Desmond Fitzgerald

Who was Desmond Fitzgerald?

Desmond FitzGerald was an American Central Intelligence Agency deputy director and recipient of the National Security Medal.

He was educated at St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts and Harvard University.

According to Smith's Encyclopedia of the CIA, in World War II he enlisted as a private, but later went to Officer Candidate School and became a liaison to the Chinese army. He became a major and was awarded the Bronze Star He was linked with the Chinese 6th army which operated in Burma.

After the war, he worked at a Wall Street law firm in New York City. He was connected to elite social circles.

According to Prados he worked in the Far East Division on a diverse array of projects, dealing with Tibet, China, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea. He also became friends with William Colby after Colby transferred to the division. Fitzgerald was especially interested in the Tibetan Task Force, supporting the Tibetan rebellion against the Maoist Chinese takeover, for example in the 1959 Tibetan uprising. He told officers to work with Gyalo Dhondup.

Smith writes that in 1951 he was in the Office of Policy Coordination. He rose up to work in the Directorate of Plans, a position from which he warned against becoming involved in a failed 1958 rebellion in Indonesia.