RUTGERS RECEIVED CIA FUNDS TO STUDY HUNGARIAN REFUGEES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400460006-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Sequence Number: 6
• Content Type: NEWSPAPER CLIPPING

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WASHINGTON POST
~eeived
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4Yr; 2gan
By John Jacobs
Washington post Staff Writer
The Central Intelligence Agency se- Stephenson said he was first ap-
crctly funneled at least $5,000 to the ' proached to do research by Dr. Law-
rence B. Hinkle Jr. of the society. Hin-
saciology department at Rutgers tisii- '.;te was the "key man," according to
versity in the late 1950s to study Hun- Stephenson. Hinkle co-founded the so-
;arian refugees who fled to this coun- cicty with Dr. Harold Wolfe, and both
try after taking part in the 1956 Hun- were from the Cornell. Univrsity
Medical Center. Wolfe had been a
garlan uprising.
terday relating to its MK-ULTRA be-
havior-control program of the 1950s
and 1960s and an interview with a
Rutgers sociologist wvho took part in
the research confirm the details of
the project.
The New Brunswick, N.J., university
is one of about a dozen universities
that have publicly admitted getting a
letter from CIA Director Stansfield
Turner notifying them that they were
amont the 86 institutions knowingly
or unknowingly involved in the i1IK-
i.; LTII-1. I.rog ram.
Dr. Richard Stephenson, a socio'og-
ist at Douglas College, part of Rutgers,
said the research was sponsored by the
~<
close friend of Allen W. Dulles, then
CIA director.
A March. 19, 1957, memorandum for
the record by' Sidney Giottlie, then
head of the Chemical Division of
Technical Services and In charge of
MK-ULTRA, described, what the
agency wanted from the research:
"The scope of this program will en-
tail an intensive study designed to
throw as much light as possible on the
sociology of the Communist sytem in
the throes of revloution. The study
--will involve the interviewing of Hun-
garian refugees..." ?
The memo goes on to say that a
group, whose name was deleted
(apparently the human ecology
group), would transmit agency funds
Society for the Investigation of Hu- and "act in the capacity of a cover Or-
man Ecology. The society has been'. ganization." The agency would supply
identified as a CIA front, but Ste-; $5,000 for one year, and another or-
phenson said be did not know that at ganization,'whose name also was de-
the time, feted, would supply another $5,000.
Stephenson said the study consisted Another letter among the newly re-
of Interviews with between 40 and 60 leased CIA documents, from a writer
Hungarian refugees by sociologists, -whose name was deleted said: "Only
psychiatrists, medical doctors and an. fragmentary information Is available
thropologists. Many of the refugees on the social processes through which
had come from Hungary to Camp flit- a totalitarian eovernmen't secures co-
mer, then a military base in New operation or fails to secure It. This
Brunswick. means, for example, as ycu well know,
"It was a good opportunity for us to that our U.S. psychological warfare.
study people who had been through a program In Iron Curtain countries is
Hun-
crisis situation,". Stephenson said. "I greatly as hindered eced ari And the fleeing
wanted to find out how they got in- gory
volved with the activities of the Hun- Hungarians are in our midst. This
garian revolution." seems an Ideal moment to study a to-,
talitarian system in disrulotion." .
The refugee research was part of
STAY
Approved For Release 2006/11/13: CIA-RDP88-01315R0
1 September
MK ULTRA subproject 69. CIA Direc-
tor Turner told Senate investigating
committees last month that 'there
were 145 projects. Subproject 65, the
details of which also were released
yesterday, reveals in more detail what
the CIA was looking for..
This subproject, with a budget of
$87,621, apparently was concerned
with studying refugees from China.
Its scope, according to a June 28, 1956,
memo, was to look at factors influenc-
ing human behavior ."that could be
used as a means of achieving intelli-
gence objectives"
The goal, according .to the memo,
was to understand what caused people
to "defect, commit treason or change
loyalties," to better locate potential
defectors and to increase -the chances
of defection of various target individ-
uals." . _
Stephenson said . he was nc:
"particularly disturbed" that the CIA;
would be interested in Hungarian ref-
ugees, "but I would object to not'be.
lug Informed that the CIA financed
the research;' Y.:
A public relations official at Rut-
gers said the university would investi.
gate the matter once It receives docu-
ments it has requested from the CIA.
Until then, the official said, the uni-
versity will reserve comment.
Approved For Release 2006/11/13: CIA-RDP88-01315R000400460006-5