Richard M. Bissell, Jr.

Richard M. Bissell, Jr.


First Co-Director of the National Reconnaissance Office
In office Sep 1961 – Feb 1962
President	John F. Kennedy
Succeeded by	Joseph V. Charyk
Personal details
Born	Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr. September 18, 1909 Hartford, Connecticut, United States
Died	February 7, 1994(1994-02-07) (aged 84) Farmington, Connecticut, United States
Profession	Central Intelligence Agency officer

Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr. (September 18, 1909 – February 7, 1994) was a Central Intelligence Agency officer responsible for major projects such as the U-2 spy plane and the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr. was born in the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut, and went to Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts. Two of his fellow pupils at Groton were Joseph Alsop and Tracy Barnes. He studied history at Yale University, turning down membership in Skull and Bones, and graduating in 1932, then studied at the London School of Economics. He returned to Yale where he was granted a Ph.D. in economics in 1939. His brother, William, also attended Yale and became a member of Skull and Bones.

Bissell worked closely with the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), which had helped to organize guerrilla fighting, sabotage and espionage during World War II. In July, 1947 Bissell was recruited by W. Averell Harriman to run a committee to lobby for an economic recovery plan for Europe. The following year he was appointed as an administrator of the Marshall Plan in Germany and eventually became head of the Economic Cooperation Administration.