Theodore Shackley
CIA mastermind of dirty tricks in Cuba, Chile and Vietnam
Harold Jackson
Wednesday December 18, 2002
The Guardian
For the second time this year, conspiracy theorists have lost one of their
favourite CIA targets. Ted Shackley, once in charge of the organisation's
clandestine operations, has died at the age of 75. In the international
demonology of espionage, he figured second only to General Vernon Walters,
America's ubiquitous spy-for-all-seasons (obituary, February 18).
Unlike the affable general, Shackley was far from popular with his
colleagues. Though they rated him businesslike and efficient, he was also
described as cold and weird. His nickname, the Blond Ghost, carried no
overtones of affection, and he eventually left the agency under a cloud in
1979; it remained unclear whether he resigned or was sacked.
Shackley's introduction to the intelligence world came in 1945 after the US
army discovered he was fluent in Polish (an inheritance from his immigrant
grandmother). As the cold war stirred into life, he was assigned to the
counter-intelligence corps in Germany, first in Nuremberg and later in
Berlin. On demobilisation, he planned to study law, but was recruited by
the newly formed CIA in 1951.
The details are inevitably shadowy, but he seems to have emerged as an
effective, self-promoting organisation man, a dab hand with flow charts and
paperwork. Within a decade, he had become station chief in Miami, running
one of the CIA's largest operations, focusing mainly on Fidel Castro.
Much of his effort went into sending sabotage teams into Cuba and trying to
build a network of local spies. Neither had much impact, but subsequent
freelance activities by some of his recruits brought the first rumours of
Shackley's involvement in drug trafficking.
These grew stronger when he was transferred to Laos in 1966, and began
recruiting Hmong tribesmen to attack North Vietnamese supply convoys on the
Ho Chi Minh trail. In the complex political manoeuvring between local
warlords, the Laotians' usual currency was heroin, later alleged to be the
principal source of the drugs used by America's demoralised troops in Vietnam.
When the Laotian operation was abandoned by the Johnson administration
(with 20,000 Hmong recruits killed and many more forced into exile),
Shackley was transferred to Saigon. After the CIA's disastrous failure to
detect the North Vietnamese build-up for the 1968 Tet offensive, he laid
great emphasis on intelligence gathering. His subordinates, however,
complained that he always wanted their reports to have a positive tone, a
requirement that probably contributed to the Nixon administration's later
misjudgment of the military situation.
In 1972, Shackley returned to Washington to run the CIA's western
hemisphere division, responsible for activities in central and south
America. He played a major role in the campaign against the Allende
government in Chile, and in the September 1973 military coup which brought
General Pinochet to power.
That success brought Shackley promotion to associate deputy director for
operations, the CIA's third most senior post. But his accession came just
as the storm clouds were gathering in Washington, and the senate
intelligence committee wanted to know just what the agency had been up to
in Chile - and in the Watergate scandal.
The committee's report, listing dozens of illegal activities, was a
bombshell. The newly-elected President Carter put Admiral Stansfield Turner
in charge of the CIA, with instructions to clean it up. Many of those
involved in clandestine operations were sacked, and Shackley was sidelined,
at least until it emerged he was a close associate of Edwin Wilson, a
former spy eventually jailed for arranging illegal arms sales.
Shackley left the CIA in 1979 to run his own consulting firm, from where he
continued to associate with old colleagues in the arms trade. Some were
later jailed for their part in the Iran-Contra scandal, but no charges were
laid against Shackley. His associates were also questioned by a senate
sub-committee about involvement in the drug-trafficking activities of the
Contra rebels. Once again, nothing was clearly established, though one of
the central figures was named as a drug trafficker by the Costa Rican
government, and was summarily expelled from the country.
Shackley is survived by his wife Hazel, and their daughter.
· Theodore G 'Ted' Shackley, intelligence agent, born July 16 1927; died
December 9 2002
