Richard M. Bissell

From Wikispooks
Revision as of 10:39, 30 October 2023 by Terje (talk | contribs) (alma mater)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Person.png Richard M. Bissell   Powerbase SpartacusRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(spook)
Richard Bissell.jpg
BornRichard Mervin Bissell Jr.
September 18, 1909
Hartford, Connecticut
DiedFebruary 7, 1994 (Age 84)
Farmington, Connecticut, United States
Alma matero Groton School, Yale, London School of Economics
Member ofJFK/Assassination/Perpetrators, The Georgetown Set

Employment.png Director of the National Reconnaissance Office

In office
September 1961 - February 1962
Co-director with Joseph V. Charyk

Employment.png CIA/Deputy Director for Plans Wikipedia-icon.png

In office
1 January 1959 - 17 February 1962
Preceded byFrank Wisner
Succeeded byRichard Helms

Not to be confused with Richard E. Bissell, of USAID.

Richard Mervin Bissell Jr. was a US spook.

Bckground

Richard Bissell studied history at Yale University, and was tapped, but declined membership in Skull and Bones, although his brother William joined.

Career

Frank Wisner persuaded him to join the Central Intelligence Agency. Bissel became a senior CIA officer responsible for major projects such as the U-2 spy plane and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. According to the Independent, Bissell was "the central covert operations man in the Central Intelligence Agency for the central period of the cold war":

Not the most well-known nor the highest-ranking official, Bissell was the man who planned and gave the orders for such low points in American cold-war dirty tricks as the overthrow of Patrice Lumumba, the disastrous invasion of Cuba and the numerous (failed) attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro.[1]

 

A Document by Richard M. Bissell

TitleDocument typePublication dateDescription
Document:1968 Bissell Meetingspeech1968Spook meeting discussing the inner workings of the CIA

 

Events Participated in

EventStartEndDescription
Colloquium on Counterintelligence24 April 198026 April 1980Spooky 1980 Washington conference
Colloquium on Intelligence and Policy9 November 198410 November 1984A spooky conference in November 1984
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References

  1. Phillip Frazer, Obituary: Richard Bissell, Independent, 3 March 1994.