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Theodore Shackley, Enigmatic C.I.A. Official, Dies at 75 December 14, 2002 By DAVID STOUT WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 - Theodore G. Shackley, a legendary member of the C.I.A. who was known to colleagues as "the Blond Ghost" because of his light hair and mysterious ways, died on Monday at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 75. He had been suffering from cancer, said his daughter, Suzanne Shackley. Mr. Shackley was a three-time recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the C.I.A.'s highest honor. In nearly three decades of service with the agency, he was on the front lines, though surreptitiously, in the cold war against Communism. Mr. Shackley was the subject of the book "Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the C.I.A.'s Crusades," published by Simon & Schuster in 1994. The author, David Corn, described Mr. Shackley as one of the C.I.A.'s best and brightest, a good bet to become director of central intelligence, until his career ran off the tracks. In the book, Mr. Shackley came across as cold, calculating, almost bloodless - "weird," one colleague described him, recalling Mr. Shackley's manner and pale features. He served in the hot spots of West Berlin, Saigon and Vientiane, Laos, and other places in a career that lasted from 1951 to 1979. Along the way, he was involved in some of the spy agency's most famous and controversial undertakings. But not as many as his biographers have written, his daughter said today. She said her father was not involved in Operation Mongoose, an intelligence operation said to have been ordered by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to assassinate Fidel Castro. Nor, despite rumors to the contrary, was he involved, after leaving the C.I.A., in the Iran-contra arms-for-hostages scandal that rocked the administration of President Ronald Reagan, Ms. Shackley said. Ms. Shackley said she believed her father's assertions that he was not linked to those episodes, and believed similar statements from others in a position to know. Her father's supposed links to those affairs illustrate what happens "when fiction ultimately becomes `fact' " through endless repetition, Ms. Shackley said. But some facts of the clandestine agent's life are well established. Born in Springfield, Mass., on July 16, 1927, he grew up in West Palm Beach, Fla., and served in the Army during the post-war occupation of Germany. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in government and politics in 1951 and was soon recalled to the Army because of the Korean War. He never got to Korea. He was assigned to the C.I.A. instead. His first overseas assignment was West Berlin, a beehive of espionage during the cold war. In 1962, he became C.I.A. station chief in Miami, where he was assigned to help Cuban rebels bent on overthrowing Mr. Castro even after the Bay of Pigs debacle the year before. Next, he served in Vientiane, supervising a C.I.A. operation pitting Hmong tribesmen against the Pathet Lao, backed by the North Vietnamese. In the late 1960's, he became station chief in Saigon. Later, he served in Chile. In 1972, he returned to the Washington area to oversee the C.I.A.'s clandestine activities in the Western Hemisphere. In 1976, he was named associate deputy director for clandestine operations. From the C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Va., Mr. Shackley helped to coordinate counterintelligence operations and covert action around the globe. He had had a brilliant career. But the times were turning against him. Satellites began to take the place of spies in trench coats. Congressional scrutiny revealed that the C.I.A. had been involved in assassinations as well as intelligence-gathering in Southeast Asia. Then it came to light that Mr. Shackley was a close friend of Edwin Wilson, a former C.I.A. agent who was found to have illegally sold weapons to the Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi. In 1979, Mr. Shackley retired from the C.I.A. and founded Research Associates International Ltd., a Bethesda consulting firm specializing in analyzing risks and protecting executives. He wrote three books on intelligence and security, in which he continued to argue that counterinsurgency was an effective option, somewhere between total war and diplomacy, to further American goals. Mr. Shackley's daughter laughed softly when asked if she agreed with labels like "covert bureaucrat" and "coldly deliberate" that Mr. Corn and other chroniclers of her father's career have fixed to him. "That was not the man we knew," Ms. Shackley said. The real Ted Shackley was a man who cherished his hearth and home, told good jokes over fine wine and collected Oriental rugs, the daughter said. Mr. Shackley is survived by his wife, the former Hazel Tindol, whom he married in 1961; his daughter, of Pensacola, Fla., and two grandsons. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/14/obituaries/14SHAC.html?ex=1040873396&ei=1&en=ddd110eb68486c4e HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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