Clair Elroy George was a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's clandestine service who oversaw all global espionage activities for the agency in the mid-1980s.
20 Facts About Clair George
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2.
Clair George was not a son of privilege and lacked an Ivy League pedigree.
3.
Clair George was the third-ranking official at the CIA under William Casey.
4.
Clair George died in Bethesda at age 81 of cardiac arrest.
5.
Clair George had given up her CIA career when they married.
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Clair Elroy George was born Aug 3,1930 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Clair George's family moved several times, ending up in the western Pennsylvania steel-mill town of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, when he was 9.
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Clair George's father was a dairy chemist who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture.
9.
Clair George, nicknamed "Red" because of his hair color, was an academic standout, a musician and president of the student council.
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Clair George was set to enroll in Columbia Law School when he joined the Army instead in the midst of the Korean War.
11.
Clair George joined the CIA after being impressed by agency officers he met in the Far East.
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In 1960, Clair George married a CIA secretary, Mary Atkinson; she died in 2008.
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Clair George reached this pinnacle after three decades of working as a spy around the world, specializing in recruiting foreign agents to spy on their own countries for the United States.
14.
Clair George went from Hong Kong to Paris, from Mali to New Delhi.
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Clair George served as the CIA's station chief in Beirut when civil war erupted there in 1975.
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Clair George placed first out of 100 candidates in a promotions ranking and was put in charge of the agency's African division.
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Clair George served later as deputy director from 1984 until his retirement in 1987.
18.
Clair George was the recipient of three Distinguished Intelligence Medals from 1983 to 1988 and was awarded the Intelligence Medal of Merit.
19.
Clair George was the highest-ranking CIA official to stand trial over the biggest White House scandal since Watergate: a White House-led operation to covertly sell weapons to Iran and divert the profits to right-wing Nicaraguan rebels known as the Contras.
20.
In September 1991, Clair George was indicted on 9 counts, including making false statements to Congress.