POLITICS NO!

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00318R000100790082-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 29, 2013
• Sequence Number: 82
• Publication Date: May 7, 1961
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

?
um Oilier
?ftei
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/29: CIA-RDP67-00318R000100790082-2
WHEELING, W.H1A.
NEWS-REGISTER' ?
E. 31,072
S. 54,134
MAY? 1961
Politics No!
IF TOO MUCH attention is not devoted to the
location and punishment of he two-
pronged
two- I
pronged investigation of the sulpg....- kois-ence,'
genno:tv in the works, could` pce.e. good
results.
-t?tertainly from
is long overdue.; '?
'the man in the st
international infdr,
ublic,point of view a shakeup ,
a long time it has seemed to
.either that the quality of the
n brought back to Washingtonl
is of a very low order* that there has been a signal
faihire at the seat of evernment to act intelligently
on sound information. 'But the people are more in-
tereated in improvement of performance than in the
political hides of those who were responsible for what
seer have been colossal failures. 1
Il', investigations referred to present both the,
oppeetimity for constructive accomplishment and the
temptation to play politics. Mr. Kennedy has set up '
a tot-level advisory board to look into the whole sub-
ject., Its function is to "advise the President with re-
spect to the olijectiNes and conduct of the foreign
Intelligence and related activities of the United States
?
which are required in the jnterests of foreign policy
and national defense and aeQurity." He has ordered
'a collateral review of the CIA individually. Con-
p,ress, on its part, appears, headed for the creation
of a joint committee of it 'own to ride herd, as it
were, on the CIA. Already th,g Senate Foreign Re-
lations Committee has undertaken a closed-door in-
quiry into the government's relations,with the disas-
trous Cuban invasion, and will npen hearings soon
on a resolution calling for the creation of an intern-
bombast dr constructive steps to improve the quality
gence watchdog committee. d,
,
Out of all of this could come either a lot of politicsi
. .
' of our listening posts. 'Because the apparent failure
' of intelligence goes back to the lkkt administration,
f the temptation will be strong on one Side of the politi-
cal aisle to blame Mr. Eisenhower and a Republican
? regime for a bad situation inherited by the new ad-
ministration. because , Mr. Kennedy waS in full
:charge of affairs at the time of the Cuban episode,
and because he was no stranger to national affairs
as a member of the United States Senate, the tempta-
tion will be as strong on ,the other to say that Mr. '
Kennedy has failed to 'Measure up to the responsi-
bilities of his office and the promise of his own cam-
paign:
None of this can help now. Vie truth seems to
be that our,44telligs4e is and for ,a long time has
bes.2,4upt, This, in turtr,?has led to some disastrous
decisions which have cost, us enormously in inter-
national prestige and my have threatened our
k
security. The. impskrtant ing now.. is not so much
why, and _what is be done to slIgiejo the
I weaknesses and pKevent repetition of the blunders. '
It is to? b-e- liciPed, 'then, that there 'is a iimn of
politic?,,and a maximum of patriotksta,..m e ap- i
proacli to an intelligence overhaul., 1
' Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/05/29 : CIA-RDPR7_nnqi - - -