CIA director Admiral Stansfield Turner began his purge of 800 senior officers on October 31, 1977, a pivotal moment of reform for an Agency under congressional scrutiny. A courier delivered the bad news in a memo dropped on the desks of about 200 CIA clandestine officers headed: Subject: Notification of Intent to Recommend Separation.
The uproar was immediate. Anti-Turner graffiti sprung up on bulletin boards. T-shirts sprouted with the emblem: Armchair Admiral Out. “Most unusual of all, people who had spent their entire lives clouded in secrecy suddenly began seeking out the press to complain about Turner and the firings," NPR reported.
The layoffs were all in the Clandestine Services Division - known as the ‘spy section’ - which employed 4,000 officers and 4,000 support personnel. No secretaries or typists lost their jobs, however. The media immediately dubbed the firings the ‘Halloween Massacre’.
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CIA director Admiral Stansfield Turner began his purge of 800 senior officers on October 31, 1977, a pivotal moment of reform for an Agency under congressional scrutiny. A courier delivered the bad news in a memo dropped on the desks of about 200 CIA clandestine officers headed: Subject: Notification of Intent to Recommend Separation.
The uproar was immediate. Anti-Turner graffiti sprung up on bulletin boards. T-shirts sprouted with the emblem: Armchair Admiral Out. “Most unusual of all, people who had spent their entire lives clouded in secrecy suddenly began seeking out the press to complain about Turner and the firings," NPR reported.
The layoffs were all in the Clandestine Services Division - known as the ‘spy section’ - which employed 4,000 officers and 4,000 support personnel. No secretaries or typists lost their jobs, however. The media immediately dubbed the firings the ‘Halloween Massacre’.
Officially, the layoffs were for reasons of economy or technology-related redundancies. But the dismissals, under the leadership of Democratic President Jimmy Carter, could also be traced back to the fallout from the Watergate break-in that involved several former CIA officers including E. Howard Hunt. Amid growing concerns about abuses of power and lack of oversight, Carter appointed Turner to reform an Agency that had allegedly spied on US citizens during the Vietnam era, attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders, and employed ‘dirty tricks’ to destabilize communist regimes.
The extensive reshuffling involved the dismissal, forced retirement, and voluntary departures of high-ranking CIA officials - the top five percent of the clandestine service, by some reports. Deputy Director for Operations Theodore Shackley, a master of dirty tricks in Cuba and head of the Agency’s secret war in Laos, was reassigned to a lower position and retired. Carl E. Duckett, former deputy director for CIA science and tech, also departed in ‘77. CIA Thomas G. Clines left in ‘78 and became an international arms dealer and was later imprisoned over the Iran-Contra scandal.
DCI Turner reportedly sought to enhance the Agency's credibility and effectiveness while minimizing its involvement in controversial and ethically questionable activities including MK-Ultra mind control experiments. Whether he succeeded is still a matter of debate.
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