A life-threatening illness forced Mr Goss to give up his clandestine work but he took to the Republican political spotlight and became chairman of the powerful House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
That was the launchpad for him, becoming only the second Congress member, after the elder George Bush, to head the CIA with the mission of reforming and rejuvenating the world’s biggest spy agency after the trauma of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
President George Bush named Porter Goss to replace George Tenet, who stood down following strong criticism over the failure to head off the Al-Qaeda attacks and the information used to justify the Iraq war.
Mr Bush said at the time it was a “critical point” for the nation because of the various security challenges facing the United States.
He was in army intelligence for two years before becoming a CIA case officer from 1962 to 1971.
He was a field officer on two continents, Bush said as he announced the nomination. According to US media, Goss served in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Western Europe.
In a 2002 interview with The Washington Post, he recalled “I had some very interesting moments in the Florida Straits” during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
Goss was in England when an infection of the heart and other organs nearly killed him and forced him to leave the CIA at 31.
He retired to Florida, set up a newspaper with two other ex-spies and entered local politics in the city of Sanibel. “We started a new life,” he told the Post. “We just started all over again, completely.”
He was elected to the House of Representatives for Florida in 1988 and was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for seven years. He had planned to retire in 2002 but Vice President Dick Cheney helped convince Goss to stay on.
As chairman of the House committee, Goss played a central role in congressional efforts to probe intelligence failures leading up to the September 11 attacks.
When his name was first mentioned as a possible replacement for Tenet, intelligence insiders praised Goss, saying he would be an ardent advocate for the agency.
But opponents criticized Goss as being too closely connected to the intelligence establishment and to the Bush administration.
Goss came under attack almost straight away because he appointed several top aides from Congress who were considered highly political for the CIA.
He had bad relations with parts of agency’s powerful clandestine service.—AFP