Word: vessey
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...right off the bat. He claims that secret documents show that Ronald Reagan and other members of his Administration -- among them Secretary of State George Shultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, CIA Director William Casey and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General John Vessey -- "personally and directly" took part in arranging deals to have other countries aid the Nicaraguan contras at a time when help from the U.S. was forbidden by law; they then allegedly ordered the arrangements kept secret. Sullivan hopes to show with this classified material that North was just following orders when...
Nonetheless, the Army's top command -- particularly Chief of Staff General Edward Meyer and Vice Chief General John Vessey -- had become committed to secret operations. When the Reagan Administration took office, the generals made the new ad hoc groups permanent. In early 1981 Colonel James Longhofer, who had worked on Honey Badger, was assigned to head an expanded office of special operations to oversee various types of unconventional missions. One of its field units was Seaspray, jointly commanded by the Army and the CIA, which took over the special helicopters developed for the Iran rescue mission. The Pentagon dutifully briefed...
Though these visitors were out of office, they still formed quite a data bank. Melvin Laird had been Richard Nixon's Secretary of Defense and John Vessey the Chairman of Ronald Reagan's Joint Chiefs. James Schlesinger had run the CIA for Nixon and then the Defense Department for Nixon and Gerald Ford. Richard Helms had spent his career as one of the nation's top spooks. Together they were on two study missions to investigate the security breaches in the old and new American embassies...
...brought him into yet another conflict with the Administration. Last week he revealed that he had secretly flown to Hanoi in March, at the invitation of the Vietnamese government, to discuss the MIA issue. He presented the Vietnamese with a proposal from Reagan to appoint retired Army General John Vessey as a presidential envoy to negotiate about missing Americans. The Vietnamese were receptive. But the State Department, Perot says, then jumped the timetable agreed upon for announcing Vessey's pending appointment. The Administration, he charged, was "taking a piece of fine china and smashing it on the sidewalk." Perot added...
...elephant. Reagan has appointed a commission headed by Melvin Laird, another former Defense Secretary, to suggest ways out of both the new embassy dilemma and the penetration of the current chancery. The high-powered panel will include former CIA Director Richard Helms and former Joint Chiefs Chairman General John Vessey. Four other groups, including the Foreign Intelligence Board, are investigating aspects of the scandal. Former CIA Official Bobby Inman last week offered a novel solution for the bugged building: Americans should "very carefully" construct three secure floors...