William Harding Jackson - CIA - Deputy Director, Central Intelligence (DDCI)

Deputy Director, Central Intelligence (DDCI)

Bill Jackson was the first Deputy Director of Central Intelligence at CIA to serve under former Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1946) and former World War Two four-star General, Walter Bedell Smith (DCI), known affectionately as "Beatle".

Beatle Smith's appointment by President Harry S. Truman as DCI was announced on August 18, 1950. On the same date, Beatle Smith announced Jackson's appointment as his 'Deputy'. Jackson had been recommended by former Secretary of the Navy, Admiral Sidney W. Souers who had served as "Director Central Intelligence" prior to the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947. He knew of Bill Jackson's work in anti-submarine air warfare and his connection to Secretary of Defense, Admiral James Forrestal from the days of the old Office of Strategic Services, disbanded in 1945.

Smith and Jackson officially assumed the duties of DCI and DDCI on October 7, 1950. Three months later, General Smith and Bill Jackson succeeded in bringing Allen Dulles to CIA. On January 2, 1951, Allen Welsh Dulles was sworn in and took office as Deputy Director for Plans (DDP) in charge of covert activities. While many claim that Major General William Joseph Donovan (known as 'Wild Bill Donovan') was the "founder" of the CIA, official CIA history shows that these three men (Beatle Smith, Bill Jackson, and Allen Dulles) were the principals who actually put the CIA organization together as we know it, during its formative years from 1950-1961.

Bill Jackson's successful Wall Street investment banking career was interrupted by his reluctant tenure as Deputy Director of the CIA, which was originally to be for ...only six months..., by agreement with General Smith, but lasted until August 3, 1951, "...when he signed a personal services contract (WAE). He returned to private business but remained active in CIA affairs as the Special Assistant and Senior Consultant to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) from August, 1951 to February, 1956. ...Allen Dulles succeeded Jackson as DDCI on 23 August 1951...." according to Montague.

When Bill Jackson resigned from CIA to return to Wall Street and, also, become Special Advisor in National Security affairs to General Smith (DCI) and Presidents Truman and Eisenhower (from 1951–1957), Allen Dulles was promoted to DDCI, serving from 23 August 1951 through 26 February 1953. When Beatle Smith retired in 1953, Allen Dulles then became DCI from 26 February 1953 to 29 November 1961. Those three men essentially guided the CIA for more than ten-years, through the Korean War period, and all were very close advisors to the White House.

During the Eisenhower Administration, Bill Jackson is listed by the 'White House Staff' publication and by the CIA as being a 'Special Assistant' and 'Senior Consultant to the Director of Central Intelligence' (from 1951–1957). Bill Jackson was the Chairman of President Eisenhower’s Committee on International Information Activities, often known inside the Beltway as the 'Jackson Committee', during 1953 and 1954.

In February 1956 he was appointed special assistant to President Eisenhower on psychological warfare, succeeding Nelson Rockefeller.

To the occasional amusement of many politicians and Washington, DC insiders, there was a George Jackson at CIA serving on the National Board of Estimates Staff, and other members of the 'Jackson Committee' which included the Committee's Chief of Staff, Wayne Jackson, a former office-mate of Bill Jackson's at the law firm Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, and C. D. Jackson from the private sector Time-Life-Fortune magazine syndicate.

According to Montague's account, "...This multiplicy of CIA-related Jacksons occasioned some merriment."