A review of the previous evolving structure of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) illustrated with official files and media reports. These documents focus on officials serving prior and during the King and Kennedy cases with additional biographic information.

"The Director of Central Intelligence is the head of the Central Intelligence Agency and is responsible for proper performance of the Agency's functions. In the performance of his duties, the Director shall exercise all powers inherent in the head of a department or agency of the Government...the Director is charged with carrying out of such specific statutory functions as are set forth in appropriate legislation."

Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter: He attended Annapolis then served in several posts as a supporting officer to various naval leaders and during early World War II was the Assistant Naval Attaché to France. Hillenkoetter later was the highest-ranking survivor from the battleship West Virginia that sank following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in nineteen forty-two. Subsequently while serving as an intelligence officer under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz he was appointed to lead the Intelligence Center for the United States Pacific Fleet. He feasibly was later chosen to lead the CIA because he according to one author he "demonstrated collection, reporting, analytic, and collection skills as a classic case officer." Hillenkoetter rose to Rear Admiral in nineteen forty-six and in nineteen forty-seven President Truman appointed him to direct the CIA. Hillenkoetter's tenure was marked with internal disputes and filled with vague and sometimes opposing guidelines from competing departments. The untenable position did not allow him to undertake assigned goals because his focus on intelligence neglected the expansion of paramilitary and psychological warfare other leaders desired.

Walter Bedell Smith: Smith was a veteran of both World Wars and instructed at the US Army School. He later served in the War Department; he was appointed Soviet ambassador, and eventually Director of Central Intelligence in nineteen fifty-three. According to one Agency historian, most early Directors of Central Intelligence wielded little influence and their political clout was also lacking due to failures that include misreading the signs leading to the Korean War. Yet Smith was responsible for constructing the Agency's directorate structure that still exists in modern times by redesigning the Agency's structure with military style elements and centralizing the group's operational divisions. He was known as a perfectionist who did not tolerate mediocrity and reportedly informed his subordinates at the first staff meeting that it would be interesting to see how many in attendance would remain in attendance months later. Smith proved to be one of the most influential early directors to wield power that concerned larger and better-funded departments.

Allen Welsh Dulles: Dulles was a former Office of Strategic Services (OSS) veteran, perceptive businessperson, led the CIA's Directorate of Operations, and subsequently rose to Director of Central Intelligence. He was later appointed to the President's Commission investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy and withheld critical information from official investigations to protect the clandestine operations of the Agency. He presided over a questionable and destructive period of the Agency's history in which tens of millions of dollars and several lives were unnecessarily wasted on plots and designs that had little chance of success. Some of these poorly conceived and executed undertakings include several failed assassination plots targeting enemy foreign leaders. 

John Alex McCone: McCone graduated from Berkeley College with an engineering degree to work for years in the steel industry as a riveter, boilermaker, and eventually manager. He became a millionaire after becoming President of the Joshua Hendy Corporation and was appointed to the Air Policy Commission, Special Deputy to the Secretary of Defense, and Under Secretary of the Air Force. McCone sought a nuclear testing ban while he led the Atomic Energy Commission and subsequent to the Bay of Pigs debacle President Kennedy appointed him as the Agency's DCI to replace Allen Dulles.

William Francis Raborn: Raborn served during WWII "in Washington and at sea" as a gunner, aircraft pilot, instructor, and military administrator. He also reportedly helped organize the Naval Fleet Ballistic Missile program and one related official stated "Mr. Raborn, trained in the military hierarchy, worked to satisfy President Johnson's demands the agency provide more intelligence and run clandestine operations in the (Vietnam) war." President Lyndon Johnson sought to expand the Vietnam War and this possibly influenced his selection of Raborn to rely on his extensive military record.

Richard McGarrah Helms: He was the grandson of corporate executive Gates McGarrah and studied for a time abroad in Switzerland where he learned multiple languages. Helms graduated from Williams College, was employed as a reporter by United Press in Europe, served in WWII, and joined the Office of Strategic Services. He joined the newly former Central Intelligence Agency in nineteen forty-seven and during his later tenure as Deputy Director of Plans supported Agency employees hiring criminal assassins for possible use in removing enemy world leaders. He further authorized utilizing Cuban exile leaders to murder Fidel Castro and would oversee multiple illegal operations and held among the most questionable of tenures as Deputy Director for Plans before he was appointed Director of Central Intelligence in nineteen sixty-six. 

Edwin Kennedy Wright: Wright joined the United States National Guard in nineteen twenty-two, the Army in nineteen twenty-three, and was subsequently assigned to the G-3 Army Operations Staff. He is reassigned under the command of General Omar Bradley during WWII and later directed the G-2 Intelligence Division of the US Army's general staff. Wright is later appointed to serve as the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence in the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), the predecessor organization of the Agency. He would remain in his position when the first Central Intelligence Agency Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter replaced CIG leader Sidney Souers. Wright is among the original leaders of the Agency that believed centralized administration of intelligence was vital and that internal disputes prevented the government from properly undertaking intelligence operations. Following Wright's dismissal, CIA Director Hillenkoetter would never reappoint anyone to fill the position and suffer later resulting political consequences.   

William Harding Jackson: He served in WWII on the staffs of multiple generals including Omar Bradley and later attended the Army Air Force Intelligence School. After briefly joining the Office of Strategic Services, Jackson became part of a three man investigating team with Allen Dulles to assess the CIA and its leadership. A year later he is appointed Deputy Director of Central Intelligence and US President Eisenhower subsequently charged Jackson to assess and improve psychological warfare under more legal democratic principles. According to his report, Jackson opposed "propaganda stunts" and "contrived ideas unrelated to stated policy" but later plotting and propaganda would suggest that Jackson's advisement was not taken. Eisenhower appointed Jackson to the position of special assistant in nineteen fifty-six and Jackson would advise the President to appoint Vice-President Richard Nixon to the National Security Council Operations Coordinating Board. This action would place Nixon in a key position to suggest and influence future disastrous policies that included a series of later failed assassination plots led by intelligence officials against Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.  

Charles Pearre Cabell: Around the beginning of the twentieth century he was born in Dallas and later graduated from the United States Military Academy in nineteen twenty-five. Cabell served in the 12th Field Artillery stationed at Fort Sam Houston and graduated from the Air Corps Primary Flying School in nineteen thirty-one. After spending time instructing at the Air Corps flying school, he was transferred to a series of observational air squadrons abroad and in the nineteen thirties Cabell would continue instructing while graduating himself from the Air Corps tactical school. He later graduated from the Command and General Staff school during nineteen forty and would assume command of the multiple bombardment wings during WWII in the European Theater. Subsequently he is appointed the US Strategic Air Force Director of Plans and months later military leaders direct Cabell to administrate operations and intelligence for the Mediterranean Allied Air Force. Following additional leadership appointments, he moves to the Air Force Headquarters during nineteen fifty-seven and is a deputy for the Joint Staff under the US military chiefs. The same year he enters dual service for the military and Central Intelligence Agency, and rose to become the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence under President John F. Kennedy. Following the Bay of Pigs disaster Cabell is among the leaders sent into retirement to appease public anger over the operational failure and later documents revealed his brother Earle Cabell was a CIA asset that served as the Mayor of Dallas in the nineteen sixties. Following retirement from the CIA such firms employed Charles Cabell as General Electric, the Sperry Rand corporation, the Hughes Air Craft company, and he also later worked for NASA in the role of consultant.

Marshall Sylvester Carter: He was born during nineteen ten in Virginia, later graduated from West Point Military Academy, and served in antiaircraft units during WWII. Carter became the staff assistant of General George Marshall and following the war continued advising Marshall when his old chief became the United States Secretary of State and later Secretary of Defense. He attended several important diplomatic gatherings in the early Cold War with General Marshall including one in Columbia that would later influence the dismissal of the CIA's first director and later Carter was the deputy commanding general of the US 71st Infantry in Alaska. Carter led the fifth region of the Army Anti-Aircraft Command at Fort Sheridan, would command the 8th Army in Korea, the Army Air Defense Center in Texas, and he was appointed by President Kennedy to serve as the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence during nineteen sixty-two. He would leave the CIA, retired from the US Army, and was appointed Director of the National Security Agency by the middle of the nineteen sixties.

Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Walter Bedell Smith divided the Central Intelligence Agency into Deputy Directorates by assigning the leader of each duties and projects related to their area of purview. Smith tasked all Deputy Directors with leading their respective hierarchy to serve the Agency's interests and further achieve their legal directive to gather foreign intelligence. The related Deputy Directorates were chronologically formed (Administration, Plans, Intelligence, and Science and Technology) to develop a suitable collaborative network.

The first Deputy Director of Administration (DDA) was appointed December 1, 1950 to manage the "overall support of all intelligence, operational, and related activities." This division was responsible for organizational administration, review, and support of the Agency's operations and the official title changed to Deputy Director of Support (DDS) on February 3, 1955.

Murray McConnell: He served on multiple corporate boards and was a member of the US Armed Forces Advisory Committee. McConnell was recruited by "...DCI Walter Bedell Smith and his DDCI, William Jackson, first as CIA Executive, 16 October 1950, and then appointed as first Deputy Director for Administration on 1 December 1950." He later acquired the reputation for buying distressed companies and returning them to profitability, yet McConnell officially remained in this leadership position only until his return to private business in spring of nineteen fifty-one. While his time in the Agency officially was limited, its organizational structure and his use of corporations for operational purposes might first be attributed to ideas of McConnell.                                                 

Walter Reid Wolf: He was born in New York in 1894, served in WWI, joined the Agency in nineteen fifty-one from the private business sector, and quickly was appointed as the Deputy Director for Administration. He recommended the CIA acquire a temporary headquarters in the former Riverside Stadium due to the aggressive expansion of Agency operations during the early nineteen fifties and this produced several unforeseen consequences. Wolf sat on the Executive board of multiple banks and sought to construct and adapt employee policies within the Agency to mixed results.

Lawrence Kermit White: White began his studies at West Point Academy July 1, 1929, following graduation he joined the US Army to serve repeatedly in the Pacific during WWII and was discharged after being seriously wounded. He joined the Agency under the leadership of Walter Bedell Smith and his subordinate Allen Dulles to build the Directorate for Administration. White proved instrumental in designing Agency retirement and training programs, establishing disability benefits, and selecting a new CIA headquarters. 

Robert Lee Bannerman: He graduated from George Washington University to work at the State Department in New York and Washington D.C. as a security officer and rose to direct its security officer. Bannerman created the State Security Office "within the Office of the Chief Special Agent (CSA)" and later served as Deputy Director and Director of CIA's Office of Security. He subsequently was elevated to Deputy Director for Support under DCI William F. Raborn and exercised control over training, monetary policies, and improving Agency security protocols.

Office of Security: "The Director of Security (DOS) is charged with the preparation of the Agency's security program and with the performance of security inspection functions..." Included among the responsibilities of the DOS was to "Obtain and evaluate through investigation, technical interrogation, and liaison contact with other United States agencies...Approve or Disapprove, from a security standpoint, the employment or utilization of individuals by the Agency, except certain approvals reserved for the Deputy Director (Plans)...Develop and conduct internal counterintelligence programs to detect and prevent hostile penetrations of the Agency through its employees...Furnish security advice and guidance to Agency employees."  

Officials established the Deputy Director for Operations (DDO) title December 1, 1950 with its purview including the creation and execution of secret operations and the collection of foreign intelligence. The Deputy Director title was changed to Deputy Director for Plans (DDP) and officials rebrand the Directorate as the Directorate for Plans on August 1, 1952. 

Frank George Wisner: He was a veteran of the Office of Strategic Services and the State Department. and following his employment with the CIA Wisner created a new group referred to as the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC). Wisner's OPC was soon competing with another Agency group the Office of Special Operations (OSO) but under the reorganization of the Agency that occurred under Director of Central Intelligence Smith the OSO was merged with OPC to become the Clandestine Service. Wisner oversaw a period guarding against Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe and administrated covert operation programs to gather intelligence and combat the Soviet threat. He later was appointed Deputy Director for Plans by Allen Dulles and following his retirement committed suicide due to severe depression.

Richard Mervin Bissell: He attended Yale University, was an economics instructor at MIT, a shipping executive, and subsequently was employed by the post war Economic Cooperation Administration. Bissell "helped design and develop the specifications" of the famed U2 spy plane and participated in the conception of Agency assassination plots to remove Fidel Castro. He was employed as the assistant to Agency Director Dulles and was the "principal architect" of the Bay of Pigs attack targeting Cuba. Before this event, he was a favored candidate to succeed Dulles as CIA Director but the failed attack would overshadow Bissell's prior contributions. CIA Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick would assign Bissell the greatest share of blame for the Bay of Pigs, a charge that Bissell would decades later refer to as a distortion.

Desmond FitzGerald: State Department official Frank Wisner recruited Harvard educated lawyer and WWII Army veteran Desmond FitzGerald for the Agency in nineteen fifty-one. FitzGerald later served as Station Chief in multiple Asian nations, was Director of Latin American operations, and was a member of the CIA's Special Affairs Staff. During the course of arranging the assassination of Fidel Castro FitzGerald eventually met a Cuban exile leader and high ranking Mafia members. Following his involvement in the Castro assassination plots, he was appointed Deputy Director for Plans by William F. Raborn, Jr. serving until his death two years later.                                                                                                                                  

Counter Intelligence Staff, Special Investigations Group (CI/SIG): The Special Investigations Group "Performs the CIA investigation of any known or potential security leak in the Clandestine Services organization, whether in headquarters or in the field, from the standpoint of its effect on (1) existing operations, and (2) the cover of personnel. In performing this function, maintains close working relations with the Security Office, the latter being primarily concerned in such cases from Agency security rather than an operational security standpoint." 

JMWAVE (Richmond Naval Air Station): A secret Agency domestic station founded in nineteen sixty-one and located at the south campus of the University of Miami. Officials from the JMWAVE station undertook repeated actions against Cuba and it was among the Agency's largest holdings worldwide. Multiple espionage actions used paramilitary mercenaries and Cuban exiles and JMWAVE developed repeated dangerous and unsanctioned plots for intelligence purposes against the Castro government. Despite the failure of the Bay of Pigs and the assassination of President Kennedy JMWAVE operations targeting Fidel Castro and the Cuban leadership continued years following those events.  

CHIEF OF STATION (COS)
Robert Davis (October 1961-February 1962)
Theodore Shackley (April 1962-June 1965) 
John Dimmer (June 1965-March 1967) 
 

January 1, 1952, the Office of Deputy Director of Intelligence (DDI) was established and "is responsible for directing and coordinating the activities of the Offices of Central Reference, Research and Reports, National Estimates, Current Intelligence, Scientific Intelligence, Operations, and Basic Intelligence, and the Photographic Intelligence Center." The DDI was designed for organizing all gathered intelligence sources to support Agency operations.

Loftus Eugene Becker: He was a Harvard Law School graduate and military adviser during the Nuremburg War Trials that was later recruited by Deputy Director of Central Intelligence William Jackson. He served in the Directorate for Plans and was an assistant to DCI Walter B. Smith before his appointment as the first Deputy Director for Intelligence. Following his resignation, he joined a law firm in Washington and provided legal advice to the US Department of State.

Robert Amory: Armory served in WWII and graduated from Harvard Law School and the Milton Academy. He later served on the National Security Council Planning Board and was a critic of the Bay of Pigs operation. Notably Armory was not consulted about the operation "despite his status as an official of the C.I.A. and the National Security Council." After his tenure as Deputy Director, Amory joined the Harvard Board of Overseers and served as general counsel for the National Gallery of Art. 

Ray Steiner Cline: One report states "He was an archetype of the young men who joined the agency in its infancy: high school football captain, Harvard man, wartime operative in the Office of Strategic Services, the nation's chief intelligence agency in World War II." Cline joined the Agency and became Station Chief in Taiwan from nineteen fifty-eight until nineteen sixty-two and subsequently he was appointed to lead the Agency station in Bonn, Germany. Officials utilize Cline to lead the Directorate of Intelligence during the early nineteen sixties and he served in the lead analyst position until the end of that decade. After his retirement as Deputy Director for Intelligence, Cline "served as the head of the Taiwan Committee for a Free China." 

Russell Jack Smith: After earning a PhD at Cornell in English Literature, Smith instructed at Williams College and later served in the Office of Strategic Services during WWII as a researcher. He served in the CIA precursor organization the Central Intelligence Group and was a member of the Agency Board of National Estimates. He became Deputy Director for Intelligence under DCI Raborn after closely serving with prior Deputy Director of Intelligence Ray Cline.

Domestic Contacts Service (DCS): Its Director was required to "Develop, coordinate, and carry out policies and programs for the collection of foreign intelligence information from selected individuals and organizations within the United States as a service of common concern." Additionally, they were required to "Operate a network of field offices within the United States for purposes of intelligence collection, operational support, and other assigned missions." "Develop and coordinate programs for the collection and technical analysis of Soviet, Satellite, and other foreign materials for intelligence purposes and to implement certain of those programs." "Administer facilities in the United States for the reception, exploitation, rehabilitation, and resettlement of selected defectors and other foreign nationals."

The Office of Deputy Director of Research (DDR) is established February 19, 1962, its first Deputy Director was replaced and their title was changed to Deputy Director of Science and Technology (DDS&T) August 5, 1963. The DDS&T was "responsible for conducting basic and applied research and development in the scientific community as well as all Government agencies on matter of science and technology in the intelligence as appropriate, and responsibility for furnishing technical planning, programming guidance, and support to other Agency components utilizing science and technology in support of their functions." 

Herbert Scoville: Herbert Scoville "was born in New York City on March 16, 1915. He was educated at Phillips Andover Academy and graduated from Yale in 1937" "Dr. Scoville received his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Rochester in 1942" and later worked for the National Research Committee, Atomic Energy Commission, and Defense Department. Despite official support, Scoville opposed continued nuclear testing after his experience at the Bikini Island atomic tests. He was made the "Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence" and subsequently is appointed Deputy Director for Research by DCI McCone.  

Albert Dewell Wheelon: Dr. Wheelon, a physicist and the son of an aerospace engineer became a Deputy Director at the age of 34. The Agency charged him with development and operation of "aerial surveillance systems, which the government considered a national imperative...He worked on developing and deploying spy planes like the U-2, the Lockheed A-12, and the SR71 Blackbird, and several generations of Corona reconnaissance satellites..." Additionally, Wheelon organized and implemented vital research and the development of digital satellite imaging techniques for modern intelligence gathering.

Carl Ernest Duckett: Duckett served in the US Army with distinction and joined the Agency during 1963. He was noted by Agency personnel to have been "...the founding father and visionary leader of the Foreign Missile and Space Analysis Center, which was the vanguard for the Intelligence Community's ability to understand threats posed by missiles and space-based weapons systems." As DDS&T, he authorized the recovery of a lost Russian submarine to study its components with the aid of millionaire Howard Hughes, but the recovery obtained merely a portion of the vessel and generated unwanted press attention.

Photographic Intelligence Center: "The Director of the Photographic Center is charged with producing photographic intelligence and providing photographic intelligence services in support of the Central Intelligence Agency and the intelligence community." The Center was required to produce "photographic intelligence in support of Agency and national scientific, military, economic, and geographic intelligence objectives...Maintain a photographic intelligence facility manned and equipped to provide complete analytic and technical photographic intelligence services in support of special collection and exploitation requirements."

Research by: C.A.A. Savastano