Richard helms and jfk assassination video

Richard Helms, who died last week at age 89, was described by his biographer Thomas Powers as a “gentlemanly planner of assassinations.” The epithet captured the essence of the former CIA director’s style: socially correct, bureaucratically adept, operationally nasty.

In mid-20^th-century Washington, this combination proved effective, if not glamorous. Helms gained the confidence of presidents and the admiration of syndicated columnists. Yet ultimately his faith in political assassination was no small part of his fall from power to disgrace.

At a time when there is revived interest in using assassination as an instrument of U.S.

foreign policy to deal with the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, Helms’ career offers a cautionary epitaph: The assassination business has a way of ending badly.

Helms professed to be something of a skeptic of assassination.

In Powers’ biography, The Man Who Kept the Secrets, Helms is quoted as sa