A brief history of some of the most notable ‘Yale men’ at the CIA

“To a remarkable extent, the ethos first of the World War II Office of Strategic Services, and then of its offspring, the CIA, was influenced by Yale men.” — Godfrey Hodgson in The New York Times in 1987.

“The Ghost”

James Jesus Angleton, OSS and CIA

Few figures in espionage history stand out as starkly as Angleton, a Yale poet who went on to become the chief of CIA Counterintelligence from 1954 to 1975, leaving behind a tangled web of intrigue that continues to fuel conspiracy theories. Early in his career, he was a close friend of Kim Philby, a British intelligence officer stationed in Washington, D.C., who turned out to be a double agent for the Soviet Union. Later, based on what others felt was suspect testimony from a KGB defector to the U.S., Angleton became convinced that there was a high-ranking mole within the CIA. His Ahab-like quest to find the mole devoured resources and distracted from other intelligence-gathering efforts, according to many historians.

However, Jefferson Morley, author of The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton, says that the perception of Angleton as merely an obsessed mole hunter understates his role in the agency. Morley’s book details how Angleton launched mass surveillance by opening the mail of thousands of Americans and essentially set his own Middle East policy, and presents compelling evidence that Angleton obstructed the JFK assassination investigation.

But much of Angleton’s sensibilities as an intelligence officer were inspired by literature classes at Yale. “His literary bent and his fascination with literary criticism as a mode of analysis really had a strong resemblance to his intelligence thinking,” Morley says. “He would come to value coded language, textual analysis, ambiguity, and close control as the means to illuminate the amoral arts of spying that became his job,” Morley writes in his book. “Poetry gave birth to a spy.”

The charmer

Tracy Barnes, OSS and CIA

He helped plan the CIA-sponsored Guatemalan coup d’état in 1954 and was a key agency organizer of the disastrous Bay of Pigs. After leaving the agency, he returned to work at Yale in the president’s office. Those who know him recall his incredible charisma and likability.

The prisoner

John T. Downey, CIA

After graduating from Yale and joining the CIA, he was captured on a covert mission in China and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Chinese government. He was ultimately released after 20 years and became a New Haven judge before dying in 2014.

The director

Porter Goss, CIA

Recruited to the CIA while a Yale student in the early 1960s, the Waterbury native served in a variety of roles that remain classified. He left the agency due to a mysterious case of blood poisoning in 1972 rumored to have been a botched assassination attempt. He returned as CIA director from 2004 to 2006.

The preacher

William Sloane Coffin, CIA

Coffin joined the CIA after graduating from Yale in 1950. He soon became disillusioned with the agency’s regime-change efforts and left. He attended Yale’s Divinity School and became an ordained Presbyterian minister. As Yale’s chaplain, he gained national attention for his criticism of the Vietnam War and his support of students who opposed the draft. He was convicted of conspiracy to encourage draft evasion by the U.S. government, but the ruling was overturned on appeal.

The screenwriter

Joseph Weisberg

After graduating from Yale in 1987, Joseph Weisberg served as a CIA officer for three years. He would go on to become a TV writer and draw on his time in the agency as creator of the Cold War spy thriller The Americans.

“The Mayor of Area 51”

Richard Bissell, CIA

A Yale graduate who then taught economics on campus, Bissell founded Area 51 in order to test the U-2 spy plane. He also oversaw the development of the first spy satellite and was one of the chief architects of the Bay of Pigs. His involvement in the latter led to him leaving the agency.

The president

George H.W. Bush

The prominent Greenwich resident, Texas politician and Yale graduate was named CIA director in 1976 in the wake of the Watergate scandal and the leak of the CIA’s “Family Jewels,” an internal report detailing controversial activities by the agency dating back to the 1950s. Bush is described on the agency’s website as “a leader who restored the morale and reputation of the CIA.” He is the only president in U.S. history to have directed the CIA.

“The Father of Intelligence Analysis”

Sherman Kent, OSS and CIA

A Yale graduate and later history professor before joining the OSS in 1942 and then the CIA, he pioneered the art of intelligence analysis. The CIA named its school for the subject after him in 2000.

The professor

Norman Holmes Pearson, OSS

He oversaw the OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit in World War II. He returned to teaching after the war, helping to establish American Studies as a serious subject at Yale and beyond. He is believed to have kept an eye out for potential recruits on campus and encouraged other professors with agency connections to do the same.

The ambassador

James R. Lilley, CIA

A Russian major recruited to join the agency in the wood-paneled office of a professor he did not name in his memoir, Lilley worked in Asia for three decades before becoming a diplomat, including ambassador to China during the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Connecticut Magazine can be found

***