Cord Meyer

American CIA official and author (1920–2001)

Cord Meyer IV ('/m//aɪ//.//ər/; November 10, 1920 – March 13, 2001) was a war veteran, a world federalist, a CIA official and a writer. After serving in World War II as a Marine officer in the Pacific War, where he was both injured and decorated, he led the United World Federalists in the years after the war. Around 1949, he began working for the CIA, where he became a high level operative, retiring in 1977. After retiring from intelligence work in 1977, Meyer wrote as a columnist and book author. From 1945 to 1958, Meyer was married to Mary Pinchot, who was later romantically linked to President John F. Kennedy. Her murder in 1964, eleven months after Kennedy's assassination, remains unresolved.

Meyer was the son of a wealthy New York family. His father, Cord Meyer III, was a diplomat and real estate developer; his mother, Katherine Blair Thaw, belonged to a Pennsylvania family that earned its wealth in the coal business. After graduating in 1942, he joined the 22nd Marine Regiment and fought in the Pacific War; he took part in the Battle of Eniwetok, and in the Battle of Guam as platoon leader, losing his left eye in a grenade attack. He became a first lieutenant and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He shared his war experiences, writing for The Atlantic Monthly. Meyer's twin brother, Quentin, was killed at Okinawa.

He was an aide of Harold Stassen to the 1945 San Francisco United Nations Conference on International Organization. In 1947, he was elected president of the United World Federalists (UWF), the organization he helped to fund. In year 1948, Cord was invited to attend the meeting of Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists (ECAS) and he met Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard and many of the other leading nuclear physicists. and showed his support and also assisted UEF in fundraising on numerous occasions. In 1953, Meyer came under attack by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which claimed he was a security risk for having once stood at the same podium of a "notorious leftist", and refused to give him a security clearance. An internal CIA inquiry summarily dismissed the claims. According to Deborah Davis in her 1979 book Katharine the Great, Meyer became the "principal operative" of Operation Mockingbird, an alleged plan to secretly influence domestic and foreign media. Meyer befriended James Angleton, who in 1954 became the CIA's counter intelligence chief. From 1954 until 1962, Meyer led the agency's International Organizations Division. Meyer headed the Covert Action Staff of the Directorate of Plans from 1962. and from 1973 to 1976 was CIA station chief in London. Some insiders incorrectly suspected that Cord Meyer was Deep Throat, a key informant in the Watergate Scandal whose identity was a mystery for more than 30 years.

After the death of former CIA agent and Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt in 2007, Saint John Hunt and David Hunt revealed that their father had recorded several claims about himself and others being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy. In the April 5, 2007 issue of Rolling Stone, Saint John Hunt detailed a number of individuals implicated by his father including Meyer, as well as Lyndon B. Johnson, David Sánchez Morales, David Phillips, Frank Sturgis, an assassin, he termed "French gunman grassy knoll" who many presume was Lucien Sarti, and William Harvey. The two sons alleged that their father cut the information from his memoirs, "American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate and Beyond", to avoid possible perjury charges. On 18 December 1956, Meyer's nine year old son, Michael (born 1947), was hit by a car and killed. Meyer had two surviving sons, Quentin, born in November 1945, and Mark, born in 1950. Meyer and his wife Mary divorced in 1958. On 12 October 1964, his former wife Mary was shot dead by an unknown assailant alongside the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In 1966, Meyer married Starke Patteson Anderson.

He retired from the CIA in 1977. Following retirement, Meyer became a syndicated columnist and wrote several books, including an autobiography.

Meyer died of lymphoma on March 13, 2001.