CIA ADivsor Leo M. CHerne

LEO MAX CHERNE
Leo was born in the Bronx, New York during nineteen twelve and he went to primary school on New York’s Lower East Side. He attended Morris High School, won the Harvard University prize for outstanding academic performance, and in the course of nineteen twenty-nine his father changed the family name from Chernetsky to Cherne. Leo prior attend New York University for journalism and would sometimes disguise himself to aqcuire leads or story information. He seemingly possessed a need to seek out perceived legal injustices and gain access to desired information. A related episode during the nineteen twenties had Cherne and his friend using false newspaper letterhead to impersonate reporters. They sought to gain entry to a social rally at Madison Square Garden they could not afford and their ruse was successful. Despite Cherne’s excellent reporting he decided to change career paths and enrolled at New York Law School amid nineteen thirty-one. Two year following he became the chairman of the International Rescue Committee, a volunteer humanitarian group that provided supplies to medical supplies to victims of dictatorships. After obtaining his law degree Leo would join the small law firm of Hugo Black amidst nineteen thirty-six.

Cherne eventually would partner with Karl Hovgard and they wrote a series of policy documents and books on New Deal programs. Cherne in time was asked to speak at government organizational meetings, business conferences, and his name became more prevalent in print media. Leo discussed the potential effects of WWII on US businesses and predicted America would entered the war amid nineteen thirty-nine and his reputation increased among business and government circles. He additionally was a faculty member of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service the same year. In that period, Cherne and Hovgard partnered to create an immensely successful publishing company, the Research Institute of America.

The nineteen forties had multiple high ranking military figures, members of the White House, and educational luminaries personally requesting Leo’s analysis and reports. Cherne’s influence with leading officials vastly increased the next decade and he spoke regularly at military, government, and business events. Cherne’s first use by the CIA occurred during nineteen fifty-one and he was granted a covert security clearance to provide cover for a related project. After three years had passed officials would enlist him to aid Project QKENCHANT, the project was used to recruit businesses and employees for cover purposes and provide them related classified information. Leo would travel frequently, aided humanitarian groups in and provided the Agency with foreign intelligence repeatedly in the course of the nineteen fifties. He subsequently would speak at Agency funded events as the nineteen seventies passed and presumably continued to offer intelligence gleaned from his travels for decades.

Cherne Following his LEGAL Education

Cherne also helped fund military support associations and wrote articles supporting his causes for several large media outlets while maintaining a largely unknown but impressive amount of political influence. Among his appointments was Vice Chairman of Ronald Reagan's Intelligence Advisory Board reviewing the CIA’s operations amongst the nineteen eighties. Leo was the consummate political operator who accomplished goals quickly and quietly while largely escaping notice despite constant maneuvering for thirty years in the US government’s ranks. Cherne had been the political ally of two Directors of Central Intelligence and the adviser to nine US presidents in varying capacities by the end of his career.