CIA whistleblower David McMichael has died at the age of 95.
A CIA intelligence analyst who resigned from the spy agency to expose US plotting to overthrow the Nicaraguan government has died at the age of 95.
David C. McMichael, an intelligence analyst who resigned from the CIA in 1983 to make public evidence that the Ronald Reagan administration was preparing to stage a coup against the Nicaraguan government, on May 16. He died at his home in Front Royal, Virginia, at the age of 95, and his daughter Alicia Williamson confirmed his death.
The New York Times reported that McMichael, a professor of history who worked on a contract basis for the CIA, was one of the CIA’s leading experts in Latin America in the early 1980s. There were many concerns at the time about Soviet support for left-wing governments in the region.
In 1981, when the Ronald Reagan administration took office, McMichael later found evidence that the US president was planning to invade Nicaragua by creating a secret military force.
The New York Times reported that Dr. McMichael refused to remain silent for fear of a repeat of the CIA-backed coups in Iran, Guatemala, and Chile. Finally, in 1984, he shared what he knew with the Washington Post and The New York Times.
Following McMichael’s revelation, the then US government also reacted, with then-Secretary of State George Schultz saying that McMichael “should live in another world.”
David Charles McMichael was born on June 6, 1926 in Albany, New York and grew up in Leonia, New Jersey. His father, Charles McMichael, worked for HGHins and his mother was a housewife.
According to the report, Dr. McMichael was not surprised to be hired by the Stanford Research Institute immediately after he began teaching, given his military and academic background. Stanford University had contracts with the Department of Defense and the CIA at the time.
