Gentleman in the Shadows : Benjamin C. Evans Jr. and the Central Intelligence Agency / Douglas A. Wissing.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wissing, Douglas A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Intelligence officers--United States--Biography.

Intelligence officers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Indianapolis, Indiana : Indiana Historical Society, [2019]

Summary:

"Gentleman in the Shadows is a biography of Benjamin C. Evans Jr., a Central Intelligence Agency executive who operated at the top levels of the U.S. intelligence community during the darkest days of the Cold War. After serving as a covert case officer in revolutionary Havana, Cuba, and then managing The Asia Foundation, a sprawling CIA front organization, Evans was promoted to the CIA headquarters' seventh floor, where the executive directorate team managed world-changing intelligence missions. A socially adept administrator, Evans was the CIA Executive Secretary for seven Directors of Central Intelligence under four presidential administrations. Spooks said Evans was the traffic cop of the CIA. As a military intelligence and CIA officer, Evans was part of the tumultuous period that included America's crusade to democratize Occupied Japan, the Korean War, nuclear standoffs with the Soviet Union, the anti-Castro counterrevolutionary movement that climaxed in the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the Family Jewels furor after the CIA's dirty secrets were revealed. Although he had global CIA responsibilities, Evans was among the coterie of top federal executives who operated out of the limelight-extraordinarily significant officials whose names were virtually unknown to the American public. Through his marriage, Evans was a member of America's elite that figured so prominently in the U.S. intelligence services. Born and raised in a prosperous family in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Evans was imbued with conservative Hoosier values that celebrated servant-leadership. Following his graduation from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Evans's social savvy and encultured mores stood him in good stead in Occupied Japan, where he served as aide-de-camp to General Eugene Harrison, a decorated World War II intelligence officer and Occupation administrator. It was in Occupied Japan that Evans and the general's stepdaughter, Jan King, fell in love, and later married. Jan King Evans came from old Washington aristocracy-self-described "cave-dwellers"-who allied with the powerful thronging the nation's capital. The family connections shaped Evans's career. When President Harry Truman recognized he needed a foreign intelligence service, General Harrison was on the commission that established what came to be the CIA. Not too many years later, Harrison and his cohorts insured that his son-in-law Evans, by then a respected military intelligence officer, was offered a position in the agency. So this book is also about CIA families, who not uncommonly led double lives of sequestered thoughts, unasked questions and intimate deception. An empathetic family man, Evans paid a psychological price for his emotionally isolate life in the clandestine service. The primary source material for this book is based on family archives, on-the-record interviews, and available declassified CIA documents. Given Evans' covert career and long executive service near the apex of U.S. intelligence, it is not surprising that the CIA has declassified only a small portion of the enormous volume of documents connected to his CIA career. As such, this book is incomplete; a contribution to the larger story of a remarkable gentleman spy, who remains partially in the shadows."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Havana,

Indiana Beginnings

The Dividends of Culver

West Point

The Earthquake

Aide-de-Camp

Washington

The Payback

The Agency

Tradecraft

Cuba and the Revolution

Crisis

The Bomb

World of Spies

Limited Hangout

The Seventh Floor

Family Jewels

Denouement

Retirement.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes index.

ISBN:

9780871954374

0871954370

OCLC:

1113146769