William F. Raborn Jr. 84; Retired Vice Admiral Ran CIA
WASHINGTON — William Francis Raborn Jr., a retired Navy vice admiral who was in charge of the development of the Polaris missile and later headed the Central Intelligence Agency in the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration, has died of cardiac arrest at 84.
An aviator, Raborn served aboard aircraft carriers in World War II and commanded the destroyer Bennington after the war.
In 1955, he became the first director of the Navy’s Fleet Ballistic Missile Program, which developed the first nuclear missile capable of launch from a submarine. He brought in the solid-fuel, long-range missile on time and on budget.
The first Polaris was launched from the submarine George Washington off the coast of Florida in July, 1960, and landed on target 1,150 miles away.
More than half the nation’s nuclear warheads are now carried in submarines because of the vessels’ elusiveness.
In 1965, Raborn came out of retirement when President Johnson appointed him to head the CIA. He served only a year and was succeeded by his deputy, Richard H. Helms, the following year.
After leaving the CIA he established his own firm in McLean, Va., where he died in a hospital on March 7, according to obituaries published Tuesday.
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