Charles P Cabell

Early life

He was the son of Ben E. (son of Confederate general William L. Cabell) and Sadie E. (Pearre) Cabell and attended Oak Cliff High School in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from West Point in 1925. He was initially commissioned as an artillery lieutenant and served in the field artillery until 1931, when he went to flying school, and was transferred to the Air Corps. He served in a variety of aviation roles as a staff officer and squadron commander throughout the pre-war years, primarily in observation and pursuit squadrons. His observation roles led naturally to his later involvement in photographic and intelligence roles.

Cabell achieved the rank of colonel in 1942 and brigadier general in 1944, serving both at air force headquarters at the Pentagon and in the European Theater. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, he held a variety of staff headquarters positions, including chief of Air Force Intelligence 1948-1951, and director of the staff for the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1951-1953.

In 1949, Cabell set up Project Grudge to "make a study reviewing the UFO situation for AF HQ." However, Grudge quickly became all but moribund, while simultaneously reporting that all UFO cases were being closely investigated. When Cabell learned of this, he ordered Grudge dissolved and ordered that the "open minded" Project Blue Book be created.

In November 1951, he was named director of the Joint Staff for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During this time, he was promoted to Lieutenant General.

In 1952, he was an enthusiastic promoter of the U-2 spy plane, along with Allen Welsh Dulles and John Foster Dulles.

CIA career

On April 23, 1953, while still an active air force officer, he was appointed deputy director of the CIA. In 1956, along with the CIA's Richard Bissell, he flew to Bonn, to brief the West German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, on the U-2 program. Adenauer allowed U-2 planes, pilots, and support teams to be based at Wiesbaden. He was promoted to full general in 1958.

Cabell became Deputy Director of CIA under Allen Dulles. He was forced by President Kennedy to resign, on January 31, 1962, following the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Cabell's brother, Earle Cabell, was Mayor of Dallas when Kennedy visited that city and was assassinated, on November 22, 1963.

Later life and death

General Cabell died in 1971, four years before his brother Earle.

Conspiracy theories

One version of John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories, the "Renegade CIA Clique" theory, implicates Cabell and other CIA officials, including James Jesus Angleton and William King Harvey, as well as the "three tramps", and Cabell's brother Earle Cabell.

During Jim Garrison's 1973 bribery trial, tape recordings from March 1971 revealed that Garrison considered publicly implicating Cabell of conspiracy in the assassination after learning he was the brother of the Dallas mayor. Theorizing that a plot to kill the President was masterminded out of New Orleans in conjunction with the CIA with cooperation from the Dallas police department and city government, Garrison tasked his chief investigator, Pershing Gervais, of looking into the possibility that Cabell had stayed in the city's Fontainebleau Motel at the time of the assassination. The Washington Post reported that there was no evidence that Gervais ever followed through with the request and that there was no further mention of Cabell in Garrison's investigation.

Personal

Cabell was married to Jacklyn DeHymel in 1934; they had two sons, Charles P. Cabell, Jr. and Benjamin Cabell IV, and one daughter, Catharine C. Bennett. He left an autobiography "A Man of Intelligence: Memoirs of War, Peace and the CIA" published in 1997. His oldest son Charles was also an Air Force officer and West Point graduate (Class of 1958), achieving the rank of brigadier general.

He was a tenth-generation descendant of Pocahontas and a third cousin of Navy four-star admiral Richard H. Jackson.

Career chronology

Decorations and medals

Foreign awards