But Prescott Bush was essentially a covert operative in Washington.
On June 10, 1954, Bush received a letter from Connecticut resident H. Smith Richardson, owner of
Vick Chemical Company (cough drops, Vapo-Rub):
... At some time before Fall, Senator, I want to get your advice and counsel on a [new] subject-- namely what should be done with the income from a foundation which my brother and I set up, and which will begin its operation in 1956.... ''@s1@s4 This letter presages the establishment of the H. Smith Richardson Foundation, a Bush family- dictated private slush fund which was to be utilized by the Central Intelligence Agency, and by Vice President Bush, for the conduct of his Iran-Contra adventures. The Bush family knew Richardson and his wife through their mutual friendship with Sears Roebuck's chairman, Gen. Robert E. Wood. General Wood had been president of the America First organization, which had lobbied against war with Hitler Germany. H. Smith Richardson had contributed the start-up money for America First and had spoken out against the U.S. joining the
Communists '' by fighting Hitler. Richardson's wife was a proud reVirginia, who married Lord Astor and backed the Nazis from their Cliveden Estate.lative of Nancy Langehorne from
General Wood's daughter Mary had married the son of Standard Oil president William Stamps
Farish. The Bushes had stuck with the Farishes through their disastrous exposure during World War
II (see Chapter 3). Young George Bush and his bride Barbara were especially close to Mary Farish,and to her son W.S. Farish III, who would be the great confidante of George's presidency.@s1@s5
The H. Smith Richardson Foundation was organized by Eugene Stetson, Jr., Richardson's son-in-
law. Stetson (Skull and Bones, 1934) had worked for Prescott Bush as assistant manager of the New
York branch of Brown Brothers Harriman.
In the late 1950s, the H. Smith Richardson Foundation took part in the psychological warfare '' of the CIA. This was not a foreign, but a domestic, covert operation, carried out mainly against unwitting U.S. citizens. CIA Director Allen Dulles and his British allies organized MK-Ultra, ''
the testing of pschemical warfare '' possibilities. In this period, the Richardson Foundation helped financeychotropic drugs including LSD on a very large scale, allegedly to evaluate ``
experiments at Bridgewater Hospital in Massachusetts, the center of some of the most brutal MK-
Ultra tortures. These outrages have been graphically portrayed in the movie, Titticut Follies.
During 1990, aLeadership just north of Greensboro, North Carolina. The tour guide said that in these rooms,n investigator for this book toured H. Smith Richardson's Center for Creative (^)
agents of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Secret Service are trained. He demonstrated the
two-way mirrors through which the government employees are watched, while they are put through
mind-bending psychodramas. The guide explained that virtually everyone who becomes a general '' in the U.S. armed forces also goes through this training '' at the Richardson Center.
Another office of the Center for Creative Leadership is in Langley, Virginia, at the headquarters of
the Central Intelligence Agency. Here also, Richardson's Center trains leaders of the CIA.
Prescott Bush worked throughoutIn July 1956, Egypt's President Gamel Abdul Nasser announced he would accept the U.S. offer of a the Eisenhower years as a confidential ally of the Dulles brothers.
loan for the construction of the Aswan Dam project. John Foster Dulles then prepared a statement
telling the Egyptian ambassador that the U.S.A. had decided to retract its offer. Dulles gave the
explosive statement in advance to Prescott Bush for his approval. Dulles also gave the statement to
President Eisenhower, and to the British government.@s1@s6