David Atlee Phillips David Atlee Phillips ( October 31 , 1922 – July 7 , 1988 ) was a Central Intelligence Agency officer for 25 years , one of a handful of people to receive the Career Intelligence Medal . He rose to become the CIA ' s chief of all operations in the Western hemisphere . In 1975 he founded the Association of Former Intelligence Officers ( AFIO ) , an alumni association comprising intelligence officers from all services . Background . Phillips was born in Fort Worth , Texas . He attended William and Mary College and Texas Christian University . Phillips established his ties to the intelligence community during World War II , when as a prisoner of war in Germany he became a member of an escape committee , serving until his own escape . CIA career . Phillips joined the CIA as a part - time agent in 1950 in Chile , where he owned and edited " The South Pacific Mail " , an English - language newspaper that circulated throughout South America and several islands in the Pacific . He became a full - time operative in 1954 , and operated a major psychological warfare campaign in Guatemala during the US coup and its aftermath . He rose through the ranks to intelligence officer , chief of station and eventually chief of all operations in the Western hemisphere , serving primarily in Latin America , including Cuba , Mexico , and the Dominican Republic . Some researchers claim Phillips used the alias " Maurice Bishop " ( not to be confused with the former prime minister of Grenada , Maurice Bishop ) . He used the " pseudonym " while working with Alpha 66 , an organization of anti - Castro Cubans . Alpha 66 ' s founder , Antonio Veciana , claimed that during one of his meetings with " Bishop " , Lee Harvey Oswald was also in attendance . Winston Scott , CIA Station Chief in Mexico City , asked Phillips to assume the post of Chief of Covert Action which , according to Phillips , was " . . . a job [ E . ] Howard Hunt had held in the early fifties and in which Hunt had handled , among others , an American contract agent named William F . Buckley . " According to House Select Committee on Assassinations ( HSCA ) investigator Gaeton Fonzi , Phillips became Mexico City ' s Chief of Cuban Operations in September 1963 , just before Oswald visited the city . Gaeton Fonzi believed Phillips was Bishop . In the HSCA ' s 1979 report , it stated : The report went on to dismiss Veciana ' s testimony about the meeting : Retirement . During the 1970s , the intelligence community was rocked by a number of leaks and embarrassing revelations . Phillips took early retirement in 1975 to found the Association of Former Intelligence Officers ( AFIO ) to counter widespread criticism of the United States intelligence community coming from the media and the U . S . Congress . Phillips was subsequently himself accused of being a participant in the John F . Kennedy and Orlando Letelier assassinations . Philips successfully sued some publications for libel ; retractions were issued and monetary damages were awarded . Phillips donated these proceeds to AFIO for the purpose of creating a legal defense fund for American intelligence officers who felt they were the victims of libel . Phillips wrote and lectured frequently on intelligence matters . He authored five books , including his CIA memoir " The Night Watch , " " Careers in Secret Operations , " a novel of Arab terrorists intent on damaging Washington landmarks , " The Terror Brigade , " a spy novel called " The Carlos Contract , " and " The Great Texas Murder Trials : A Compelling Account of the Sensational T . Cullen Davis Case . " ( on T . Cullen Davis ) . Allegations of involvement in the assassination of John F . Kennedy . After the death of former CIA agent and Watergate figure E . Howard Hunt in 2007 , Howard St . John Hunt and David Hunt stated 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 " , Howard St . John Hunt detailed a number of individuals purported to be implicated by his father including Phillips , as well as Lyndon B . Johnson , Cord Meyer , David Sánchez Morales , Frank Sturgis , 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 possibly perjury charges . Hunt ' s widow and other children told the " Los Angeles Times " that the two sons took advantage of Hunt ' s loss of lucidity by coaching and exploiting him for financial gain . The newspaper said it examined the materials offered by the sons to support the story and found them to be " inconclusive . "