Donald Gregg
Encyclopedia
Personal history
Gregg worked for the CIA for 31 years, from 1951-1982. After graduating from high school he enlisted in the military and received training as a cryptanalyst. He then attended Williams CollegeWilliams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
, in Williamstown, MA, until 1951. Upon his graduation, he was recruited by the CIA. After serving in the agency for 31 years, Gregg was National Security Advisor
National Security Advisor
A National Security Advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. He or she is not usually a member of the Cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils....
to Vice-President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, United States Ambassador to Korea
United States Ambassador to Korea
The current United States Ambassador to Korea is Sung Kim. His official title is "United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea."-Kingdom of Korea:...
(1989–1993), and the chairman of the board of the Korea Society
Korea Society
The Korea Society is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501 organization with individual and corporate members that is dedicated solely to the promotion of greater awareness, understanding and cooperation between the people of the United States and Korea...
, where he has called for greater engagement with North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
. Beginning in September 2009, Gregg retired to the role of chairman emeritus of The Korea Society. He was replaced as chairman of The Korea Society by Thomas C. Hubbard
Thomas C. Hubbard
Thomas C. Hubbard is a diplomat and former U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines and South Korea . He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy.-References:...
.
Gregg joined the CIA in 1951. (It is not known if Gregg worked in the Miami JM/WAVE office, as Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin
Anton Chaitkin
Anton "Tony" Chaitkin is an author, historian, conspiracy theorist, and political activist with the LaRouche movement. He serves as History Editor for Executive Intelligence Review....
claim, or if he knew Bush from that time, when the latter was CEO of Zapata Corporation
Zapata Corporation
Zapata Corporation is a holding company based in Rochester, New York, and originating from an oil company started by a group including the former United States president George H. W. Bush. Various writers have alleged links between the company and the United States Central Intelligence Agency...
.) Gregg then served in Burma (1964–1966), Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
(1966–1969), Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
(1970–1972). He worked on the Phoenix Program
Phoenix Program
The Phoenix Program |phoenix]]) was a controversial counterinsurgency program designed, coordinated, and executed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency , United States special operations forces, and the Republic of Vietnam's security apparatus during the Vietnam War that operated...
, where he reported to Ted Shackley. (In 1976, Shackley became Bush's Associate Deputy Director for Operations, the third-highest post at the CIA.)
A friend of President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, Sr. Gregg was involved with the Iran-Contra scandal from the inception. On March 17, 1983, Felix Rodriguez
Félix Rodríguez (Central Intelligence Agency)
Félix Ismael Rodríguez Mendigutia is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer infamous for his involvement in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, in the interrogation and execution of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara and his ties to George H. W. Bush during the Iran-Contra Affair...
met with Gregg at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, and presented his five-page proposal for the creation of a "Tactical Task Force" for the "pacification" efforts in El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, and Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
. Gregg then recommended Rodriguez' plan to National Security Council
National Security Council
A National Security Council is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security...
adviser Robert McFarlane, with a secret one-page memo on "anti-guerrilla operations in Central America." This marked the beginning of US support for the Nicaraguan contras. In June 1985 Gregg met with Rodriguez and Col. Steele of the Salvador military group working with the Contra supply network. In December 1985 Rodriguez attended Bush's White House Christmas party and was introduced as an old friend of Gregg's. In January 1986 Rodriguez met with Gregg's deputy in Salvador. In May 1986 Rodriguez met with Gregg, Bush, and Oliver North
Oliver North
Oliver Laurence North is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, political commentator, host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel, a military historian, and a New York Times best-selling author....
in Bush's office. In August 1986 Gregg met with Rodriguez and Bush. (Gregg soon meets with Alan Friers to support arms purchases from Rodriguez instead of Richard Secord
Richard Secord
Major General Richard V. Secord, Retired , is a United States Air Force officer convicted for his involvement with the Iran-Contra scandal only to be exonerated after a 1990 Supreme Court case found the statute used to be illegal....
.) John K. Singlaub
John K. Singlaub
John Kirk Singlaub is a highly-decorated former OSS officer and a retired Major General in the United States Army, and a founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency . He was a joint founder, with Congressman Larry McDonald, of the Western Goals Foundation, a conservative private...
warned North in September 1986 that too much contact with Rodriguez would be bad for the Administration.
In fiction
- Donald Gregg's role as United States Ambassador to KoreaUnited States Ambassador to KoreaThe current United States Ambassador to Korea is Sung Kim. His official title is "United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea."-Kingdom of Korea:...
was loosely portrayed as the character Gregory Donald in the 1995 novel Op-Center, part of the Tom Clancy's Op-CenterTom Clancy's Op-CenterTom Clancy's Op-Center is a novel series, created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik, though the series is actually written by Jeff Rovin.-Main characters:These characters are in most or all books:...
series.
External links
- Korea Society homepage
- Interview with AsiaSource, January 22, 2006.
- Interview with PBS, February 20, 2003.
- Transcript of testimony before the Committee on Foreign Relations of the US Senate, February 4, 2003.
- Interview with PBS, December 19, 1997.
- Walsh reporting Iran-Contra, Chapter 29 "Donald P. Gregg"