◆ SpookStack

JE I felt the same way about the air, I found that it was almost unwork- able and impossible because I never knew whether this air thing was going to work with Beerli or not. Most of the time we were highly dissatisfied. Interviewer Well, DPD was nominally -- the Cuban activity for DPD -- was nominally placed under your control wasn't it? . JE Supposedly, the looks of it, but they ..• there were never any teeth in it. It is like saying the Intel- ligence Community was placed under Helms a few years ago .•. I mean it was nominally placed under him, but you know and I know that he never had any control over it.* Interviewer You couldn't countermand any Beerli orders then? JE And I never knew whether he was giving ones that weren't compatible with what I wanted to do either. Interviewer What kind of management plans did you try to work out with Beerli? Daily meetings with him? or written record or how? JE We kept extensive memos of the things we did, but as a practical matter, I finally got Beerli to name -- to designate -~ one person whom I could be working with on a regular basis, and that was Stan [sic] Gaines. * Richard M. Helms, DCI, 30 June 1966 - 1 February 1973. - 19 -