Any spy who is foolhardy enough to make speeches is fair game for the press. CIA Director Richard Helms learned that the hard way when he tried to speak off the record to the Business Council at the Homestead Inn in Hot Springs, Va. Arguing that anything Helms had to say to 125 of the nation's top business executives could hardly endanger national security, reporters pleaded with the CIA chief for at least a briefing. They even carried their complaints to the Administration's communications director, Herb Klein, in Washington. Helms turned Klein down too.
The CIA rebuff sent most reporters off to gripe among themselves in the Homestead's bars. But not U.P.I.'s James Srodes, 29, a former Atlanta Journal political reporter. Trying not to be noticed, the 6-ft. 5-in., 280-lb. reporter poked about for ways to eavesdrop on the superspy—and stumbled into his story. Wandering into the kitchen, Srodes was amazed to discover Helms' speech being amplified through a kitchen intercom so that the help would know when to clear tables without disturbing speakers. In his talk, Helms described Ho Chi Minh as "an utterly cold-blooded individual, not at all a kindly uncle," called the Kremlin leadership "morally bankrupt" and claimed that the National Liberation Front had "given up any hope of winning the war on the battlefield." To make sure that he would be first on the wire with the story, Srodes ran off to file before Helms had finished. He tipped a Reuters reporter in a corridor to cover the rest of the speech. Although it was a stroke of luck, Srodes' feat showed unusual dedication to duty. He was not at the Homestead just for business; he was also on his honeymoon.