James H. Critchfield

James Hardesty Critchfield (January 30, 1917 – April 22, 2003) was an officer of the US Central Intelligence Agency who rose to become the chief of its Near East and South Asia division.

This work, which led to the creation of the post-war West German intelligence apparatus, came to include the use of Nazi war criminals.

[2] As the CIA's Near East Division Chief from 1959 to 1969, Chritchfield was reported to have "kept tabs on" (in the words of The Washington Post[2]) or even "helped arrange" (according to Timothy Naftali, writing in Foreign Policy[4]) the February 1963 coup that overthrew Abd al-Karim Qasim and first brought the Ba'ath Party to power in Iraq.

"[6][7] Archival evidence indicates that a high-ranking member of the Party had informed the CIA of an earlier Ba'athist coup plot in mid-July 1962.

"[8][9] Another former CIA official has stated that he was working with Archie Roosevelt, Jr. on a separate plan to instigate a military coup against Qasim, which was rendered moot by the latter's assassination.