Victor Leo Marchetti Jr. (December 23, 1929 – October 19, 2018) was a special assistant to the Deputy Director of the

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

who later became a prominent critic of the

United States Intelligence Community United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

and the

Israel lobby in the United States The Israel lobby (at times called the Zionist lobby) are individuals and groups seeking to influence the United States government to better serve Israel's interests. The largest pro-Israel lobbying group is Christians United for Israel with over ...

Early life and background

Marchetti was born in

Hazleton, Pennsylvania Hazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 29,963 at the 2020 census. Hazleton is the second largest city in Luzerne County. It was incorporated as a borough on January 5, 1857, and as a city on Decembe ...

. From 1951 to 1953, he served as a corporal in U.S. Army Intelligence in France and Germany. Returning to the United States after his military service, he enrolled in

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

, where he majored in Russian area studies, graduating with a bachelor's degree in history in 1955.

CIA career

After a few months working as an analyst at the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

, Marchetti joined the CIA in October 1955. He began his career as an analyst in the Office of Research and Reports, eventually serving a tour of duty in the

Office of National Estimates The National Intelligence Council (NIC), established in 1979 and reporting to the Director of National Intelligence, bridges the United States Intelligence Community (IC) with policy makers in the United States. The NIC produces the "Global Tren ...

(ONE). From ONE, Marchetti moved to the Office of Planning, Programming, and Budgeting in 1966, where he worked for over two years. Beginning in July 1968, he served for nine months as special assistant to CIA Deputy Director Rufus Taylor. His final position in the Agency was on the Planning, Programming, and Budget Staff of the

National Photographic Interpretation Center The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national ...

. Among other projects with which he was involved, Marchetti worked on setting up the

Pine Gap Pine Gap is a satellite surveillance base and Australian Earth station approximately south-west of the town of Alice Springs, Northern Territory in the center of Australia. It is jointly operated by Australia and the United States, and since ...

satellite ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...

near

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

in Central Australia. In September 1969, Marchetti resigned from the CIA.

Writing career

After leaving the CIA, Marchetti began a writing career. His first work was a novel, ''The Rope-Dancer'', published in 1971. The plot involves an officer in the "National Intelligence Agency" who becomes a spy for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. In a 2004 article for ''American Intelligence Journal'', Jon Wiant, career member of the Department of State's

Senior Executive Service The Senior Executive Service (SES) is a position classification in the civil service of the United States federal government equivalent to general officer or flag officer rank in the U.S. Armed Forces. It was created in 1979 when the Civil Service ...

and a faculty member of the Joint Military Intelligence College, reported a 1991 conversion with retired KGB General

Oleg Kalugin Oleg Danilovich Kalugin (russian: Олег Данилович Калугин; born 6 September 1934) is a former KGB general (stripped of his rank and awards by a Russian Court decision in 2002). He was during a time, head of KGB political ope ...

in which the latter told him that ''Rope Dancer'' is assigned as required reading for every KGB officer assigned to the United States.Waint, Jon A. "Spy Fiction, Spy Reality." ''American Intelligence Journal'', vol. 22 (Spring/Summer 2004), p. 25. Kalugin believed the novel was an excellent primer in American counterintelligence doctrine. During public appearances promoting the novel, Marchetti announced that he was writing a non-fiction work about the CIA. In March 1972, he completed a draft of an article for ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' which, according to a later CIA account, included "names of agents, relations with named governments, and identifying details of ongoing operations." The CIA received a copy of the article and decided to seek an

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

against its publication. The basis for seeking an injunction against Marchetti was the secrecy agreement which he had signed when beginning employment at the CIA. The CIA presented the agreement and the parts of the draft article it considered in violation of the agreement, to Judge Albert V. Bryan, Jr. of the US District Court for Eastern Virginia, who granted a temporary restraining order in April 1972. The case proceeded to trial, at which Bryan found for the CIA and issued a permanent injunction requiring Marchetti to submit his writings to CIA for review prior to publication. Marchetti appealed the injunction to the

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Maryland ...

, which upheld Bryan's restraint but limited it to classified material. The appeals court also found that Marchetti was entitled to timely review of materials he submitted to the CIA. Marchetti appealed again to the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

, but the Court rejected Marchetti's appeal in December 1972. Marchetti continued work on his book with a co-author, John D. Marks, and signed a book contract with publisher

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

. In August 1973, they submitted their manuscript to the CIA. After reviewing the manuscript, the Agency responded with a list of 339 passages which it claimed contained classified information and demanded their deletion. Marchetti and Marks rejected the demand and indicated they would go to court in order to print the manuscript as written. The CIA then withdrew its objections to 171 of the items but stood firm on the remaining 168. The trial was held again before Judge Bryan. This time, however, he rejected all but 26 of the deletions requested by the CIA on the grounds that the information in them was not properly or provably classified. The CIA appealed Bryan's ruling, and ultimately the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld all 168 of the deletions. The book was published by Knopf in 1974 as ''

The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence ''The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence'' is a 1974 controversial non-fiction political book written by Victor Marchetti, a former special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Deputy Director of the Central Intell ...

''. It was printed with blanks for deleted passages and boldface type for the 171 deletions which CIA originally requested and later withdrew.

Later writing

In 1978, Marchetti published an article about the

JFK assassination John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

in the far-right newspaper of the

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

Liberty Lobby Liberty Lobby was a far-right think tank and lobby group founded in 1958 by Willis Carto. Carto was known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories, white nationalism, and Holocaust denial. The organization produced a daily five-min ...

, ''

The Spotlight ''The Spotlight'' was a weekly newspaper in the United States, published in Washington, D.C. from September 1975 to July 2001 by the now-defunct antisemitic Liberty Lobby. ''The Spotlight'' ran articles and editorials professing a "populist and na ...

''. Marchetti, a proponent of the organized crime and the CIA conspiracy theory, claimed that the

House Select Committee on Assassinations The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 and 1968, respectively. The HSCA completed its i ...

revealed a CIA memo from 1966 that named

E. Howard Hunt Everette Howard Hunt Jr. (October 9, 1918 – January 23, 2007) was an American intelligence officer and author. From 1949 to 1970, Hunt served as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), particularly in the United States involvem ...

Frank Sturgis Frank Anthony Sturgis (December 9, 1924 – December 4, 1993), born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the five Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of the presidency of Richard Nixon. He served in several branches of the United S ...

and Gerry Patrick Hemming in the JFK assassination. Marchetti also claimed that

Marita Lorenz Ilona Marita Lorenz (18 August 1939 – 31 August 2019) was a German woman who had an affair with Fidel Castro in 1959 and in January 1960 was involved in an assassination attempt by the CIA on Castro's life. In the 1970s and 1980s, she testifi ...

offered sworn testimony to confirm this. The HSCA reported that it had not received such a memo and rejected theories that Hunt was involved in a plot to kill Kennedy.Doig, Stephen K
"Ex-CIA agent admits he used JFK 'rumors.'"
''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...

'' (February 2, 1985), p. 2B
Archived
by the

and

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

. In 1981, Hunt sued the Liberty Lobby and Marchetti for

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

and won $650,000 in damages. Liberty Lobby, represented by attorney Mark Lane, appealed the verdict. On February 1, 1985, Marchetti stated that key parts of his articles were based upon rumors that he heard from ''

Penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...

'' columnist Bill Corson and that he had no corroboration of Corson's story. Corson had provided an earlier deposition stating that he not discussed the rumors with Marchetti. Marchetti and Liberty Lobby won the appeal in 1985.Doig, Stephen K
"Hunt-JFK article 'trash' but not libelous, jury finds."
''

'' (February 7, 1985), p. 1A. Archived by the

and

. Commenting afterward, two jurors rejected that the conspiracy theories offered by Lane influenced the verdict. Lane's 1991 book ''

Plausible Denial ''Plausible Denial: Was the CIA Involved in the Assassination of JFK?'' is a 1991 book by American attorney, Mark Lane that outlines his theory that former Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt was involved with the Central Intelligence Agency in the ...

'', develops the claims he presented in the trial. In 1989, Marchetti presented a paper on the CIA at the Ninth International Revisionist Conference held by the Holocaust denial organisation

Institute for Historical Review The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a United States-based nonprofit organization which promotes Holocaust denial. It is considered by many scholars to be central to the international Holocaust denial movement. Self-described as a "hist ...

(IHR). Marchetti edited the ''New American View'' newsletter, which described its aim as to "document for patriotic Americans... the excess of pro-Israelism, which warps the news we see and hear from our media, cows our Congress into submission, and has already cost us hundreds of innocent, young Americans in Lebanon and elsewhere." He also co-published the ''Zionist Watch'' newsletter with Mark Lane. Marchetti is the publisher of a Japanese-language book titled ''ADL and Zionism'', authored by Paul Goldstein and Jeffrey Steinberg, associates of

Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy ...

Personal life and death

Marchetti suffered from

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

in his last years. He died at his home in

Ashburn, Virginia Ashburn is a census-designated place (CDP) in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, its population was 43,511, up from 3,393 twenty years earlier. It is northwest of Washington, D.C., and part of the Washingt ...

at the age of 88 on October 19, 2018.Schudel, 2018

Filmography

* ''Inside Pine Gap'' (1997)
''Inside the CIA: On Company Business''
(1980)
''The JFK Conspiracy: Final Analysis''
(1992) * "You Have Used Me as a Fish Long Enough" (Part 2). ''The Living Dead: Three Films About the Power of the Past'' (1995). The second major television documentary series by British filmmaker

Adam Curtis Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955) is an English documentary filmmaker. Curtis began his career as a conventional documentary producer for the BBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The release of ''Pandora's Box (British TV series), ...

for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

. The series examines the manipulation of history and memory (both national and individual) by politicians and others. *
Extract
of Marchetti discussing Acoustic Kitty. 1 min.

Publications

Articles

* "CIA: The President's Loyal Tool." ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', vol. 214, no. 14 (Apr. 3, 1972), pp. 430–432.
"Inside the CIA: The Clandestine Mentality,"
with John D. Marks. ''

Ramparts Magazine ''Ramparts'' was a glossy illustrated American political and literary magazine, published from 1962 to 1975 and closely associated with the New Left political movement. Unlike most of the radical magazines of the day, ''Ramparts'' was expensively ...

'' (Jul. 1974)
pp. 21-25, 48, 50, 52.
* "Twilight of the Spooks." ''

Inquiry An inquiry (also spelled as enquiry in British English) is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. A theory of inquiry is an account of the various types of inquiry and a treatment of the ...

'' (July 10, 1978), pp. 6–8. * "CIA to Admit Hunt Involvement in Kennedy Slaying." ''

Spotlight Spotlight or spot light may refer to: Lighting * Spot lights, automotive auxiliary lamps * Spotlight (theatre lighting) * Spotlight, a searchlight * Stage lighting instrument, stage lighting instruments, of several types Art, entertainment, an ...

'' (Aug. 14, 1978). * "How the CIA Views the UFO Phenomenon." ''Second Look'', vol. 1, no. 7 (May 1979), pp. 2–7. :: Republished in the ''

Journal of Historical Review The ''Journal of Historical Review'' was a non-peer reviewed, pseudoacademic periodical focused on advancing Holocaust denial. It was published by the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), based in Torrance, California. It ran quarterly from 19 ...

'', vol. 17, no. 5 (Sep./Oct. 1998), p. 14.

Books

* ''The Rope-Dancer''. New York:

Grosset & Dunlap Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. Today, through the Penguin Gro ...

(1971). . .
''The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence''
with John D. Marks. New York:

Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

(1974). .

Book reviews

* "Memoirs of a Frustrated Spook." Review of ''Decent Interval: An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the CIA's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam'' by

Frank Snepp Frank Warren Snepp, III (born May 3, 1943) is a journalist and former chief analyst of North Vietnamese strategy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Saigon during the Vietnam War. For five out of his eight years as a CIA officer, he worke ...

. ''

'' (Feb. 6, 1978), pp. 22–24. * "A Sand Trap for the CIA." Review of ''Ropes of Sand'' by

Wilbur Crane Eveland Wilbur Crane "Bill" Eveland III (July 1, 1918 – January 2, 1990) was a World War II veteran, a CIA station chief, and critic of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. His autobiographical book, ''Ropes of Sand'' (1980), details the many fail ...

. ''

'' (Nov. 10, 1980), pp. 23–24. :: Republished: ''

'', vol. 14, no. 3 (May-Jun. 1994), p. 43.

Interviews

* Kondracke, Morton. ''

'' (January 1975). * Castleman, Michael
"I Was a Spook for the CIA: A Conversation with Victor Marchetti."
''

Ann Arbor Sun The ''Ann Arbor Sun'' was a biweekly underground newspaper founded by John Sinclair in April 1967. The newspaper was originally called the ''Warren-Forest Sun'' (the name refers to the neighborhood in Detroit between Warren Avenue and Forest Aven ...

'', vol. 3, no. 9 (April 25, 1975), pp. 15, 21.
full issue.

Newsletters

* ''New American Views'' (as editor). Washington, D.C. (1988–). . :: "Monitoring the special relationship between the United States and Israel." * ''Zionist Watch'' (as co-publisher, with Mark Lane).

Transcripts

"Propaganda and Disinformation: How the CIA Manufactures History."
Presented at the Ninth International Revisionist Conference in Huntington Beach, California, hosted by the

(February 1989). :: Republished in the ''

'', vol. 9, no. 3 (Fall 1989), pp. 305–320.

References

External links

Victor Marchetti
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Victor Marchetti
at

Spartacus Educational Spartacus Educational is a free online encyclopedia with essays and other educational material on a wide variety of historical subjects principally British history from 1700 and the history of the United States. Based in the United Kingdom, Spart ...

* Victor Marchetti FBI file at

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, ...

Victor Marchetti collection
at the Harold Weisberg Archives {{DEFAULTSORT:Marchetti, Victor 1929 births 2018 deaths People from Ashburn, Virginia People from Hazleton, Pennsylvania Military personnel from Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State University alumni American spies American whistleblowers Historians of the Central Intelligence Agency People of the Central Intelligence Agency Researchers of the assassination of John F. Kennedy Writers from Pennsylvania American conspiracy theorists

Early life and background

CIA career

Writing career

Later writing

Personal life and death

Filmography

Publications

Articles

Books

Book reviews

Interviews

Newsletters

Transcripts

See also

Further reading

References

External links