Robert Crowley (CIA)

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For the English poet and clergyman with the same name, see Robert Crowley (printer)

Robert Trumbull Crowley (July 13, 1924 - October 8, 2000) was an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency since 1947, achieving the rank of assistant deputy director for operations, second in command of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, which was in charge of covert operations.

A native of Chicago, Illinois and graduate of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, he served in the US Army in the Pacific theater during World War II. After the war, he remained in the United States Army Reserve, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1986.

After retiring from the CIA, he cowrote The New KGB: Engine of Soviet Power (1985) with former CIA intelligence officer William R. Corson.

After Crowley's death in 2000, Gregory Douglas published a book called, Regicide: The Official Assassination of John F. Kennedy (Monte Sano Media, 2002, ISBN 1-59148-297-6). The book claims that there was a conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy, and uses material purportedly obtained from Crowley to claim that the CIA had a central role in the assassination under the code name Operation Zipper. In fact, according to his son, Crowley never actually met Douglas, and viewed him as a harmless eccentric.