Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.
| Kermit Roosevelt Jr. | |
|---|---|
Kermit "Kim" Roosevelt Jr.
|
|
| Born |
February 16, 1916 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Died | June 8, 2000 (aged 84) Cockeysville, Maryland |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation | career intelligence officer, author |
| Known for | directing Operation Ajax |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Lowe Gaddis |
| Children | 4, including Mark Roosevelt |
| Parent(s) | Belle Wyatt Roosevelt (née Willard), Kermit Roosevelt Sr. |
Kermit "Kim" Roosevelt Jr. (February 16, 1916 – June 8, 2000), a grandson of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, was a Harvard-educated career intelligence officer who served in the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), during and following the second world war, went on to found Arabist organizations such as the American Friends of the Middle East, and then to play a critical role in the CIA's operation to return Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the former Shah of Iran, to power in August 1953. He was asked to lead the CIA-sponsored 1954 coup in Guatemala but refused, arguing that the government of Jacobo Árbenz had the support of the Guatemalan people.
Kermit Roosevelt Jr.—called "Kim" as was standard for the alternating generations of Kermits in the Roosevelt family—was born to Kermit Roosevelt Sr. and Belle Wyatt Roosevelt (née Willard) in Buenos Aires in 1916, where Roosevelt Sr. was an official for a shipping line, and then a manager of the Buenos Aires branch of the National City Bank. The Roosevelt family returned to the U.S., and Kim, his two brothers, Joseph Willard and Dirck, and his sister, Belle Wyatt, grew up in Oyster Bay, N.Y., a homestead near to Sagamore Hill, the Long Island home of the Theodore Roosevelt clan.
Kim attended Groton School as a young man. He graduated from Harvard University in 1937, a year ahead of his class, and married Mary Lowe Gaddis shortly thereafter.
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