Richard Helms Quotes
Why should you care? Your side won.
A student had asked the director if the rumor that the CIA had influenced the 1970 Chilean election through covert activities was true. Note that for Helms, the ends justified the means. . See {622167}.
Richard Helms, 1913-2002, Director, U. S. Central Intelligence Agency, U. S. Ambassador to Iran, Lecture, Johns Hopkins University, 1972
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
During his Ambassadorial confirmation hearings Helms lied about the role the CIA under his direction had played in the destabilization of Chile and the Allende administration. In 1977 he was convicted of perjury. He was not convicted for carrying out any presidential orders but for lying under oath to Congress. No President had ordered him to do that. The CIA had covertly aided in a coup usurping the popular, elected President Salvador Allende—today a national hero in Chile. We picked the wrong side in the political battle in Chile. We helped a military dictator overthrow a democratically elected president. See {622168}.
She had been accused of being a follower of public opinion rather than a driver of it as many politicians see themselves. At the time, she refused to stake out specific positions in her contest for the presidential nomination of her party—the socialists. She won the primary, the first such French woman, but lost in the general election.
The last two lines play on Davey Crockett's motto, "Be sure you're right, then go ahead."
- Born: March 30, 1913
- Died: October 23, 2002
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Diplomat, CIA Director
Richard McGarrah Helms was an American government official and diplomat who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973. Helms began intelligence work with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Following the 1947 creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) he rose in its ranks during the presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. Helms then was DCI under Presidents Johnson and Nixon.
