Son of late CIA director warns there is ‘no excuse’ for far-right extremism in US

‘Those people have no idea, the history and foulness of that,” says Dennis Helms, the son of World War II American spy Richalrd Helms

The son of a late Second World War American intelligence spy has warned about the catastrophic consequences of extremism and Nazi rhetoric.

A week after Adolf Hitler fatally shot himself and as the Allies officially recognised Germany’s unconditional surrender of its military forces, Richard Helms managed to find Hitler’s stationery to send a letter that is now displayed at the CIA’s private museum.

“The man who might have written on this card once controlled Europe — three short years ago when you were born,” Helms, an American spy with the Office of Strategic Services, wrote in the 8 May 1945 letter addressed to his then three-year-old son Dennis. “Today he is dead, his memory despised, his country in ruins.”

Seventy-eight years after Helms penned the letter to mark Victory in Europe Day, his son is speaking up against the harmful rhetoric that cost millions of lives during the Second World War and is still being used by extremist groups in the US and the world.

“Those people have no idea, the history and foulness of that,” Dennis Helms told The Guardian, noting that the vast political divide in America has been used to further push those dangerous ideologies. “There can be nothing that’s worse … I can’t say enough bad about that.”

In the less-than-100-word letter, Helms conveyed the magnitude of the atrocities committed by the Nazi party but also gave an insight into a world of possibilities that opened up upon Hitler’s defeat.

Helms, who went on to become the CIA director from 1966 to 1973, also noted that millions of Jews paid with their lives for that new beginning.

“[Hitler] had a thirst for power, a low opinion of men as an individual and a fear of intellectual honesty. He was a force for evil in the world,” he wrote. “His passing, his defeat — a boom to mankind. But thousands died that it might be so. The price of ridding society of bad is always high ... Love, Daddy.”

OSS spy Richard Helms sent a heartfelt letter to his then-three-year-old son Dennis to mark Victory Day in Europe (CIA/US Government)

Picture dated 06 August 1973 of Richard M. Helms, in Washington, D.C., testifying in front of the Watergate commission (CONSOLIDATED NEWS PICTURES/AFP v)

The progress that Helms likely envisioned has seen setbacks as white supremacism continues to be a problem today, his son told The Guardian. That type of rhetoric has been behind an alarming number of violent attacks in America in recent years.

Just last month, a white supremacist opened fire at a Texas mall, killing eight people, including three children.

Mr Helms, now 80, said that certain political figures, most notably Republican primary candidate Donald Trump, have fostered an environment of hate and spitefulness, despite publicly denouncing white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

“He lies all the time, he cheats,” Mr Helms told The Guardian, adding that his father “just rotates in his grave” when Mr Trump goes on his hate-filled rants. “I think that he is a guy who has none of the values that my father did.”

Mr Helms said white supremacist rhetoric is extremely harmful. Just last month, a white supremacist opened fire at an Allen, Texas mall, killing three children and five adults (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Mr Helms also condemned Kanye West for defending Hitler’s regime and posting an image of a swastika inside the Star of David on Twitter. Hate, Mr Helms remarked, can be devastating and has no place in the post-war world that many like his late father fought for.

“There is no excuse for that,” he said. “Not that there ever was.”