Felton Mark Wyatt (May 23, 1920 – June 29, 2006) was a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

agent. He was raised in

Woodland, California Woodland is a city in and the county seat of Yolo County, California, located approximately northwest of Sacramento, California, Sacramento, and is a part of the Sacramento metropolitan area. The population was 61,032 at the 2020 United States ...

and graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1942. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he served as a communications officer on board of the destroyer "Conner" in the Pacific theater. After his war service in the US Navy he earned a degree in foreign affairs from

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

. He joined the CIA in 1948. He married fellow CIA operative Ann Appleton Wyatt in 1951. First posted to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, Wyatt delivered large sums of cash to

Christian Democrat Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

politicians as part a large-scale operation to sway the results of the 1948 election. This operation continued until at least 1972 (24 years). In 1964 Wyatt was appointed deputy chief of the

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

station. He also helped to set up the Italian branch of the anti-communist NATO stay behind network during the

Mario Scelba Mario Scelba (5 September 1901 – 29 October 1991) was an Italian politician who served as the 33rd prime minister of Italy from February 1954 to July 1955. A founder of the Christian Democracy, Scelba was one of the longest-serving Minister of ...

prime ministry, after the Italians were initially left out. In 1968–69 he worked with South Vietnamese intelligence services in

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

. In 1970 Wyatt was posted to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to spy on the UN. He was posted chief of station in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

(1972–1975). After his career in the CIA, Wyatt assisted Soviet defectors to acclimate to life in the United States. Wyatt was one of the few persons in the CIA who knew

Arkady Shevchenko Arkady Nikolayevich Shevchenko ( uk, Аркадій Миколайович Шевченко, russian: Аркадий Николаевич Шевченко; October 11, 1930 – February 28, 1998) was a Soviet diplomat who was the highest-ran ...

as a friend before his defection and also knew of Shevchenko's information given to the CIA for years before the defection. After Shevchenko's defection,

Aldrich Ames Aldrich Hazen "Rick" Ames (; born May 26, 1941) is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer turned KGB double agent, who was convicted of espionage in 1994. He is serving a life sentence, without the possibility of parole, in the Federa ...

debriefed Shevchenko. Wyatt attended Shevchenko's United States citizenship ceremony. In the later years of his life he split his time between

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, during the year and Carnelian Bay,

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City, Nevad ...

, in the summer.

References

External links

* Transcript of

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''Cold War'' 1996 intervie

* Obituary at ''

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'' Thursday, July 6, 200

* Obituary at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Joe Holley, Monday, July 10, 200

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyatt, F. Mark 1920 births 2006 deaths People of the Central Intelligence Agency People from Woodland, California University of California, Berkeley alumni Elliott School of International Affairs alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II American expatriates in Italy American expatriates in Vietnam