JOHN BARRON'S ARTICLE IN READER S DIGEST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B00443R001203970082-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 24
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 82
• Content Type: MEMO

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SECRET
The Director of Central intelligence
Washington, D. C. 20505
MEMORANDUM FOR: The Honorable William P. Clark
Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs
SUBJECT: John Barron's Article in Reader's Digest
r2 -/z36f
1. Here are some extracts from the briefing on active measures provided
the House Intelligence Committee in July of this year. In 1977-1978, the
Soviets conducted a successful campaign against the "neutron bomb" and
continued into a campaign against the modernization of the intermediate
range nuclear force. There is evidence that the Soviet Union is manipulating
and financing activities by some elements of the so-called "peace movement"
in Western Europe. It is important to note that not all opposition to NATO
nuclear force modernization is Soviet inspired. We do have good evidence,
however, that the Soviets have sought to exploit and manipulate the movement,
and we believe that Soviet ]support has enabled it to grow beyond
own capabilities.
crrnrr
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is -- 0
5. Attached is a brief memorandum of comments on the John Barron article
in Reader's Digest together with annotations on the article itself. In
addition, I attach highlights of a briefing on active measures provided the
House Intelligence Committee in July of this year.
d3aj-----
Wi liam J. Casey
Attachment
2
SECRET
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SECRET
The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D. C. 20505
0
6 October 1982
MEMORANDUM FOR: The Honorable William P. Clark
Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs
SUBJECT: Comments on John Barron's Article in Reader's Digest
1. In response to your request for comment on the article by John Barron
entitled "The KGB's Magical War for 'Peace'," in the October 1982 issue of
Reader's Digest, the attached annotated copy of the article is provided.
We commented on those aspects of the article within CIA's purview, but have we have not commented on the detailed information provided concerning KGB
activities in the United States. The White House should query the FBI for
its comments on the article.
2. On the whole we believe that the Barron article is a generally
accurate but somewhat exaggerated picture of Soviet involvement in the peace
movement. We can generally share Mr. Barron's conclusions about Soviet efforts
in the active measures field; we would not go so far as to state that the Soviets
have "magically" induced millions upon millions to make common cause with the
Soviet Union. We believe that the Soviet efforts in the active measures area
are an important factor in explaining the scope and speed with which anti-U.S.
public opinion has been mobilized on the issue of neutron weapon deployment
and NATO nuclear modernization. On the cther hand, the peace movement also
has strong indigenous roots and, even in the absence of Soviet manipulation,
would probably exhibit impressive, if diminished, momentum. The same point
probably could be made concerning the nuclear freeze movement in the
United States, although this is a point that the Barron article tends to
overlook.
William J. Casey
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rata of the
d R
:;c h:,:rd no more.
no longer
,!~ ...'t? ! .: ks of }1c,tds and
o: :cs of 'enemies of
the people.- No longer must clean-
ing crews come every few hours to
wash blood from the stone walls,
swab gore off the oak floors and
cart away former comrades' remains.
Today the Communist Party
torturers and executioners perform
their duties elsewhere, and Lu-
hvanka. whose name still kindles
fear in Russians, has undergone a
reincarnation. Unknown to the
general public. its cells, torture
chambers and execution cellars
have been remodeled into offices
and made part of the "Center"-
the headquarters of the Committee
for State Security, or KGB.
Sitting in a mahogany-paneled
office on the third floor of Lu-
hvanka is the new KGB chairman,
\'italy Fedorchuk. He must still
concern himself, first of all, with
the continuing subjugation of the
Soviet people on behalf of the Party.
He and his deputies must still super-
vise some 5ooo KGB officers abroad
who daily endeavor to steal the
scientific. military and state secrets
of other nations. But today, as never
before, the KGB leadership is preoc-
cupied with prosecution of what
the Russians call Active Measures.
As a result of a disastrous KGB
loss, the West has gained encyclo-
pedic. inside knowledge of how the
Soviet Union conceives and con-
ducts Active'.Icasures. In late t9i9
Maj. Stanislav Alcksandrovich Lev- -
chenko escaped from Japan to the
United States, and he turned out to
be one of the most important officers
ever to flee the KGB. Ievchenko had
worked at the Center as well as in
front organizations in Moscow. At
the time of his escape he was Active
Measures Officer at the KGB's Tokyo
Residency. From his unique back-
ground, he disclosed strategy, tactics
and myriad examples of Active Mea-
sures. while unmasking Soviet fronts
and key KGB operatives.
"Few people who understand
the reality of the Soviet Union will
knowingly support it or its poli-
cies," Levchenko states. "So by Ac-
tive Measures. the KCB distorts or
inverts reality. The trick is to make
people support Soviet policy unwit-
tingly by convincing them they are
supporting something else. Almost
everybody wants peace and fears
war. Therefore, by every conceiv-
able means. the KGB plans and
coordinates campaigns to persuade
the public that whatever America
does endangers peace and that
whatever the Soviet Union pro-
poses furthers peace. To be for
America is to be for war: to be for
the Soviets is to he for peace. That's
the art of Active Measures, a sort of
mode-in-Moscow black magic. It is
tr::_ic to sec how well it works."
70.:.~t, the Kc;R is concentrating
on one of the largest Active Meas-
( Cvnarucd on p.rge 211)
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t c' 40
7)U.:1!:i.Z the
ah ndon new
,vs:c:... .iuat botn Afilt.'rl-
ca ind nun,crous
stt.1tc, st> ,t t! e c:.ccntlal to \Vest-
crn military security. The name of
the campain is."nuclear freeze."
This worldwide campaign thus
far has been remarkably successful,
for the I:c;fi has induced millions
upon millions of honorable, patri-
otic and sensible people who detest
communist tyranny to make com-
mon cause with the Soviet Union.
Most of these millions earnestly
believe they are doing what they
must to spare mankind the calami-
ty of nuclear war. In appealing to
their admirable motivations, the
Soviet Active Measures apparatus
follows a strategy not unlike that of
cigarette advertisers. Tobacco com-
panies do not ask people to consider
thoughtfully the fundamental is-
sue of whether the pleasures of
cigarette addiction offset indis-
putable perils to health. Rather. by
simple slogans and alluring illus-
trations. they evade the issue.
Similarly, Active Measures, by
holding out the allure of peace
through simple slogans and sim-
plistic proposals. try to evade the
fundamental and extremely com-
plex issue of arms limitation. And,
as Levchcnko suggests, they try to
persuade cxerybody that the wa:
to peace lies down the path the
Russians are pointing to.
Fabrications and Fronts
IN Tiff SOVJET LEXICON. Active
Measures include both overt and
covert propaganda, manipulation
of international front organiza-
tions. fora eries, fabrications and
deceptions. acts of sabotage or ter-
rorism committed for psychologi-
cal effect, and the use of Agents of
Influence.*
The KGB has concocted more
than J * 5o forgeries of official U.S.
documents and correspondence
portraying American leaders as
treacherous and the United States
as an unreliable, warmongering na-
tion. One of the most damaging
was a fabrication titled U.S. Army
Field ,bhtnnal F.1130-31B and classi-
fied. by the KGB, top secret. Field
manuals F.1130-31 and FM30-31.4
did exist; F.1130-318 was entirely a
Soviet creation. Over the forged
signature of Gen. William \Vest-
moreland, the manual detailed pro-
cedures to be followed by U.S.
military personnel in friendly for-
eign countries. These fictitious in-
structions told U.S. military forces
or advisers how to interfere in
internal political affairs and, in
certain circumstances, how to incite
ultra-leftist groups to violence so
as to provoke the host govern-
?The .ia??s: St. ict es?+iun., c agent steals
:sc;s..\n .~_.nt ui In:1, n,( striacs tu..flect
~:-c :?.:h. x .?;?:n nn sr..l E+n!i: its of ether n..nuas in
;a;t?:, .f ;iu S..set Lnwn. N:s ur het
i?. npcn or aun:ca!c.:. Jtcccl ur
?u!+:ic..1:.. ,s?. t!s.?u; h. the A;:e?nt of Influence
pro+ss.1? ;ha he nr she is aairr out of Ier,unal
..+.,.. w~.,..r: rj:hcr than -.1,r S.,t wt etudance.
i
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: _crv pru%cd imalu-. ?
... .. ... to z,: rr ur ?tip from the r,,d:cal
...:: Red inurdcrcd
.:.'.u .`?f~ ro. :..:?:lent of the Italian
L.''.r?>ti.?ii Democratic Party, in
\;;:rch J97-',4. Although Muro?s mur-
der constituted a ,grievous loss to the
United States. Radio Moscow began
broadcasting charges that he had
been assassinated by the CIA. Initial-
ly, few people paid any attention to
the totally' undocumented allegation.
Then, according to Congressional
testimony, Cuban intelligence officer
Luis Gonzalez Verdecia offered a
Spanish newspaper the forged Army
manual along with an analysis by
Farnandu Gonzalez. a Spanish com-
munist who dealt with the KGB. In
his article Gonzalez cited the manual
to support claims that the United
States was involved with various
W'cstern European terrorist groups,
including the Red Brigades.
The leftist Spanish magazine El
Triu:ifo published both Gonzalez's
article and parts of the forgery on
September 23, 1978. Immediately,
Italian and other European news-
papers replayed the Spanish story.
Soviet propagandists now set up 2
new hue and cry, citing the articles
in the non-communist European
press as "evidence" that the CIA had
assassinated Moro and that the
United States was the actual spon-
sor of left-wing terrorists all around
the world.
Soon. the press in 20 countries
published. the allegations against
the CIA along with the forged man-
ual or excerpts from it. In the minds
of millions, the Kc;B had succeeded
in inverting reality.
In all nations the KGB attempts
to recruit agents-within the polit-
ical system, press, religion, labor,
the academic world-who can help
shape public attitudes and policies
to Soviet interests. Pierre-Charles
Pathe, a French journalist, was an
archetypical Agent of Influence un-
til his arrest in 1979. KGB officers,
working in Paris under diplomatic
cover, regularly supplied him with
data that he transformed into articles
or passed along to other journalists as
his own research and thought. For
nearly 20 years Pathe initiated more
than i oo articles on Latin America,
China. NATO, the CIA and other
topics, all in tune with KGB goals.
With KGB funds, he published a
newsletter read by leaders in gov-
ernment and industry. A French
court judged Pathe's actions so
potentially damaging to France's
military, political and essential eco-
nomic interests that it sentenced
him to five years' imprisonment.
The Soviets also discreetly en-
courage terrorism as a form of Ac-
tive Measures. At a school where
KGB personnel formerly trained,
near the villa;;e of Balashikha, cast
ti'uscow. officers of Department
~'. responsible for sabotage and as-
iaa:iun, bring in contingents of
Or so young people each year
from the Middle East. Africa and
Aincrica to be taught terror-
z'hc m~tci
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