THE CIA: A WISE APPRAISAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200720006-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 15, 2004
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 14, 1973
• Content Type: NSPR

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OCT 141973
Debunking the Scare Myths
TIIE U.S. INTELLIGENCE
COMMUNITY. By Lyman B.
Kirkpatrick Jr. Hill and
Wang. 212 pp. $7.95
By JOSEPH C. GOULDEN
T h e Allende government
?-.crashes, and the fingers of
.blame reflexively point to-
wards Langley. Va., the pleas-
ant residential suburb five
miles, north of my desk that is
the home of the CIA.
Downtown, other "CIA",
hobgoblins are viewed-with-
alarni: the pensioned spymas-
ter Hunt using in retirement,
against the infidel Ellsberg,
the techniques (and Cubans)
he once marshaled against
heathens elsewhere; ITT
scheming to hand CIA a mil-
lion bucks to bust a Chilean
election; stirrings of in-
quisitory interest even among
Congressmen, 'guys normally
as moribund as the stone dino-
saurs outside the Smithsonian.
The September issue of "Pro-
-gressive" - edited by men
who should and do, know bet-
ter - features a black-on-
white scare-.cover:
THE CIA'S DIRTY TRICKS
UNDER FIRE AT LAST.
As the lynch mob forms, se-
rious citizens might pause to
read a serious book on' the
CIA, one which well might
send them chasing elsewhere
- that is, to the White House
and the National Security
Council.
? e ?
LYMAN B..KIRKPATRICK
JR. is not unbiased. Ile joined
the CIA at its formation in
1947, and although striken,by
paralytic polio five years
later, served as inspector gen-
eral and executive director-
comptroller until retiring in
1965. But Kirkpatrick has
written an eminently objective
book. and an eminently son-
s i b I e one. And he dis-
passionately debunks some of
the ' more pervasive myths
about "The U.S. Intelligence
Community
- Despite such aberrations
as the pecuiiair . L. Howard
Hunt, the' CIA is staffed and
run by bureaucrats, men who
follow orders and avoid, risks
on their own initiative. ?
- "The secret government"'
does not exist. CIA's orders
come from the lx; hire House.
The men in Langley, and in
the field, execute national, pol-
icy, not make it.
- Congress is blind to CIA
by its own choice. The ma-
chinery for overview exist
dormancy is the fault of the
legislators ("the reluctance of
the members . . to get into
sensitive intelligence mat-
ters"), not CIA secrecy.
0 0 * .
KIRKPATRICK? DOES as-
sert that CIA's furtiveness, al-
though often necessary for
logical security, is overdone;
that "occasional official re-
lease of nonsensitive informa-
tion . . . would help to alle-
viate the (public) fear of the
secret and powerful system."
Indeed it could, and Hunt
and ITT are prominelit cases
in point. When Hunt waved a
White House badge at CIA in
the Ellsberg case, it aided
him briefly - then booted him
off the promises. CIA listened
to ITT (a primary function of
Cc) /-r) tom''vNrY
intelligence is to do just that),
then politely said no thanks.
Further, the public furor
over the ITT offer made it ap-
erationaliy impossible for CIA
to toss out Allende even had
the White House told it to do
so: because of the political
sensitivity of Chile., the San-
tiago station was cut to skele-
ton size months before the
c a u p . Romanticism and
James Bond notwithstanding,
seven men can't overthrow a
government.
A wise book. Read it before
you are overwhelmed by the
scare headlines.
Joseph C. Goulden, a Wash-
ington writer, is now working
on books on the federal judi-
ciarv and on America between
VJ-Day and Korea.
Approved For Release 2005/08/22 : CIA-RDP88-0135OR000200720006-9