Edward Gerrity

Edward J. Gerrity Jr. of Larchmont, New York, was senior vice president of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation for corporate relations and advertising and its chief lobbyist.¹

The Meeting of September 29, 1970

William Broe, chief of the Western Hemisphere Division of the CIA, testified in 1973 that he called on Gerrity in New York on the instruction of Director Richard Helms. "I explored with Mr. Gerrity the feasibility of possible actions to apply some economic pressure on Chile." The measures were banks "not renewing credits or delaying in doing so," companies "dragging their feet in spending money and making deliveries and in shipping spare parts," "creating pressure on savings and loan institutions in Chile so that they would have to shut their doors," and "withdrawing all technical help." Broe gave him a list of companies that could "participate." The purpose, he said, was to sway Christian Democratic congressmen about to vote for Salvador Allende. "There was a thesis that additional deterioration in the economic situation could influence a number of Christian Democratic Congressmen." Asked whether the object was unrest that would bring in the military, he answered: "No." He said Gerrity was negative about the plan. "I told Mr. Gerrity that ITT was the only company that contacted the Agency and expressed an interest in the current situation in Chile."²

Gerrity cabled Harold Geneen the same day that John Guilfoyle of ITT had sounded other companies, which "had been given advice which is directly contrary to the suggestions I received." Guilfoyle testified that he had called William Quigley of Anaconda. Quigley swore he had been in Missouri with his mother and was never called. John McCone, the former director then on ITT's board, testified that such ideas were "never approved by Mr. Helms" and said of Broe: "I think he was exploring." Gerrity had earlier reported to Geneen that the recommendations of Hal Hendrix and Robert Berrellez had "been confirmed." The agency's review of the hearings named him and William Merriam "the two most evasive and stumbling witnesses."²³

United States v. Gerrity

On March 20, 1978, at 54, he was charged with six counts of perjury, obstruction, and false statements. Geneen was not. In August the government declined to pursue three of the counts, one of them inducing another ITT officer to lie, because "the protection of the information is vital to safeguard national security and U.S. foreign intelligence interests." The rest were dropped on March 7, 1979, a month after the case against Berrellez.¹⁴