![]() ![]() But this phalanx of support, personally gratifying as it must have been, only emphasized his isolation. Not many people knew what Helms had been doing in the CIA, but those who did formed a circle of unusual power and influence-former Presidents, cabinet secretaries, and other high officials, congressmen, and leading journalists. He was both liked and respected there, on his chosen ground he was taken to be an honest man, a dedicated public servant who deserved honorable retirement after a long career working his way up through the ranks of the Central Intelligence Agency. It was not that he lacked friends and allies in Washington, where he had spent nearly thirty years in the practice of intelligence. ![]() MAFIA 2 GET INSIDE THE OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION FREETaken together, these facts explained why Helms, who ought to have encountered little difficulty in finding a job, was not free to write his memoirs or accept employment or do much of anything except play tennis, dine with friends, and wait for his lawyer to straighten things out. But the dimensions and possible consequences of the mess had not yet halted the investigation, despite quiet appeals to the Justice Department by distinguished Washington figures who thought Helms was getting a raw deal. Helms's problems added up to a general mess of a sort unthinkable in previous years. "So the stories you were involved in that war are wrong?" "Did you have any money passed to the opponents of Allende?" ![]() The narrow answer was for perjury before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 7, 1973, when Helms answered a question put by Senator Stuart Symington-"Did you try in the Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow the government in Chile?"-with an unequivocal "No, sir." Helms had to protect the CIA's secrets by himself. No one has ever spelled out what powers are thereby granted to the DCI. ![]() He was charged under the National Security Act of 1947 with protection of the CIA's sources and methods. In particular, the director of central intelligence had a responsibility not to answer every idle question put to him. He knew perfectly well for what, but intended to convey his contention that he had never done anything he was not asked, ordered, expected, or required to do by the nature of his job. His grin, lower jaw out, eyes wide, hands up, has about it an ironic, incredulous air he can be amused, bewildered, and angry at the same time. His lower jaw juts out a trace, giving his otherwise ordinarily handsome face a singularity. Helms is a man with an oddly appealing grin. Indicted for what? Helms would ask in his own defense. The reason was that his whole life was hanging fire while he waited to learn if a special grand jury in the District of Columbia would vote to indict him for certain acts committed shortly after he ceased to be director of central intelligence (DCI) of the CIA. The reason was not that he was looking forward to a chance at last to read the collected novels of Balzac, or that he wanted to stay home to work on his stamp collection, or that he welcomed the freedom to watch a whole season of baseball on television. He would not have been dressed any differently if he'd been on his way to present an annual report to the board of directors, but in the spring of 1977 he was not going anywhere. Richard Helms, as lean as a long-distance runner and looking just about as restless, dressed in a suit and tie, greeted a visitor at nine o'clock on a sunny morning on his front doorstep. ![]()
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