Diplomatic Security Service DSS seal version 4

Otto F. Otepka (May 6, 1915 – March 20, 2010Nicholas Feliciano, ''Cape Coral Daily Breeze'', March 22, 2010

/ref>) was a Deputy Director of the United States

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

's Office of Security in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was fired as the State Department's chief security evaluations officer on November 5, 1963; he had furnished classified files to the

United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security The United States Senate's Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 1951–77, known more commonly as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and sometimes the M ...

. Otepka was later appointed by

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

to a position on the

Subversive Activities Control Board The Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) was a United States government committee to investigate Communist infiltration of American society during the 1950s Red Scare. It was the subject of a landmark United States Supreme Court decision of th ...

; he retired in 1972.

Background

Otepka was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1915, and graduated from the

Columbus School of Law The Columbus School of Law, also known as Catholic Law or CUA Law, is the law school of the Catholic University of America, a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. More than 400 Juris Doctor students attend Catholic La ...

. He served in the US Navy 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 ...

Career

Otepka was a Deputy Director of the United States

's Office of Security in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This was at the beginning of the Eisenhower Administration and Otepka's "Evaluations" section was faced with Senator

Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...

who was at the height of his power and making accusations that Communists and Communist sympathizers had infiltrated the U.S. Army and U.S. Department of State. Otepka was assisted by another newcomer to the State Department, William L. Uanna, who would soon head up "Physical Security" at State. Otepka, Uanna and R. W. Scott McLeod, another newcomer in Security at State, were mentioned in a 1954 article in '' The Reporter'' entitled "Big Brother at Foggy Bottom." The article describes how the State Department implemented Eisenhower's answer to McCarthy - Executive Order 10450 - and the reaction to it by State's employees. The Office of Security was often simply known as "SY" and in the 1980s became the

Diplomatic Security Service The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS or DS) is a security and law enforcement agency that acts as the operational division of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is a branch of the United States Department of State. Its primary mission is ...

. Otepka was in charge of vetting clearances for the State Department, and he gained public attention when he was sidelined and then later fired by Secretary of State

Dean Rusk David Dean Rusk (February 9, 1909December 20, 1994) was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the second-longest serving Secretary of State after Cordell Hull from the F ...

. Otepka claimed he was punished for not clearing names proposed by the Kennedy administration for employment in the State Department. Some of these names had previously been banned during the

Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

administration, according to at least one source. Also, investigative journalist Clark Mollenhoff detailed the Otepka story in his 1965 book ''Despoilers of Democracy''. Mollenhoff noted that Otepka was punished and subjected to illegal surveillance for giving testimony to Congress about security procedures at the State Department, as much as for his concern about the rampant use of emergency clearances by the Kennedy administration. Two officers, including Deputy Assistant Secretary John F. Reilly, perjured themselves before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and had to resign in November 1963. However, Senate efforts notwithstanding, Otto Otepka was relegated to a meaningless position before his termination. So were some of his colleagues who had backed his efforts. By the late 1960s, there was a Congressional hearing into the dismissal of Otepka but in the end Otepka was never returned to his previous station. In March 1969, Otepka was appointed by

to a position on the

. After some difficult Senate confirmation hearings, the Senate confirmed his position.Joan Mellen,
A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK's Assassination, and the Case That Should Have Changed History
',

Skyhorse Publishing Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. is an American independent book publishing company founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City, with a satellite office in Brattleboro, Vermont. History The current president and publisher is founder Tony Lyo ...

, 2013 Otepka retired in 1972 and moved to Cape Coral, Florida, in 1975. He was a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers.

Bibliography

Books by other authors * Gill, William
''The Ordeal of Otto Otepka''
New Rochelle, New York:

Arlington House Arlington House may refer to: *Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial *Arlington House (London) a hostel for the homeless in London, England, and one of the Rowton Houses *Arlington House, Margate, an eighteen-storey residential apartment bloc ...

, 1969. * Mollenhoff, Clark R. ''Despoilers of Democracy''. New York, New York: Doubleday, 1965.

References

External links

BBC article on DSS

U.S. Diplomatic Security Website

Diplomatic Security Special Agents Association

Unofficial Diplomatic Security Special Agent Forum

(MSD)

* ttps://2009-2017.state.gov/ofm/ Office of Foreign Missions
2006 interview with Otto Otepka

Otepka's FBI files
hosted at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Otepka, Otto 1915 births 2010 deaths Columbus School of Law alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II People from Chicago United States Department of State officials