WORLDWIDE PROPAGANDA NETWORK BUILT AND CONTROLLED BY THE C.I.A.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100010013-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 29, 2006
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: December 26, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

----Appraved For Release 2006/11/29: CIA-RCT0131
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
26 December 1977
Worldwide Propaganda Network
Io
Built and Controlled by the C.I.A.
The following article is based on re-1
porting by John M. Crewdson and Joseph
B. Treaster. It was written by Mr. Crewd-
Not long after John Kenneth Galbraith,
the Harvard economist, arrived in India
in 1961 to take up his new post as Amer-
C.I.A.; Secret Shaper
Of Public Opinion.
Second of a Series.
ican Ambassador; he . became. aware of a
curious political journal :called Quest that.
was floating. around. the Asian subconti-
"It had a level of intellectual and po-
litical competence that was sub-zero,"
Mr. Galbraith recalled in an interview.
"It would make you yearn for the politi-
cal sophistication of The National Enquir-
er."
Though an English-language publica-
tion, "it was only in some approximation
to English," he said. "The political dam-
age it did was nothing compared to the
Then the new Ambassador discovered
that Quest was. being published with
-money from the Central. Intelligence
- Agency. At his direction the C.I.A. closed
it down.
Though perhaps less distinguished than
most, Quest was one of dozens of English
.and foreign language publications around
-dized or influenced in some way by the
Although the' C.IA. "has` employed`
dozens of American journalists working
abroad, a three-month inquiry by a team
of reporters and researchers for The New
York Times has determined that, with
a few notable exceptions, they were not
used by the agency to further its world-
wide propaganda campaign.
In its persistent efforts to shape world:
opinion, the C.I.A. has been 'able to call
.upon a separate and far more extensive
network of newspapers, . news services,
anagazines, publishing houses; broadcast-
ing stations and other entities over which
it has at various times had some control.
A decade ago, when the, agency's corn.
p
ti
ri
rnunications einpire was at its peak, it it e
embraced more than 800 news and public.! n
Information organizations and individu- j o
eis. According to one C.I.A. official, they
ranged in Importance "from Radio Free
Europe to a third-string guy in Quito who
could get something in the local paper."
'Although the network was known
officially as the "Propaganda Assets In-
ventory," to those Inside the C.I.A. it
was "Winner's Wurlitzer." Frank G. Wis-
ner, who is now dead, was the first chief
of the agency's covert action staff.
Like the Mighty Wurlitzer.
Almost at the'push of a button, or so
Mr. Wisner liked to think; the- "Wur-
litzer" became- the means for orches-
trating, in almost any language anywhere
in the world, whatever tune the C.I.A.
Much of the. Wurlitzer Is, now dis-
mantled. Disclosures in 1967 of some of
the C.I:A.'s financial ties to academic,
cultural and publishing organizations re-
sulted in some cutbacks, and more recent
disclosures of the agency's employment
of American and foreign journalists have
led to a phasing out of relationships with.
many of the individuals and news organ-
izations overseas.
A smaller network of foreign journal-
ists remains, and some undercover C.I.A.
men may still roam the world,, disguised
as correspondents for obscure trade jour-
nals or business newsletters.
The C.I.A: s propaganda operation was
first headed by Tom Braden, who Is now
a syndicated columnist, and was run for
many. years by Cord Meyer. Jr., a popular,
campus leader at Yale before he. joined
the Cl.A.
Mr. Braden said in an interview that-her
had never really been sure that "there was
,anybody in charge" of the operation and
that "Frank Wisner kind of handled it off
the top of his head." Mr. Meyer declined
,to talk about the operation.
However, several other former.'C.LA.
officers said that, while the agency was
wary of telling its American jourmalist-
agents what to write, it never hesitated
to manipulate the output of its foreign-
:based.."assets:' Among those were 'a
number of English-language publications
read regularly by American, .correspon-
dents abroad and by reporters and editors
in the United Statue,
Most of the former officers said they
had been concerned about but helpless to
avoid the potential "blow-back"-the pos-
sibility that the.C.I.A. propaganda fil-
tered through these assets, some of it
purposely misleading or downright, false,
.might be picked up by American report-
ers overseas and included -in, their dis-
':..patches to their publications at home.-;;
C
? Pa
Id
PE
C
n:
er than found one or its own. .u a ..w+.
cern is a going concern," the official said,
"it's a better cover; The important thing
is to have an editor . or someone else
who's receptive to your copy,,,,'-
--..,Postwar Aid for Jnarnals
The C.I.A., which evolved from the Of-
fice of- Strategic Services of World War
II, became involved in the- mass come
munications field in the early postwar
years, when agency. officials became con-
cerned that influential publications in
ravaged Europe might succu ib to the
.temptation of Communist money. Among
the organizations subsidized in. those ear-
ly years, a C.I.A.. source said. was the
.prestigious French. journal Paris Match.
No one associated with. Paris Match in
that period could be reached for comment
Recalling the concerns of those early
days, one former C.I.A. man said that
there was "hardly a left-wing newspaper,
'in Europe that wasn't financed directly
from Moscow." He went on. "We knew
when the courier was- coming, we knew
= how much money he was bringing."
One of the C.I.A.'sfirst majorventures
was!. broadcasting.: Although long 'sus
petted, it was.:reported.definitively only
a.few years ago that until 1971 the agency
supported both Radio Free Europe, which
'continues,' with private'.financing, to
broadcast to the nations of-Eastern Eu-:
rope, and Radio Liberty, which is,beamed i
at the Soviet Union. itself. --
o
p-
;`:Thee C.I.A,'s participation in those-
erations.was shielded' front public view
by two front groups,'the''Free Europe
Committee and the American Committee
for Liberation,' both of which also en;
gaged in a: variety of lesser-known.propa
other things, compiles the widely use&
reference volume "Who's -Who in ? the
U.S.S.R." The Free: Europe - Committ
published the magazine East Europe, dI
tributed in this country as well as abroad
and also operated the Free'Europe-Press
Approved For Release 2006!l'1129. : -CIA-.RDP88-01314R00010Q01.00,1.3-0