David Atlee Phillips

Early Life and Education

David Atlee Phillips was born on October 31, 1922, in Fort Worth, Texas, to Edwin T. Phillips, a banker, and Margaret Atlee, a homemaker. Raised in a middle-class family with roots in Virginia, Phillips grew up in Texas and California, developing an early interest in theater and storytelling. He attended William & Mary College in Virginia from 1940 to 1941 but left to pursue acting in New York City, performing in small theater productions. In 1942, he enrolled at Texas Christian University, studying journalism, but his education was interrupted by World War II. Phillips’s charisma, linguistic aptitude, and flair for performance later shaped his covert intelligence career.

World War II and Early Career

In 1943, Phillips enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces, training as a nose gunner on B-24 bombers. During a mission over Austria in 1944, his plane was shot down, and he was captured by German forces. Held as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III, a Luftwaffe camp near Sagan, Poland (famous for the “Great Escape”), Phillips endured harsh conditions until his liberation in 1945. His wartime experience, including rudimentary German and survival skills, honed his resilience and adaptability. After the war, he briefly resumed acting in New York, performing in summer stock, and married Virginia Huffman in 1946, with whom he had five children: David, Robert, Christopher, Ann, and Jane.

In 1948, Phillips moved to Santiago, Chile, to pursue journalism, purchasing and editing the South Pacific Mail, an English-language newspaper. His time in Chile immersed him in Latin American politics and culture, providing valuable contacts and fluency in Spanish. Financial struggles with the newspaper led him to explore new opportunities, setting the stage for his intelligence career.

CIA Career

(1950–1975)

In 1950, Phillips was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) while in Chile, drawn by the prospect of covert action against perceived Soviet influence in Latin America. His 25-year CIA career, marked by significant operations and controversies, established him as one of the agency’s most prominent covert operatives.

Early Assignments (1950–1954): Phillips began as a contract agent in Chile, running informants and monitoring activities under diplomatic cover. By 1952, he was a full-time CIA officer, stationed in Guatemala City to gather intelligence on President Jacobo Árbenz’s government. His reporting on Árbenz’s land reforms.

Operation PBSuccess (1954): Phillips played a pivotal role in the CIA’s Operation PBSuccess, the 1954 coup to overthrow Árbenz. As chief of psychological warfare, under Tracy Barnes and alongside E. Howard Hunt, Phillips orchestrated Radio Liberación, a clandestine station broadcasting from Honduras and Nicaragua. His propaganda—fake news, defection appeals, and exaggerated rebel advances—created panic, undermining Árbenz’s military and public support. The operation, detailed in declassified CIA documents (1997) and Phillips’s memoir The Night Watch (1977), succeeded in installing Carlos Castillo Armas, though it sparked Guatemala’s civil war (1960–1996). Phillips’s innovative use of radio earned him accolades, cementing his reputation as a psychological warfare expert.

Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961): Promoted to chief of propaganda for the CIA’s Cuban Task Force, Phillips planned the Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro. Stationed at the Quarters Eye command post in Washington, D.C., he managed Radio Swan, broadcasting anti-Castro messages to Cuba. The invasion’s failure, due to CIA's poor planning, was a career setback, as Phillips recounts in The Night Watch. He later criticized President John F. Kennedy’s indecision, echoing Hunt’s sentiments in Give Us This Day (1973). Despite the debacle, Phillips’s propaganda skills kept him in high demand.

Mexico City Station Chief (1961–1965): As deputy chief and later chief of the CIA’s Mexico City station, Phillips monitored Soviet and Cuban activities, overseeing surveillance of embassies and operatives like Lee Harvey Oswald, who visited in September 1963. His tenure coincided with the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), where he provided critical intelligence. Phillips’s handling of Oswald’s contacts, detailed in The Night Watch, has fueled conspiracy theories about his role in Kennedy’s assassination. Phillips denied such claims, testifying before the HSCA in 1976.

Latin American Operations (1965–1973): Phillips served in the Dominican Republic (1965), supporting U.S. intervention during the civil war, and in Brazil (1968–1970), monitoring resistance movements amid the CIA installed military dictatorship. As chief of the CIA’s Western Hemisphere Division (1970–1973), he oversaw operations in Chile, including efforts to destabilize Salvador Allende’s government, culminating in the 1973 coup orchestrated by the CIA. Phillips’s role in Chile, per The Pinochet File by Peter Kornbluh (2003), involved propaganda and funding anti-Allende groups, though he denied direct involvement in the coup.

Retirement and Advocacy (1975): Phillips retired in 1975, disillusioned by congressional scrutiny of CIA covert actions, particularly the Church Committee’s investigation into abuses. He founded the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) in 1975 to defend the CIA’s mission, serving as its president and publishing the Periscope newsletter. His public advocacy countered critics like Philip Agee, whose Inside the Company (1975) exposed CIA operations.

Post-CIA Career and Literary Contributions

After retiring, Phillips pursued writing and consulting, leveraging his CIA experience. He published The Night Watch: 25 Years of Peculiar Service (1977), a memoir blending fact and flair, praised for its insight into covert operations but criticized for omissions, particularly on Chile. Under the pseudonym Philip Atlee, he wrote spy novels like The Green Wound Contract (1963), drawing on his operational knowledge. His 1984 book, The Carlos Contract, fictionalized anti-terrorism missions, reflecting his post-CIA interests. Phillips also lectured on intelligence, defending the CIA’s role in countering 'communism', though he acknowledged its excesses in interviews with The Washington Post.

Personal Life

Phillips’s first marriage to Virginia Huffman ended in divorce in the 1960s, strained by his covert lifestyle. In 1967, he married Helen MacKinnon, with whom he had two children, John and Elizabeth. Known for his theatrical charm—often wearing ascots and quoting Shakespeare—Phillips maintained a polished persona, earning the nickname “the Laurence Olivier of the CIA.” His love of jazz, martinis, and storytelling endeared him to colleagues but masked personal struggles, including financial pressures post-retirement. He died of lung cancer on July 7, 1988, in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 65, survived by his second wife and seven children.

Legacy and Critical Perspective

David Atlee Phillips was a central figure in Cold War covert operations, with Operation PBSuccess showcasing his propaganda prowess and Bay of Pigs exposing his limits. His Chile involvement, detailed in declassified cables (National Security Archive), underscores the CIA’s destabilization tactics. The Brazilian Advanced War College (ESG), School of the Americas (SOA), Colonia Dignidad, Condortel, and Crypto AG connect indirectly through his broader Latin American operations:

ESG and SOA: Phillips’s work with Brazilian and Guatemalan regimes aligned with ESG and SOA-trained officers’ anti-communist efforts.

Colonia Dignidad and Condortel: His Chile operations overlapped with DINA’s use of Colonia Dignidad and Condortel in Operation Condor.