HOW TIMES CHANGE (OR DID THE CIA SHADOW DR. KISSINGER, TOO?)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100020003-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 19, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000
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William Worthy, correspondent of
The Baltimore Afro-American, was
the first US newsman (1956-57) to
defy the US travel ban on China. The
resulting legal hassle over his pass-
port, which was not renewed for 11
years, is recounted in "The Ballad of
William Worthy" by folksinger Phil
Ochs.
By William Worthy
and filed hourly reports to the top- Dulles.
level computers in Washington. The
speculation isn't entirely far-fetched.
After all, however politically primi-
tive, US spies are efficient in fact-
finding, and Lyndon Johnson did sus-
pect that the CIA tapped his Whit
House phones.
The day after Mr. Nixon an-
nounced his Peking travel plans,
A year. or two after returning NBC News contacted Chinese author-
from China, while I was lecturing for ities about the possibility of satellite
a day at Texas Southern University, television coverage. How different,
a "Negro faculty member came up at this journalistic initiative from the.
the end of a seminar and identified time when I was there. In the 1950s,
himself to me as an economics pro- -the mass media consistently played
fessor.. footsie with the Washington myth-
In a. voice audible to everyone, makers about the non-existence or
and with a broad "I know all about the "imminent collapse" of the Peo-
you" grin on his face, he said: ple's Republic of China. (Ditto revo-
. "You know, Mr. Worthy, when lutionary Cuba not long afterwards.)
you were in China, I was working on The gospel according to Secretary
the CIA's China desk in Washington. Dulles was that any journalistic visits
Every morning, we used to receive a would "lend respectability" to what
top-secret report of your movements he decreed to be a tottering, outlawed
In China the day before." regime.
Presumably, CIA operatives still Under this stern edict, CBS News,
function inside China-possibly in which in its 1955 "Report to Stock-
-the two-payrolls role that Khrushchev holders" had cited me for having
once joked about with CIA Director made the first. broadcast from Mos-
Allan Dulles. cow in eight cold-war years, ada-
. "Oh, I know you," Khrushchev mantly refused to let me take along
kidded when they were. introduced at to China any of their cameras or tape
a Washington reception: recorders. This was to protect the net-
"We read the same reports from work from any official charge of "col-
-the same agents. Why don't we get to- lusion".in my going. But the under-
gether and pay those fellows just one standing was that,. if I could borrow
Twice from Peking and once from
Shanghai I was also able to broadcast
for CBS. The first voicecast was, of
course, a journalistic scoop, and the
cablegram from the New York news
desk several hours later expressed
professional delight. The signal to
Oakland had been clear, the content
satisfactory. But there was one prob-
lem. Nbt being attuned to the State
Department "non-recognition" non-
sense, I had used "Peking" in the
broadcast, instead of the old Kuomin-
tang name for China's capital.
Thus the punch-line -suggestion.
In future voicecasts the news desk
would prefer "Peiping-pronounced
B-A-Y-P-I-N-G".
If acted upon, the suggestion
would have been totally self-defeat-
ing, and I hadn't the slightest inten-
tion of heeding it. Justifiably, the_
Chinese would have been offended.
and studios for future broadcasts
would not have been made available.
Knowing that David Chipp, the Reut-
ers correspondent in Peking, would
be both amused by and scornful of
this typical American childishness, I
let him read the cable.
"I'll tell you what you should do,
Bill," he said. "On your next broad-
cast, when you reach the return cue,
just say: 'This is Bill Worthy in Peip-
ing. Now back to CBS News in New
Amsterdam.'"
combined salary?" someone else's equipment and ship To be fair, the bad case of media
So I. can't help but wonder if the back film and tapes, they would be jitters was not wholly self-induced.
more proficient of them of wind ofs used on the air. The were despite0 r Dulles was
Dr. KissinAPPc9AwA&(m
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