Early Life and CIA Career
Welch, who was born in Hartford, Connecticut, was recruited to the CIA in 1951 upon graduation from Harvard. His first assignment as a case officer was in Athens working as a civilian employee of the U.S. Department of the Army (1952-59). From 1960-64, he served in Cyprus, and then in Guatemala (1965-67), Guyana as COS (1967-69), and Peru as COS (1972-75).
He arrived in Athens, Greece, in July 1975, at a time when Greece had just come out a tumultuous period of military dictatorship. Welch stayed in the house occupied by several of his predecessors as chief of the CIA station. The night of 23 December 1975, five men in a stolen Simca followed him home as he returned from a Christmas party. While two men covered his wife and driver, a third shot him dead with a .45 Colt M1911 pistol at close range. Welch's name and address had been published in the Athens News and Eleftherotypia in November 1975. However, a communiqué sent by 17N to French newspaper Libération in March 1976 demonstrated that the group had been watching Welch's movements since the summer of 1975. He had previously been revealed as a CIA agent in an East German book and a magazine called CounterSpy.
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