Theodore Shackley

2025-10-31T02:26:57Z

35.33.224.106: My mother was Ted Shackley's first wife. I published the truth.

{{Short description|CIA officer}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Theodore George Shackley, Jr.
| image = Theodore Shackley.png
| caption =
| other_name = Andrew K. Reuteman
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1927|07|16}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|2002|12|09|1927|07|16}}
| birth_place = [[West Palm Beach]], [[Florida]], U.S.
| death_place = [[Bethesda, Maryland]], U.S.
| placeofburial =
| placeofburial_label = Place of burial
| alma_mater = [[University of Maryland]]
| allegiance = {{Flag|United States of America}}
| serviceyears = 1945–1953 (Army)<br />1953–1979 (CIA)
| branch = {{Army|United States|size=23px}}<br />{{Flagicon image|Flag of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.svg|size=23px}} [[Central Intelligence Agency]]
| rank = [[File:US-O1 insignia.svg|9px]] [[Second lieutenant|Second Lieutenant]] (Army)<br />Paramilitary Operations Officer (CIA)
| unit = U.S. Army
* [[United States Army Counterintelligence|U.S. Army Counterintelligence]]
Central Intelligence Agency
* [[Special Activities Division]]
| battles = [[Vietnam War]]
| awards =
}}

'''Theodore George "Ted" Shackley, Jr.''' (July 16, 1927 – December 9, 2002) was an American [[CIA]] [[intelligence agent|officer]] involved in many important and controversial CIA operations during the 1960s and 1970s. He is one of the most decorated CIA officers. Due to his "light hair and mysterious ways", Shackley was known to his colleagues as "the Blond Ghost".<ref name="The New York Times; December 14, 2002">{{cite news |last=Stout |first=David |author-link=David Stout |date=December 14, 2002 |title=Theodore Shackley, Enigmatic C.I.A. Official, Dies at 75 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/14/us/theodore-shackley-enigmatic-cia-official-dies-at-75.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=July 1, 2015}}</ref>

In the early 1960s, Shackley's work included being station chief in [[Miami]], during the period of the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], as well as the [[Cuban Project]] (also known as Operation Mongoose), which he directed. He was also said to be the director of the "[[Phoenix Program]]" during the [[Vietnam War]], as well as the CIA station chief in Laos between 1966 and 1968, and [[Saigon]] station chief from 1968 through February 1972. In 1976, he was appointed Associate [[Deputy Director for Operations]], second in charge of CIA [[covert operations]].<ref name=miami/>

==Early years==
Shackley was born on July 16, 1927, and raised in [[West Palm Beach]], [[Florida]]. He enlisted in the [[U.S. Army]] on October 23, 1945, at [[Springfield, Massachusetts]] as a [[Private (rank)|private]], eventually becoming part of the [[Allies of World War II|Allied Occupation Force]] in [[Allied-occupied Germany|Germany]] on completion of [[basic training]]. Due to his knowledge of the [[Polish language]] (his mother was a Polish immigrant), he became a [[Army recruit|recruit]] of [[United States Army Counterintelligence|U.S. Army Counterintelligence]] (ACI). As an army recruit he studied at the [[University of Maryland, College Park|University of Maryland]], and returned to Germany as a [[Second lieutenant|2nd Lieutenant]] in 1951. Again he served as a member of Army Counterintelligence, where his linguistic skills were used in the recruitment of Polish agents. It was at this time that he was recruited by the CIA, and in 1953 he was assigned to work under [[William King Harvey]] at the CIA's [[Berlin]] Base. In 1961, Shackley married Hazel Tindol Shackley of Bethesda. He was previously married to Elizabeth Ann Brown, whom he left for his secretary.

==Miami and the Cuban crisis==
During the period (1962–1965), Shackley was station chief in [[Miami, Florida]]. While heading the CIA office (known as "[[JMWAVE]]") shortly after the 1961 [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], Shackley dealt with operations in Cuba (alongside [[Edward Lansdale]]). JMWAVE employed more than 200 CIA officers, who handled approximately 2,000 Cuban agents. These included the famous "Operation Mongoose" (aka "[[The Cuban Project]]"). The aim of this was to "help Cubans (exiles) overthrow the Communist regime" (of [[Fidel Castro]] Ruz). During this period as Miami Station Chief, Shackley was in charge of about 400 agents and general operatives (as well as a huge flotilla of boats), and his tenure there encompassed the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] of October 1962. Shackley's alias was Andrew K. Reuteman while JMWAVE chief.

==Vietnam, Laos, and the "Phoenix Program"==
[[File:Ted Shackley.jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Polgar]] (far right) takes command of the CIA station in Saigon, January 1972. At left is former Station Chief Ted Shackley, heading back to a new assignment in Washington. In the middle is General [[Creighton Abrams]], head of the [[Military Assistance Command Vietnam]] (MACV).]]
In 1966, Shackley moved on to the [[Vietnam War]], becoming the CIA station chief in Laos between 1966 and 1968, where he directed the CIA's secret war against the [[North Vietnam]]ese forces in Laos. He also helped coordinate local army efforts against the [[Pathet Lao]] and [[North Vietnamese Army]] in the northern regions of Laos.<ref>General Bruce Palmer, Jr., US Intelligence and Vietnam. Special Issue: Studies in Intelligence. Central Intelligence Agency: Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1984. Also see Harold P. Ford, CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers: Three Episodes, 1962-1968. Central Intelligence Agency: Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1999. For the estimates themselves see John K. Allen, Jr., et al., eds. Estimative Products on Vietnam, 1948-1975 (NIC 2005-03). Director of National Intelligence: National Intelligence Council, 2005</ref><ref>Victor B. Anthony and Richard P. Sexton, ''The War in Northern Laos, 1954-1973''. Washington: Office of Air Force History, 1993. Posted in National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 248, "Fighting the War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973," April 9, 2008.</ref> In late 1968, he then moved to [[Saigon]] to become station chief for Vietnam. Shackley was responsible for running the [[Phoenix Program]] and the [[Provincial Reconnaissance Unit]]s (PRUs), a secret assassination and capture campaign aimed at members of the [[Viet Cong]] infrastructure. However, in his memoirs Shackley claimed that he had not been the mastermind of the Phoenix Program (which had already started before his arrival in Saigon) and did not approve of it, given its disappointing effectiveness in producing intelligence material and "its poor press image" of being an assassination program rather than one for information procurement.<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Shackley |author2=Finney |title=Spymaster |year=2005 |page=233}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Corn |title=Blond Ghost |year=1994 |page=175}}</ref> In November 1969, he decided a six-months "phase-out" of CIA's involvement in the program before transferring it under South Vietnamese control, CIA agents being replaced by [[Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support|CORDS]] personnel.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Alfred W. McCoy |author-link=Alfred W. McCoy |title=Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=2012 |pages=93–94}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Mark Moyar |title=Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism in Vietnam |edition=2nd |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2007 |pages=82–83}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Corn |title=Blond Ghost |year=1994 |pages=193–194}}</ref>

Shackley served in South Vietnam through February 1972 when he returned to [[Langley, Virginia]].<ref>John Prados, Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 105-131. A paperback edition of this book will be published in the fall of 2009 by University Press of Kansas under the title William Colby and the CIA. For the role of President Kennedy see National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book no. 101, "JFK and the Diem Coup," November 5, 2003 (Archive website). For a different view see Howard Jones, Death of a Generation: How the Assassinations of Diem and JFK Prolonged the Vietnam War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.</ref> According to Thomas Bodenheimer and Robert Gould, Shackley was linked to the Australian [[Nugan Hand Bank]] where heroin trade profits worth millions of dollars were transferred to after the [[Fall of Saigon]] in 1975.<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Thomas Bodenheimer |author2=Robert Gould |title=Rollback!: Right-wing Power in U.S. Foreign Policy |publisher=South End Press |year=1989 |page=72}}</ref>

==Western Hemisphere Division and Chile==
From May 1972, Shackley ran the CIA's "[[Western Hemisphere]] Division".<ref>{{cite book|last=Prados|first=John|title=Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA|date=2006|publisher=Ivan R. Dee|isbn=9781615780112|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3OCDelYICIsC&pg=PA419 419]}}</ref> When Shackley took over the division, one mission for him was "regime change" in Chile ([[United States intervention in Chile]] / [[Project FUBELT]]).<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Shackley |author2=Finney |title=Spymaster |year=2005 |pages=265–270}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Corn |title=Blond Ghost |year=1994 |pages=245–252}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=Stephen Kinzer |author-link=Stephen Kinzer |title=Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq |publisher=Times Books |year= 2006 |page=190}}</ref>

During this time, Shackley also dealt with the case of ex-CIA officer [[Philip Agee]], who was suspected of having defected to Cuban intelligence. Agee had told acquaintances that he was going to write an exposé of the CIA (published in 1975 as ''Inside The Company: CIA Diary''). Shackley managed to get a copy of Agee's book before it was published, and according to journalist [[David Corn]], even arranged for Agee to receive a bugged typewriter.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Corn |title=Blond Ghost |year=1994 |pages=231–239}}</ref>

==Associate Deputy Director for Operations==
In May 1976, Shackley was made Associate Deputy Director for Operations, serving under CIA director [[George H. W. Bush]]. After [[Jimmy Carter]] had succeeded [[Gerald Ford]] as President and replaced Bush with [[Stansfield Turner]], Shackley was relieved of his post in December 1977, before officially retiring from the organization in 1979 – when the Carter administration announced wide cuts in the CIA's network of officers and informants.<ref name=miami>{{cite news |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Carol |title=CIA spy master Ted Shackley dies at 75 |url=https://www.cubanet.org/htdocs/CNews/y02/dec02/13e5.htm |work=[[Miami Herald]] |date=December 13, 2002}}</ref> Reportedly, he was forced out of the CIA by Turner who disapproved of Shackley's involvement with former officer [[Edwin P. Wilson]], who was under federal investigation for smuggling explosives to Libya.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

Shackley was suspected by federal prosecutor [[Lawrence Barcella]] to be part of Wilson's ''Egyptian-American Transport and Services Corporation'' (EATSCO), a front for his arms smuggling which was also accused of fraudulently billing the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]]. At that time, Shackley claimed that he would have become CIA director if President [[Gerald Ford]] had been reelected in 1976 and that only this investigation kept him from becoming CIA director or deputy director under new president [[Ronald Reagan]].<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Jonathan Marshall |author2=Peter Dale Scott |author3=Jane Hunter |title=The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in the Reagan Era |publisher=Black Rose Books |year=1987 |page=41}}</ref> In 1982, Wilson was convicted for selling 22 tons of [[Composition 4|C4]] [[plastic explosive]] to [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]]'s Libya, and also on the charge of exporting guns. On October 29, 2003, the conviction on the explosives charge was reversed.

==Iran–Contra affair==
On February 5, 1987, Shackley was interviewed by the [[Tower Commission]] investigating the [[Iran–Contra affair]].<ref>{{cite book |author=President's Special Review Board |author-link=Tower Commission |title=Report of the President's Special Review Board |url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pur1.32754062647601;view=2up;seq=1 |date=February 26, 1987 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |page=F-1 |oclc=15243889 |ref={{harvid|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987}}}}</ref> Shackley reported that he met with General [[Manucher Hashemi]], the former head of [[SAVAK]]'s counterintelligence division, in [[Hamburg]], [[West Germany]], in November 1984.{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-3}} There, Hashemi introduced Shackley to [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], stating that Ghorbanifar's contacts in Iran were "fantastic".{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=III-5}}{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-3}} Ghorbanifar, known to the CIA as a person of questionable reliability and veracity, attempted to show that he and Hashemi had influence in Iran by stating that the Iranians would be willing to trade captured Soviet equipment for [[BGM-71 TOW|TOW missiles]].{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-3}} Ghorbanifar also proposed that a cash payment be offered as ransom for the four American hostages held in Beirut, Lebanon (which included [[William Francis Buckley]]{{Efn|Vernon Walters did not respond to or resolve the problem of William Francis Buckley's capture, who was later tortured to death by the Iranians.|group=lower-roman}}) and that he act as the intermediary.{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=III-5}}{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-3}} Shackley stated that Ghorbanifar presented a deadline of December 7, 1984.{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-3}}

Shackley prepared a memorandum regarding the proposal and sent it to General [[Vernon A. Walters]] with the [[United States Department of State]].{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=III-5}}{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-4}} According to Shackley, the State Department responded, stating that they would attempt to solve the problem through other channels. In May 1985, Shackley discussed the hostage issue with [[Michael Ledeen]] and shared that he had received no response from Walters regarding the report he had prepared regarding the November meeting with Ghorbanifar.{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-4}}{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-11}} Ledeen asked for a copy of the report and stated that others were still interested in investigating the hostage issue.{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-11}} In June, Shackley prepared an updated second report that outlined a similar proposal from Ghorbanifar in which he suggested a "discussion of a quid pro quo that involved items other than money."{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=III-5}}{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-4}}{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-11}} He gave the report to Ledeen, who forwarded it to [[Oliver North]], the [[staff officer]] on the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] responsible for [[counter-terrorism]].{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-4}}{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=B-11}} The report outlined a similar proposal from Ghorbanifar in which he suggested a "discussion of a quid pro quo that involved items other than money."{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=III-5}} It also received no response.{{sfn|Report of the President's Special Review Board|1987|p=III-5}}

On February 2, 1987, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' printed an article from Shackley in which he countered allegations that he was involved in the arms for hostages deal.<ref name="The Washington Post; February 2, 1987">{{cite news |last=Shackley |first=Theodore |date=February 2, 1987 |title='I Was Not a Participant in the Iran Weapons Transfer' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1987/02/02/i-was-not-a-participant-in-the-iran-weapons-transfer/d6846f64-fd93-44ca-a221-a9fbe4cccfd1/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=October 27, 2015}}</ref> After detailing his encounter with Ghorbanifar in Hamburg and the nature of his reports to the State Department and Ledeen, he wrote: "When anyone asserts that my intervention on behalf of the hostages shows that I must also have participated in the transfer of weapons to Iran and, therefore, must have helped supply the contras with funds, material or arms, I can only gape in amazement and conclude that there are those who have studied logic from a different textbook than I did. To make it plain, I have never played a role in any aspect of the transaction that led to an exchange of weapons for hostages, nor have I been a participant in any activities on behalf of the contras."<ref name="The Washington Post; February 2, 1987"/> Shackley concluded his statement: "I was not a participant in the Iran weapons transfer; I was not in the past, nor am I now, involved in providing aid of any kind of the contras; and I completely endorse the position that no U.S. intelligence operation that is in violation of an act of Congress should be undertaken."<ref name="The Washington Post; February 2, 1987"/>

==Christic Institute lawsuit==
In 1986, Shackley was named as one of thirty defendants in a $24 million civil lawsuit filed by attorney [[Daniel Sheehan (attorney)|Daniel Sheehan]]'s [[Christic Institute]]. The suit claimed Shackley was part of a conspiracy responsible for the [[La Penca bombing]], and a number of other covert operations.<ref name="Los Angeles Times; June 24, 1988">{{cite news |author= |title=Suit Alleging Plot by Contras, CIA Dismissed : Arms-Drug Smuggling, Conspiracy Charges Unproven, Judge Says |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-24-mn-5922-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |agency=AP |date=June 24, 1988 |access-date=October 26, 2015}}</ref><ref name="UPI; January 13, 1992">{{cite news |last=Henderson |first=Greg |date=January 13, 1992 |title=Court lets stand $1 million award against Christic Institute |url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/01/13/Court-lets-stand-1-million-award-against-Christic-Institute/2197695278800/ |newspaper=UPI |agency=UPI |access-date=October 26, 2015}}</ref>

Similar charges were made in a 1987 letter from the Burmese warlord [[Khun Sa]] to the U.S. Justice Department. The letter, which was transmitted by [[Bo Gritz|James "Bo" Gritz]], accused Shackley of organizing heroin smuggling from the [[Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)|Golden Triangle]] in the 1960s and 70s.<ref>House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pur1.32754077270076;view=2up;seq=1 Hearings of July 30 and July 15, 1987]</ref>

In 1988, the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida]] dismissed the Christic suit, after finding it to be [[frivolous litigation|frivolous]] and ordered the Institute to pay $955,000 in [[attorneys fees]] and $79,500 in [[court costs]].<ref name="Los Angeles Times; June 24, 1988"/><ref name="UPI; January 13, 1992"/> The ruling was subsequently upheld by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] and the [[Supreme Court of the United States]].<ref name="UPI; January 13, 1992"/>

==Death==
Shackley died from [[cancer]] at his home in [[Bethesda, Maryland]]. He was 75 years old.<ref name="The New York Times; December 14, 2002"/>

==References==
{{Reflist|group=lower-roman}}{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Theodore Shackley (1981). [https://archive.org/details/ShackleyThirdOption ''The Third Option: An American View of Counter-insurgency Operations''.] New York: [[McGraw-Hill]]. {{ISBN|0070563829}}.
* Theodore Shackley and Richard A. Finney (1992). [[iarchive:spymastermylifei0000shac|''Spymaster: My life in the CIA''.]] Nebraska: [[Potomac Books]]. {{ISBN|157488915X}}.
* [[David Corn]] (1994). [[iarchive:blondghosttedsha0000corn|''Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's Crusades''.]] New York: [[Simon & Schuster]] {{ISBN|0671695258}}.

==External links==
*[http://www.historicalmilitaria.com/Obituaries/Shackley.html Historical Militaria obituary for Ted Shackley]
*[http://www.bearcave.com/bookrev/blond_ghost.htm Blond Ghost by David Corn (extensive review of David Corn's Shackley biography)]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shackley, Theodore}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2002 deaths]]
[[Category:American anti-communists]]
[[Category:American people of Polish descent]]
[[Category:American spies]]
[[Category:CIA personnel of the Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Iran–Contra affair]]
[[Category:People of the Laotian Civil War]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal]]
[[Category:United States Army officers]]

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Theodore Shackley