William Harvey

William King Harvey (September 13, 1915 - June 9, 1976) was one of the most operationally significant officers of the CIA's early decades, responsible for the Berlin Tunnel (Operation Gold), the CIA's assassination planning infrastructure (ZR/RIFLE), and the joint CIA-mafia anti-Castro operations of the early 1960s. He was characterized by contemporaries as a physically imposing, chronically intemperate operator who represented a particular strain of early CIA culture - aggressive, technically skilled, contemptuous of political oversight, and ultimately self-destructive.¹

FBI and Early CIA Career

Harvey began his intelligence career at the FBI but was fired by J. Edgar Hoover in 1947 following a drunk driving incident. He joined the nascent CIA, where his counterintelligence skills were quickly recognized. His most significant early achievement was developing the theory - subsequently confirmed - that British intelligence officer Kim Philby was a Soviet agent. Harvey presented his analysis to CIA counterintelligence leadership in 1950-1951, before the full extent of Philby's penetration was known, making him effectively the first American intelligence officer to identify Philby correctly.¹

This reputation for penetrating Soviet deception shaped the rest of Harvey's career. It gave him standing within the CIA's counterintelligence culture and a degree of protection from bureaucratic oversight.

Berlin Base and Operation Gold

Harvey was appointed chief of the CIA's Berlin Base in 1952. Berlin was the central arena of Cold War intelligence operations - both the primary point of Western intelligence collection on the Soviet Bloc and the most active venue for Soviet and East German intelligence operations against NATO. Harvey transformed the Berlin Base into one of the CIA's most operationally active stations.

His signature achievement in Berlin was Operation Gold - the construction of a 1,476-foot tunnel from the American sector into the Soviet zone, connecting to and tapping the Soviet Army's main telephone cables in East Berlin. Planning for the tunnel began in 1953 in collaboration with British MI6; construction was completed in 1955; the tap ran for eleven months before Soviet forces "discovered" it on April 22, 1956.

The Soviet discovery was stage-managed. Kim Philby had been briefed on the tunnel plan during his assignment as MI6 liaison in Washington in 1951-1953 and had informed Moscow. The KGB allowed the tunnel to operate for eleven months, apparently believing that a premature discovery would expose Philby or other sources inside Western intelligence. The tunnel nonetheless produced enormous volumes of intelligence before its exposure. Harvey's exposure of Philby's guilt was thus coupled with the revelation that Philby had burned Harvey's own most significant operation - a personal and professional irony that reinforced Harvey's already pronounced hostility toward British intelligence.¹

ZR/RIFLE and Assassination Planning

After leaving Berlin in 1959, Harvey was assigned to head Staff D, the CIA's communications intelligence section, and was subsequently assigned to develop what became ZR/RIFLE - the CIA's covert executive action (assassination) planning unit. ZR/RIFLE was intended to develop a capability to assassinate foreign leaders. Harvey developed contacts with organized crime figures, specifically Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, as potential assets for operations against Fidel Castro of Cuba.¹

The CIA-mafia anti-Castro plots that Harvey managed represented one of the most controversial programs in CIA history. Harvey met with Roselli beginning in early 1961, providing operational guidance and resources for assassination attempts against Castro. The collaboration produced no results against Castro but drew Harvey into relationships with organized crime figures that complicated his career and remained classified for years.

Harvey's role in ZR/RIFLE became significant to later investigators of the Kennedy assassination. Harvey had operational control of the anti-Castro assassination network in late 1963, and his documented hostility to Robert Kennedy (who was overseeing anti-Castro operations as part of Operation Mongoose) created an evidentiary trail that conspiracy theorists later explored extensively. Harvey was stationed in Rome from late 1963 onward - after being exiled there by Robert Kennedy - and was not in the United States during the assassination.¹

Operation Mongoose and Conflict with Robert Kennedy

Operation Mongoose was the post-Bay of Pigs Kennedy administration program to undermine or overthrow Castro, coordinated by Attorney General Robert Kennedy and run operationally by Brigadier General Edward Lansdale. Harvey's ZR/RIFLE assets were incorporated into Mongoose planning.

Harvey's relationship with Robert Kennedy was openly hostile. Harvey believed Kennedy's micromanagement of Mongoose operations was both incompetent and dangerous - that Kennedy's involvement increased the risk of exposing operational details and assets. Kennedy regarded Harvey as insubordinate and unreliable. Harvey unilaterally sent teams into Cuba during the October 1962 missile crisis without authorization, in direct defiance of the administration's policy of non-escalation during the crisis. Kennedy demanded his removal.

Harvey was transferred to Rome station in December 1963, effectively ending his operational career. He continued in CIA service until 1966 but never recovered significant operational responsibilities.²

Post-CIA Career and Legacy

Harvey retired from the CIA in 1966, his career effectively destroyed by alcoholism and the Mongoose conflicts. He practiced law briefly in Indianapolis before his health deteriorated. He died on June 9, 1976, before much of the classified record about his operations was disclosed.

The Church Committee (1975-1976) began declassifying material about ZR/RIFLE and the CIA-mafia plots, but Harvey was too ill to testify fully. His role in Operation Gold was not publicly acknowledged by the CIA until considerably later. Evan Thomas's 1995 account The Very Best Men reconstructed Harvey's career from declassified documents and former colleagues' recollections.¹