Donald Gregg

Donald Phinney Gregg was born May 22, 1927, in New York. He died March 15, 2021. He graduated from Williams College and joined the CIA in 1951, serving for more than three decades in a career that included significant East Asian assignments before his transition to the White House. He served as National Security Adviser to Vice President George H.W. Bush from 1982 to 1989, and as U.S. Ambassador to South Korea from 1989 to 1993.¹

CIA Career

Gregg's CIA career included extensive service in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other East Asian postings. He served in Vietnam during the war period in roles that included coordination with South Vietnamese intelligence services. He was associated during this period with Theodore "Ted" Shackley, the CIA station chief in Saigon who was a central figure in large-scale Vietnam-era covert operations and later in the Safari Club network, though Gregg's own involvement in post-Vietnam covert networks was disputed.¹

Gregg retired from the CIA in 1982 and moved directly to the National Security Council as the designated intelligence liaison to Vice President Bush, a position that gave him access to intelligence product across the government's agencies and made him the principal intelligence interlocutor for the Vice President's office.¹

Felix Rodriguez and Iran-Contra

Gregg's most significant Iran-Contra connection was through Felix Rodriguez (a.k.a. Max Gomez), a Cuban-American CIA paramilitary officer and veteran of the Bay of Pigs operation who had been associated with Gregg since their Vietnam-era service. Rodriguez, operating under cover, ran the Contra resupply air operation from Ilopango Air Base in El Salvador beginning in 1985. The air operation was the same network that was exposed when the aircraft carrying Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua in October 1986, unraveling the Iran-Contra supply operation.¹

Gregg testified before Congress that he had not known Rodriguez was involved in Contra resupply, stating that Rodriguez had briefed him on his activities but had not disclosed the specific Contra connection until after the Hasenfus shootdown. Congressional investigators questioned whether this was plausible given Rodriguez's documented communications with Gregg and a schedule notation in Gregg's files that appeared to reference a "resupply" operation. The discrepancy became a central issue in Gregg's Senate confirmation hearings for the Korea ambassadorship.¹

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmed Gregg's ambassadorial nomination in June 1989 after protracted hearings. Senator John Kerry, who was conducting a parallel investigation into Contra drug trafficking, had used the nomination hearings to press Gregg on his knowledge of Contra operations. Gregg maintained throughout that he had not known Rodriguez was running a covert supply network.¹

October Surprise Allegations

Arms dealer and self-described CIA contractor Richard Brenneke claimed that Donald Gregg had attended the October 1980 Paris meetings at which Reagan campaign officials allegedly negotiated a delay in the Iranian hostage release. Brenneke submitted a sworn affidavit to this effect in a Denver federal court in February 1988, at the sentencing hearing of convicted bank fraudster Heinrich Rupp, another self-described CIA contractor who also claimed to have been at the Paris meetings.²

Gregg denied any participation in or knowledge of October Surprise negotiations. The claim that Gregg attended the Paris meetings was one of five counts of perjury for which Brenneke was indicted in December 1989. Brenneke was acquitted of all five counts in August 1990 by a Denver jury, a result that his supporters characterized as vindicating his credibility and that the government characterized as insufficient to prove false statements rather than affirmative proof that Gregg had attended the meetings.²

The House October Surprise Task Force (1992-1993) found Brenneke "totally lacking in credibility" and cleared Gregg of the Paris allegation. The Task Force's conclusions have been contested on methodological grounds by Robert Parry and others who investigated the investigation's handling of evidence.²

South Korea Ambassadorship

Gregg served as Ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 1989 to 1993 under President Bush. His tenure covered the period of Korean democratization under President Roh Tae-woo and the early stages of North Korean nuclear concerns that would dominate subsequent Korea policy. After leaving the ambassadorship Gregg became president of the Korea Society in New York, a nonprofit organization promoting U.S.-Korea relations, and continued to advocate for diplomatic engagement with North Korea.¹