Ralph McGehee

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McGehee playing football for University of Notre Dame

Ralph Walter McGehee (born 1928) served for 25 years in American intelligence, being a former case officer of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Since leaving intelligence work in 1977, he has publicly expressed a highly critical view of the CIA.

Early life, family

McGehee was born in 1928 at Moline, Illinois. His father, originally from the Kentwood, Louisiana (three generations there, of Scotch-Irish), had moved to Illinois when a teenager. His mother was from neighboring Osyka, Mississippi. Along with his older sister, they then had moved from Moline to Chicago about 1930. Ralph McGehee, at a "lower middle class" high school in south Chicago, was All State in football, and class president. Although a Baptist, he attended the University of Notre Dame where he was an All-American tackle on the football team. For the four seasons 1946 to 1949, they never lost a game, and won three national championships. McGehee obtained a B.S. in Business Administration, cum laude.

In 1950 he had married. His future wife, Norma, he had met at a Presbyterian Church in south Chicago while home on vacation from Notre Dame. Eventually, they parented four children, two girls followed by two boys. Often but not always, his wife and children would move their family home to accompany him, while on foreign assignments with the CIA.

After graduation, he tried professional football with the Green Bay Packers. Then he coached the offensive line in the football program at the University of Dayton for a year. Returning to Chicago, he took a job as a management trainee at Montgomery Ward.

In January 1952, McGehee was recruited by the CIA. Decades later, he would described himself, and his political outlook then, as "gung ho" America, a young cold warrior.

Understanding it was an important government job with foreign travel, first McGehee was interviewed at the courthouse. The recruiters declined to name the federal agency that might be his new employer. He traveled to Washington, D.C., where he joined a pool of over a 100 candidates, men and women. Several weeks of extensive testing and lectures followed. Having survived this shake out, he began a month-long orientation, which featured cold war rhetoric and films. With 50 men he entered a "basic operations" course on espionage, to fit them for the CIA's Directorate for Plans. Then with 30 others he attended a six-week paramilitary course at the CIA's Camp Peary (the "farm") near Williamsburg, Virginia. Many there were former college football players. The curriculum included parachute jumping, demolition, weapons, and a "hellish obstacle course".

Thereafter he was posted to his initial CIA job.

CIA assignments

Japan, Philippines, 1953-1956

Mount Fuji, woodblock print.

McGehee was sent to Japan, where he went to work for the China operations group.The group's task was, in conjunction with allied governments, to gather intelligence on the PRC. The group in the Tokyo area supervised and supported four other offices or bases in East Asia (Seoul, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Okinawa). His job "unfortunately" was as a file checker. Yet he appreciated being involved in "the immense and noble effort to save the world from the International Communist Conspiracy".

He lived with his wife and daughters in a beautiful home in Hayama. They had a maid and a gardener, and a view of Mt. Fuji. Husband and wife "became intoxicated with the romance of being overseas." There was "a close knit community of Agency families". A son was born to them. Yet his wife would repeat her complaints about CIA rules which prohibited any talk of company business, even within families; she insisted that the "marital bonds" should be the stronger.

After two and a half years, the China operations group moved to Subic Bay in the Philippines. Desmond FitzGerald, the CIA's Chief of Station (COS) there, would become one of the Agency's top leaders. He was a long-time friend of William Colby. Yet because of CIA secrecy, and its "need to know" policy, McGehee knew comparatively little about CIA operations worldwide. China operations at Subic Bay were then closed, and they returned home.

CIA HQ, Washington, 1956-1959

At CIA headquarters near the Washington Monument, McGehee became chief of records for counterintelligence at China activities, basically supervising the work he had been doing in Japan. His office had a staff of 15 women; he admitted that some "could do a better job" than him. Two requests routinely came in: for a "file trace" (a search for records about a person, e.g., a candidate for doing business with the Agency); and a "clearance" (a more thorough check, often for potential CIA employees). Yet in general CIA records were in a deplorable condition. Huge piles of backorders were common. An expert proposed working criteria for selecting files to destroy, e.g., duplicates, nonsense, useless. Other problems were addressed. In McGehee's unit, the Chinese characters (often ambiguous to non-Chinese) could be variously 'transliterated' into different roman letters, making for file repetition and much confusion. Instead, each character was reduced to a 4-digit number.

From Saigon a former Chinese politician claimed that his contacts back in China had excellent intelligence, which they sent him by short-wave radio. The politician sought "financial support" in return for current political information. His reports appeared to be very valuable. But an allied intelligence agency told CIA that a "newspaper clipping service" in Saigon was the probable source. When CIA tried to listen in to transmissions, there was silence. Instead, his "intelligence" was being fabricated from bits and pieces of local Chinese press coverage, rewritten to make the incidents more significant to CIA. Yet the "germ of truth" in each gave it verisimilitude. Later, CIA discovered that the operation was run by a Taiwan intelligence agency. The rewrites told a story about mainland China that Taiwan wanted to spread.

After many applications for a change in status, McGehee was promoted. Following a 3-months training course, he'd be a CIA case officer.

Taiwan, 1959-1961

Chiang Ching-kuo & Chiang Kai-shek.

As a case officer his work involved liaison with his Chinese counterparts in various Nationalist intelligence services. Their common purpose was collecting information on the PRC. The CIA worked with Taiwan "to train and drop teams of Chinese on the mainland to develop resistance movements and gather intelligence." When fishermen were detained on Chinmen Island [Quemoy], McGehee would go out for the debriefing. The PRC shelled the island on certain hours every other day, hitting only barren spots according to a "gentleman's agreement".

The CIA had great difficulty recruiting agents to work espionage on the mainland. Taiwan offered to share one of its best agents. American officers taught him the CIA system on many espionage subjects, marveling that he was "the best agent they had ever trained." He was to stay in radio contact daily while on the mainland. After four months away, he returned. Yet when away he seldom make radio contact. His excuses for this didn't add up. McGehee could not be sure if he was a duplicitous Nationalist, "playing games with us", or was working for the Communists.

Ray Cline, soon to become a major force in American intelligence, was the COS in Taiwan. As a friend of the COS, Chiang Ching-kuo, son of the Generalisimo, would visit the CIA club. For an upcoming CIA "hail and farewell" gathering, a particularly lavish costume party was planned, with an Indian tribe theme. The COS and McGehee's "clique" of eight couples attended. During his late night drive home, McGehee saw "hovels of Taiwanese people" who were dressed in rags, in "a struggle to stay alive".

CIA HQ, Langley, 1961-1962

Largely because of its Bay of Pigs disaster, CIA headquarters was "rife with despair and upheaval". Based on news reports, McGehee thought "the Agency had relied too much on an anticipated uprising by the Cuban people." The CIA's move into its new 7-story headquarters building in Langley, Virginia, began in late 1961. It was located 9 miles from Washington on 219 acres and "resembled a college campus". But excitement was curtailed by a cut in personnel, one in five to be fired. The survivors celebrated. The new offices for China activities were on the third floor. After 9 months, he was offered an overseas position in Thailand.

Thailand (1), 1962-1964

Thailand: majority Thai speakers dark blue, minority speakers light blue.

By its northern border Thailand is hill country. McGehee had set up a home/office. He worked on his Thai. On the wall he'd put a poster featuring an evil-looking Mao and Ho. Contributing to cold war tension was fear of a bloodbath in event of defeat. The liaison work dealt with the local Thai Border Patrol Police. The interpreter, Captain Song, also headed counterinsurgency operations. Song had good rapport with the locals and hill tribes, but "took an immediate dislike to anyone with direct authority over him." There were many minority ethnic groups in the rugged terrain, with several plotting for political independence from neighboring Burma. The remote hill tribes practiced a slash-and-burn agriculture, necessitating frequent relocations; their "major cash crop was opium from the poppy." At the moment the border was quiescent.

Perhaps unintentionally, political infighting developed among some Americans. The CIA station chief was naturally gregarious, avoiding conflict. He'd nurtured a close relationship with Prime Minister Sarit Thanarat. The American ambassador, however, did not get along well with Sarit. At a well-attended state ceremony, Sarit avoided the ambassador in favor of the COS. This exacerbated ill-feelings at the top. Meanwhile, the deputy COS called McGehee to report to the station. Given a fictitious name, he had a bad reputation (bullying, manipulation, grudge holding). The COS and his deputy made a good cop, bad cop pair. That day, as McGehee listened, the deputy eventually came to the point where he "was tearing down my superiors in my presence and asking me to spy on them for him!" That day McGehee was added to an enemy list.

On a 3-week hike to visit remote villages in the hill country, McGehee lost 20 pounds. Delivery of medical goods and agricultural implements to the tribes furthered the civil development side of counterinsurgency. To further both objectives, "small mountain airstrips" would facilitate transport to the more isolated areas. The first Yao village had about "two dozen bamboo houses with roofs of thatch" spread out on the hillside. The "gentle, intelligent" village headman agree, at an evening meal, to build the airstrips. That morning a CIA plane had dropped supplies by parachute, scattering them over the mountain forest. A location for the airstrip was found, and young men selected to be trained. Other airstrips were arranged at other villages. Yet a few years later, because of "communist influence on the Lao border" the villages were "bombed and napalmed" by Thai warplanes. It was a bitter end for the hill tribes.

CIA HQ, Langley, 1964-1965

At the Thai desk in Langley, McGehee's job was to kept track of the continuations of the work he'd done in Thailand. He called it paper pushing. The general advise was not to be harsh, which seemed to encourage platitudes. Many of the reports from Bangkok station concerned the Communist Party of Thailand. Once a week William Colby, the Far East division chief (and later DCI), would review the reports (with Langley comments) and pass on "rating sheets" that'd been written up. These would be sent back to the reporting stations around the world, where they'd be read with gravitas as the view from headquarters.

It was announced that Colby would brief a Congressional committee about the 'secret war' in Laos. He wanted approval for new plans of CiA. At first McGehee was pleased to be part of the team doing the preparation work. Colby stressed the importance of using the right word. In finding the best name for Hmong tribal groups that fought against communists guerillas, the middle path between "Hunter-Killer Teams" and "Home Defense Units" was agreed to be "Mobile Strike Forces". Facts seemed open to be tweaked into what might make a better argument. An 'ineffective' present situation could become 'what it might be'. McGehee considered it "duping Congress". Colby obtained approval.

President Johnson began to escalate the war in Vietnam. In Thailand a China-based group announced the start of the revolution. McGehee asked his desk chief to help him arrange a return to Thailand.

Thailand (2), 1965-1967

William Colby, CIA.

CIA HQ, Langley, 1967-1968

McGehee arrived at headquarters still mystified by the surprising and unexplained decision of Colby to terminate the Survey program, which had achieved such significant results, and received high praise. During his recent months in Thailand McGehee had labored with intense dedication to make it a success. Then the COS had ordered him out of Thailand. The plum job in Taiwan that had been dangled before him, was already cancelled. McGehee writes that he was "having a difficult time justifying my previously idealistic view of the Agency."

The head of China activities offered him a desk job. Repetitive failure defined the task: "recruiting a Chinese official to be our spy." The track record showed a cyclical series of events: new idea, enthusiasm, field action, failure, new idea... . Despite the Sino-Soviet split, McGehee thought, some in the China desk seemed to have a "vested interest" in keeping China as a major enemy. The CIA had obtained a recent, 40-page China document that detailed the PRC's long-range foreign policy and short-range moves. Nonetheless, China desk decided not to circulate it, McGehee reasoned, because the PRC's plans were reasonable, not belligerent.

He wrote a memorandum to put the Thailand Survey program back in play. First he sent it to Colby's new replacement at the Far East division (dismissed), then to a suggestion committee. The chief at China desk then told him that he'd ruffled Far East division, and that he was jeopardizing his own career. McGehee wrote later that he awoke to see the CIA in a new light. Vietnam was in a situation somewhat similar to Thailand. He volunteered to serve CIA in Vietnam, something nobody with a eye on their career was doing in 1968. The office of training then told him how good the Survey program looked. They were already teaching this "McGehee method" as a major part of counterinsurgency training at CIA. Far East remained uninterested.

CIA HQ, Langley, 1970

McGehee was set to return for another tour of duty in Thailand. At headquarters he attended several briefings, yet he was growing increasingly dissatisfied with the CIA as an institution. While back home he looked for another job, but his lack of any work history (due to his inability to list his CIA employment) sank his efforts. In addition, his transforming state of mind made it difficult for him to effectively communicate, with anyone. He could not talk to his children about his changing attitudes toward the CIA and the cold war. In Georgetown he noticed young dissenters. He wanted the war to stop, too, but felt paralyzed by internal conflicts.

Thailand (3), 1970-1972

The Thailand station was a large installation. McGehee performed as "deputy chief of the anti-Communist Party operations branch". He supervised many case officers working in liaison. Yet he realized that with the CIA nothing had changed--except his own views. U.S policy goals determined what intelligence was collected. In support of a military dictatorship the CIA "never reported derogatory information". It often came from Thai leaders or liaison counterparts. Agency case officers were forbidden to "maintain direct contact with the general population". 80% of Thais were farmers, but their issues were seldom addressed. For a case officer to get information from the working classes, he risked getting the labeled "gone native" followed by a ticket home. McGehee mentions the secret war in Laos, but he did not directly participate. Although remaining committed "to stop the spread of the Communist Party of Thailand" he opposed what he considered the CIA's false testimony and counterproductive operations.

In Udorn, north Thailand, McGehee met with the police Colonel he'd worked with on the Survey program. McGehee noticed he'd changed, from a hard working, no non-sense leader, to a more relaxed cynic. They spoke together for hours at a hotel's roof-top restaurant. McGehee found the Survey Lieutenant in Bangkok. Stationed in south Thailand, he now faced an insurgency, and spoke up about how good the Survey project went. Confused about why it'd been dropped, McGehee replied that it'd been overruled by higher-ups. Latter in a coffee shop McGehee spotted a classmate from the CIA paramilitary course at its farm in Virginia almost 20 years ago. He'd fought in the secret war, where the CIA had led the Hmong tribe to defeat. "We contemplated each other, and a thousand thoughts passed unspoken between us.".

McGehee wrote "a long, bitter memorandum" that he routed to the COS. He was put on "special probation". Yet soon McGehee required back surgery. He was flown to Georgetown Hospital in Washington.

Career Intelligence Medal

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Receiving Career Intelligence Medal

In 1977 McGehee was awarded the CIA's Career Intelligence Medal. "My wife, my four children, one son-in-law, and a grandson all gathered for the awards ceremony." William W. Wells presented the medal to him. McGehee's views on the Agency began with an idealist's appreciation of its principles, when cold war tensions were high. During the second half of his 25 years of service, however, his view of the CIA had markedly declined, until reaching a bitterness. He gave his reasons why he accepted the medal.

"I agreed to accept it for three reasons: to give my children an occasion to be proud of their father, not to embarrass Jake [his supervisor at CIA who recommended McGehee for the Medal], and to lend credibility to any criticisms of the Agency I might make in the future. Otherwise, I very much wanted to say, 'Take your medal and shove it.'"

The Career Intelligence Medal is awarded by the Central Intelligence Agency for a cumulative record of service which reflects exceptional achievements that substantially contributed to the mission of the Agency.

Writings, speeches after CIA service

After leaving the Central Intelligence Agency, McGehee brought to the public his highly critical views-based on his experience. He has discussed and illustrated how the CIA's covert actions and interventionist policies produce unfavorable outcomes. His articles on CIA activities have appeared in the Washington Post, The Nation, The Progressive, Harper's Magazine and Gannet News Service among others. He also developed CIABASE, a website containing information on events, people, and programs concerning the CIA or American intelligence, including links to other texts available to the public.

In his 1983 book, Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA, McGehee recounts his experiences as a professional intelligence agent. For many years he was stationed in East Asia, performing intelligence work at CIA stations in Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Details of the practices and techniques of a CIA case officer are given. He conveys how, because of his experiences in the field, he gradually changed his views of the Agency. By examples he shows how in many cases CIA operations damage the people affected, and how the overall results are often not favorable for the American people, or for our allies, or for people of the world. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair praised it as "one of the outstanding books written by former CIA agents". The book was published again in 1999 with updates.

Deadly Deceits has some peculiarities. CIA policy required its personnel to sign a contract stipulating CIA pre-publication approval for writings about their Agency experience. McGehee makes the case that CIA's review was meant to harass, and to delay or stonewall publication. By persistence he eventually got around CIA objections, yet: deleted passages are marked, occurring throughout the book; aliases are used for most people (listed in the index with quotation marks); and, McGehee quotes from other books to convey material CIA claimed was still classified, so that McGehee himself could not mention them based on his own experience. CIA tactics delayed publication. Among books written by former CIA, it was "the last of the major exposés of the era."

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Tribunal on CIA Operations

McGehee has been invited to speak at political events, rallies, and at colleges and universities. He has given interviews to the press, and other media.

Controversies

He has discussed his time spent in Vietnam and claimed that the CIA supported anti-Communist counterinsurgency in the Philippines,

A downside of his book, Deadly Deceits, was McGehee's personal knowledge of the extent to which the famed physician, Thomas Anthony Dooley III, was involved in CIA warfare across Indochina. This included awareness that the atrocities alleged in the best seller, "Deliver Us From Evil", 1956, were fabricated for the beginning of a psywar campaign (later revealed by the Church Committee in 1975).

A 1981 allegation by McGehee about CIA involvement in the Indonesian killings of 1965–1966 was censored by the CIA, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union to sue on his behalf. The CIA prevailed. McGehee described the terror of Suharto's takeover in 1965-66 as "the model operation" for the US-backed coup that got rid of Salvador Allende in Chile seven years later: "The CIA forged a document purporting to reveal a leftist plot to murder Chilean military leaders, just like what happened in Indonesia in 1965."

In 1999 he also filed a Freedom of Information request, claiming that he had been harassed since 1993, suspected to be because of his criticisms. Asking for a halt of the actions, he sent a letter to the president of the United States, the director of the CIA, and his town council, documenting many of the incidents. He asserted his intention to pursue the issue through the FOIA process because of receiving no response to earlier letters.

Quotes

The CIA is not now nor has it ever been a central intelligence agency. It is the covert action arm of the President's foreign policy advisers. In that capacity it overthrows or supports foreign governments while reporting "intelligence" justifying those activities. It shapes its intelligence, even in such critical areas as Soviet nuclear weapon capability, to support presidential policy. Disinformation is a large part of its covert action responsibility, and the American people are the primary target audience of its lies.

Bibliography

• Thomas L. Ahern, Jr. (2010), Vietnam Declassified. The CIA and counterinsurgency, University of Kentucky.
• Ray Cline (1976), Secrets Spies and Scholars, Acropolis, Washington, D.C.
• William Colby (1978), Honorable Men. My life in the CIA, Simon and Schuster, New York.
• William Colby (1989), Lost Victory, Contemporary Books, Chicago.
• Peer de Silva (1978), Sub Rosa. The CIA and the uses of intelligence, Times Books, New York.
• Daniel Ellsberg (2002, 2003), Secrets: A memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, Viking Penguin, New York.
• David Harris (1996), Our War. What it did to Vietnam, and what it did to us, Times Books, New York.
• Richard Helms (2003), With a Look over my Shoulder. A life in the Central Intelligence Agency, Random House, New York.
• Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (1989), The CIA and American Democracy, Yale University, New Haven.
• Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks (1974, 1980), The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, Knopf, reprint Laurel, New York.
• John T. McAlister, Jr., and Paul Mus, (1970), The Vietnamese and their Revolution, Harper Torchbook, New York.
• Ralph W. McGehee (1983, 1999). Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA, Sheridan Square; Ocean Press ISBN 1-876175-19-2.
• Mark Moyar (1997), Phoenix and the Birds of Prey. The CIA's secret campaign to destroy the Viet Cong, Naval Institute.
• Thich Nhat Hanh (1967), Vietnam. Lotus in a sea of fire, Hill and Wang, New York.
• Thomas Powers (1979), The Man who kept the Secrets. Richard Helms and the CIA, Knopf, New York.
• John Prados (2003, 2009), William Colby and the CIA. The secret wars of a controversial spymaster, University of Kansas.
• Douglas Valentine (1990), The Phoenix Program, Avon Books, New York.
  • Howard Frazier, editor (1978), Uncloaking the CIA, Free Press, New York.
  • Athan Theoharis, editor (2006), The Central Intelligence Agency. Security under scrutiny, Greenwood Press, Westport.
• Ralph W. McGehee (April 11, 1981), "Foreign Pollicy by Forgery: The CIA and the White Paper on El Salvador" in The Nation, pp. 423-434.

See also

• Allegations of state terrorism by the United States
• Philip Agee - former CIA Mexico and Ecuador case officer.
• Victor Marchetti - special assistant to Director Richard Helms.
• Church Committee - Senate investigations under Frank Church,(D-ID) 1975.
• John R. Stockwell - former CIA case officer.
• Ray McGovern - Former CIA senior analyst and U.S. President National Security Adviser.
• Robert Baer - former CIA case officer.
• Robert David Steele

External links

• Ralph McGehee at the Internet Movie Database