CASEY, WILLIAM JOSEPH

William Joseph Casey

William Joseph Casey was a lawyer with a long and distinguished career in business and public service who later became the controversial director of the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (CIA) during the Reagan administration.

Casey was born March 13, 1913, in Elmhurst, New York. He received his bachelor’s degree from Fordham University in 1934, did graduate work at the Catholic University of America, and then entered St. John’s University Law School, graduating with a bachelor of laws degree in 1937. Following his admission to the New York state bar he moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the Research Institute of America, a private organization involved in analyzing economic and political data concerning the NEW DEAL.

During WORLD WAR II Casey served with
Army Intelligence and the Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) and, from London, directed the
activities of OSS spies. After the war Casey
returned to Washington, D.C., and served for
two years as special counsel to the Small Business
Committee of the U.S. Senate.He remained
interested in international relations as a result of
his wartime activities, however, and in 1948 he
returned to Europe to become associate general
counsel for the MARSHALL PLAN. Following his
war-related service, he started practicing law
and became a partner in a large New York law
firm. He also began teaching at New York University,
where he lectured on tax law from 1948
to 1962, and taught periodically at the Practicing
Law Institute.While practicing and teaching, he
wrote a number of highly successful books on
taxes, real estate, and investments, including Tax
Shelter Investments (1952) and Accounting Desk
Book (1956), and a book on U.S. history titled
Where and How the War Was Won: An Armchair
Guide to the American Revolution (1976). The
profits from his books, in addition to his income
from his law practice and his investments,
helped to make him a multimillionaire.
In the 1960s, Casey moved from business to
politics, running in 1966 for a seat in the U.S.
House of Representatives. Though he lost the
primary to a more conservative Republican
opponent, Casey remained active in the REPUBLICAN
PARTY, writing and conducting research
for Richard M. Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign.
In 1969 he helped the new president set
up the Citizens Committee for Peace with Security,
which was organized to back Nixon’s policy
on antimissile weapons, and served on the advisory
council of the ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT
Agency.
In 1971 Nixon appointed Casey chairman of
the SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
(SEC), where he quickly became known as a
tough administrator who favored strict regulation
of stockbrokers. Casey also became unpopular
with his fellow SECURITIES lawyers when he
named them as defendants in connection with
their clients’ alleged frauds. While head of the
SEC, he persuaded Congress to increase the
agency’s budget by $1.5 million, which he used
to hire more lawyers, accountants, and other
specialists to improve the agency’s efficiency. In
1974, Casey moved from the SEC to the STATE
DEPARTMENT, where he served as undersecretary
of state for economic affairs for two years.
He then became president and chairman of the
EXPORT-IMPORT BANK, an independent government
agency charged with facilitating the export
of U.S. goods and services. In 1976 he left government
to return to private law practice in New
York and Washington, D.C., though he did
return to accept an appointment to President
Gerald R. Ford’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory
Board.
In 1981 Casey embarked on what was to be
the final and most controversial chapter of his
career when President RONALD REAGAN
appointed him director of the CIA. The nomination
was criticized by some members of Congress
as blatantly political because Casey had run Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign. Nevertheless,
Casey eventually won congressional
approval and became the first director of the
agency to be given cabinet-level rank.
Known for his hard-driving and sometimes
confrontational management style, Casey won
early praise for improving the CIA’s analytical
work. But he also drew heavy criticism for the
agency’s political activity outside the United
States when the CIA stepped up its support for
anti-Communist organizations in developing
countries. Under Casey the agency engaged in
intelligence operations in Central America,
where it mined Nicaraguan harbors and provided
textbooks for the Nicaraguan contras (the
rebels fighting the Marxist government of
Nicaragua) on how to use violence against civilian
officials.
Congress, angered by reports of the operations,
voted in 1984 to make aid to the contras
illegal.When a diversion of funds to the contras
from arms sales to Iran came to light—in a scandal
that became known as the IRAN-CONTRA
AFFAIR—Casey denied that he had any knowledge
or involvement of such sales. Critics
charged that as CIA director, Casey should have
known about the affair, and suspected that
Casey had played a larger role than he acknowledged.
In addition, members of Congress criticized
Casey for allowing CIA staff members
wide latitude to circumvent the prohibition
against giving aid to the contras.
Casey was to testify before a Senate panel
about the CIA’s role in the sale of arms to Iran in
December 1986 but became ill and was hospitalized
the day before he was to appear. He then
underwent surgery for removal of a malignant
brain tumor and it was also reported that he was
suffering from prostate cancer. In February
1987, after several weeks in the hospital, Casey
resigned his post at the CIA. Later that spring
congressional hearings on the Iran-Contra
Affair commenced. The first witness, retired Air
Force major general Richard V. Secord, testified
that Casey was involved in providing arms to the
Nicaraguan rebels after Congress had outlawed
such activity. However, the nature and extent of
any involvement by Casey remained unclear. On
May 7, 1987, Casey died of pneumonia.
Casey’s death left many unanswered questions
about the Iran-Contra Affair. However,
both Republicans and Democrats praised Casey
for his patriotism, intellect, and commitment to
public service.