David Henry Blee (November 20, 1916 - August 4, 2000) served in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from its founding in 1947 until his 1985 retirement.
Specifically, Soviets who came forward to offer intelligence information to the CIA would no longer be greeted with harsh treatment and categorically subjected to an enduring suspicion.
His transformative changes led to the departure of James Angleton, the counterintelligence chief who had long enjoyed a dominant role in the CIA.
"Blee demonstrated insight and fast action" in that "while Washington dithered about how to respond" to the defection of the late Soviet dictator's daughter, "he put her on an airplane and spirited her out of the country to safety.
Following the Six-day war in 1967, DCI Richard Helms had appointed him to lead the CIA's Near East Division, which supervised its espionage operations in the region.
[7] "One of his major responsibilities was tracking the emergence of Palestinian guerrilla groups, in the hope of anticipating their increasingly violent actions against western targets.
These substantial changes in CIA method eventually led to the early departure of James J. Angleton from his post as chief of counterintelligence.
"[24] According to former CIA officer Haviland Smith,[25] "[Blee] was the architect of the program that turned the clandestine service back on target against the Soviets after all the years of Angleton.
"[26] Smith and other CIA agents, particularly Burton Gerber and David Forden, had worked to innovate a new generation of spy tradecraft.
"[32] According to Clair George, a former D/NCS for the CIA, Blee "had a greater intellectual command of overseas operational activity than any officer I ever knew.
Director George Tenet awarded special medallions to 50 past and present staff for their outstanding contributions to postwar American intelligence.