JFK BACKS CIA ROLE, AGAIN CRITICIZES DIEM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP65B00383R000200170015-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 24, 2003
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: October 10, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

B00383R000200170015-8
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JFK Backs. CIA Role..
g , I ain Criticizes Diem
y Warren Unna Council and. under my instruc-~ congressional "watchdog" corn-
5t uEVQlte~ bons," Mr. Kennedy empha-imittee over CIA activities.
PresfentOn March 11, 1956, the then
, :[fny 1 a s t sized.,-,
night vigorousl defended the Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-
y
Ile acknowledged that- the
r o 1 e of the Central In recent "transfer" of John A.
telligence Agency South Richardson, CIA station chief
gene
Viet
and declared that
the reports. that it was work-
ing at cross purposes to the
State and Defense Depart-
ments were "wholly untrue."
H,e also, toici. his news con
ference that he saw ,g3 no ,im-
proveme'ntin tale regime of
President Ngo Dinh_Diem..and
his brother No Dinh Nhu
,since his remarl~s on, a Labor
Day TV show suggesting
"changes in .policy and per-
haps with personnel a? ?s-?
necessary e lemg% .tQ.yning
the war ,m ga nst _th_e-_Cnm-
munist V, let Cogg.
"I think we are still dealing
with tkteT,sa , problems._we
were .,dealing,, with. _a
_ . nth
ego " the President, sauwlth.
iimplied,reference to the Diem-.
Nhu,regime's refusal to wider-
C < Pri_ncipal Topic
good share of his - 30-m1nute
-news conference to _ the Wpb
Jett of CJA, a normally sacro
sand matter which the
White House never airs in
in South Viet-Nam, "has led
to surmise." But he praised
Richardson as "a very dedi-
cated public servant."
Richardson reportedly was
recalled from his post in Sai-
gon last week at the request
of U.S. Ambassador Henry
Cabot Lodge. Lodge, it is said,
thought Richards-on's long in-
timacy with Ngo Dinh Nhu,
the real boss in today's South
Viet-Nam, was interfering with
current U.S., attempts to bring
public.
her yesterday that inter-agen-
"I can fjnd .ppthing, and I cy "backbiting" was making
have looked 'tJ rrjgh the rec- CIA the scapegoat for "lack
ur u very carefully , over the
last nine months," the Presi-
dent declared, "to indicate
that the CIAhasdone _any-
thing but support policy.
"T cat' as, ure you flatly that
the CIA.-has not .-carried, out
operated under close control
of the Director of Central In-
a
n
t ec o . _M
bout reforms in the Vietnam-
ese government.
Possible Disagreement
The President also acknowl-
edged that "down below" in
the ranks of CIA, State and
Defense there may be "dis-
agreement" over U.S. policy
in South Viet-Nam. But he
suggested that this probably
would 'be caused by the lower
echelons not being "wholly in-
formed" about necessarily top-
secret policy decisions:
Allen W. Dulles, CIA direc-
tor during President Eisen-
hower's Administration, had
declared in an interview ear-
in Washington."
The President insisted last
night that "at the top" of each
agency, there now was "no dis-
agreement" on basic U.S. pol-
-.The President yesterday also
came out in flat opposition to
a current proposal by Sen.
eng_ene -McCarthy (D-1
Mass.) was part of a minority
group which sought to approve
just such a committee. The
bill, proposed by Sen. Mike
Mansfield (D-Mont.) was de-
feated by a vote of 59 to 27.
The President said last night
that he is "well satisfied with
the present arrangement" of
having CIA's budget looked
over by a selected few from
the Senate and House Appro-
priations and Armed Services
Committees, and its general
activities looked over by his
own' Intelligence Advisory
Council.
He indicated that the con-
gressional budget supervisory
work was well known. Actual-
ly, Congress has never ac-
knowledged the membership
of these committees. And the
one matter of CIA operation
these legislators are privy to
dget Ist secret
rn_.thelx. eIo~w,.mem-
i n tae ega# _ ag4L usg,.
Approved For Release 2003/10/10 : CIA-RDP65B00383R000200170015-8