THE DANGER OF TELLING RUSSIA TOO MUCH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000100090028-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 1998
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: March 20, 1954
• Content Type: NSPR

SALT LAKE CITY TRIBUNE MARCH 20, 1954
~-'"'~ '- ~-
Prom Release 2000/05/24: CIA-RDP70-00058R00 090028-1
WASHlr?lIi5l~( . c.
SALT LAKE CITY TRIBUNE
Circ.: m. 91,651
S. 180,496
Front
Page
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Date: MAR 2 0 1954
a .g T ~f Te 11i
The Navy's announcement of two. new
e Kperimental fighter planes, which can take
f and land vertically, is very interest-
s g. So, too, are photographs of the futur-
i tic-looking craft which the Navy also
leased. But who is the more interested:
.e American public or Russian military
i ltelli ;once % t
it is true that the Navy announce mM
as caxeu1i> >V03(t x3 anc that lb(' photo=
graphs were not supposed to give away an
secrets. However, intelligence agents ar
trained to fit many minute pieces of evi
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
-Inn
`police state in guarding here secrets. The
Soviet government is not obligated t
tell its people anything, and it doesn't. But
in the U. S. much of what is done in the
.way of legislation for national defense is
open to the public, and publicity-minded
military officers-with an eye toward fu-
ture appropriations-sometimes seem too
anxious to release information about new
developments. And then there is the prob-
lem of the headline-conscious congressman
;who may talk too much and out of turn.
1, Consider the vertical-flying planes. Two
national magazines were allowed to take
photographs and prepare articles although
puzzles and are able to use the most inn at the time the Navy would not concede
cent-appearing material. A phrase in a that the planes existed. Then a San Diego
official announcement, the sweep of newspaper photographer,, using a tele-
plane wing, or even comparative size. ind scopic lens, made and printed a picture of
cated by figures in the foreground of the craft. And later came the official Navy
photograph may provide just the inform,- release.
tion needed to explain other material that. Perhaps the Russians didn't learn any-
spies have uncovered. thing they did not already know. Perhaps
In fact, espionage is not quite the cloa the U. S. has a commanding lead in the
and dagger profession it was a century '. field of vertical-flying planes. If so, the
so ago. The modern spy, or intelligen 'release might do no harm. But if the U. S.
agent, may depend upon informers, b and Russia are in a nip and tuck race to
he is also quick to pick up scraps of it-'produce the first such plane, then the
. formation which leak out through carele release might easily tell the Kremlin
ness. Scientific and technical publicatio ., which nation held the advantage.
government announcements_almost eves - As Dulles remarks, the American sys-
thing provides grist for the mill. ' tem works against absolute military se-
Allen W. Dulles, director of the Unit d crecy (if such a thing exists anywhere).
States Central Intelligence Agency, i~ But admitting that that is so, we also must
quite convinced that we are too free w I be careful not to tell Russia too much.
our secrets. In a copyrighted interview ii Congress, the military, the press and every-
the magazine, U. S. News & World Repot one. else concerned should keep this in
?Dulles says, "Sometimes I think we 'mind; Carelessness can be almost as harmful
too far in what our government gives as treason.
officially and in what is published in e
,scientific and technical field. We tell e i
Russians too much. Under our system it
is. har d to-control it. . . . I would giv a
good deal if I could know as much ab ut
the Soviet Union as the Soviet Union an
learn about,,, us by merely reading he, 1
ress."
Approved For Release 2000/05/24: CIA-RDP70-00058R000100090028-1