Victor Marchetti

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

After leaving the CIA, Marchetti began a writing career. His first work was a novel, The Rope-Dancer, published in 1971, about an officer in the 'National Intelligence Agency' who becomes a spy for the Soviet Union. In a 2004 article, Jon Wiant reported a 1991 conversation with retired KGB General Oleg Kalugin, who said Rope Dancer is assigned as required reading for every KGB officer assigned to the United States. Marchetti then co-wrote The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence with John D. Marks, published in 1974 by Knopf. The book was printed with blanks for passages the CIA demanded deleted—168 deletions upheld by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1978, Marchetti published an article in the far-right newspaper The Spotlight claiming a CIA memo named E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, and Gerry Patrick Hemming in the JFK assassination. Hunt sued Marchetti and the Liberty Lobby for defamation in 1981 and won $650,000 in damages, but Marchetti and Liberty Lobby won the appeal in 1985 after Marchetti stated key parts were based on rumors from Penthouse columnist Bill Corson.

In Their Own Story

Marchetti's later writing included editing the New American View newsletter, which aimed to 'document for patriotic Americans... the excess of pro-Israelism, which warps the news we see and hear from our media, cows our Congress into submission, and has already cost us hundreds of innocent, young Americans in Lebanon and elsewhere.' He co-published the Zionist Watch newsletter with Mark Lane and published ADL and Zionism by Paul Goldstein and Jeffrey Steinberg, both closely associated with the LaRouche movement. In 1989, he presented a paper on the CIA at the Ninth International Revisionist Conference held by the Institute for Historical Review. He appeared in the 1988 episode of The Kwitny Report discussing the American mafia and Kennedy's assassination. Marchetti suffered from dementia in his last years and died at his home in Ashburn, Virginia at age 88 on October 19, 2018.

Reader's Guide

Marchetti's career is marked by his transition from CIA insider to vocal critic. Key turning points include: his resignation from the CIA in September 1969; the 1972 court case where Judge Albert V. Bryan Jr. issued a permanent injunction requiring Marchetti to submit writings to CIA review before publication; the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the restraint but limiting it to classified material; the Supreme Court rejecting his appeal in December 1972; and the 1974 publication of The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence with 168 deleted passages. His 1978 Spotlight article led to the 1981 Hunt defamation lawsuit, which initially awarded $650,000 in damages but was overturned on appeal in 1985 after Marchetti admitted his claims were based on unsubstantiated rumors. He co-published newsletters critical of the Israel lobby and presented at revisionist conferences.

Did You Know?

• Marchetti served as a corporal in U.S. Army Intelligence in France and Germany from 1951 to 1953 before joining the CIA.
• He worked on setting up the Pine Gap satellite ground station near Alice Springs in Central Australia while at the CIA.
• His novel The Rope-Dancer was assigned as required reading for every KGB officer assigned to the United States, according to retired KGB General Oleg Kalugin.
• The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence was published with blank spaces for 168 passages the CIA demanded deleted, which were upheld by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• E. Howard Hunt sued Marchetti for defamation in 1981 and won $650,000 in damages, but Marchetti won the appeal in 1985 after admitting his claims were based on rumors.