What the JFK Files Say
(documents mentioned in the article can be found here)
In late 2017, after the initial declassification of the JFK files by the National Archives, our history department sent out a FOIA request directed at the CIA for any documents related to four of the more suspicious characters associated with the JFK Assassination: David Phillips, Dave Morales, William Harvey, and E. Howard Hunt. After almost a year, we received a large packet containing over 400 pages from the agency. Much of it was mundane employment information, but some of it proved significant in terms of how the CIA regarded each of those individuals. The first three were generally held in high esteem by their employers. But in the case of Hunt, it appears to be a much more mixed legacy.
After the “successful” overthrow of Allende in Chile in 1973, a fitness report a year later described Phillips in glowing terms, suggesting he provided “excellent input into the improvement into operational matters” and handled his contacts with “great effectiveness.” If possible, Morales was held in even higher regard. A 1961 description of his job performance suggested he was the “finest all-around ops officer I have ever known” by his reviewer and “truly exceptional.” Another document described him simply as a “one-man gang.” Although he would ultimately get himself in hot water for his propensity to go rogue and his bitter criticism of Kennedy’s Cuba policy, there was still a level of respect Harvey earned that was apparent in his fitness reports which described him as someone willing to be involved in “highly sensitive” and “extremely political” operations, as well as having a group of officers loyal to him referred to as “Harvey men.”
In contrast, Hunt was to receive black marks based on his behavior and activities. A 1961 CIA memorandum pointed out that he had leaked sensitive information to Uruguayan officials, and questioned his sources of income considering the fact he had purchased a $70,000 home in D.C. Further, the document suggests the “Subject has been a problem in the past and apparently continues to be a problem.”
In the fall of 1964, Hunt was apparently engaged in illegal domestic surveillance of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. This author is uncertain as to who directed Hunt to conduct this operation, but one can speculate it wouldn’t be above his political opponent, LBJ, to order such a move. In all probability, this controversial operation led to Hunt being sent into an exile of sorts to an assignment overseas in Madrid. After reviewing Hunt’s personnel file in 1978, the House Select Investigator noted that Hunt attributed an ulcer he developed to “Agency failure to assign me to an appropriate post abroad…”
Beginning in 1965, Hunt operated inside and outside the agency, sometimes doing contract work, before his permanent retirement in 1970. In 1968, Hunt was reprimanded for leaving a safe full of sensitive documents open, which is somewhat ironic considering four years later Hunt’s team of burglars were caught in the Democratic headquarters while attempting to break into another safe.
Hunt‘s novel writing sometimes got him in trouble with the CIA, since his works were oftentimes thinly veiled depictions of agency methods and sensitivities. At one point, when he was brought in over this matter, Hunt inquired of his interrogators as to whether he was to be audiotaped, demonstrating a level of distrust on his part toward the agency.
Upon his retirement in 1970, Hunt received a standard letter from DCI Dick Helms wishing him “good luck and best wishes.” In contrast, upon Harvey’s retirement a few years later, Helms would send a much more appreciative and gracious letter thanking him for his loyalty, no doubt because Harvey promised confidentiality in an exit meeting.
After Hunt’s Watergate escapades and eventual arrest, the CIA found itself scrambling to limit the significance of their involvement with him. The CIA’s Chief Counsel Lawrence Houston recounted in a 1973 document that his last contact with Hunt was at an airport in May of 1971, when they briefly discussed his retirement annuity. In that same document, it mentions the mysterious Ed Lansdale hadn’t had any contact with the aforementioned since the 1950s.
Two important things can be gathered from the declassified documents regarding Hunt. First, it is clear he had a life-long problem with money. He apparently often lived beyond his means and was constantly looking for ways to generate more income. That may, in turn, have led him to engage in more dangerous operations. Second, the various incidents and responses by the CIA listed above indicate Hunt did, indeed, have a strained relationship with the agency. It is not hard to understand why, years later towards the end of his life, Hunt did not hesitate to finger CIA officers Cord Meyer, William Harvey, David Phillips, and Dave Morales with participating in the JFK assassination.