Cord Meyer

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American CIA official and author (1920–2001)

title: "Cord Meyer" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1920-births", "2001-deaths", "american-anti-communist-propagandists", "american-spies", "deaths-from-cancer-in-washington,-d.c.", "deaths-from-lymphoma-in-the-united-states", "people-of-the-central-intelligence-agency", "people-associated-with-the-assassination-of-john-f.-kennedy", "pinchot-family", "harold-stassen", "united-states-marine-corps-officers", "united-states-marine-corps-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "world-federalist-activists", "yale-university-alumni", "american-activists-with-disabilities"] description: "American CIA official and author (1920–2001)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_Meyer" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American CIA official and author (1920–2001) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameCord Meyer IV
image
landscape
alt
birth_name
birth_date
birth_placeWashington, D.C., U.S.
baptised
death_date
death_placeWashington, D.C., U.S.
burial_placeArlington National Cemetery
burial_coordinates
nationality
citizenship
agent
known_for1st President of United World Federalists
notable_works
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title
spouse{{plainlist
*{{marriageMary Pinchot Meyer
partner
motherKatherine Blair Thaw
fatherCord Meyer III
relatives Cord Meyer II (grandfather)
William Thaw Sr. (great-grandfather)
::

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| partner = | children = | mother = Katherine Blair Thaw | father = Cord Meyer III | relatives = Cord Meyer II (grandfather) William Thaw Sr. (great-grandfather)

Cord Meyer IV (; 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.

Early life

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 obtained its wealth in the coal business. His grandfather, Cord Meyer II, was a property developer and a chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee.

He was educated at St. Paul's School, New Hampshire, and attended Yale University, where he was a member of the Scroll and Key society, and as a senior was awarded the Alpheus Henry Snow Prize. After graduating in 1942, he joined the 22nd Marine Regiment{{cite book |title=The Politics of World Federation: From World Federation to Global Governance |author=Joseph Preston Baratta |isbn=0-275-98068-5 |year=2004}} 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.

United World Federalists, Inc.

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. It was when Albert Einstein joined UWF and showed his support and also assisted UEF in fundraising on numerous occasions. In 1949, Cord resigned and was succeeded by Alan Cranstone.

CIA career

Around 1949, Meyer started working for the Central Intelligence Agency, joining the organization in 1951 at the invitation of Allen Dulles. At first he worked at the Office of Policy Coordination under former OSS man, Frank Wisner.{{cite book |title=Facing Reality: From World Federalism to the Central Intelligence Agency |year=1980 |author=Cord Meyer |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=0-06-013032-6 |page=65 |url=https://archive.org/details/facingrealityfro00meye/page/65

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.{{cite book |title=A Journey Through the Cold War: A Memoir of Containment and Coexistence |year=2001 |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |author=Raymond L. Garthoff |isbn=0-8157-0102-0 |page=16}} Meyer headed the Covert Action Staff of the Directorate of Plans from 1962.

From 1967 to 1973, Meyer was assistant deputy director of plans under Thomas Karamessines, and from 1973 to 1976 was CIA station chief in London.{{cite book |title=Facing Reality: From World Federalism to the Central Intelligence Agency |year=1980 |author=Cord Meyer |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=0-06-013032-6 |page=222 |url=https://archive.org/details/facingrealityfro00meye/page/222

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.

Alleged involvement in JFK assassination

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. According to Hunt's widow and other children, the two sons took advantage of Hunt's loss of lucidity by coaching and exploiting him for financial gain. The Los Angeles Times said they examined the materials offered by the sons to support the story and found them to be "inconclusive".

Personal life

On April 19, 1945, Meyer married Mary Eno Pinchot, the second daughter of Amos Pinchot and Ruth Pickering Pinchot, in her mother's Park Avenue home in New York City. On 18 December 1956, Meyer's nine-year-old son, Michael (born in 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. Her sister and brother-in-law Benjamin C. Bradlee, later the executive editor of The Washington Post, caught James Angleton breaking into Pinchot's residence. Angleton apparently was looking for Mary Meyer's diary that allegedly contained details of her love affair with John F. Kennedy, the recently assassinated U.S. President.

In 1966, Meyer married Starke Patteson Anderson.

Later years

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

Books

Death

Meyer died of lymphoma on March 13, 2001.

Viral false claims

A photo of his meeting with Albert Einstein in 1948 has been widely circulated on the internet and social media, with the false claims of Einstein being with his therapist.

References

References

  1. "44 Years Later, a Washington, D.C. Death Unresolved".
  2. Burleigh, Nina. (1998). "A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer". Bantam Books.
  3. Hendrickson, Paul. (February 7, 1978). "Behind the Scenes of a CIA Life". The Washington Post.
  4. Marquis, Christopher. (2001-03-16). "Cord Meyer Jr. Dies at 80". The New York Times.
  5. (2001-03-16). "Cord Meyer Jr. Dies at 80; Communism Fighter at C.I.A. (Published 2001)".
  6. Meyer, Cord. (1980). "Facing reality : from world federalism to the CIA". New York : Harper & Row.
  7. (2016-02-29). "Albert Einstein and World Federalist Cord Meyer in conversation, Princeton, NJ".
  8. (2022-06-01). "These candid photographs capture the daily life of Albert Einstein, 1930s-1950s - Rare Historical Photos".
  9. "LIFE - Hosted by Google".
  10. Jackson, Harold. (March 16, 2001). "Cord Meyer: CIA chief behind clandestine funding of Encounter and Watergate break-in". The Guardian.
  11. Deborah Davis. (1979). "Katharine the Great". Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  12. Zielinski, Graeme. (March 15, 2001). "Key CIA Figure Cord Meyer Dies". The Washington Post.
  13. Riebling, Mark, ''Wedge'' (2002) Touchstone {{ISBN. 0-7432-4599-7
  14. Williams, Carol J.. (March 20, 2007). "Watergate plotter may have a last tale". Los Angeles Times.
  15. Hedegaard, Erik. (April 5, 2007). "The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt".
  16. McAdams, John. (2011). "JFK Assassination Logic: How to Think About Claims of Conspiracy". Potomac Books.
  17. (April 20, 1945). "MARY ENO PINCHOT IS WED TO MARINE; PRINCIPALS IN WEDDING AND BRIDE-ELECT". The New York Times.
  18. Benjamin C. Bradlee. (1995-09-25). "The Bradlee files". Newsweek.
  19. (1966-01-09). "Mrs. Anderson Wed To Cord Meyer Jr (Published 1966)".
  20. (2015-08-25). "This is NOT Albert Einstein With His Therapist".
  21. says, QuietBlogster. (2017-04-02). "Einstein with his therapist?".
  22. (2013-12-26). "7 (More) Fun Facts That Are Total Lies".

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1920-births2001-deathsamerican-anti-communist-propagandistsamerican-spiesdeaths-from-cancer-in-washington,-d.c.deaths-from-lymphoma-in-the-united-statespeople-of-the-central-intelligence-agencypeople-associated-with-the-assassination-of-john-f.-kennedypinchot-familyharold-stassenunited-states-marine-corps-officersunited-states-marine-corps-personnel-of-world-war-iiworld-federalist-activistsyale-university-alumniamerican-activists-with-disabilities