A LOOK AT THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780067-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 17, 2013
• Sequence Number: 67
• Publication Date: May 1, 1961
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

NEW f_i;a1&.(rWrIanApproved For Release 2013/05/17: CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780067-0
DISPATCH MAT I. W131
Circ.: e. 10,649
Front Edit Other
Page Page(
Page
_Date: MAY.1 1961_
.A Look at the CIA
PRESIDENT Kennedy is losing no -pntirsr:ffaTing agency; we furnish in-
telligence to assist in the formulation
of policy." But charges have become
more frequent in the last few years
that, the CIA has been departing from
this rae and competing with the State
and Defense Departments in the im-
plementation of policies its. intelli-
gence estimates suggest.
It appears to have the statutory
authority for this. It Was created in
1947 to exercise broad functions in
the intelligence field, but was also
given authoisity to perform "addi-
tional services" and "other functions"
under the direction , of the National
Security Council. The gathering of
intelligence and,
lthe conduct of sub-
versive activities .are two separate
things. ?"Ve-Inted and must have an
intelligireingincy. It should be the
world'a.,b04.Miere may be a ques-
tion as to Whether the United States
should have': an agency ready to?
undertake a job like that the CIA at-
tempted in Cuba. If, for self-protec-
tion, this must be done, then that
agency cannot fail.
* *
The?problem that has not been
solved, and which President Kennedy
told the American Society of ..Net?
paper Editors, he was studying, was
phrased this way recently by James
Reston of The New? York Times:
"How an open, non-conspiratorial
society, with a free press that is
skeptical of secret government activ-
ities and power, can. ,cOrn,pete effec-
tively with a seW andiadinspiratorial
soqiety using a)71, Ithejfigiaments of
time, in the wake of the humiliating
Cuban debacle, to learn what hap-
pened 'to our-vaunted Central Intelli-
gence Agency. He has called
'Gen. Maxwell D. 7.3.ykir.lormer Army
chief of staff and Atty. Gen. Robert
Kennedy_Lo, look -intO the activities of
,the agency and also into the capabil-
ities of the nation in fields short of
formal' warfare.
This, the St. Louis ,Post-Dispatch
._ .. _
points out, is a matter of the greatest.
urgencz_the. CIA helped to organize,
train and finance and arm the Cuban
, refugees who undertooirthe ill-starred
;invasion of their 'country. ,
Many rebels accuse the agency of
' inexcusable mismanagement. They
40 say it precipitated the attack without
' adequate coordination with the Cu-
ban underground and without includ-
ing groups experienced in guerrilla
tactics. The whole operation was
based on the Nis? assumption that a
popular uprising against Fidel Cas-
tro would follow the 'landings. ? ?
In short the A failed, and Mr.
' Ke. .2.1y realizes the urgent neces-
sity of finding ou..*hy. Al unreli-
able intelligence agency, is worse than
none at all, and the' . lie record of
the CIA is :lot good. : inay be that
the unrepoi .2cl successetig the hush-
hush agency more thak
, failures, but these have
! known failures and -too
ance the
many
own
bungling. Mr. Kennedy 6e com-
mended for making it plain he'la not
seeking a scapegoat. Neveithelgss,
the security of the nation is involved
and it is the President's. duty to pro-'
tect it.
?
This question might not have.
arisep-at all if Congress had accepted
the ptoposal made more than five
? years ago by Sen. Mansfield- of Mon-
tana and 32 other senators.. This was
for,.,4joiriinittee to
supikVise the operation of the CIA
much as the joint committee on
atomic energy supervises the activ-
ities of the Atomic Energy Commis-
sion.
Such a committee might, over a
period of time, bring about a new
subversing?
its own. public
This is i(qulitio
well be threshed et*
But it ia,),n a tIald in0
gressionad co , tee wo,414 be
Appropriations..., 'r -the 'cl4 -,ate
ceaied but , , 74gency ? reportedly
spends as mUcti,* a billion dollars .p.
year; it is s'Orto Onploy012,000 to
18,000 persona. Such an agency
should be subject to a greater degree
of supervision by the -ereafed repre-
sentatives of the people.
This would not be for the pur-
pose of embarrassing the CIA but to
help it follow better the imperatives
definition of the duties of the CIA. of national policy. ' . nothing
Allen Dulles, its director, has always like the Cuban b happen
?,_main' Declassifiedand aPkr.;Proied For Release2013/05/17 :CIA-RDP67-00318R000100780067-0
tor answer
te.
n-