As the CIA's Near East Division Chief from 1959 to 1969, Chritchfield was reported to have "kept tabs on" (in the words of "The Washington Post") or even "helped arrange" (according to Timothy Naftali, writing in "Foreign Policy") the February 1963 coup that overthrew Abd al-Karim Qasim and first brought the Ba'ath Party to power in Iraq. Qasim's expropriation of the concessionary holdings of the British- and American-owned Iraq Petroleum Company, as well as his threats to invade Kuwait, had caused many U.S. officials to regard his government as a threat to American interests in the Middle East. Chritchfield denied that the CIA had "actively support[ed]" the Ba'ath Party, but acknowledged that it was "better informed on the 1963 coup in Baghdad than on any other major event or change of government that took place in the whole region in those years", explaining that "we watched the Ba'ath's long, slow preparation to take control" and "we knew perhaps six months beforehand that it was going to happen." Archival evidence indicates that a high-ranking member of the Party had informed the CIA of an earlier Ba'athist coup plot in mid-July 1962. It is not proven that the CIA was told in advance of the exact timing of the successful February 1963 coup, but longtime CIA officer Harry Rositzke later claimed "the CIA's major source, in an ideal catbird seat, reported the exact time of the coup and provided a list of the new cabinet members." Another former CIA official has stated that he was working with Archie Roosevelt, Jr. on a separate plan to instigate a military coup against Qasim, which was rendered moot by the latter's assassination. This official "denied any involvement in the Ba'ath Party's actions."