Herschel Peak
 Herschel Peak  ( spook) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 1924 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | US | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | UCLA | ||||||||||||||||||
CIA spook who led counterinsurgency campaigns in several countries, and also was Chief of Covert Action for Latin America in the 1960s.
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Herschel F. Peak was a CIA spook who led counterinsurgency campaigns in several countries, and also was Chief of Covert Action for Latin America in the 1960s.
Education
He graduated from UCLA in February 1945. He then served on in the navy in the last months of the Pacific war.
Career
He applied to join the newly created Central Intelligence Agency. That led to an Assignment to the Embassy in Mexico City in 1951. In 1954, he went to Madrid, Spain.[1]
In 1958, he was assigned to the Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. He worked there for five years, the last two as Chief of Station, where he played a role in counterinsurgency.[1]
He was then assigned to CIA headquarters in Langley as Chief of Covert Action for Latin America.[1]
He was posted four years as Chief of Station in Lima, Peru. He returned to Langley for two years as Chief of the Italian Branch.
He then was appointed Chief of Station in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the period when Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown and a communist government took over.[1][2]
Herschel "retired" in 1975, but was hired in for special ops, including an eight-month tour in 1977 to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), supporting the white minority government.[1]
He was employed by the Monterey Institute of International Studies in 1978; where he worked in various staff capacities for 12 years, lastly as Director of Public Relations.[1]
