IT'S REALLY PROJECT GOBBLEDEGOOK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200920008-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: March 7, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/16: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200920008-0
7 March 1983
It's reall Project y Gobbledegook,.
WASHINGTON -- It Is possible, although not likel
that someone who speaks could explain! Mary McGro
"Project Democracy,' Ronald~gan s murky and ry
expensive scheme for promo the "infrastructure
of democracy" around the world.
But the first language of Charles Z. Wick, director- have seen," and of one that it would "illustrate and.
of the U.S. Information Agency, who would run flesh out what the symbolism is."
it, is.
gobbledegook. The foggy, foggy dew of his prose; Tsongas took Wick on a tour of the minefields he
about what "PD" is and isn't has left the Senate must tread. He asked if the Central . .
.Foreign Relations Committee as confused and suspi Agency is "still involved" in the
cious as when he began. . assured him that "they will never ~ved" _
"f should like to apologize for any ambiguities that` and then volunteered that CIA Director William V.
~Cas had -sat in :
have been introduced here," he said after several '-
has a very on early discussions "because he i portant Job particularly befuddling " just as You and
yourL
the information and sensitivities ..t to imps lem s colleagues in C onoress .#P
do .~~
various comet mIca'ce sand approaches to assist the: congas also asked about a USIA grant of ;190,opp
infrastructure of the legal, business and religion to Ernest Lefever,. the hard-right conservative who!,
communities, . : , was Reagan's doomed choice as director of our
The members were friendly to Wick, who ~s a human rights polic i. Wick said that re Lefever
person of obvious good will and good nature, but, would have been "reverse McCarthyism.'. Be a none-
school was but when he . wheeled out some huge tbeless, on reading about it in the paper, asked the :
organizati'General onal charts that Sen. Chris ' Dodd [D., A he Probe A ~ olv finto '
Connto investigate. He .] said "made Rube Goldberg look like a com- judgment." nothing more thanpa
pater. chip." They were supposed to la to rest P about
widespread fears that the $65 million budgeted for! `T .don't believe,.' Wick added, although nobody:
the program will be used for the promotion of what , had suggested that it was, "that there is
Sen. Paul Tsongas [D., Mass.] labeled "Project; illegal in that." -
Right-Wing Democracy." Sen. Nancy Kassebaum [R., Kan.] said that a.trip!
(one chart headed "National Security Decision to Africa had. convinced her that the natives need
Directive on Public Diplomacy" seemed pacuularly health care and basic education more than the
ominous. It showed an "International Political Corn-:. English lessons Project Democracy will offer.
.mittee," which sounded as if Its chairman would be; Sen. Charles McC. Mathias [R., Md.
] said the best
Yuri Andropov - against whom the whole effort is! way to sell democracy is to bring foreign students
directed. here and "turn them loose" to see for themselves.
? "In God's name," said the usually long-suffering! Project Democracy, in its attempt to achieve a
ccep.
chairman, Charles H. Percy [R., Ill.], "who is really tance is co-opting proven programs like the spe
ccta-; . ~
in charge?" culariy successful . Fulbright Scho , which?
"Frankly," said Wick with becoming humility, have yielded the' matchless political di d of a ;
"there is a lot of confusion in the government ... number of highly placed alumni who are-now running'
Perhaps I should not have brought those charts with their countries..
Pro" He insisted the charts had nothing to do with . Wick agreed with the senators about the impor-
J cy tance of educational exchanges. T~he?~father of the
Dodd pointed Demotedout that right under "International Fuibrights, former Sen. William , was invi-.
Political Committee," in the lower left-hand corner, : ted to the stand. In totally intelligible terms be
"Project Democra ap that foreign governments now contributing to
ear
said, "Y will have two forgive me, I didn't; - he program will cut their donations if it- becomes.
.know you were listening so carefully." part of the U.S. propaganda campaign.
"'I wasn't," said Dodd. "I was looking." Wick declined Percy's offer of a shredder for his
Wick obli 'ugly referred thereafter to the charts as charts. But Project Democracy, unless someone can
`"Rube Gol maps., He also said he didn't think 1 explain it better, seems beaded In that direction,
-some of the projects S ould be funded "in blbe?way I; a low I- P110"
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/16: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200920008-0