[Deathwatch] Richard Helms, Former CIA Director, 89

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Former CIA Director Helms Dead at 89

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former CIA (news - web sites) Director Richard
Helms who led the spy agency during the height of the Vietnam War and
resisted attempts by President Richard Nixon to involve the CIA in
Watergate has died. He was 89. 

Helms was in declining health and died at his home on Tuesday. The
cause of death was not immediately available. 

"The men and women of American intelligence have lost a great teacher
and a true friend," CIA Director George Tenet said in a statement on
Wednesday. 

"As director of central intelligence for almost seven years, he steered
a bold and daring course, one that rewarded both rigor and risk," Tenet
said. "Clear in thought, elegant in style, he represents to me the best
of his generation and profession." 

Helms led the spy agency from June 1966 to February 1973 during one of
the most contentious periods of American history with the Vietnam War
and Watergate. 

He was first appointed by President Lyndon Johnson and in 1969 was
reappointed by Nixon. 

It was under Helms, following Nixon's orders, that the CIA took action
to overthrow the government of Salvatore Allende in Chile, an operation
that failed. 

After Helms resisted attempts by Nixon to involve the CIA in the
Watergate scandal, which ultimately brought down his presidency, the
CIA chief was not reappointed to his post. 

Helms then went on to become U.S. ambassador to Iran from March 1973 to
January 1977. 

In 1977 he was charged with perjury for denying the CIA had tried to
overthrow the government in Chile in testimony to the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing for the ambassador
post in 1973. 

Helms pleaded guilty and was given a suspended jail sentence. He worked
as a private consultant since 1977.