LETTER (SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87B00858R000200310020-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 1, 2011
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: August 18, 1986
• Content Type: LETTER

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Congressional Affairs
\?'~~< a ~` Telephone: [phone]
TO: Cccani Vinson
tt on Glovers ntal Affairs
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
13 Aug 1986
In light of your current efforts, I
Dear Mr. Sopko:
In light of your current efforts, I
thought you might find the enclosed bit
Dear Ms. Hill:
In light of your current efforts, I
thought you might find the enclosed bit
of history fran the church Caimittee
interesting.
STAT
United taes~S~vnate tal Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Ms. Vinson:
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Congressional Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20505
Telephone: [phone]
13 Aug 1986
TA. Mr. John F. Sopko
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Congressional Affairs
Washington, D.C. 20505
Telephone: [phone]
13 Aug 1986
TO: Ms. Eleanore J. Hill
Committee on Governmental Affairs
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
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 :;'i 1L 26 t legislative day, Arm, 14) 1976
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SELECT COMIM'ITTE
TO KSTrI>Y GOVE1 N MENT AL OPERATIONS
MITI[ )E10
NTELLIGENCE ACT VIT
}ED STA
BOOK I
FINAL REALIORT
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and for cover. Until February 1976, when it. announced a new policy
toward U.S. media personnel, the CIA maintained covert relation-
ships with about 50 American journalists or employees of U.S. media
organizations. They are part of a network of several hundred foreign
individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and
at times attempt to influence foreign opinion th h the use of
covert propaganda. These individual, provide the ('IA with direct
acne? to a large number of foreign newspapers and periodical,, scam
of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, oom-
mereial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets."
The CIA has been particularly sensitive to the charge that CIA
covert relationships with the American media jeopardize the credibil-
ity of the American press and risk the possibility of pro agandizing
the U.S. public. Former Director Will iam Colb expr ed this am-
corn in recent testimony before the House Select Committee on
Intelligence:
We have taken particular caution to ensure that our opera-
tions are focused abroad and not at the United States in order
to influence the opinion of the American people about things
from a CIA point of view.
As early as 1967, the CIA in the wake of the National Student
Association disclosure, moved to fatly prohibit the publication of
books, magazines, or newspapers in the United States. More recently,
George Bush, the new Director, undertook as one of his first actions to
recognize the "special status afforded the American media under our
Constitution" and therefore pledged that "CIA will not enter into
any paid or contractual relationship with any full-time or part-time
news correspondent accredited by any United States news service,
newspaper, periodical, radio or television network or station." 1?
In approaching the subject has been ded by several broad
concerns. It 1Z inquired into the covert pn of propaganda
in order to assess its domestic impact; it has invsetigated the nature
and purpose of the covert relationships that the CIA maintains with
bons fide U.S. journalists; it bas examined the we of journalistic
"cover" by CIA agents; it has pursued the difficult issue of domestic
"fallout" from CIA's foreign press placements and other propaganda
activities. Throughout, it has compared current practice to the reguls
tions restricting activities in this area, in order both to establish
whether the CIA has complied with existing regulations, and, more
important, in order to evaluate the adequacy of the regulations
themselves.
1. Books and Publishing Houses
Covertpropaganda is the hidden exercise of the power of persua-
sion. In the world of covert propaganda, book publishing activities
have a special place. In 1961 the Chief of the CIA's Covert Action
For explanation of footnotes, see p. 179.
" George Bush statement, 2/21/76.
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Staff, who had responsibility for the covert propaganda program,
wrote :
Books differ from all other propaganda media, primarilty
because one single book can significantlyy change the readers
attitude and action to all extent unmatched by the impact of
any other single medium ... this is, of course, not true of all
books at all times and with all readers--but it is true signifi-
cantly often enough to make books the most important
weapon of strategic (long-range) propaganda.
According to The Chief of the Covert Action Staff, the CIA's clan-
destine handling of book publishing and distribution could :
(a) Get books published or distributed abroad without
revealing any U.S. influence, by covertly subsidizing foreign
publications or booksellers.
(b) Get books published which should not be "contam-
inated" by any overt tie-in with the U.S. government, espe-
cially if the position of the author is "delicate"
(c) Get books published for operational reasons, regardless
of commercial viability.
(d) Initiate and subsidize indigenous national or inter-
national organizations for book publishing or distributing
purposes.
(e) Stimulate the writing of politically significant books
by unknown foreign authors-either by directly subsidizing
the author, if covert contact is feasible, or indirectly, through
literary agents or publishers.
Well over a thousand books were produced, subsidized or spon-
sored by the CIA before the end of 1967. Approximately 2.5 percent of
them were written in English. Many of them were published by cul-
tural organizations which the CIA backed, and more often than not the
author was unaware of CIA subsidization. Some books, however, in-
volved direct collaboration between the CIA and the writer. The
Chief of the Agency's propaganda unit wrote in 1961:
The advantage of our direct contact with the author is
that we can acquaint hi,m in great detail with our intentions;
that we can provide hill, with whatever material we want him
to include and that we can check the manuscript at every
stage. Our control over the writer will have to be enforced
usually by paying him for the time he works on the manu-
script, or at least advancin him sums which he might have
to repay ... [the Agency must make sure the actual manu-
script will correspond with our operational and propagandis-
tic intention....
The Committee has reviewed a few examples of what the Chief of
the Covert Action Staff termed "books ublished for operational rea-
sons regardless of commercial viability." Examples included:
(1) A book about the conflict in Indochina was produced in 1954
at the initiation of the CIA's Far East Division. A major U.S. publish-
ing house under contract to the CIA published the book in French and
English. Copies of both editions were distributed to foreign, embassies
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in the United States, and to selected newspapers and magazine editors
both in the United States and abroad.
(2) A book about a student from a developing country who had
studied in a communist country "was developed by [two area divisions
of the CIA] and produced by the Domestic Operations Division ...
and has had a high impact in the U.S. as well as the [foreign area]
market." The book, which was published by the European outlet of a
U.S. publishing house, was published in condensed form in two major
U.S. magazines. Eric Severeid, the CBS political commentator, in
reviewing this book, spoke a larger truth than he knew when he sug-
gested that "our propaganda services could do worse than to flood
[foreign] university towns with this volume."
(8) Another CIA book, the Penkovakiy Papers, was published in
the United States in 1965 "for operational reasons", but actually
became commercially viable. The book was prepared and written
by witting Agency assets who drew on actual case materials. Publi-
cation rights to the manuscript were sold to a publisher through a
trust fund which was established for the purpose. The publisher was
unaware of any U.S. Government interest.
The publishing program in the period before the National Student
Association disclosures was large in volume and varied in taste. In
1967 alone the CIA published or subsidized well over 200 books, rang-
in
from books on wildlife and safaris to translations of Machiavelli's
The Prince into Swahili and works of T. S. Eliot into Russian, to a
parody of the famous little red book of quotations from Mao entitled
Quotations from Chairman Liu.
The publicity which in 1967 surrounded several CIA sponsored or-
ganizations and threatened to expose others caused the CIA to act
quickly to limit its use of U.S. publishers. In direct response to the
Kat.zenbach report, Deputy Director for Plans Desmond FitzGerald
ordered, "We will, under no circumstances, publish books, magazines
or newspapers in the United States."
With this order, the CIA suspended direct publication and subsi-
dization within the United States not only of books, but also of jour-
nals and newsletters, including: a magazine published by a United
States-based proprietary for cultural and artistic eac>han*e; a news-
letter mailed to foreign students studying in North Amer can univer-
sities under the sponsorship of a CIA proprietary foundation; and a
publication on Latin American affairs published in the United States.
Thus since 1967 the CIA's publishing activities have almost entirely
been confined to books and other materials published abroad. During
the past few years. some 250 books have been published abroad, most
of them in foreign languages.
As previously noted, the CIA has denied to the Committee a number
of the titles and names of authors of the propaganda books published
since 1967. Brief descriptions provided by the Agency indicate the
breadth of subject matter, which includes the following topics. among
many others :
(1) Commercial ventures and commercial law in South
Vietnam ;
(2) Indochina representation at, the U.N.;
(3) A memoir of the Korean War;
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(4) The prospects for European union ;
(5) Chile under Allende.
f. Carert Use of U.S. Journalists and Media Institutions
On February 11, 1976, the CIA announced new guidelines governing
its relationship with U.S. media organizations:
Effective immediately, CIA will not enter into any paid or
contractual relationship with any full-time or part-time news
correspondent accredited by any U.S. news service, newspaper,
periodical, radio or television network or station-"
Of the approximately 5Q U.S. journalis's or personnel of U.S. media
organizations who were employed by the CIA or maintained some other
covert relationship with the CIA at the time of the announcement.
fewer than one-half will be terminated under the new CIA guidelines.
About half of the some 50 CIA relationships with the U.S. media
were paid relationships, ranging from salaried operatives working
under journalistic cover, to U.S. journalists serving as "independent
contractors" for the CIA and being paid regularly for their services, to
those who receive only occasional gifts and reimbursements from the
CIA."
More than a dozen United States news organizations and commercial
publishing houses formerly provided cover for CIA agents abroad. A
few of these organizations were unaware that they provided this
cover."
Although the variety of the CIA relationships with the U.S. media
makes a systematic breakdown of them almost impossible, former CIA
Director Colby has distinguished among four types of relationships."
These are :
(1) Staff of general circulation, U.S. news organizations;
(2) Staff of small, or limited circulation, U.S. publications :
3) Free-lance, stringers, propaganda writers, and employees of
U.S. publishing houses
(4) Journalists with whom CIA maintains unpaid, occasional,
covert contact.
While the CIA did not provide the names of its media agents or the
names of the media organizations with which they are connected, the
Committee reviewed summaries of their relationships and work with
the CIA. Through this review the Committee found that as of Febru-
ary 1976: .
(1) The first category, which would include any staff member of a
general circulation U.S. news organization who functions as a paid
undercover contact of the CIA, appears to be virtually phased out. The
"According to the CIA, "accredited" applies to individuals who are "formally
authorized by contract or issuance of press credentials to represent themselves
as correspondents."
" Drawn from "operational case studies" provided to the Committee 12/16/75
and 10/21/75.
"For explanation of fnntnotea, see p. 179.
On November 30, 1973. the Washinntnn Star-New? reported that Director
Colby had ordered a review of CIA media relationships in September of that
year. and reported that Colby would phase out the first category but maintain
journalists in each of the other three categories. In his testimony to the House
Select Committee on Intelligence on November 6, 1975, Colby made a general
reference to these categories.
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