Terry Ward

Terry Ward ( spook)
Born	8 March 1938  Altoona,  Pennsylvania,  USA
Died	27 November 2023 (Age 85)
Nationality	US
Alma mater	•  University of Pennsylvania •  Wharton School
Senior CIA spook who as Chief of the Latin America Division oversaw a policy of death squads in Central America.  CIA/European Division/Bern Station/Chief In office 1993 - 1995  CIA/Latin American Division/Chief In office 1989 - 1992 Preceded by Jay Gruner Succeeded by Jack Devine  CIA/Latin American Division/Tegucigalpa Station/Chief In office 1987 - 1988 Supervising the CIA's Nicaraguan Contras operation

Terry R. Ward was a senior CIA spook who as Chief of the Latin America Division oversaw a policy of systematic torture and death squads in Central America. In 1995, after investigations by the CIA's own inspector general and by the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, John Deutch fired Ward and another CIA officer. Ward had misled Congress and the US embassy in Guatemala regarding the relationship between the CIA and a Guatemalan colonel (a paid CIA informer) involved in the murders of an American citizen and a Guatemalan who was married to an American citizen. To illustrate what the CIA thought of this, in the year 2000 Ward received the agency's Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal.

Education

Ward attended the University of Pennsylvania where he played varsity football and lacrosse. From an early age he had a love and talent for music, playing piano, clarinet and saxophone with various orchestras and bands.

He graduated in 1960 from the Wharton School with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and in 1981 from the National War College with a Master’s degree.

Career

Ward and George HW Bush, presumably in the 1980s.

According to State Department biographical registers and journalistic accounts Terry R. Ward, started his career at the CIA in the early 1960s, initially in Laos as a paramilitary officer. He then worked under diplomatic cover in a series of CIA stations in Latin America: Argentina in 1965 to 1968, the Dominican Republic from 1968 to 1970, Bolivia from 1970 to 1972, Venezuela from 1973 to 1975, and Peru from 1975 to 1977. By the middle 1980s, he had risen to the position of deputy chief of the Latin American division of the CIA's directorate of operations. In 1987 and 1988, he was station chief in Honduras, supervising the CIA's Nicaraguan contra operation. In early 1989, he returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, as chief of the Latin American division. In 1993 he became station chief in Switzerland, where he was when CIA director John Deutch fired him in 1995. For reasons of privacy, we have deleted the name of Ward's wife.

WSWS observed that "There is a glaring 10-year gap in Ward's official career, from 1977 through 1986. This corresponds to the period of the most intensive US involvement in counterrevolutionary warfare and terrorism in Central America, first in supporting the right-wing death squad regime in El Salvador, then in backing a policy of mass murder against the insurgent Indian population in Guatemala, and finally in the illegal war against the nationalist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, which extended from 1983 to 1989. Given Ward's record, and his subsequent promotion to head the Latin American Division, it is only reasonable to assume that he played a significant role in those bloody events."

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