Ray S. Cline
At 1973 U.S. Intelligence Board, 4th from left
4thDirector of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research
In office October 26, 1969 – November 24, 1973
President	Richard Nixon
Secretary of State	William P. Rogers
Preceded by	Thomas L. Hughes
Succeeded by	William G. Hyland
Personal details
Born	Ray Steiner Cline (1918-06-04)June 4, 1918 Anderson Township, Clark County, Illinois, U.S.
Died	March 15, 1996(1996-03-15) (aged 77) Arlington County, Virginia, U.S.
Spouse	Marjorie Wilson ​ (m. 1941)​
Children	2
Education	Harvard University (AB,MA) Balliol College, Oxford (DPhil)
Profession	Chief CIA Analyst

Ray Steiner Cline (June 4, 1918 – March 15, 1996) was an official at theUnited StatesCentral Intelligence Agency and is best known for being the chief CIA analyst during theCuban Missile Crisis.

Ray S. Cline was born inAnderson Township, Clark County, Illinois in 1918 and raised inTerre Haute, Indiana, graduating fromWiley High School in 1935. He earned a scholarship to study atHarvard University where he graduated with an A.B. in 1939. He received the Henry Prize Fellowship to Balliol College, Oxford University 1939–40. He returned to Harvard and earned an M.A. He was invited to join theHarvard Society of Fellows in 1941, but with the outbreak of World War II, he left after a year to join the war effort.^[1][2]

Cline married Marjorie Wilson in 1941; the couple had two daughters, Judith and Sibyl. Until Sibyl's divorce, Cline was the father-in-law ofStefan Halper.^[3]

Cline died fromAlzheimer's disease at his home inArlington County, Virginia, on March 15, 1996, aged 77.^[2]

Cline served in World War II first as a cryptanalyst for the U.S. Department of the Navy (1942–1943) and then joined the newly createdOffice of Strategic Services. He became Chief of Current Intelligence in 1944, serving until 1946. He later traveled to China where he worked with other OSS officers such asJohn K. Singlaub,Richard Helms,E. Howard Hunt,Paul Helliwell,Robert Emmett Johnson, andLucien Conein.^{[citation needed]} In 1946, he was assigned to the Operations Division of theGeneral Staff of theUnited States Department of War, tasked with writing the history of the Operations Division.

According toSterling Seagrave,Edward Lansdale found alarge cache in caves and tunnels in thePhilippines after World War II ended.^[4][5][a] Cline stated that bothPaul Helliwell andRobert Anderson created 176 "black gold" banking accounts in 42 countries after moving loot from the Philippines by ship to support future United States operations.^[7][5]

Cline joined the newly foundedCentral Intelligence Agency in 1949 as an intelligence analyst, having completed his Ph.D. at Harvard that year. He was initially responsible for intelligence onKorea, but he failed to predictNorth Korea's 1950 invasion ofSouth Korea, which began theKorean War. From 1951 to 1953, he served as an attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Great Britain^[1] under the supervision ofBrigadier GeneralE. C. Betts. From 1953 to 1957, he was the CIA desk officer charged with monitoring theSoviet Union and thePeople's Republic of China; in this capacity, he correctly predicted theSino-Soviet split. In 1958 he became Chief of the CIA station inTaiwan, with his official title being chief of the United States Naval Auxiliary Communications Center.^[2]

In 1962, Cline moved toWashington, D.C. as the head of CIA'sDirectorate of Intelligence, the agency's analytical branch. He replacedRobert Amory Jr who had held this Office in 1953–1962. Cline played a crucial role in theCuban Missile Crisis when, under Cline's leadership, the Directorate of Intelligence concluded after study of U2 spy plane photographs of Cuba that the Soviet Union had shippednuclear warheads toCuba; Cline was among those who informedPresidentJohn F. Kennedy of this development.^[2]

Cline played a role in the formation of theWorld League for Freedom and Democracy in 1966.

Cline remained head of the Directorate of Intelligence until 1966, when, disillusioned with PresidentLyndon B. Johnson, he determined to leave the CIA. His old friendRichard Helms intervened to have Cline posted as Special Coordinator and Adviser to theUnited States Ambassador to Germany inBonn.

In 1969, Cline returned to the United States when PresidentRichard Nixon nominated him asDirector of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and he subsequently held this office from October 26, 1969, until November 24, 1973. In this capacity, he oversaw U.S. intelligence in the build-up to theYom Kippur War.^[8]

Cline left government service in 1973, becoming an executive director of theCenter for Strategic and International Studies atGeorgetown University. While at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he became a prolific author on American intelligence and foreign policy. He also became an ardent defender of the CIA in testimony before theUnited States Congress and in the media.^[2]

Cline was head of theU.S. Global Strategy Council.^[9]

• Washington Command Post: the Operations Division. Preface and foreword byOrlando Ward. Washington, D.C.:Office of the Chief of Military History, U.S. Department of the Army (1951).
• World Power Assessment: The Calculus of Strategic Drift. Boulder, Colo.:Westview Press (1975).ISBN 978-0891580119.
  • Published in cooperation with theCenter for Strategic and International Studies,Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
• Secrets, Spies and Scholars: The CIA from Roosevelt to Reagan. Washington D.C.: Acropolis Books (1976).ISBN 0874910463.
  • Republished asThe CIA Under Reagan, Bush, and Casey. Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books (1981).
• World Power Assessment 1977: A Calculus of Strategic Drift. Boulder, Colo.:Westview Press (1977).ISBN 978-0891582373.
  • Published in cooperation with theCenter for Strategic and International Studies,Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
• World Power Trends and U.S. Foreign Policy for the 1980s. Boulder, Colo.:Westview Press (1980).ISBN 978-0891589174.OCLC 781159709.
  • Published in cooperation with theCenter for Strategic and International Studies,Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
• The CIA Under Reagan, Bush, and Casey. Washington, D.C.: Acropolis (1981).ISBN 0874914426.
  • Republished asCIA: Reality v Myth.
• The Intelligence War. Salamander Books (1983).
• Terrorism: The Soviet Connection, with Yonah Alexander. New York:Crane Russak (1985).ISBN 978-0844814711.
  • Published in cooperation with theCenter for Strategic and International Studies,Georgetown University.
• Western Europe in Soviet Global Strategy (1987) .
• Asia in Soviet Global Strategy, with James Arnold Miller andRoger E. Kanet, eds. Boulder: Westview Press (1987).ISBN 978-0813374819.
• Metastrategy: National Security Memorandum for the President. New York: Crane Russak (1988).ISBN 0844815594.
• Central Intelligence Agency: A Photographic History (1989).
• Foreign Policy Failures in China, Cuba, and Nicaragua: A Paradigm. Washington, D.C.: United States Global Strategy Council (1992).ISBN 0943057051.
• Chiang Ching-Kuo Remembered: The Man and His Political Legacy. Washington, D.C.: United States Global Strategy Council (1993).
• The Power of Nations in the 1990s: A Strategic Assessment. Washington:University Press of America (1995). Foreword byPaul H. Nitze.ISBN 978-0819191519.OCLC 424486997.

• Introduction toRed Cocaine: The Drugging of America, by Joseph D. Douglass Jr. Second Opinion Pub, Inc. (1990), pp. 7–10.
  • New York: Edward Harle (1999).Revised 2nd ed. Preface by Christopher Story.ISBN 978-1899798049.OCLC 60405761.

• "Opinion: Policy without Intelligence."Foreign Policy, no. 17 (Winter 1974), pp. 121–135.doi:10.2307/1148116.JSTOR 1148116.
• "Toward a Two Chinas Policy."Asian Affairs, vol. 3, no. 5 (May/June 1976), pp. 281–286.JSTOR 30171421.
• "Politics and Foreign Policy."Wilson Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3 (Summer 1980), p. 189.Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.JSTOR 40255990.
• "Correction: In Pursuit of Well-Being."Wilson Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3 (Summer 1980), p. 189.Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.JSTOR 40255989.
• "The Communist Five and the Capitalist Ten Socio-Economic Systems in Asia."Journal of East Asian Affairs, vol. 2, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 1982), pp. 1–14. Institute for National Security Strategy.JSTOR 23253505.
• "Commentary: The Cuban Missile Crisis."Foreign Affairs, vol. 68, no. 4 (Fall 1989), pp. 190–196.Council on Foreign Relations.doi:10.2307/20044117.JSTOR 20044117.

• Distinguished Intelligence Medal^[10]
• Career Intelligence Medal^[10]

• M-Fund

• Anderson, Scott (2020).The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War - A Tragedy in Three Acts.Doubleday.ISBN 9780385540452.
• Seagrave, Sterling; Seagrave, Peggy (January 1, 2003).Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold.Verso.ISBN 978-1844675319.
• Oral History Transcript, Ray S. Cline, interview 1 (I), 3/21/1983, by Ted Gittinger.
• Oral History Transcript, Ray S. Cline, interview 2 (II), 5/31/1983, by Ted Gittinger.

• Seagrave, Sterling; Seagrave, Peggu (11 September 2002).Opération "Lys d'or" : Le scandaleux secret de la guerre du Pacifique ou comment les Etats-Unis ont utilisé le trésor de guerre japonais pour financer la guerre froide (in French).Yves MichalonÉditions (L'Harmattan).ISBN 978-2841861606.
• Wolfe, Jane (1989).The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty.St Martins Press.ISBN 978-0312034047.

• Ray Cline atIMDb
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• Deaths from dementia in Virginia
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