James Schlesinger

James Schlesinger
Born	James Rodney Schlesinger 1929-02-15 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	2014-03-27 (Age 85) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Alma mater	Harvard University
Children	8
Spouse	Rachel Line Mellinger
Member of	Association of Former Intelligence Officers, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, British-North American Committee, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Homeland Security Advisory Council, Mitre Corporation, RAND/Notable Participants
Party	Republican
United States Secretary of Defense In office July 2, 1973 - November 19, 1975 Succeeded by Donald Rumsfeld  Director of Central Intelligence In office February 2, 1973 - July 2, 1973 Preceded by Richard Helms Succeeded by William Colby  United States Atomic Energy Commission In office 1971 - 1973  United States Secretary of Energy In office August 6, 1977 - August 23, 1979  Chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission In office 1971 - 1973

"Someone once said that war is hell, and peace is heaven. But we know that the opposite is true: War is heaven, and peace is hell."

James R. Schlesinger, honorary chairman of the OSS Society and member of the AFIO, in a speech to the Military Order of the Carabao.

Affiliations

• Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs International Advisory Council
• Committee on the Present Danger (1976 version)

 

An appointment by James Schlesinger

Appointee	Job	Appointed	End
William Colby	Head of Clandestine Branch ?	1973	September 1973

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Australia/1975 coup d'état	“There were a number of points of tension between Whitlam's government and the United States intelligence apparatus. Whitlam had close ties with the United States, in 1964 receiving a "Leader" travel grant from the U.S. Department of State to spend three months studying under U.S. government and military officials. After coming to power, Whitlam quickly removed the last Australian troops from Vietnam. Whitlam government ministers criticised the US bombing of North Vietnam at the end of 1972. The US complained diplomatically about the criticism. In March 1973, US secretary of State William Rogers told Richard Nixon that "the leftists [within the Labor Party would] try to throw overboard all military alliances and eject our highly classified US defence space installations from Australia". In 1973, Whitlam ordered the Australian security organisation ASIS to close its operation in Chile, where it was working as a proxy for the CIA in opposition to Chile's president Salvador Allende. Whitlam's Attorney-General Lionel Murphy used the Australian Federal Police to conduct a raid on the headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in March 1973. CIA Chief of Counter-Intelligence, James Angleton, later said Murphy had "barged in and tried to destroy the delicate mechanism of internal security". Australian journalist Brian Toohey said that Angleton considered then Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam a "serious threat" to the US and was concerned after the 1973 raid on ASIO headquarters. In 1974, Angleton sought to instigate the removal of Whitlam from office by having CIA station chief in Canberra, John Walker, ask the director general of ASIO, Peter Barbour, to make a false declaration that Whitlam had lied about the raid in Parliament. Barbour refused to make the statement. In 1974, Whitlam ordered the head of ASIO, Peter Barbour, to sever all ties with the CIA. Barbour ignored Whitlam's order and contact between Australian and US security agencies was driven underground. Whitlam later established a royal commission into intelligence and security. Jim Cairns became Deputy Prime Minister after the 1974 election. He was viewed by US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and defence secretary James Schlesinger as "a radical with strong anti-American and pro-Chinese sympathies". The US administration was concerned that he would have access to classified United States intelligence. Whitlam instantly dismissed ASIS chief WT Robinson in 1975 after discovering ASIS had assisted the Timorese Democratic Union in an attempted coup against the Portuguese administration in Timor, without informing Whitlam's government. Whitlam threatened to reveal the identities of CIA agents working in Australia. He also threatened not to renew the lease of the US spy base at Pine Gap, which was due to expire on 10 December 1975. The US was also concerned about Whitlam's intentions towards its spy base at Nurrungar.”	Wikipedia	2022

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.

References

This is a page stub. Please add to it.