Zapata Oil was an oil exploration business set up by George H. W. Bush and three others. The company was started with assistance from Allen Dulles (the same Dulles who headed up CIA; was fired by JFK; later served on the Warren Commission). A CIA internal memo dated November 29, 1975 confirmed that Zapata Petroleum began in 1953 through Bush's joint efforts with Thomas J. Devine, a CIA staffer who had resigned his agency position that same year to go into private business, but who continued to work for the CIA under commercial cover.