Army instead in the midst of the Korean War. He learned Chinese and worked in counterintelligence. He joined the CIA after being impressed by agency officers he met in the Far East. In 1960, George married a CIA secretary, Mary Atkinson; she died in 2008. They had two daughters both born in Paris while George was assigned to Bamako, Mali. Long CIA service As the CIA's deputy director of operations for three years of the Reagan administration, the third-highest post in the spy agency, George was responsible for cloak-and-dagger activities worldwide. He reached this pinnacle after three decades of working as a spy around the world, specializing in recruiting foreign agents to spy on their own countries for the United States. After the Korean War, George joined the CIA in 1955. Through cunning and mettle, he advanced through the ranks of the clandestine service, working in Cold War proxy zones in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. He went from Hong Kong to Paris, from Mali to New Delhi. The Washington Post Magazine in 1992 quoted a colleague as calling George "a top-notch street man" who operated in what spies call the "night soil circuit"—the less desirable posts of the world. George served as the CIA's station chief in Beirut when civil war erupted there in 1975. His successor would be kidnapped and assassinated. The following year he volunteered to replace the Athens station chief, who had just been assassinated by the Revolutionary Organization 17 November over the United States' support of the Regime of the Colonels. This gesture, perhaps more than anything, brought him recognition as a dedicated officer willing to make his safety secondary to the needs of the agency. George returned permanently to Washington in 1979. He placed first out of 100 candidates in a promotions ranking and was put in charge of the agency's African division. William J. Casey, whom Reagan had named director of central intelligence, appointed George to successively higher positions, among them as the CIA's liaison to Congress. He served later as deputy director from 1984 until his retirement in 1987. Distinctions and medals George was the recipient of three Distinguished Intelligence Medals from 1983 to 1988 and was awarded the Intelligence Medal of Merit. Iran-Contra Affair George was the highest-ranking CIA official to stand trial over the biggest White House scandal since Watergate: a White House-led operation to covertly sell weapons