NATIONAL STUDENT GROUP SECRETLY AIDED BY CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400200007-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 14, 1998
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: February 15, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

syr ACUsE, N.Y.
Os -ST ized - Ap~roved For Release : CIA-R
:-99 267,
FEB 1 51867
Grouj
ca~edy^rn\4ided by'
CIA
CPYRGHT
Douglass Cater, a special as-
sistant to President Johnson.
and asked how he should act it
the CIA ties were disclosed.
Cater said T u e s d a y that
Groves told him the CIA. money
was being terminated. "It was
the first I'd heard of it and
there wasn't anything for me to
do about it," Cater said.
During the day NSA leaders
tried to audit books while
preparing for an emergency
meeting of their 10-raember
board of directors, The board is
to conduct a "thorough in-
B PL- u e.. ony about
- ill The Post-Standard Bureau 5(1,000 last year.
WASHINGTON - The Central; The NSA was formed by about
Intelligence Agency secretly! 5 American students who at
helped form the National Stu- 'nded a meeting of student or.
,dent Association in 1947 to cre-I anizations in Prague in 1946
ate a "credible" anti - Commu-, he NSA's own constitutional
nist voice among youngsters at onvention was held the next
:tending international meetings, ear at the University of Wis;
it was learned Tuesday. onsin.
Tile. C A which spent $200,000' Early NSA leaders came pri
a yer on the student as- arily from Catholic colleges
soc]alion in the post-war period,' hey were considered liberal ir.
and the 1950s, gave instruc ost policies, but strongly anti-
lions to some American students ommunist.
attending these conferences and A former NSA leader said the
`debriefed" then; on their i re.', A itial group "wanted to find
lisclosed.
The CIA further sponsored
scholarships to bring foreign
studeaats here from un-
derdeveloped nations and helped
sources said.
These ties binding the govern-!
ment's major, spy agency to the]
nation's oldest and largest or-!
ganization of college studentsi
were learned after Ramparts
Magazine published ad=
vertisements for, its March issue`
in two eastern newspapers.
t rnatives to coin in unism.".
le ey attended numerous con-
ntions of students. in. eastern
d western Europe to p:'oniotc,
democratic process.
The CIA provided funds Bonn
t e start, he said. The agency
r fused to discuss the issue at
a 1 today, referring reporrcrs to,
t e State Department - a lr;gh-
I unusual procedure.
State' Department official
s id the CIA support l,egaa: in a,
p riod "when Communist stu-
d nts were well finance,] and
g t support from their govern-
n -- whil
A
e
e
m
rican students'
The ads promised accounts of
How the CIA has infiltrated Are handicapped by a lack or,
f rids."
and subverted the world oG ire funds were chainaled'
American student leaders" and ough the CIA, he said, be.
how "it has used students to; c use "overt support of the NSA
spy." a road would lave destroyed its
W. Eugene Groves, NSA pi?esi-1 i egrity. Its credibility as a
dent, denied that officers' or fr a spokesman would haver
employes of the association; b n impugned from the out-li
which represents students
;governments at 300 colleges and le added that this arrange-
,universities, knowingly per{ nl at "was satisfactory to both
formed "intelligence functions" p 'ties."
for the CIA. he CIA's role In NSA affairs
IIe issued a statement ac. d indled gradually. By the late
knowiedging receipt of CIA 19 0s, even many of the , as-
' funds, however saving they so iation's leaders did not even
did not find out about the CIA
until three weeks ago, when the
NSA heard about the forth-
coming Ramparts story.
Werdell said he now suspects
that he inadvertently was -in
charge of a CIA operation three
years ago which sent an
integrated group of American
jazz musicians on a tour of Af-
rica. He was told at the time
that funds carne from a private
group of businessmen, but now
he says "that doesn't add up."
In the past three or four years
only a handful of NSA leaders
knew of the CIA connection. The
State Department said the num-
ber was two. NSA sources said
the number was closer to half a
dozen.
The president, who serves,; a
one - year term, always passed
the word. about the CIA to his
successor. Other officers
frequently did not. Only a few of
the NSA's 50 staff members
were aware of the CIA's sup-
port.
About three years ago the
NSA started a major fund drive
to broaden the base of its sup-
port. ,
"Most of us had been active in
student government or student
newspapers," Werdell said. "We
all knew of the danger of one
source of support''
The NSA now receives funds
from such organizations as the
Ford Foundation, Rockefeller
Foundation, New World Foun-
dation and the Industrial Union
Department of the AFL-CIO.
Groves recently met with Vice
President Hubert H. Humphrey
in an effort to tap new funds
from public . and private agen-
cies,
k w of the CIA connection.
"Supported a number of projects ast year, for exam ple
14TH-11'
assisting student groups abroad
;~f~.?,, t: i ??_; lialn- Werdell was assistant toil'
anti promotin
g
ng on
:dcrst
eric
n
-?
?aaa
a
call!!
puse$."
Groves said he has been quiet.
]y'trying to eliminate CIA f
d
lg
s
from the'NSA's $825,000 annual
budget for, about two years. The
vestigation" In the next few
days and issue a report.
The NSA actually does riot
have Individual student mem-I
bees, It is a confederation of col?I
lege and university student;
governments which join by their
own vote and pay annual dues.;
Delegates from the 300 member
schools meet at a national stu4
dent congress each August:.
The NSA has adopted resolu.
Lions calling for the abolition of
the House Un-American Activi,
ties Committee, admission of
Communist China to the United
Nations, cessation of the bomb,
ing in North Vietnam, and inclu.
sion of the Viet Cong in negotia-
lions for a cease fire,
Most NSA members wan=dering In and out of their head-
quarters in a three - story stone
townhouse here were baffled by
the affair.
One pointed quizically to a
blue poster on the back of the
front door which announced a
tour of Japan, Hong Kong and;
Korea sponsored "through a
grant from the Department of
State. . -
"I wonder what that really
Cp,red - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000400200007-2