OBITUARIES James Angleton, Ex-Chief of Counterintelligence, Dies
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OBITUARIES believe this is still true. This is a measure of what Mr. Angleton ac- complished. But some thought the price was too high. As Mr. Angleton cast a James Angleton, Ex-Chief wider and wider net of suspicion, brilliant careers in the CIA itself were blighted, according to former Of Counterintelligence, Dies high officials. 14) A famous incident involved Ana- By Richard Pearson 51I'l 1 toli Golitsin, a Soviet defector who Wsehinglnn Net Stiff Writer in 1962 told Mr. Angleton that a helping establish what came to be Soviet "mole" had infiltrated the James J. Angleton, 69, a retired the CIA's "special relationship" with CIA and that a "false" defector head of counterintelligence at the Israel's secret service, the Mossad, would soon arrive to discredit what CIA, where he gained, a reputation that resulted in the United States Golitsin had said. A year later, Yuri as a brilliant, tireless, single- obtaining vast quantities of data on Nosenko defected from the Soviets minded, and, even by agency stan- Soviet military hardware and on and told the CIA that Golitsin could dards, mysterious guardian of the conditions in the Soviet Union. not be trusted. Mr. Angleton chose nation's secrets, died of cancer yes- He was credited by some with to believe Golitsin and so he kept terday at Sibley Memorial Hospital. helping expose Kim Philby, the for- Nosenko in jail for three years while Mr. Angleton joined the CIA mer high official of Britain's MI6 he frantically and fruitlessly shortly after it was formed in 1947 (Secret Service) who fled to Mos- searched for the "mole." Nosenko's and he helped organize its clandes- cow in 1963. Philby spied for the release finally was ordered by CIA tine side—the part that spies as Soviet Union for 30 years and he director Richard Helms. distinct from the part that gathers was a colleague of Donald Maclean Mr. Angleton's critics cited this intelligence from published sources and Guy Burgess, the famous Soviet incident as an example of what they or by other legal means. In 1954, spies who fled the West in the early believed to be counterproductive in he was named head of counterintel- 1950s. his work. There even were stories ligence—the part that protects the Mr. Angleton helped develop the that the counterintelligence chief organization and all its works from trail that led to Rudolf Abel, the had been investigated as a possible hostile services. He held that job KGB colonel who was a major So- "mole" himself. until early 1975, when he was viet spy in the United States in the forced to resign. 1950s. Abel was traded in 1961 for In the course of his career, Mr. Francis GaryGa Powers, the American Angleton became one of the most The criticism came to a head af- U-2 pilot who had been shot down celebrated intelligence officers of ter William E. Colby, another ca- while flying a spy plane mission his time. Stooped. lean, professorial reer officer of achievement, became over the Soviet Union in May 1960. and chain-smoking, he wrote poetry director of central intelligence in And he helped uncover Soviet and grew orchids for relaxation. 1973. In his memoirs, "Honorable spies who had penetrated intelli- And though his detractors were Men," Colby wrote that after he gence or security agencies in numerous, no one denied that the took office he "looked in vain for France and West Germany. accomplishments of this secretive some tangible results in the coun- Perhaps his best-known feat was man were extraordinary. terintelligence field, and found little obtaining a copy of former Soviet In the end, however, there were or none. I did not suspect Angleton Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev's and his staff of engaging in improp- those who, despite his achieve- secret speech to the 20th Congress ments, appeared to believe that he er activities. I just could not figure of the Communist Party of the So- was becoming something of a lia- out what they were all doing." viet Union in 1956. In that speech, So Colby offered Mr. Angleton a bility to the agency to which he was Krushchev denounced the late dic- new job writing a manual on coun- so clearly devoted. Intelligence tator Josef Stalin. Almost a decade terintelligence work. Mr. Angleton work is secret and so are attempts earlier, Mr. Angleton obtained cor- refused and his resignation fol- to find out about it, it was Mr. An- respondence between Yugoslav lowed. gleton's task to expose what is in a leader Josip Broz Tito and Stalin James Jesus Angleton was born in certain sense unknowable. If he un- that foreshadowed Yugoslavia's de- Boise, Idaho. His father, James covered many enemy spies—and he fection from Moscow in 1948, the Hugh Angleton, had chased Pancho did that—he could never be certain first historic rift in the communist Villa into Mexico with Gen. John J. that another had not escaped him. world. (Black jack) Pershing, and while in His efforts to pierce this enigma Tom Braden, a journalist and for- eventually caused such disruption in Mexico, he had married a 17-year- tiler senior CIA official, wrote in old woman. The Angleton family the CIA that he fell from grace. 1974 that the CIA is the only major Mr. Angleton began to make his traveled to Europe in the 1920s, intelligence service inthe th world where the elder Angleton became reputation while he was still an which has never employed a "mole," head of National Cash Register's Army major serving in Italy in as deep-penetration agents were operations on that continent. World War II with the Office of dubbed by John Le Carre. High of- James Angleton was educated in Strategic Services, the predecessor ficials in the intelligence community England. He then entered Yale Uni- of the CIA. He was credited with versity where he became a scholar of Italian literature, specializing in Dante, and gained a great reputa- tion as a poet. He also was a fan of horse-racing, a competent poker player and an omnivorous reader. He and his roommate, the poet Reed Whittemore, founded the po- etry quarterly "Furioso" while still undergraduates. In addition to their own work, the magazine published poems by such figures as Ezra Pound, e.e. cummings, Archibald MacLeish and William Carlos Wil- liams. After Yale, Mr. Angleton went to Harvard University, where he studied law and business. In 1943, he went into the army for World War II sevice. In his service in Italy, his intel- ligence skills and distinctive airs made an impression. Gen. William (Wild Bill) Donovan, the head of the OSS, called him the OSS's "most professional counterintelligence officer." Others told of coming upon Mr. Angleton late at night reading and writing poetry. After the war, Mr. Angleton stayed in the Army, attaining the rank of major. He helped the Italian Christian Democratic Party of Al- ride de Gasperi turn back the com- munists at the polls in 1948 in what became known as "the miracle of '48." It was during this period that he made contacts with the Israelis that later became a special intelli- gence relationship. He then joined the CIA. Mr. Angleton, who lived in Ar- lington, is survived by his wife, Ci- cely d'Autremont Angleton of Ar- lington; three children, James Charles Angleton of Los Angeles, Guru Sangat Kaur of Great Falls, Va., and Lucy d'Autremont Angle- ton of Albuquerque, N.M.; one brother, Hugh Angleton of Boise, Idaho; two sisters, Carmen Angle- ton of Rome, Italy, and Delores Guarnieri of Florence, Italy, and two grandchildren. .