E. Howard Hunt

[Michael Clark]

Surprisingly, I am not seeing a Simkin Bio on E. Howard Hunt

http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKhuntH.htm

Everette Howard Hunt

John Simkin (john@spartacus-educational.com)

 

Everette Howard Hunt was born in Hamburg, on 9th October, 1918. During the Second World War Hunt served in the Office of Strategic Services. After the war he joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and for a while was stationed in China. While there he met and married Dorothy Hunt.

In 1949 Hunt establish the first postwar CIA station in Mexico City. He also worked closely with President Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua. 

In his spare time Hunt wrote spy novels. This included East of Farewell (1942) Limit of Darkness (1944), Stranger in Town (1947), Bimini Run (1949) and The Violent Ones (1950). Hunt was involved in clandestine operations in Guatemala against President Jacobo Arbenz. The plot against Arbenz became part of Executive Action (a plan to remove unfriendly foreign leaders from power).

Tracy Barnes was eventually placed in charge of what became known as Operation Success. David Atlee Phillips was appointed to run the propaganda campaign against Arbenz's government. According to Phillips he initially questioned the right of the CIA to interfere in Guatemala: In his autobiography Phillips claims he said to Barnes: "But Arbenz became President in a free election. What right do we have to help someone topple his government and throw him out of office?" However, Barnes convinced him that it was vital important that the Soviets did not establish a "beachhead in Central America".

The CIA propaganda campaign included the distribution of 100,000 copies of a pamphlet entitled Chronology of Communism in Guatemala. They also produced three films on Guatemala for showing free in cinemas. David Atlee Phillips, along with Hunt, was responsible for running the CIA's Voice of Liberation radio station. Faked photographs were distributed that claimed to show the mutilated bodies of opponents of Arbenz. William (Rip) Robertson was also involved in the campaign against Arbenz.

The CIA began providing financial and logistic support for Colonel Carlos Castillo. With the help of resident Anastasio Somoza, Castillo had formed a rebel army in Nicaragua. It has been estimated that between January and June, 1954, the CIA spent about $20 million on Castillo's army.

On 18th June 1954 aircraft dropped leaflets over Guatemala demanding that Arbenz resign immediately or else the county would be bombed. CIA's Voice of Liberation also put out similar radio broadcasts. This was followed by a week of bombing ports, ammunition dumps, military barracks and the international airport.

Carlos Castillo's collection of soldiers now crossed the Honduran-Guatemalan border. His army was outnumbered by the Guatemalan Army. However, the CIA Voice of Liberation successfully convinced Arbenz's supporters that two large and heavily armed columns of invaders were moving towards Guatemala City.

The CIA was also busy bribing Arbenz's military commanders. It was later discovered that one commander accepted $60,000 to surrender his troops. Ernesto Guevara attempted to organize some civil militias but senior army officers blocked the distribution of weapons. Jacobo Arbenz now believed he stood little chance of preventing Castillo gaining power. Accepting that further resistance would only bring more deaths he announced his resignation over the radio.

In 1959 Hunt visited Cuba and decided that Fidel Castro posed a serious threat to the security of the United States: "I wrote a top secret report, and I had five recommendations, one of which was the one that's always been thrown at me, is that during... or... slightly antecedent to an invasion, Castro would have to be neutralized - and we all know what that meant, although I didn't want to say so in a memorandum with my name on it." Hunt played an important role in planning the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.

Hunt was CIA station chief in Mexico during the early 1960s and was rumoured to have been involved in the conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy. It was falsely claimed that he was one of the men arrested in Dallas on the day of the murder.

In 1970 Hunt officially retired from the the Central Intelligence Agency. On the advice of Richard Helms, Hunt went to work for Robert F. Bennett, the head of the Robert Mullen & Co, a small public relations company in Washington.

On 7th July, 1971, Charles Colson and John Ehrlichman appointed Hunt to the White House staff. Working under Egil Krogh and Gordon Liddy Hunt became a member of the Special Investigations Group (SIG). The group was (informally known as "the Plumbers" because their job was to stop leaks from Nixon's administration).

On 15th May, 1972, Arthur Bremer tried to assassinate George Wallace at a presidential campaign rally in Laurel, Maryland. Wallace was hit four times. Three other people, Alabama State Trooper Captain E. C. Dothard, Dora Thompson, a Wallace campaign volunteer, and Nick Zarvos, a Secret Service agent, were also wounded in the attack.

Richard Nixon was deeply shocked by this event. He told Charles Colson, a member of his White House staff, that he was concerned that Bremer “might have ties to the Republican Party or, even worse, the President’s re-election committee”. Colson now phoned Hunt and asked him to break-in to Bremer's apartment to discover if he had any documents that linked him to Nixon or his main political opponent in the presidential election, George McGovern. According to Hunt's autobiography, Undercover, he refused to carry out this order.

Bob Woodward reported in the Washington Post: "Within hours of the Wallace assassination attempt, a White House official was asked by the Washington Post about the identity of the governor's attacker. During a subsequent conversation that evening, the official raised the possibility of Bremer's connection to leftist causes and the campaign of Sen. George McGovern, through literature found in his apartment.... One White House source said that when President Nixon was informed of the shooting, he became deeply upset and voiced concern that the attempt on Gov. Wallace's life might have been made by someone with ties to the Republican Party or the Nixon campaign."

It later emerged that Federal Bureau of Investigation officers found both left-wing and right-wing propaganda in Bremer's apartment. They also found a diary where Bremer wrote about his plans to kill George Wallace or Richard Nixon. The opening sentence was: "Now I start my diary of my personal plot to kill by pistol either Richard Nixon or George Wallace." The diary was eventually published as a book, An Assassin's Diary (1973).

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Local reporters later claimed that the FBI left Bremer’s home for around 90 minutes before coming back and sealing it. During this time reporters and other unidentified figures took away papers from Bremer’s apartment

Later that year the SIG became concerned about the activities of Daniel Ellsberg. He was a former member of the McNamara Study Group which had produced the classified History of Decision Making in Vietnam, 1945-1968. Ellsberg, disillusioned with the progress of the war, believed this document should be made available to the public. Ellsberg gave a copy of what later became known as the Pentagon Papers to Phil Geyelin of the Washington Post. Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee decided against publishing the contents on the document.

Daniel Ellsberg now went to the New York Times and they began publishing extracts from the document on 13th June, 1971. This included information that Dwight Eisenhower had made a secret commitment to help the French defeat the rebellion in Vietnam. The document also showed that John F. Kennedy had turned this commitment into a war by using a secret "provocation strategy" that led to the Gulf of Tonkin incidents and that Lyndon B. Johnson had planned from the beginning of his presidency to expand the war.

On 3rd September, 1971, Hunt and Gordon Liddy supervised the burglary of a psychiatrist who had been treating Ellsberg. The main objective was to discover incriminating or embarrassing information to discredit Ellsberg.

Another project involved the stealing of certain documents from the safe of Hank Greenspun, the editor of the Las Vegas Sun. Later, James W. McCord claimed that Greenspun was being targeted because of his relationship with Robert Maheu and Howard Hughes.

In 1972 Gordon Liddy joined the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). Later that year Liddy presented Nixon's attorney general, John N. Mitchell, with an action plan called Operation Gemstone. Liddy wanted a $1 million budget to carry out a series of black ops activities against Nixon's political enemies. Mitchell decided that the budget for Operation Gemstone was too large. Instead he gave him $250,000 to launch a scaled-down version of the plan.

One of Liddy's first tasks was to place electronic devices in the Democratic Party campaign offices in an apartment block called Watergate. Liddy wanted to wiretap the conversations of Larry O'Brien, chairman of the Democratic National Committee and R. Spencer Oliver, executive director of the Association of State Democratic Chairmen. This was not successful and on 3rd July, 1972, Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Bernard L. Barker and James W. McCord returned to the Watergate offices. However, this time they were caught by the police.

The phone number of Howard Hunt was found in address books of two of the burglars. Reporters were able to link the break-in to the White House. Bob Woodward, a reporter working for the Washington Post was told by a friend who was employed by the government, that senior aides of President Richard Nixon, had paid the burglars to obtain information about its political opponents. 

Hunt threatened to reveal details of who paid him to organize the Watergatebreak-in. Dorothy Hunt took part in the negotiations with Charles Colson. According to investigator Sherman Skolnick, Hunt also had information on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He argued that if "Nixon didn't pay heavy to suppress the documents they had showing he was implicated in the planning and carrying out, by the FBI and the CIA, of the political murder of President Kennedy"

James W. McCord claimed that Dorothy Hunt told him that at a meeting with her husband's attorney, William O. Buttmann, she revealed that Hunt had information that would "blow the White House out of the water".

In October, 1972, Dorothy attempted to speak to Charles Colson. He refused to talk to her but later admitted to the New York Times that she was "upset at the interruption of payments from Nixon's associates to Watergate defendants."

On 15th November, Colson met with Richard Nixon, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman at Camp David to discuss Howard Hunt's blackmail threat. John N. Mitchell was also getting worried by Dorothy Hunt's threats and he asked John Dean to use a secret White House fund to "get the Hunt situation settled down". Eventually it was arranged for Frederick LaRue to give Hunt about $250,000 to buy his silence.

However, on 8th December, 1972, Dorothy Hunt had a meeting with Michelle Clark, a journalist working for CBS. According to Sherman Skolnick, Clark was working on a story on the Watergate case: "Ms Clark had lots of insight into the bugging and cover-up through her boyfriend, a CIA operative." Also with Hunt and Clark was Chicago Congressman George Collins.

Dorothy Hunt, Michelle Clark and George Collins took the Flight 533 from Washington to Chicago. The aircraft hit the branches of trees close to Midway Airport: "It then hit the roofs of a number of neighborhood bungalows before plowing into the home of Mrs. Veronica Kuculich at 3722 70th Place, demolishing the home and killing her and a daughter, Theresa. The plane burst into flames killing a total of 45 persons, 43 of them on the plane, including the pilot and first and second officers. Eighteen passengers survived." Hunt, Clark and Collins were all killed in the accident.

The following month Howard Hunt pleaded guilty to burglary and wiretapping and eventually served 33 months in prison. He later told People Magazine (20th May, 1974): ''I had always assumed, working for the CIA for so many years, that anything the White House wanted done was the law of the land. `I viewed this like any other mission. It just happened to take place inside this country.''

In a comprehensive analysis of Hunt’s work published in The New York Review of Books in 1973, Gore Vidal argued that Hunt might have written the diary that was found in the car of Arthur H. Bremer, the man who attempted to assassinate George Wallace of Alabama

Hunt continued to write spy novels and titles included Give Us This Day (1973) and The Berlin Ending (1973). Hunt also published the novel The Hargrave Deception. The book was based on the James Angleton investigation of Kim Philby.

In August, 1978, Victor Marchetti published an article about the assassination of John F. Kennedy in the liberty Lobby newspaper, Spotlight. In the article Marchetti argued that the House Special Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) had obtained a 1966 CIA memo that revealed Hunt, Frank Sturgis and Gerry Patrick Hemming had been involved in the plot to kill Kennedy. Marchetti's article also included a story that Marita Lorenz had provided information on this plot. Later that month Joseph Trento and Jacquie Powers wrote a similar story for the Sunday News Journal.

The HSCA did not publish this CIA memo linking its agents to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Hunt now decided to take legal action against the Liberty Lobby and in December, 1981, he was awarded $650,000 in damages. Liberty Lobby appealed to the United States Court of Appeals. It was claimed that Hunt's attorney, Ellis Rubin, had offered a clearly erroneous instruction as to the law of defamation. The three-judge panel agreed and the case was retried. This time Mark Lane defended the Liberty Lobby against Hunt's action.

Lane eventually discovered Marchetti’s sources. The main source was William Corson. It also emerged that Marchetti had also consulted James Angleton and Alan J. Weberman before publishing the article. As a result of obtaining of getting depositions from David Atlee Phillips, Richard Helms, G. Gordon Liddy, Stansfield Turner and Marita Lorenz, plus a skillful cross-examination by Lane of Hunt, the jury decided in January, 1995, that Marchetti had not been guilty of libel when he suggested that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated by people working for the CIA.

As a result of the failed legal action, in June, 1995, Hunt filed for bankruptcy protection from his creditors. Hunt spent his final years quietly in his home in Miami's Biscayne Park neighborhood with his second wife, Laura Martin Hunt.

In 2006 it was announced that Hunt had written his memoirs. This included a claim that Lyndon Baines Johnson might have been involved in ordering the assassination of John F. Kennedy. "Having Kennedy liquidated, thus elevating himself to the presidency without having to work for it himself, could have been a very tempting and logical move on Johnson's part. LBJ had the money and the connections to manipulate the scenario in Dallas and is on record as having convinced JFK to make the appearance in the first place. He further tried unsuccessfully to engineer the passengers of each vehicle, trying to get his good buddy, Gov. (John) Connolly, to ride with him instead of in JFK's car - where... he would have been out of danger."

Hunt suggests that senior CIA official, William K. Harvey could have been involved in the plot to kill Kennedy: "Harvey was a ruthless man who was not satisfied with his position in the CIA and its government salary... He definitely had dreams of becoming (CIA director) and LBJ could do that for him if he were president.... (LBJ) would have used Harvey because he was available and corrupt."

Edward Howard Hunt died of pneumonia on 23rd January, 2007. His memoir American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate, and Beyond was published in May 2007.

After his father's death, Saint John Hunt, released a tape where his father claimed that Lyndon Baines Johnson was the instigator of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and that it was organised by Cord Meyer, David Atlee Phillips, Frank Sturgis and David Sanchez Morales.

Edited April 1, 2017 by Michael Clark

[Michael Clark]

 

[Michael Clark]

190 page doc (first 13 pages should be typed out and searchable, very interesting)

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/180-10145-10210.pdf

First 13 pages; handwritten, extensive account of Hunt's CIA career. 

      1.5 years in Spain, as a writer; paid; program to improve CIA image by writing spy novels.

Paid employee until June, 19, 1972 "Watergate"

P. 71 Seven aliases for Hunt

P. 93 JMMARC Crypt for Hunt, not on Mary Farrell list

 

 

P.145  Hunt = Twicker

Edited April 29, 2018 by Michael Clark

[David Andrews]

In the Watergate thing, Hunt must have missed the days when he had Allen Dulles's protection.  That wasn't always something every officer could count on (see Frank Wisner), but there must have been something - perhaps only a turning point in their relations - that caused Helms to put him in the White House and then hang him and his wife out in the wind.  What brought the Hunts  to a  point where they knew they could no longer count on the Agency? 

On the Buckley show, Hunt starts complaining about it from the minute he begins speaking - almost explicitly tipping that he was still Agency at the White House.  He's willing to tip Francis Gary Powers by comparing their cases, which also tips that Hunt was on domestic duty for CIA.  Yet, of course, neither Buckley nor any other interviewer of the hour was willing to ask Hunt what the CIA was doing inside CREEP, leaving Hunt's mission at the burglary and the dirty tricks (so, leaving him under Nixon's command).

One would think that the Nixon blackmail was Agency-directed to embarrass the President, but the financial and legal pressures on the Hunts seem to have been very real.  This is like the nastiest parts of John Le Carre.  Who'd have thought one could dredge up any sympathy for the Hunts?

Edited April 29, 2018 by David Andrews

[Michael Clark]

41 minutes ago, David Andrews said:

In the Watergate thing, Hunt must have missed the days when he had Allen Dulles's protection.  That wasn't always something every officer could count on (see Frank Wisner), but there must have been something - perhaps only a turning point in their relations - that caused Helms to put him in the White House and then hang him and his wife out in the wind.  What brought the Hunts  to a  point where they knew they could no longer count on the Agency? 

On the Buckley show, Hunt starts complaining about it from the minute he begins speaking - almost explicitly tipping that he was still Agency at the White House.  He's willing to tip Francis Gary Powers by comparing their cases, which also tips that Hunt was on domestic duty for CIA.  Yet, of course, neither Buckley nor any other interviewer of the hour was willing to ask Hunt what the CIA was doing inside CREEP, leaving Hunt's mission at the burglary and the dirty tricks (so, leaving him under Nixon's command).

One would think that the Nixon blackmail was Agency-directed to embarrass the President, but the financial and legal pressures on the Hunts seem to have been very real.  This is like the nastiest parts of John Le Carre.  Who'd have thought one could dredge up any sympathy for the Hunts?

I am thinking that Hunt, and others, were under emmense pressure from the Cuban exiles to get the government to act on a Cuban liberation. This pressure may have been upon pain of death; just business, of course, nothing personal. I think Nixon wanted to act, but the agency did not, feeling that an isolated Cuba was better than a free Cuba.

I think their plan was for these "big event" folks to turn-up at Watergate and light a fire under both the butts of Nixon and the agency. The plane crash that killed Dorothy was the response from the agency.

To be sure, this is my working pet-CT. 

[David Andrews]

Here's the hilarious companion piece to the Hunt interview, in which Buckley chases his fellow Catholic, G. Gordon Liddy, around the set with a catechism addressing Who Is Morally Justified To Be A Rat.  Who would pay Buckley to do this, and why?  The absent target seems to be Hunt, but it's Liddy who  gets the St. Sebastian treatment here.

Suffer those slings and arrows, someone said:

 

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by David Andrews

[Douglas Caddy]

The decision that Dorothy Hunt must be killed and killed soon was reached after Hunt had this conversation with his White House sponsor, Charles Colson in November 1972.. Hunt got the message and chose to plead guilty at the first Watergate trial that took place in January 1973. Dorothy will killed in December 1972. Hunt, after her death, called his four children together and told them he was going to plead guilty because he feared they would be the next homicide victims if he did not do so.

I attended Dorothy's funeral at a Catholic church in Maryland. Hunt walked across the parking lot when I arrived and embraced me while crying inconsolably. Then I started  crying. The internment took place on top of a hill in a cemetery while lightning bolts continuously struck nearby. Its memory is embedded forever in my mind.

 

[David Andrews]

Why did the Agency hang the Hunts out to dry, Doug?  Was his mission not to bring down Nixon?

[Michael Clark]

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/jfk/NARA-Oct2017/NARA-Nov9-2017/104-10061-10115.pdf

P.10 Hunt Aliases

 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/180-10143-10076.pdf

Dorothy Hunt. Howard tries to get Dorothy agency employment, succeed.

P. 22. Buckley sends a letter to Hunt, speaks of the invisible government.5/28-64

Edited May 10, 2018 by Michael Clark

[Michael Clark]

26 minutes ago, Michael Clark said:

6 Page document from 1974

Subject: James A. Everett 

Along with E. Howard Hunt, VP of Robert McMullen Co.; also a friend of Hunt. Returns to Washington the day of Watergate Break-in. He is present when Hunt gets the call to which he responds "My God, No!". This, I presume, is the call from Bob Woodward, wondering why his name is in the contact book found on one of the Watergate burglars.

Douglas Caddy might find this interesting so I will ping him here.

James Everett does not sound familiar to me right now.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/104-10059-10231.pdf

 

Everett wrote a book. It appears to be about events to which the above document appears to be the nexus.

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-American-Spy/dp/1609760816

 

An interview with Everett.

http://www.examiner.net/x1512125155/Confessions-of-a-spy

 

 

 

[Michael Clark]

Attempt to reconcile expenditures for Hunt.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/104-10103-10038.pdf

[Michael Clark]

Just now, Michael Clark said:

Hunt, McCord, Mullen, post CIA employment. Howard Hughes. Vegas Surveillance ops.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/104-10103-10042.pdf

 

[Michael Clark]

As late as 1975 the idea that Hunt may have been acing Station Chief in MC in 1963 was still being sorted-out.

Oddly, the cover sheet for this document indicates the subject as LAOS ASSASSINATIONS

 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32281845.pdf

[Michael Clark]

On 5/8/2018 at 9:42 PM, Michael Clark said:

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/180-10143-10076.pdf

Dorothy Hunt. Howard tries to get Dorothy agency employment, succeed.

P. 22. Buckley sends a letter to Hunt, speaks of the invisible government.5/28-64

From the above handwritten document, I am transcribing Buckley's letter and the the opening commentary. I will include the next couple of entries....

----------------------

24. Memo for Dir. of Sec.from Chief / FI dated  5/10/63 says: "I have discussed the point raised by you with Mr. Holmes and while we agree in principle, we believe that there is sufficient gain from the contact and certain pieces of information to take the calculated risk...." this will continue until she quits on 6/30 due to pregnancy.

25. Routing and record sheet Gordon Mason, Sp.  Asst. to DDP; DDP and Mr. Chritien; from A/DO/CA dated 6/1/64 - under comments: typed: "The attached draft column by Bill Buckley will appear in 75 US newspapers, including the Scripps Howard chain, during the week of June 8.

The background of this placement is the fact that Buckley work for me as a staff agent in Mexico 1950 - 51 and we have remained close friends."

14

in script "A copy of this has been sent to the director. Will you please forward to Mr. Elder biographical material on Wm. Buckley." 

This is initiated by the same person who initialed the box next to  "DDP" attached is a letter from Buckley to Hunt dated 5/28/64 and an article entitled "Hate CIA Week". 

"dear Howard: here it is. You will note we had to cut 15 lines because it was over. But I hope it helps thanks 1 million for all the work you did on it. I managed to read only about 1/3 of the book and depended on you for the rest. Give me a ring soon. Hastily, Bill"

The article is a review of "The Invisible Government".

26. Routing and record sheet dated 7/28/64 says "in view of the deferrals in the RIP action since 1962 and the fact that subject was polygraphed in 1953 and 1957 I believe closing of the rip without further action is in order."

S/ Liddy. C/TRS

-----------------------------

These three entries I have transcribed in order of the handwritten file. The handwritten file is in order by page no..... 12, 13, 14, 15. There is obvious discontinuity between p.13 and 14.  I will say, before reviewing, that all entries in this doc.  are in regard to Hunt. With the above qualifications , I'll note that it is remarkable that we have these document entries, regarding Buckley, Hunt and Liddy, in order; and, presumably, Liddy commenting on Hunt in June of 1964.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2018 by Michael Clark

[Michael Clark]

Pinging Ashton Gray, in case he may find some of the above interesting.

On 3/30/2018 at 11:38 PM, Ashton Gray said:

....