-671-83654-4
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