LETTER TO MR. ARNOLD BEICHMAN FROM CORD MEYER, JR.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01048A001100020125-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 14, 2005
• Sequence Number: 125
• Publication Date: March 7, 1977
• Content Type: LETTER

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ST
Mr. Arnold Beichman
Dear Mr. Beichman:
Thank you for yours of March 1st. You need no credentials
with me as I've followed your work over the years and have much
respect for it. Contrary to your understanding, I am not in
chhrge of an intergovernmental committee dealing with terrorism.
In fact, Ambassador L. Douglas Heck chairs the Working Group
of the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism and I'm simply a
participating member of that working group.
As far as unclassified publications are concerned, I enclose
a copy of a somewhat dated study which you may ST
find interesting, if you haven't already seen it. I see by your
review that you have already read Walter Laqueur's recent book.
He seems to me to be among the most realistic and well-informed
observers of the problem. I know of no immediate conference
planned by the State Department on this subject, but will. certainly
add you to the list of names of those who might be invited when
one is convened.
I hope you are enjoying your stay at Milton. I have a son
who went there and also a brother, both of whom enjoyed it immensely
and even learned something. Incidentally, F_ I ST
stayed with us after a visit with their daughter at Milton and
mentioned meeting you there.
Sincerely yours,
Cord Meyer, Jr.
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Cord Meyer Jr., Esq.,
Central Intelligence Agency,
Washington, D.C. 20505
Dear Mr. Meyer :
I enclose a copy of a letter to Bill
Colby as a "credential." I am writing you because I
understand you are in charge of an intergovernment-
al committee dealing with the problem of "political"
terrorism. I was fortunate enough to attend the
State Department conference on terrorism last year
and found it most useful. I am (a) preparing a course
on terrorism at the above institution and (b) working
on a book. (It's obvious that terrorism is thbo latest
academic growth industry.) If there are any publica-
tions, findings, open research which would be of relev-
ance or if any future conferences are scheduled I
would be most grateful to receive the information.
!Arnold Beichman,
Associate Professor
ours sincerely,
STAT
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I read in the Times; 27 Feb. that you had published an
article in a "recent scholarly journal" on the problem
.be-:t-aF a secrecy and a democratic society. Could you tell
me name and date of the journal so I can read text-- or
do you have an offprint ? Yesterday's editorial in the
Wall St. Journal was a masterpiece. I wonder what the lash-
ton Post ;?aou d have done had it come across the name o
Col. Penkovskiiy on the little list ? I guess a lot of peo-
ple are getting an education in reality after all. the camp-
aign oratory.
I'm writing Cord Meyer for any open information about ter-
rorise, which his task force may have available. I'm working
up a course for next Fall and all hq1? be appreciated.
~d he
I am not concerned that in asking hiru/I T.e~ f 1 become a Yich-
ael Selzer. There is an academic saying in European univer-
sities which goes like -this:
Homo homini lupus
Nulier mulieri lupior
Professorus professori lupissimus.
Beautifully exemplified at Brooklyn College.
I will be :i n Arizona this '.;eken^ at a meeting of labor his C-
orians at which the old question of relationships between
the AFL and the CIA will come up for debate. It's at Ariz-
ona State University.
I hope all goes well with your and yours to whom I sent warm-
est greetings.
Sincerely,
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J.--?1,...._ t;..d Ll/t ..'.._~ _ -Q.1 t'._. 4~~1?.vi ~_ ~iti _a.. l;
January 20, 1977
Dear Arnold,
I loved the column!
Regards,
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Mr. Arnold Beichman
Associate Professor of Political Science
The University of Massachusetts
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
He refused to express any guilt
for his earlier goyevntllent service.
Then he went hack to his office.
During that spring, his classes
::ere ors:?siunsforprutcst.'l'h, r.ic'i-
cal c?ontingrnt plus their tolii'w~tra-
velicrs wo.iid rise non rtatiu;,>;Iv
President-clrc?t C,crtcr a nd I hay"
at )t-a`." one thing III eolooli'rn. Ho
told his 1'I'r?:;s 'i il::r:: ry that hc? had
been an Cast i' sit;d'?nt ? n[
13rzc7inski "ill tea:ni1:11 about Inter-
national affairs" iii the lac.t ty.o or'
three years. So ~i?,~s I, i\'iwli I eras a
student at ('oluntl,i;t University a
decads ago working for my doctor-
ate. in political sclcin e. Prof. Brzcz-
inski gave several courses in Soviet
affincluding one seminar,
which were among the must popular
on the i:lorningsidc campus.
Rather than exelnp}ifving the ac-
ademic ambition to know inure and
more about less and less. Zbig al-
ways know more and more about
more and more.
What. remains in the memory
about Carter's national security
adviser-designate is his personality,
a controlled abrasiveness by a man
who never suffered fools gladly,
particularly, the campus fools --
students and faculty -- who decided
in 19130 that Columbia University
could be a combination of the Czar's
Winter Palace and the Yen an caves.
It was a day in May 1268 when
the students for a Democratic Soci-
ety decided to take over the Colum-
bia School of international Affairs
as an alleged partner of the Central
Intelligence Agency. When several
hundred students arrived at the
school on West 114th street, they
were inet at the entrance by several
faculty people, including Brzezinski
who bit into a banana while the stu-
dents jr_red and baited their teach-
ers. One professor who had served
in Washington explained he had
only clone so to have a lectern from
which to oppose the Johnson
Administration's Virtnant policy. It
was all pretty pathetic. When it
came to Brzezinski, he tossed away
the banana skin and said with no
visible defiance:
"I'ni proud I served in Washing-
ton, both personally and profession-
ally, and you student: ought to ap-
preciate the fact that because of my
service I'm a better teacher because
I have seen things with my own
and wall: out a: soon n,. ,n: he
One day, Er'zez.:nsiir said to tilr'n in
a tons of Uncurl mocker 7
"Fefrirc you wa::: out, 1e1. me tell
you that today's leettu'e will be
about reef nt 1'cv0)U1i0lliiry C'ceiits at
a certain grill sic
1
the first hour. The second hour ''til
be about Russian foreign policy as
usual."
Everybody stayed for that first
hour and l.;rzezinski delivered an al-
legorical tale about confrontation=,
barricades, ideologies, revolution
and counter-revolution. without
mentioning Columbia of the admin-
istration by name. (The lecture later
became an article in the 'i.ee,'
Republic). When the bell rang to ,an-
nounc e. the end of the lecture, ; 'rz: z-
inski said that, he would go ha_?1: to
the normal class agenda arid those:
who wanted to leave could do co.
The point is that while the class-
es of guilt-ridden Columbia faculty
members were being broken ue, he
and others like hire had' no dillicui-
ty with student revolutionaries.
They seemed to know that he
too hard-nosed to be bullied by
Cottlrlbia's oarednilii who had the
mistaken notion that by shaking
Columbia they could produce 10
Jays that would shake the world.
Among Zbig's colleagues, howev-
er, there were some, who while ad-
miring. his prodigious brainpoiver,
regarded him with the lofty conde-
scension reserved for romantic cen-
tral European reactionaries. I re-
member one of his senior colleagues
telling me after listening to him,
"You must remember Zbig is really
a Polish cavalry officer." When I in-
dicated that the meaning of the
characterization escaper] tire, his
col-
Ieague said, "Tile Polish cavali y,
you know, attacked. German tanks
at the outset of the war with horses.
for God's sake. Zbig's a romantic."
This opinion borders on hyper-
bole. Far from being a romantic.
Zbr;, has been quite critical of Ife.n-
ry Kissinger and Senator-elect Iiiov-
ni}ian, when the latter w5s US am-
bassador to the United Nations. In
fact, he looked upon "lilssuicer's
schemes and Ann'. nihan's tactic r," as
rather threatening "to our national
interest."
:lrvu,/rt 13e'U hiilzcn I,c
f rcrles,vr cif p(Oit!c.il ,Si m!nr, "t tli.
t'rl'5!(i' OI ~las,s u lin,cetti at J7-.ton.
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 GUERRILLA: A IIISTORICALA,\`D CRIT-
ICAL STUD}'. By Walter Laqueur. Lit-
tle Brown & Co., 462 pp. $17.50
By Arnold Beichman
Professer Laqueur has written what
on any other subject might be called the
definitive work, except that it really isn't
possible to write one on guerrilla warfare.
The varieties of "small war" from the
dawn of history are endless because
human ingenuity and motivation are infi-
nite.
Since the rewards for guerrilla war-
fare are so great - Tito, Fidel, Mao are
but a few examples - there is always
bound to be someone willing and ambi-
tious to play David with the slingshot
against Goliath with helicopter gunships
and "smart" bombs.
The author, visiting professor of histo-
ry at Havard, concludes, of ter a brilliantly
researched and documented exordium,
that the age of the guerrilla, whether as
rural insurgent or urban terrorist, is
drawing to a close, that guerrilla warfare
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Febru4ry 20, 1977
0tOre` is , only the
no longer has a future. It is a pleasure to From a literary point of view, Solzhen-
disagree with Professor Laqueur even if
it is a bit risky.
Professor Laqueur argues that a deter-
mined army or police force, operating
without the constraints of public or world
opinion or without.the controls of a demo-
cratic society can crush terrorist and
guerrillas; that the prospects for a guerril-
la or terrorist victory have dimmed be-
cause professional armies now contend
for power and because military coups in a
large part of the world have become the
normal method of political change, not
free elections. Lastly, because colonialism
is disappearing, a major impulse to guer-
rilla insurgency will decline. I may not be
doing full justice to Professer Laqueur's
subtle and richly exemplified thesis but I
have given its essence.
Alexander Solzheriitsyn said in his No-
bel Prize lecture: "Violence, less and less
restricted by the framework of age-old
legality, brazenly and victoriously strides
throughout the world, unconcerned that
its futility has been demonstrated and ex-
posed by history many times."
itsyn is undoubtedly correct but I wonder
if his statement may not be applied more
narrowly as a counterargument to
Laqueur. Sheer logic and calculation of
forces is no more a deterent to guerrilla-
ism than capital punishment is a deter-
rent to murder or jails to criminal behav-
ior, at least provably.
Most attempted revolutions and coups
d'etat fail. Since history is usually writ-
teb by the victor, we usually only hear
about successful guerrillas. The fact that
the odds today are even more against in-
surgents than ever before will not, neces-
sarily, stop them in the future. There will
always be somebody who'didn't get the
message ready to take the risk. It happens
in Las Vegas and Monte Carlo all the
time..
It is difficult to write equations for a
distribution of probabilities when one
deals with a multi-causal phenomenon
like guerrilla warefare. What would hap-
pen if a momentarily quiescent Brezhnev
were to reinstate the Khrushchev doct-
F9
rine of 1961 supporting "wars of national
liberation"?
I
Whatever one's mild quarrel may be,
there can be nothing.but praise for the
enormous amount of new material which
the author has uncovered in his polylin-
gual researchers. Bibljographically, the
book has no peer. Laqueur has already
published widely about; those areas where'
guerrilla warfare has either been episodic,
as in present day Europe, or systemic as
in Latin America.
As a result he demonstrates a fine
grasp of cultural and intellectual history
out of which guerrilla doctrines have
developed. His politically insightful anal-
yses of past insurgencies, particularly the
reasons for the American failure in Viet-
nam, make "Guerrilla" one of the most
important books we shall see in 1977.
ProfessorBeichman is a memberof the
political science faculty of UMass-Boston.
As a foreign correspondent, he has cov-
ered at firsthand guerrilla warfare in
Algeria, Yemen and Vietnam.
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 Aftermath / Arnold Beichman
'UF3DMISTtr7f7
T3712,
There is a simple reason for the per-
sistence of international terrorism, a
reason to which Pat Moynihan alluded
in his brilliant essay. ["The Totalitari-
an Terrorists," July 26.] It is that peo-
ple who should and do know better
insist that before you can do anything
about this pandemic, it is first neces-
sary to "understand" the reasons for
political terror because its practitioners
are "different."
I recently reviewed the proceedings
of the third annual conference of the
Canadian Council on International
Law, which was convened to discuss
the problem of international terrorism.
The assembly comprised experts in the
field of international law, one of whom.
Professor Paul De Visscher,said:
I don't think it is possible to settle
the problem of international ter-
rorism in any conventional fash-
ion without considering the politi-
cal motives of the perpetrators....
To judge what is purely mercenary
terrorism and political terrorism
by the same judicial standards
with no other goal than to repress
terrorism is to surrender in ad-
vance any hope of finding a solu-
tion which, to be useful, must be
universal.
ogies," these ideologies are, therefore,
"the fundamental factor in interna-
tional terrorism." De Visscher's views,
which are shared by many U.N. mem-
bers, help explain why it is really im-
possible to do anything about terror-
ism. Like other influential figures in the
international community, his words
grant an indulgence to Colonel Qadafli,
Idi Amin, and their hirelings, thus pro-
viding a quasi-legal immunity for their
totalitarian actions.
International jurists like De Visscher,
who talk about understanding terrorist
motives, make it sound fairly easy to do
so. But just how does one go about
understanding the motives of the Jap-
anese "Red Army," or the Palestine
Liberation Organization, or the mur-
derers of an old woman, Dora Bloch,
in Uganda? I understand the PLO ter-
rorists: They want to destroy Israel.
What then? I accept the existence of
"differing ideologies": One of those ide-
ologies wants to extirpate what it calls
"bourgeois society." What then? At a
recent State Department- meeting on
international terrorism which I at-
tended, a participant said one of the
"motives" of terrorists was "boredom."
What is society supposed to do about
that? Grant terrorists the highest "mo-
tives," moral perfectionism, what then?
At the Canadian conference, a diplo-
To which the distinguished Canadian mat pointed out that it is impossible to
international lawyer, Professor L. C.
find "an objective legal foundation ...
Green, replied, as no doubt Moynihan as the basis for some meaningful ac-
would have: tion against this menace." The speak-
Motives are, of course, terribly im-
portant. But I fear that although a
great deal of time is being spent
trying to analyze motives. all that
is being achieved is to open up
avenues to protect anything any-
one wants to protect. . . . To start
introducing other issues which .. .
are far less important than deal-
ing with the crime or defining the
crime, is getting very close to argu-
ing that the end justifies the means.
... It is nauseating to constantly
hear that we must concern our-
selves only with the motives of the
terrorists-and not with our own
interests ... .
er, Edward Lee, Canadian ambassador
to Israel, said that the reason for the
difficulty is that "acts of international
terrorism are intimately linked with
certain political struggles.... "
The "objective legal foundation"-
with a system of shared values as its
prerequisite-already exists; Moyni-
han's highly practical suggestion for an
international force to combat terrorism
could be achieved-if there is the will.
The "objective legal foundation" exists
on two levels-military, the member-
ship of the North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganization, NATO; and police, the
membership of Interpol. Nonmembers
of either NATO or Interpol could be
invited to join.
Professor De Visscher replied with All that is needed now to put Moyni-
an ancillary argument that since the han's recommendation into force is that
world is "split between differing ideol- member states of NATO and Interpol
demonstrate the same will and courage
The writer is an associate professor of that Israel demonstrated July 4 at En-
politics, University of Massachusetts. tebbe Airport.
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Opening
soon at
Americana
Shopping
Center,
Boulevard,
Manhasset, L.I.
The distinctive
ann taglor
15 East 57th Street, New York City ?
Scarsdale ? Georgetown ? Connecticut ?
Massachusetts ? New Jersey ?
Rhode Island ? Chicago
?0110002QJgAT2t&, 1976/NEW YORK
~EG'
 emocracy d best
Terrorism: From Robespierre to Arafat, by ership megalomania. Professor Parry also
Albert Parry. New York: Vanguard Press. deals with terrorism by individuals or groups
624 pp. $17.50. whose assaults on innocent bystanders are,
By Arnold Beichman they say, legitimated by the right of eminent
On Dec. 3, 1973 the United Nations Educa-
tional, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) canceled its earlier agreement to
allow use by Amnesty International of its facil-
ities for a conference on torture which was to
,open in Paris a few days later. The reason for
UNESCO's sudden action against this re-
spected nongovernmental organization arose
from an advance report by Amnesty Inter-
ational which implicated 63 UNESCO member
vernments in the use of officially-sanctioned
orture.
There's obviously lots of material for a book
on government terrorism and Professor Parry
has in this quasi-encyclopedic volume included
most of the information without sparing the
gruesome details. This massive book describes
the, practices of governments, , whether left,
right, or merely indescribable, against their
citizens in the name of ideology, national sta-
bility, moral righteousness, idealism, or lead- -
alienation.
A catalogue of horrors does not make a
book, and that is the problem with Professor
Parry's effort. For him everything is terror
and a categoryswhich includes everybody and
everything makes distinctions impossible. One
of the problems in dealing with the pandemic
phenomenon of terrorism (and Professor
Parry's deep-rooted knowledge of history dem-
onstrates that terrorism is not a new phenome-
non) is how to distinguish between "just" vio-
lence and "unjust" violence, between what
W. H. Auden once called the "necessary mur-
der" and - what? - the wanton act of mass
destruction - Auschwitz, saturation bombing of
Dresden, Hiroshima, carpet-bombing in Viet-
nam, homicide in self-defense, war, capital
Even terrorists seek to make distinctions be-
tween "red terror" and "white terror," be-
tween "revolutionary terror" and "counter-
revolutionary terror," between "liberating vio-
lence" and "repressive violence."
There is also a bit of foolishness on the au-
thor's part when, writing about Lenin, Trotsky
0MM-,1M,1,T0`lCtrtain tarr
and Stalin, he says that "their rule of mass-
scale murders from 191$ to 1953 had been
largely predetermined by the trio's psyches (at
the root of their politics), inherent and unfold-
ing long before their coming to power." If such
inhuman behavior is predetermined then it
seems rather unfair to impute moral guilt to
this unholy triumvirate.
The problem with attributing psychic causes
to the monstrous behavior of public officials is
that it then becomes quite difficult to apportion
personal responsibility for their, actions as
much as it would be to pronounce an ethical
judgment against a homicidal sniper who is
found to be insane. No doubt one can find a
flawed psyche which predetermined Adolf Hit-
ler, too. And the Nuremberg Trial defendants.
Professor Parry's researches and editorial
acuity (his citations of Czarist and Soviet ar-
chives dealing with terrorism are enviably
learned) raise questions about human nature
and human rationality, questions which in their
implications are frightening. After reading this
massive treatise, one can have no doubt that
the surest protection against governmental ter-
rorism is a democratic, pluralistic system.
Nothing else will do. A one-party. state or mili-
tary,junta with no accountability to its people
means torture and. terror, whether by crude
C
s
electrical devices or by the perversion of p chiatry and pharmacology.
The still unanswerable problem - and it
one which is endemic only to open societies
is the anomie killer, who will turn a machit
pistol on innocent travelers in an airport
plant bombs in a department store.
Professor Parry writes: "Modern arm
modern vehicles, and the very latest ingenui
in electronics lend today's terrorists their ab
ity to challenge the Establishment on equ
terms or at times even with superior mean
Not that, the Establishment sloes not po
secs enough modern means to fight the terro
ists. But when a government is not totaiitariz
or otherwise autocratic and adheres to demo
cratic precepts and practices, it often lacks it
will to use such weapons in time and in Buf ciency."
I can think of only one departure in recer
years from the behavior pattern of free sc
cieties so aptly described by Professor Parry
Entebbe.
Arnold Beirhman, associate professor of
political science. University of Massachu-
setts. Boston, has written extensively
about terrorism. lie recently attended a
conference on terrorism convened under
the auspices of the Department oj.State.
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