DIEM'S DEATH SHOWED CIA LAW UNTO ITSELF

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R001200250001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 3, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 27, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP8&-IM'6(fRD01200250001-4
DANVILLE, VA.
REGISTER
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CIA Law Jn t o itse ? ~
Sometimes it takes years for' Somewhere within the bowels
the news to make page one.! of CIA headquarters, plans for
In November of 1963, any well-, the assassination of Chaing Kai.
informed Washington corrc-' shek were made. A team was
J/ ,spondent knew that the Central assigned to do the job and,
^~ Intelligence Agency had been S5 million was allocated - the
deeply involved in the over- money to he spent in setting
throw of Ngo Dinh Dienm, presi- up the operation in Tapei, brib-
dent of South Vietnam. And n6- such officials as could he
at the cocktail hour, in thejl)ribed, creating a cover, etc.
capital's most frequent water-i I was never able to determine
ling hole, the suspicion was fre-what non-CIA officials - if
quently voiced that the CIA any - were informed.
!shared complicity in Mr. But because CIA security at
'Diem's assassination. Today. al- the time was about as water-
most 75 years later, Ameri- tight as a colander, the Re-
cans can read the story over. public of. - China's_ Intelligence
their morning coffee. 1picked up details of tlne plof
There are other CIA storicsieven before the CIA team had
of some concern to the unpacked its bags in Tapei.
citizenry, but since they do
not touch on the. Vietnam war, President Chiang was informed.
they will not be found in the': vert to my account, how-
batch of classified papers now'e ever, the Generalissimo refused
being pawed over by the na-!i to give the order to "take care"
ltion's press. One such story is; Of the team. Let's get their
,so incredible that I have not c, million first, he is rehur
published it even though I to have said. The CIA team,
checked it out just as high as therefore, teas led down a cloak.
;you can go in this governmentiand-dagger garden path, never
without talking to the Presi- getting within range of Presi-
dent. In the general letting. dent Chiang.
down of hair that has followed By the time the money was
publication by the New York spent, the Central Intelli,~ence ,
Times of the Vietnam papers, Agency had changed its mind. --
there may be some value in or had it changed by more re-.
reciting my story - if only sponsible people in the United
to use it as a peg on. which States governnment. The team
to hang some questions about was recalled.
CIA operations. W'hc?ti I checked out the
Back. in the early Fifties, the story, the very important of
Central Intelligence Agency de- ficial who confirmed it said,
cided that it would be a better "Sure it's true. CIA had a
en on itself 'life and death de-
cisions which involved the
integrity of this nation and
which could have generated
results touching on war or peace
in the world.
CIA, moreover, had embark-
ed on actions which went far
beyond the all-too-liberal li-
cense it had been given by the
Congress in authorizing the
agency. And that has been
CIA's way in less grisly areas
,of its endeavor. It compromised
the freedom of the press in
the Fifties by hiring newspaper-
men as "consultants," thereby
scaling lips and silencing crit-
icism. Whether or not this prac-
tice has continued is anybody's
guess.
The CIA's original function
was to gather Intelligence. n gr
Ito interfere in world politics.':
(There might have been some;
justification for its activities as
one of many participants in'
(Guatemala and in Cuba where3
it was involved only with the
sanction of higher authority.
,But in the instant cases- CIA
was a law unto itself. A
(thoughtful person might ask:.
IS it
world if President Chiang Kai-'similar plan to knock off .
shek, then digging in on Tai- Syngman Rhee (then President..-
wan, would shuffle off, his of Korea) but we stopped it."
mortal coil. With the, Gen-'In the context of the conversa-
eraiissimo gone, all those tion, the "we" referred to the
pesky questions of Red Chinese National Security Council.
admission to the United Nations Th t th t t'
a i
a
e
would become moot. The Na-
tionalist regime would collapse,
and Mao Tse-tung could move
into the vacuum. From the
o
wish that President Chiang tort'. But scrubbed or complet-
.should depart this life to a ed, the principle remains the
decision that he be speeded game. The Central Intelligence
on the journey
CIA-RDP80-016018001200250001-4
step. f foVda FMc ele s+ 200T
p_
P4: mgovernment, a
e wo oper
ons wer
scrubbed of course made a con-
siderable difference to Presi-
dents- Chiang and Rhee - not
f his-
to mention the course