TAD SZULC STRIKES AGAIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01720R000900040015-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 2004
• Sequence Number: 15
• Content Type: FORM

iiNCLASS3FIF,D p ro Wiese 200 21:'CI -R P80R01-UQR000900040015-9
OFF1 :1A L RO TE\G S
TO
NAME AND ADDRESS
DATE
INITIALS
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The Director
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SUBJECT: Tad Szulc Str
kes
gain
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4
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L6-
ACTION
DIRECT REPLY
PREPARE REPLY
APPROVAL
DISPATCH
RECOMMENDATION
COMMENT
FILE
RETURN
CONCURRENCE
INFORMATION
SIGNATURE
Ier arks:
Attached is the article by Tad Szulc
which I mentioned at the 24 September morni
meeting, entitled "How Kissinger Runs Our
'Other Government'." It appears in the
30 September issue of New York (not to be
confused with The New Yorker). As you will
see, Szulc discusses in some detail the
40 Committee and activities or organization
related thereto. This discussion touches o
some matters I have not seen in public prin
though its level of accuracy is no higher
than that of many other articles b this
i'~hor.
.
FOLD HERE TO RETURN TO SENDER
FROM: NAME. ADDRESS AND PHONE NO.
DATE
George A. Carver, Jr. D/DCI/NIO
9/24
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51
FORM NQ. 237 Use previous editions
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D/DCI/IC w/att
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Release 2004/12/22: CIA-RDP80R01UAR000900040015-9
OW Kissinger Runs
uGovernment'
By Tad Szulc
been vested. in any man, except the president, in our history
A shadowy group of five powerful ever clone before; actually, no senior
officials silently directing America's official had ever publicly mentioned the
clandestine foreign policy from the committee.
basement Situation Room in the White Ford, in fact, institutionalized the
House in Washington-the so-called concept of covert intelligence action
"40 Committee" of the National Secur- (it was not even done during the cold
ity Council-is the nearest thing we war) when he commented that "Our
have in this country to a secret super- government, like other governments,
government body. does take certain actions in the intelli-
Headed by Henry A. Kissinger, this gence field to hell) implement foreign
committee is not always accountable policy and protect national security ...
even to the president of the United I am informed reliably that Communist
States. although it has access to virtual- nations spend vastly more money than
ly unlimited unvoucliered government we do for the same kind of purposes."
funds and holds the power to order far- Action against Allende between
ranging covert intelligence and para- 1970 and 1973 was one of Kissinger's
military operations around the world. high-priority projects. He personally as-
And during the Nixon Watergate era, sumed control of the C.I.A.'s covert
it may have had links with secret do- moves, through the 40 Committee, and
mestic intelligence units, possibly in- of a parallel economic and financial
eluding even the "Plumbers." blockade, working through an interde-
Deriving its name from National partmental task force.
Security Council Intelligence Decision To Kissinger, it appears, Chile was
Memorandum No. 40, which set it up in a "laboratory" test case to determine
its present form i;1 1969, the five-rnan whether a regime he opposed could be
40 Committee is the current incarna- "destabilized" or dislodged without the
tion of similar top-secret White House use of military force that the United
groups that since 1947 have authorized States had chosen to apply elsewhere
dozens of major covert intelligence un- in the past. Specifically, Chile was a
dertakings from Asia to Latin America test of whether a democratically elec-
and from Africa to Europe. ted leftist regime, -as was Allende's,
The most recent known large-scale could be toppled through the creation
operation conducted by the 40 Com- of internal chaos by outside forces.
mittee was the assignment given the Recent revelations of Kissinger's al-
Central Intelligence Agency, at the leged role in the Chilean affair-he has
cost of SS million, to help orchestrate, denied any American involvement, al-
from inside, the fall a year ago of the though the C.I.A., in effect, has con-
s " 1' esi- firmed it-have set off the latest con
r
in Rome, Graham Martin, reportedly
asked the Nixon administration for se-
cret funds to bolster the Christian Dem-
ocrats in Italy-just as the United States
had done in the crucial 1948 elections.
The 40 Committee reportedly also
has on its agenda the situations in Por-
tugal and Greece-where rightist re-
gimes collapsed earlier this year and
leftist influences are feared by the U.S.
-as well as dangers facing the white
governments in southern Africa in view
of Mozambique's impending independ-
ence. The C.I.A. 'has a working alliance
with South African and Rhodesian in-
telligence, services against leftist black
"liberation" movements.
Contingency planning to assure
United States access to oil reserves in
the Middle East and elsewhere is like-
wise said to be on the agenda. In fact,
the C.I.A., working tinder a National Se-
curity Council mandate, did overthrow
the Iranian government in 1953 after
it nationalized foreign oil holdings.
Past activities by the 40 Committee
and its predecessors have ranged from
engineering the overthrow of foreign
regimes disliked by Washington to the
creation of secret armies and counter-
insurgency units for the protection of
governments enjoying our official fa-
vor. They have included political sub-
version, the subornation of statesmen,
politicians, labor leaders, and others
abroad, "black" propaganda, and the
oversight of "spy-in-the-sky" espionage
over the Soviet Union, China, and
regime of Cane s late octa ' p
dent, Salvador Allende Gossens, while troversy swirling around the secretary scores of other countries.
other branches of the United States of state, and have raised again ques- Overhead intelligence is the only form
government applied a variety of simul- bons about his credibility and future of actual espionage in the purview of
the 40 Committee. The C.I.A., other
tan:ous pressures from the outside. intentions.
This increasingly controversial enter- There are reasons to suspect, for ex- intelligence agencies, and separate
prise was stunningly confirmed by Pres- ample, that the 40 Committee is study- White House committees (also chaired
ident Ford at his news conference ing plans for possible covert American by Kissinger) are concerned with the
last Monday. His justificption was both intervention in the confused political collection of normal intelligence.
startling in philosophy and sparse on process in Italy, where the Communist The 40 Committee must approve,
the facts. as he sought to give public party may soon share power in a coahi- every month,overhead intelligence pro-
legitimacv tq tic 40 Committee. Lion government. Actually, more than a grams--from the regular launching of
This was something no president had year ago the former U.S. ambassador photo-satellites to secret flights by the
No such overt and covert power in. foreign policy has ever
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. To Kissinger, Chile was a test case to determine whether a
regime he opposed could be dislodged without military force..."
46?
SR-71 spy planes-because of the risk
of serious international complications.
The U-2 incident over the Soviet Union
in 1960 has not been forgotten.
The monthly plans are submitted to
the 40 Committee by a C.I.A. commit-
tee so secret that its existence and its
name--Comrex-have never before, to
my knovJc(lge, been publicly discussed.
The National Reconnaissance Office,
another top-secret organization under
the 40 Committee's overall control, is
responsible for the actual launching of
overhead intelligence vehicles.
For nearly six years, the 40 Com-
mittee has been run by Kissinger, act-
ing as chairman in his capacity of spe-
cial assistant to the president for na-
General George S. Brown,
Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Deputy Secretary
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
General George S. Brown, Deputy Sec-
retary of Defense William P. Clements,
and Under Secretary of State for Poli-
tical Affairs Joseph J. Sisco. Member-
ship on the committee is not personal:
it goes with these four jobs. Because of
successive changes in the other depart-
ments, Kissinger is the only man to
have remained continuously on the
committee for the whole period.
The possibility that the 40 Commit-
tee may have had connections with
secret domestic intelligence stems from
the fact that former Attorney General
John N. Mitchell began attending meet-
ings in 1970. Given the secrecy cover-
ing the 40 Committee, the White House
Intelligence Decision Memo-
present form in 1969,
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tional security affairs. It is not rele-
vant in this context that he has also
held for a year the post of secretary of
state. His power in the field of clandes-
tine foreign policy has been unchal-
lenged since Nixon took office in 1969.
It remains so under Ford.
Kissinger has been for years the de
f cto boss of the United States intelli-
gence community, greatly cutting clown
the influence of the C.I.A. in decision-
making. No such concentration of pow-
er in foreign policy has ever been vested
in any man, except the president, in
modern American history.
Presently associated with Kissinger
on the 40 Committee are Director of
Central Intelligence William E. Colby,
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] d lomats nr ec
r
-rover announced Mitchell's presence;
it became known from congressional
xestimony. No other attorney general
srad ever 'before served on the 40 Com-
-rnittee or on any of its forerunners.
Richard Helms, the former C.I.A.
]-lead, also testified that he thought. but
was not certain, that former White
Ilouse Director of the Domestic Coun-
cil John Ehrlichman and White House
Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman may
have come to one or two 40 Commit-
tee sessions. He said that they attended
either meeti'-:s of the 40 Committee or
of the