WRC INTERVIEWS JOHN MARKS, AUTHOR OF BOOK ON CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020067-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 67
• Publication Date: September 19, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO-TV MONITORING SERVICE, INC.
3408 WISCONSIN AVENUE. N. W. WASHINGTON. D. C. 20016 244-8682
PROGRAM:
DATE:
NEWS FOUR WASHINGTON
THURS., SEPTEMBER 19, 1974
STATION OR NETWORK:
TIME:
WRC TELEVISION
7:00 PM, EDT
WRC INTERVIEWS JOHN MARKS, AUTHOR OF BOOK ON CIA
JIM VANCE: Senators Howard Baker and Lowell
Weicker have introduced a bill that would create a Congression-
al committee to oversee the activities of U. S. intelligence
agencies. A great deal of criticism has been levelled against
the CIA for its alleged involvement in the internal affairs of
Chile. We have with us here in our studio right John Marks,
who worked with a former member of the CIA, Victor Marcetti,
in putting together this book, The CIA and the Cult of Intelli-
gence. And John, I want to get right into you with this thing
about Chile.
.The CIA says that it did not do anything in Chile
that it should not have done. Did you find anything different
in researching this book?
JOHN MARKS: Well, we wrote about Chile in our book,
and the government tried to censor it. What we wrote about
two years ago has now come out, that the CIA intervened in
Chile, that they spent about eight million dollars trying to
destabilize the Allende government in Chile, and trying to make
it impossible for Allende to govern. And I might point out
that Allende was democratically elected in Chile, and it was
the legal government. And we were interfering, trying to over-
throw him.
VANCE: The CIA's function, as I understand it, is to
gather intelligence. From this overview of this book here, I
see that the CIA has, in fact, been involved in a great deal
more than that, and in more places. than in Chile. Can you give
us some idea of the scope of the CIA's involvement in world
internal politics?
MARKS: Well, we can tell you in 1958 they tried to
overthrow the government of Indonesia. In 1954 they did over-
throw the government of Guatemala. They tried things in Cuba--
you all remember the Bay of Pigs. They've been active all
over Latin America, in Brazil in 1962, in Peru in 1965. I mean
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they're just a very active bunch of fellows.
VANCE: But at the same time, if there is a government
somewhere that is about, or if there is a government somewhere
the developments of which are about to threaten something that
has to do with United States interests, isn't it in the interest
of the United States to have somebody over there doing something
about it? And isn't that what the CIA is all about?
MARKS: Sure, if it was really threatening to our
interests, but what was the threat from Chile? I mean, the
Chilean army wasn't going to invade the United States, but yet
the United States felt compelled to intervene there--the CIA
felt compelled to intervene. In fact, most of the countries
where the CIA has intervened have been in the third world, and
those aren't countries that pose any conceivable threat to the
United States.
VANCE: A great deal of your book is not here on
tliese pages. I don't know if you can see this or not, but much
of this--there are blank spaces where it says "deleted". The
government went to court and kept you from putting, or kept you
from printing, a lot of what you had intended to put in this
book.
There was one passage here having to do with the
statement that Henry Kissinger made in June _.27th of 1970 in
reference to Chile. What did he say there? And I understand
that you can tell me about that.
MARKS: Well, I can't tell you officially, but I can
tell you that the New York Times said that he said there that
I don't see why we should stand by and see a country go commun-
ist just because of the irresponsibility of its own people.
And I think that was a very interesting commentary by Mr.
Kissinger--by Dr. Kissinger--because it shows his attitude,
that he feels the United States should be intervening in foreign
countries if he perceives a threat.
VANCE: John, it's fascinating. I wish we had more
time to talk about it. I'm really sorry we've got to cut it
off.
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