Robert Mullen

[John Simkin]

I thought it might be worth starting a new thread on Robert Mullen.

In his recently published book, American Spy, E. Howard Hunt has some interesting things to say about Robert Mullen. On page 159 he makes it clear that he knew Mullen was a long-time CIA contract agent. Apparently, Mullen ran the Free Cuba Committee for the CIA.

Richard Helms suggested that Hunt should go to work with Mullen. Hunt comments "prospects seemed bright, as Mullen was looking forward to retirement and hoped to hire two people he trusted to take over the company along with a current employee, Douglas Caddy."

[Jack White]

Mullen was a "public relations company".

I worked most of my career for the leading public relations

company in the Fort Worth/Dallas area.

About 1956 "some important men from Washington" visited

our offices and hired the agency at a substantial fee to issue

furnished news releases on our "news release forms" to

local and national media regarding unrest in Europe. Our

client of record was an organization in Dallas called something

like TEXANS FOR HUNGARIAN FREEDOM, but the money came

from Washington.

It was easy money. But what none of us realized at that time

that "Washington" was buying the REPUTATION OF OUR NAME

to release propaganda, and also buying PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY.

Propaganda uses devious conduits.

Jack

[John Geraghty]

Mullen was a "public relations company".

I worked most of my career for the leading public relations

company in the Fort Worth/Dallas area.

About 1956 "some important men from Washington" visited

our offices and hired the agency at a substantial fee to issue

furnished news releases on our "news release forms" to

local and national media regarding unrest in Europe. Our

client of record was an organization in Dallas called something

like TEXANS FOR HUNGARIAN FREEDOM, but the money came

from Washington.

It was easy money. But what none of us realized at that time

that "Washington" was buying the REPUTATION OF OUR NAME

to release propaganda, and also buying PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY.

Propaganda uses devious conduits.

Jack

Would this have had anything to do with Ferenc Nagy?

John

[Douglas Caddy]

I thought it might be worth starting a new thread on Robert Mullen.

In his recently published book, American Spy, E. Howard Hunt has some interesting things to say about Robert Mullen. On page 159 he makes it clear that he knew Mullen was a long-time CIA contract agent. Apparently, Mullen ran the Free Cuba Committee for the CIA.

Richard Helms suggested that Hunt should go to work with Mullen. Hunt comments "prospects seemed bright, as Mullen was looking forward to retirement and hoped to hire two people he trusted to take over the company along with a current employee, Douglas Caddy."

On Feb. 24, 2007, almost a month ago, I posted my comments on Hunt’s book in a new topic titled “My Overview of Howard Hunt’s new book, Highlights gleaned from reading it first half.”

In my posting I noted that the book has several factual errors, one of them being Hunt’s statement (or that of his co-author) that I had been an employee of the Mullen Company.

I was never an employee of the Mullen Company but instead was employed solely by General Foods Corporation, which assigned me to work out of the Mullen Company.

John Simkin has seen fit to ignore this correction that I made in the Forum almost a month ago and instead has now quoted from Hunt’s book the inaccurate sentence that I was an employee of the Mullen Company.

Why John Simkin has chosen to do this, without calling the attention of the Forum’s members to my posting on the matter of almost a month prior, raises doubts in my mind as to his good faith intentions.

Reproduced below is the original posting that I made:

My overview of Howard Hunt’s new book, Highlights gleaned from reading its first half

Feb 24 2007, 10:36 PM

I purchased a copy of the book, American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond, at Barnes&Noble yesterday and am half-way through reading its 340 pages. This brief overview is of the first half. I hope to finish reading the second half in the next day or so.

Based on what I have read so far, I would say that the volume is most-worthwhile. Its contents bring new revelations about Hunt’s unusual life as well as reinforcing impressions of the man previously gained from the mass media. Members of the forum who are adamantly critical of Hunt will find that Watergate aside, he was a patriot who had an extremely fascinating career as an international spy, always intent on advancing America’s national interests.

There are some errors in the book. One that jumps out on page one is the author uses the name Howard Felt instead of Mark Felt in discussing Deep Throat. Hunt died in January, so he may not have had the opportunity to proof-read the book's galleys before publication.

Here are a few brief highlights gleaned from the book’s first half:

(1) Hunt in his early years was awarded simultaneously both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rhodes Scholarship. He chose the former.

(2) He joined the OSS under the sponsorship of Wild Bill Donovan, a family friend.

(3) After the ousting of Leftist Jacob Arbenz as president of Guatemala, “thousand of files were confiscated (but) no direct link between Arbenz and the Soviets ever emerged...Most important, the fallout resulted in a lasting legacy of anti-American bias throughout Latin America, most significantly in Cuba, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela.” Furthermore, this led to “decades of iron-fisted military rule, under which one hundred thousand mostly impoverished Guatemalans died.”

(4) “So there are now three CIA agents who have been named in connection with Oswald – David Phillips, Cord Meyer and Bill Harvey – all with the means, motive, opportunity and some connection to kill Kennedy.”

(5) “If LBJ had anything to do with the [Kennedy assassination] operation, he would have used Bill Harvey, because he was available and corrupt.”

(6) Much of what Hunt worked on for a number of years for the CIA “was exposed in revelations about Operation Mockingbird...”

(7) Hunt was not an admirer of Angleton. “Some people have suggested that maybe Angleton was a double agent like Philby [who trained him], but I don’t think so.”

(8) LBJ ordered the CIA, who in turn ordered Hunt, to infiltrate the Goldwater campaign to gather information that could be used by LBJ against his opponent in the 1964 presidential campaign.

(9) Hunt incorrectly asserts that I was an employee of the Robert Mullen Company, handling the General Foods Corporation account. In fact, however, I was never an employee of the Mullen Company but instead of General Food Corporation, which had assigned me to work out of the Mullen Company. He writes that I “resigned [from the Mullen Company] to take up law (remember his name as it will come up later), whereupon Mullen announced that he was selling the company to Robert Bennett, son of the Republican senator from Utah.”

The second half of the book, which I shall briefly review soon, is devoted to chapters concerning activities leading up to Watergate, Watergate itself, and post-Watergate events.

[Jack White]

Mullen was a "public relations company".

I worked most of my career for the leading public relations

company in the Fort Worth/Dallas area.

About 1956 "some important men from Washington" visited

our offices and hired the agency at a substantial fee to issue

furnished news releases on our "news release forms" to

local and national media regarding unrest in Europe. Our

client of record was an organization in Dallas called something

like TEXANS FOR HUNGARIAN FREEDOM, but the money came

from Washington.

It was easy money. But what none of us realized at that time

that "Washington" was buying the REPUTATION OF OUR NAME

to release propaganda, and also buying PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY.

Propaganda uses devious conduits.

Jack

Would this have had anything to do with Ferenc Nagy?

John

Exactly! It was then that I learned the name is NOT pronounced NAG-GY,

but instead is pronounced NODGE...one syllable rhyming with LODGE.

Thanks. I had forgotten his name.

Jack

[John Simkin]

I was never an employee of the Mullen Company but instead was employed solely by General Foods Corporation, which assigned me to work out of the Mullen Company.

John Simkin has seen fit to ignore this correction that I made in the Forum almost a month ago and instead has now quoted from Hunt’s book the inaccurate sentence that I was an employee of the Mullen Company.

I am sorry I missed your earlier comments. At least this thread has given you the opportunity to put the record straight.

Whether you were or were not officially employed by the Mullen Company is fairly irrelevant. The important point is whether you knew it was a CIA front organization. Were you involved in running the Free Cuba Committee. Were you still working for William Buckley during this period?

[Douglas Caddy]

I was never an employee of the Mullen Company but instead was employed solely by General Foods Corporation, which assigned me to work out of the Mullen Company.

John Simkin has seen fit to ignore this correction that I made in the Forum almost a month ago and instead has now quoted from Hunt’s book the inaccurate sentence that I was an employee of the Mullen Company.

I am sorry I missed your earlier comments. At least this thread has given you the opportunity to put the record straight.

Whether you were or were not officially employed by the Mullen Company is fairly irrelevant. The important point is whether you knew it was a CIA front organization. Were you involved in running the Free Cuba Committee. Were you still working for William Buckley during this period?

Forum reply

(1) No, I did not know definitively that the Mullen Company was a CIA front until Senator Howard Baker disclosed this fact in his memographed special report released at the same time that the Senate Watergate Committee issued its final report. However, I admit that I was puzzled by some things that I observed in the Mullen office, and by Robert Mullen's phone call to me from Chile when he informed that he was there to orchestrate the media in a project to overthrow President Allende. So when I was asked a question about the CIA and the Mullen Company when I was before the Watergate grand jury in July 1972, I responded that I had "intimations" that something was not quite kosher about the whole Mullen setup. The Washington Post published this remark by me a few days later.

(2) I have never heard of the Free Cuba Committee until reading about it recently in the Forum. I certainly never heard it discussed in the Mullen office, where I was assigned to work by General Food Corporation for approximately 18 months.

(3) The underlying premise of your final question is false. I never worked for William Buckley. I did have an article published in National Review in 1959 when I was in the junior class at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. But I was never employed by National Review or receive employment compensation from it or from William F. Buckley.

[John Simkin]

(3) The underlying premise of your final question is false. I never worked for William Buckley. I did have an article published in National Review in 1959 when I was in the junior class at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. But I was never employed by National Review or receive employment compensation from it or from William F. Buckley.

I thought you worked with him in setting up the Young Americans for Freedom in 1960?

[James Richards]

The Robert Mullen and Co. was under contract to provide cover for CIA agents abroad. Amsterdam and Singapore being prominent.

I was wondering if Douglas Caddy can tell us how old Mullen was in 1963?

Cheers,

James

[Douglas Caddy]

(3) The underlying premise of your final question is false. I never worked for William Buckley. I did have an article published in National Review in 1959 when I was in the junior class at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. But I was never employed by National Review or receive employment compensation from it or from William F. Buckley.

I thought you worked with him in setting up the Young Americans for Freedom in 1960?

You posed your original question as follows: "Were you still working for William Buckley during this period?'

Now you ask, "I thought you worked with him in setting up the Young Americans for Freedom in 1960?"

There is a vast difference between working for someone and working with someone. I did work with William Buckley in setting up Young Americans for Freedom in 1960. I was never paid any compensation for serving as its first national director. But I never worked for William Buckley.

I work with you in attempting to make the Forum a credible research tool to expose the the hidden history behind major developments in the world since the beginning of World War II. However, I do not work for you in this joint endeavor.

My only desire is that the Forum becomes recognized and utilized for the vast treasure trove of information that it is.

I once took a course in Hollywood on how to write a movie script. In my opinion there is enough information stored in the Forum's postings by its members for a thousand award-winning movie scripts to be written.

Edited March 24, 2007 by Douglas Caddy

[Douglas Caddy]

The Robert Mullen and Co. was under contract to provide cover for CIA agents abroad. Amsterdam and Singapore being prominent.

I was wondering if Douglas Caddy can tell us how old Mullen was in 1963?

Cheers,

James

James: When General Foods Corporation moved me from its corporate headquarters in White Plains, New York in 1969 to work for a period of a year or so in the Mullen Company offices in Washington, I found Robert Mullen to be a man of about 62 years of age. About a year after my transfer Robert Mullen approached Howard Hunt and myself regarding taking over ownership of his company as he wanted to retire.

So I would hazard to guess that if he were about 62 in 1969, he was about 56 in 1963.

I remember reading the obituary of Robert Mullen when he passed on while residing in a retirement home in Maryland about 10 years ago, or so my memory leads me. If that obituary could be located you could probably pinpoint his exact age in 1963. You seem to have incredible access to even the most obscure news clippings going back many years (how you do so is a mystery). So maybe you can locate his printed obituary.

Doug

[Michael Hogan]

So I would hazard to guess that if he were about 62 in 1969, he was about 56 in 1963.

I remember reading the obituary of Robert Mullen when he passed on while residing in a retirement home in Maryland about 10 years ago, or so my memory leads me. If that obituary could be located you could probably pinpoint his exact age in 1963.

According to Linda Minor:

Though Mullen’s childhood is murky—according to his obituary he was born in 1909 in Alamagordo, N.M. and attended college in Wisconsin and Colorado.....

http://www.sandersresearch.com/index.php?o...;id=684#fntxt10

[Jack White]

The Robert Mullen and Co. was under contract to provide cover for CIA agents abroad. Amsterdam and Singapore being prominent.

I was wondering if Douglas Caddy can tell us how old Mullen was in 1963?

Cheers,

James

James: When General Foods Corporation moved me from its corporate headquarters in White Plains, New York in 1969 to work for a period of a year or so in the Mullen Company offices in Washington, I found Robert Mullen to be a man of about 62 years of age. About a year after my transfer Robert Mullen approached Howard Hunt and myself regarding taking over ownership of his company as he wanted to retire.

So I would hazard to guess that if he were about 62 in 1969, he was about 56 in 1963.

I remember reading the obituary of Robert Mullen when he passed on while residing in a retirement home in Maryland about 10 years ago, or so my memory leads me. If that obituary could be located you could probably pinpoint his exact age in 1963. You seem to have incredible access to even the most obscure news clippings going back many years (how you do so is a mystery). So maybe you can locate his printed obituary.

Doug

Many researchers have excellent sources that they do not divulge. In addition

to James, there are Monk, Robin, Cameron Koo and others. Bernice has gathered

her large collection from the internet. Anthony Marsh and a few others also have

large collections, but Marsh admits that his father was an intelligence agent. Monk's

father was a long-time White House employee.

Jack

[James Richards]

So I would hazard to guess that if he were about 62 in 1969, he was about 56 in 1963. (Douglas Caddy)

Thank you, Douglas. That is most helpful. I will try to dig up some more information.

Many researchers have excellent sources that they do not divulge. In addition

to James, there are Monk, Robin, Cameron Koo and others. (Jack White)

Cameron Koo, now there's a blast from the past. In fact, Jack, Cameron Koo is actually yours truly. It was a pseudonym I used with published material many years ago.

James

[James Richards]

Mullen passed away in 1986, he was 77 years old which made him 54 in 1963. He died of a heart attack.

Cheers,

James