Samuel
Halpern was born in Brooklyn. His father, a tailor, was bankrupted
by the Depression. After the Second World War
he joined the Central
Intelligence Agency.
In
the late 1950s Halpern was executive assistant to Desmond
FitzGerald, the
chief of the Far Eastern Division of the CIA. He also worked as one
of FitzGerald's operations officers in Saigon during the early stages
of the Vietnam War.
In
1961 Halpern worked with Richard Bissell
and Desmond
FitzGerald
in
the various plots to overthrow Fidel
Castro in
Cuba. According to Halpern Robert
Kennedy
put the CIA under a lot of pressure to arrange the assassination
of Castro. Halpern claimed that "Bobby
Kennedy was a bad influence on Des (FitzGerald). He reinforced his
worst instincts." Thomas Parrott, the secretary of SGA, claimed
that FitzGerald had trouble dealing with Kennedy: "He was arrogant,
he knew it all, he knew the answer to everything. He sat there, tie
down, chewing gum, his feet up on the desk. His threats were transparent.
It was, "If you don't do it, I tell my big brother on you."
Halpern
was involved in the investigation of the assassination of John
F. Kennedy. He came to the conclusion that Fidel
Castro had nothing to do with the plot to kill Kennedy.
Halpern
was interviewed by David Corn for his book
Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's Crusades
(1994) and Evan
Thomas for
his book The Very Best Men (1995).
Samuel Halpern died in March, 2005.
Namebase: Samuel Halpern
Forum Debates
The Kennedy Assassination
Samuel Halpern
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