Donald Nichols (18 February 1923 – 2 June 1992) was a United States Air Force intelligence officer who played a hidden but pivotal role in the Korean War.

[4] His intelligence outfit, sometimes known as "Nick," saved American lives by going behind enemy lines to find vulnerabilities in Soviet tanks and MiG fighter jets.

Nichols was just 23 when he met the 71-year-old Rhee, but the inexperienced American spy (a 7th grade dropout) and the worldly Korean politician (a master's degree from Harvard, a doctorate from Princeton) found each other useful.

[6] There was a dark side, though, to Nichols's long run as a spy commander in Korea, as well as to his postwar life in Florida, where he repeatedly committed sexual crimes involving young boys.

[8] Nichols did not report these atrocities to his superiors, and his senior intelligence clerk, Sergeant Serbando Torres, later said that "slaughtering all these people...didn't seem to bother him that much."

[11] The lack of supervision gave Nichols freedom to indulge his sexual interest in young Korean airmen, who were periodically brought to him in the evenings at his spy base outside of Seoul.

[18] He was later charged in Florida with repeated sexual assaults on young boys and pleaded nolo contendere in 1987 to two felony counts of lewd behavior in the presence of a child.

[19] He died in the psychiatric ward of a veteran's hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he had gone in lieu of imprisonment in Florida as a sexual predator.

Nichols wrote an autobiography, How Many Times Can I Die?, that is notable for exaggerating his achievements and omitting key elements in his life.

He began active collection of military intelligence; for the next two years, he briefed General Earle Partridge on possible North Korean communist actions.

Sergeant Nichols claimed that he predicted the beginning date of the Korean War to an accuracy within 3 days of its actual occurrence (June 25, 1950) in his last report on the subject, but his forecast was ignored.

[27][28] After the North Koreans invaded at 0400 hours on 25 June 1950, Nichols telephoned the news to General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters at 0945.

Then newly promoted chief warrant officer Nichols destroyed the IL-10 and other airplanes and equipment before fleeing Seoul, clinging to the side of a small boat.

[31] Partridge mentioned communist guerrillas harassing Taegu Air Force Base and interrupting UN flight operations.

Nichols led a band of 20 South Korean soldiers in a night-time raid into the hills, and returned with grenade fragments in his leg.

When a planeload of trainees in his ad hoc training failed to jump, Nichols headed them back into the drop aircraft.

[32] Although air drops served to introduce espionage teams into the interior of North Korea, their only means of exit was on foot.

Given the impossibility of Caucasians remaining undetected in the Asian populace of communist rear areas, there was a minimal need for Americans in this U.S. Air Force detachment.

Despite the fact that the Air Force effort was as large as the CIA and Naval intelligence units in Korea, the relatively junior Nichols remained entrusted with command.