Bob King Bob King

[Pat Speer]

I'm looking for help in determining how many different Bob Kings were active in the intelligence community between the forties and the eighties. It seems likely there were at least two different Bob Kings and that people often get confused between them. If there was only one, then the history of the cold war needs to be re-written to make room for the role of Bob King. I've been combing through the internet and through the local libraries and this is what I've found so far.

Richard Nixon (RN, 1978) On pg. 182, Nixon relates that Bob King, his administrative assistant, accompanied him on a 1956 trip to Hungary.

Fawn Brodie (Richard Nixon, 1981) On pg. 338 it is stated that a Robert L. King was hired by Nixon during January 1955, and that his prime duty was to "protect" Nixon.

Julie Nixon Eisenhower (Pat Nixon, 1986) On pg. 82 it is revealed that Gretchen King was Pat's best friend in San Francisco in 1944.

Roger Morris (Richard Milhous Nixon, 1990) On pg. 263 it is explained that FBI agent Bob King's wife was named Gretchen and that she'd befriended Pat in San Francisco during the war. On pg. 479 it is stated that Nixon used King as an intermediary with Hoover during the Alger Hiss case. Nixon would tell King his plans and King would report them to Hoover.

Michael Beschloss (The Crisis Years, 1991) On pg. 135-136, Beschloss relates that a Robert King of the FBI had met Nixon during WW2 in San Francisco, while King was investigating Soviet spies, and that in 1955 Nixon had hired him away from Southern Comfort to work as his foreign policy aide. He says King left the Nixon office two years later and went into partnership with CIA cut-out man Robert Maheu. Beschloss puts together that Nixon met Pawley on Jan 9 and King on Jan 12 1960, to discuss Cuba. Afterwards, Nixon wrote a message to Pawley alluding to "west coast inquiries." King also relates that Maheu lost interest in him after Nixon lost in the 1960 election, and that in 1960 he was not aware of Maheu's involvement in the CIA-Mafia plots on Castro.

Robert Maheu, Richard Hack (Next to Hughes,1992) On pg. 84, Maheu states that his business partner Bob King, who had worked as an administrative assistant to Nixon, was traveling with Nixon and his entourage on the 1960 campaign trail. He

says that King warned him that Nixon himself was going to leak the story of the Howard Hughes loan to his brother Donald, as he didn't trust Maheu's ability to prevent the story from leaking.

Peter Dale Scott (Deep Politics, 1993) On pg. 112 Scott makes reference to a Robert King who was partners with Robert Maheu, ex-FBI, and ex-Nixon aide. Scott makes reference to speculation Pawley, Hoover and Nixon may have generated the CIA-mafia plots, in conjunction with Maheu and King. His source is Beschloss.

Evan Thomas (The Very Best Men, 1995) Throughout the book, Thomas quotes a Bob King who was Richard Bissell's special assistant. On pg 188 he reveals that King had worked for Bissell at the U-2 operations center. On pg. 213 King relates that Sukarno of Indonesia was insatiable and had a thing for stewardesses and that Bissell, along with Desmond Fitgerald, contemplated using one of the stewardesses as an asset to biologically immobilize Sukarno through assassination or through giving him the clap. King adds that he personally was not involved.

On pg 232, Thomas refers to King as Bissell's executive assistant.

THUS FAR THERE'S REASON TO SUSPECT THERE'S ONLY ONE BOB KING, as King's partner Maheu was involved in setting Sukarno up with women, and had access to stewardesses through his relationship with TWA owner Howard Hughes. Maheu, of course, was also involved in making a faux porno film featuring Sukarno, co-produced by Bing Crosby. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction. If there was only one Bob King, of course, the implication is that Nixon was planning the Castro assassination and the Bay of Pigs invasion from the campaign trail, which might explain some of the guilty behavior he demonstrated towards Kennedy once finally in the White House.

Anthony Summers (The Arrogance of Power, 2000) On pg 195-196 Summers repeats that Nixon and Bob King had known each other since the war, and that King was partners with Maheu. He adds that King was a specialist in counterintelligence, was on intimate terms with Pat Nixon, and was a senior assistant to Nixon, for "protection." Summers points out the odd coinky-dink that King was traveling with Nixon at the same time his partner Maheu was plotting the hit on Castro. Maheu insists however that Nixon didn't know, and King "drew a blank" on the topic.

Greg Herken (Brotherhood of the Bomb, 2002) On pg. 56 it is explained that Bob King was a young lawyer who joined the FBI in 1940, after receiving his degree from Georgetown, and that he was the first one to target Robert Oppenheimer as a potential communist. On pg. 94 it's stated that he worked with Ed Lansdale's "hand-picked man" Boris Pash--the man who Howard Hunt claimed was the CIA's in-house assassin--in his investigation of Oppenheimer in the San Francisco area during WW2. On the end notes, King's expertise in wiretapping is detailed.

David Wise (Spy, 2002) On pg. 68 it is explained that in 1987 a Bob King was a veteran counterintelligence analyst working for the FBI, and that he'd come over from the CIA where he was a Soviet analyst. He's described as dark-haired, a heavy smoker, and bespectacled. On pg. 226, it is revealed that King was the one who identified his co-worker and former boss Robert Hanssen as a mole after recognizing his voice and choice of words on a KGB tape.

Phillip Taubman (Secret Empire, 2003) Here it is mentioned-pg. 126-that Bissell's aide Bob King had a wife named Betty King, and that she was also a CIA employee. Unless he divorced Gretchen this means this is not the same Bob King as the Nixon/Maheu Bob King!

Internet (2004) A quick trip through the internet site Mission Betrayed reveals that G. Gordon Liddy recommended Nixon's friend Bob King for the Kent State commission--this website reflects, incorrectly, I now believe, that King was also an assistant to Bissell. There is also a reference that Nixon called Bob King the day Hoover died. Also available for sale on the internet are various items made out to Bob King from J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon.

THUS IT NOW APPEARS THAT THERE WERE TWO BOB KINGS, one who was with the FBI, then Nixon, then Maheu, and whose specialty was in wiretapping and electronic "protection,"and another who was CIA, with Bissell. While the one who worked with Hanssen was formerly CIA, and may be the right age to have been the one who worked with Bissell, this Bob King was counter-intelligence and not an executive assistant-type, a la the one who worked on the U-2! THIS MEANS THERE'S PROBABLY 3 Bob Kings! And then there's a Bob King who wrote about black ops in the book Spooky 8... 4 Bob Kings???

So maybe what this demonstrates is that Bob King is a generic intelligence name, used to hide real identities, a la Maurice Bishop? or Knight? (All chess pieces...)

Please post any additional references to Bob King to help me make sense of this...

Feel free to discuss...

Edited September 11, 2004 by Pat Speer