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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Richard Helms.md

@@ -43,15 +43,19 @@ In August 1967, Helms received President Johnson's instruction to determine whet
 
 In December 1972, knowing that Watergate-related congressional investigations were expanding, Helms ordered the operational records of MHCHAOS destroyed. A partial cache of budget and administrative documents survived only because it had been misfiled in a different location. In the same period, he ordered the destruction of records related to MKULTRA, the CIA's two-decade human experimentation program using LSD and other substances on unwitting subjects. The Church Committee found that these records destructions had permanently deprived investigators of a complete documentary record of both programs.[^1]
 
+### Proposing and Protecting MKULTRA
+
+Helms was the program's originator as much as its protector. On April 3, 1953 he formally proposed to Director [[Allen Dulles]] a program under [[Sidney Gottlieb]] for the "covert use of biological and chemical materials," arguing that "the development of a comprehensive capability in this field gives us a thorough knowledge of the enemy's theoretical potential" against "a foe who might not be as restrained ... as we are"; Dulles approved it as MKULTRA ten days later. Helms nurtured Gottlieb as his personal specialist and, bypassing the layers of command between them, dealt with him directly, embodying the conviction he later voiced in Senate testimony, that a clandestine operator "can't count on the honesty of your agent ... unless you own him body and soul." When the program needed a new charter in 1964 he agreed to rename it [[MKSEARCH]] on the condition that its substance remain the same.[^4]
+
 ### MKULTRA Continuation and Psychic Research
 
-Helms had approved continuation of MKULTRA through his DDP years and as DCI. He was aware of the program's scope, including the experiments conducted on unconsenting patients at Canadian psychiatric facilities under the direction of Dr. [[Ewen Cameron]] at McGill University's [[Allan Memorial Institute]] (Subproject 68), and the experiments using unwitting American subjects in safe houses operated through the Sexual Freedom Project in [[San Francisco]] and [[New York]].
+Helms had approved continuation of MKULTRA through his DDP years and as DCI. He was aware of the program's scope, including the experiments conducted on unconsenting patients at Canadian psychiatric facilities under the direction of Dr. [[D. Ewen Cameron]] at McGill University's [[Allan Memorial Institute]] (Subproject 68), and the experiments using unwitting American subjects in safe houses operated through the Sexual Freedom Project in [[San Francisco]] and [[New York]].
 
 Separately, Helms authorized and expanded the CIA's psychic research program based in part on assessments of Soviet parapsychology research. He approved testing of [[Uri Geller]] at [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]] and the broader program that evolved into [[Project Stargate]]. His authorization reflected a characteristically pragmatic judgment: if the Soviets were investing in the capability, the CIA needed to assess whether it was real.[^2]
 
 ### Chile: Covert Action and Congressional Perjury
 
-In September 1970, following the election of Socialist candidate [[Salvador Allende]] in [[Chile]], President Nixon instructed Helms in a meeting at the White House to conduct covert operations to prevent Allende from assuming the presidency. Nixon told Helms, in the presence of [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] and others, to "make the economy scream." Helms's notes from this meeting, preserved and later produced to investigators, confirmed: "One in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile!... \$10,000,000 available, more if necessary... make the economy scream."
+In September 1970, following the election of Socialist candidate Salvador Allende in [[Chile]], President Nixon instructed Helms in a meeting at the White House to conduct covert operations to prevent Allende from assuming the presidency. Nixon told Helms, in the presence of [[Henry A. Kissinger|Henry Kissinger]] and others, to "make the economy scream." Helms's notes from this meeting, preserved and later produced to investigators, confirmed: "One in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile!... \$10,000,000 available, more if necessary... make the economy scream."
 
 The CIA subsequently funded opposition media, political parties, and military factions. General [[Augusto Pinochet]] seized power in a coup on September 11, 1973 - the same year Helms was replaced as DCI and sent as U.S. Ambassador to [[Iran]].
 
@@ -73,4 +77,5 @@ He published his memoirs, *A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intell
 
 [^1]: Powers, Thomas. *The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA.* Knopf, 1979 (the essential biography, based on extensive interviews). Church Committee (Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities). Final Report, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976.
 [^2]: Church Committee. "Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders." Senate Report No. 94-465, 1975 (documents ZR/RIFLE and the failure to disclose to Warren Commission). Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown, 2017.
-[^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991. Chapters 11, 14, 16.
+[^3]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Random House, 1991. Chapters 11, 14, 16.
+[^4]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*. Times Books, 1979, Chapters 1, 4, 12.