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Ray S. Cline

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For the musician, see Curly Ray Cline.

Ray Steiner Cline (June 4, 1918 – March 15, 1996) was an official at the United States Central Intelligence Agency and is best known for being the chief CIA analyst during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Ray S. Cline
At 1973 U.S. Intelligence Board, 4th from left
4th Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research
In office
October 26, 1969 – November 24, 1973
PresidentRichard Nixon
Secretary of StateWilliam P. Rogers
Preceded byThomas L. Hughes
Succeeded byWilliam G. Hyland
Personal details
Born
Ray Steiner Cline

(1918-06-04)June 4, 1918
Anderson Township, Clark County, Illinois, U.S.
DiedMarch 15, 1996(1996-03-15) (aged 77)
Arlington County, Virginia, U.S.
Spouse
Majorie Wilson
​
(m. 1941)​
Children2
EducationHarvard University (AB, MA)
Balliol College, Oxford (DPhil)
ProfessionChief CIA Analyst

Background

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Ray S. Cline was born in Anderson Township, Clark County, Illinois in 1918 and raised in Terre Haute, Indiana, graduating from Wiley High School in 1935. He earned a scholarship to study at Harvard University where he graduated with an A.B. in 1939. He received the Henry Prize Fellowship to Balliol College, Oxford University 1939–40. He returned to Harvard and earned an M.A. He was invited to join the Harvard Society of Fellows in 1941, but with the outbreak of World War II, he left after a year to join the war effort.[1][2]

Cline married Majorie Wilson in 1941; the couple had two daughters, Judith and Sibyl. Until Sibyl's divorce, Cline was the father-in-law of Stefan Halper.[3]

Cline died from Alzheimer's disease at his home in Arlington County, Virginia, on March 15, 1996, aged 77.[2]

Career

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U.S. Government

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Cline served in World War II first as a cryptanalyst for the U.S. Department of the Navy (1942–1943) and then joined the newly created Office of Strategic Services. He became Chief of Current Intelligence in 1944, serving until 1946. He later traveled to China where he worked with other OSS officers such as John K. Singlaub, Richard Helms, E. Howard Hunt, Paul Helliwell, Robert Emmett Johnson, and Lucien Conein. In 1946, he was assigned to the Operations Division of the General Staff of the United States Department of War, tasked with writing the history of the Operations Division.

According to Sterling Seagrave, Edward Lansdale found a large cache in caves and tunnels in the Philippines after World War II ended.[4][5][a] Cline stated that both Paul Helliwell and Robert Anderson created 176 "black gold" banking accounts in 42 countries after moving loot from the Philippines by ship to support future United States operations.[7][5]

Cline joined the newly founded Central Intelligence Agency in 1949 as an intelligence analyst, having completed his Ph.D. at Harvard that year. He was initially responsible for intelligence on Korea, but he failed to predict North Korea's 1950 invasion of South Korea, which began the Korean War. From 1951 to 1953, he served as an attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Great Britain[1] under the supervision of Brigadier General E. C. Betts. From 1953 to 1957, he was the CIA desk officer charged with monitoring the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China; in this capacity, he correctly predicted the Sino-Soviet split. In 1958 he became Chief of the CIA station in Taiwan, with his official title being chief of the United States Naval Auxiliary Communications Center.[2]

In 1962, Cline moved to Washington, D.C. as the head of CIA's Directorate of Intelligence, the agency's analytical branch. He replaced Robert Amory Jr who had held this Office in 1953–1962. Cline played a crucial role in the Cuban Missile Crisis when, under Cline's leadership, the Directorate of Intelligence concluded after study of U2 spy plane photographs of Cuba that the Soviet Union had shipped nuclear warheads to Cuba; Cline was among those who informed President John F. Kennedy of this development.[2]

Cline played a role in the formation of the World League for Freedom and Democracy in 1966.

Cline remained head of the Directorate of Intelligence until 1966, when, disillusioned with President Lyndon B. Johnson, he determined to leave the CIA. His old friend Richard Helms intervened to have Cline posted as Special Coordinator and Adviser to the United States Ambassador to Germany in Bonn.

In 1969, Cline returned to the United States when President Richard Nixon nominated him as Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and he subsequently held this office from October 26, 1969, until November 24, 1973. In this capacity, he oversaw U.S. intelligence in the build-up to the Yom Kippur War.[8]

Academic

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Cline left government service in 1973, becoming an executive director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University. While at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he became a prolific author on American intelligence and foreign policy. He also became an ardent defender of the CIA in testimony before the United States Congress and in the media.[2]

Cline was head of the U.S. Global Strategy Council.[9]

Publications

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Books

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  • Washington Command Post. U.S. Department of the Army (1951).
  • World Power Assessment: The Calculus of Strategic Drift. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press (1975). ISBN 978-0891580119.
  • Secrets, Spies and Scholars: The CIA from Roosevelt to Reagan. Washington D.C.: Acropolis Books (1976). ISBN 0874910463.
    • Republished as The CIA Under Reagan, Bush, and Casey. Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books (1981).
  • World Power Assessment 1977: A Calculus of Strategic Drift. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press (1977). ISBN 978-0891582373.
  • World Power Trends and U.S. Foreign Policy for the 1980s. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press (1980). ISBN 978-0891589174. OCLC 781159709.
  • The CIA Under Reagan, Bush, and Casey (1982).
    • Republished as CIA: Reality v Myth.
  • The Intelligence War. Salamander Books (1983).
  • Central Intelligence Agency Under Reagan, Bush and Casey (1982).
  • Terrorism: The Soviet Connection, with Yonah Alexander. New York: Crane Russak (1985). ISBN 978-0844814711.
  • Western Europe in Soviet Global Strategy (1987) .
  • Metastrategy. New York: Crane Russak (1988).
  • Central Intelligence Agency: A Photographic History (1989).
  • Foreign Policy Failures in China, Cuba, and Nicaragua: A Paradigm. Washington, D.C.: United States Global Strategy Council (1992).
  • Chiang Ching-Kuo Remembered: The Man and His Political Legacy Washington: United States Global Strategy Council (1993).
  • The Power of Nations in the 1990s: A Strategic Assessment. Washington: University Press of America (1995). Foreword by Paul H. Nitze. ISBN 978-0819191519. OCLC 424486997.

Book contributions

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Articles

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Awards

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ On October 19, 1945, Edward Lansdale began his fact finding mission after he arrived in Manila Bay aboard the United States Army Transport Ship (USAT) USS Uruguay.[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b Gernand, Bradley, ed. (2010). "Biographical note." Finding Aid to the Ray S. Cline Papers. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress.
  2. ^ a b c d e Weiner, Tim (March 16, 1996). "Ray S. Cline, Chief C.I.A. Analyst, Is Dead at 77". The New York Times. p. 49. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  3. ^ Greenwald, Glenn (May 19, 2018). "The FBI Informant Who Monitored the Trump Campaign, Stefan Halper, Oversaw a CIA Spying Operation in the 1980 Presidential Election". The Intercept. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  4. ^ Seagrave & Seagrave 2003, p. 95.
  5. ^ a b Johnson, Chalmers (November 20, 2003). "The Looting of Asia": A review of Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold by Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave Verso, 332 pp. London Review of Books v. 25, no. 22. Archived from the original on November 19, 2003. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  6. ^ Anderson 2020, pp. 127–130.
  7. ^ Seagrave & Seagrave 2003, p. 4.
  8. ^ "Israeli Intelligence and the Yom Kippur War of 1973". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2012-05-31.
  9. ^ Small Arms Survey (2011), Small Arms Survey 2011: States of Security, Cambridge University Press, p84
  10. ^ a b Ashland University, Ray S. Cline, Major Issues Lecture Series, Topic: A Historical Perspective on American Intelligence, Tuesday, September 16, 1986

Sources

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Further reading

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Government offices
Preceded by Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research
October 26, 1969 – November 24, 1973 		Succeeded by
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