PROBLEMS IN PROMOTING DEMOCRACY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200920016-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: February 4, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200920016-1
ARTICLE MTEAFM
(W FACE ~~
NEW YORK TIMES
k FEBRUARY 1983
Problems in Promoting Dem
By JEFFGERTH
Special to The NewYortTimm
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 - The Rea.
gan Administration's public cam-
paign to promote democracy, an-
nounced with great fanfare by the
President last June, has been em.
broiled in a bureaucratic tussle over
funding and the question of whether
.the Central Intelligence Agency
should have a significant role.
Ultimately, the participation of the
C.I.A. and plans for unspecified cov-
ert activities were dropped from the
program, because it was thought that
"the quickest way to destroy the pro.
gram was to have any association
with the agency," according to Robert
C. McFarlane, deputy director of the
National Security Council.
The bureaucratic struggle illus.
trates two realities in Washington; Mark Palmer, a State Department of-
first, involvement with the C.I.A. has fib, for a Cabinet-level meeting
become so sensitive that the agency's that the agenda included discus
participation in any public project is situ of a four
often counterproductive, and second, '~ Government -
whenever new funds become avail. I informst structure for the project ect -
able, agencies will inevitably stumble information, political, covert and a
a
crier one another to get a piece of the i Cyr anted asub m~mittee of the Na
In project- titan] Security Council, the National
addition, aides to Senate toner- Win, Planning G
vatives this week raised their ownP. were to be
questions about the ideological roots according responsible to for the the docucovert t. The e connt,
of the organizations that are to receive ndocument. con.
some $65 million being so uvht by ?he
Aamtmstration for the democracy
project.
Announcement to Parliament
Specifically, aides to four conserva-
tive Republican Senators told Charles
Z. Wick, director of the United States
Information Agency, that they would
not support the project unless conser-
vative organizations got more financ-
ing, according to Congressional and
Government sources.
The public diplomacy program was
first announced by President Reagan
in his address to the British Parlia-
ment Last June and was started last
month by a classified executive order
signed by Mr. Reagan.
To carry out the campaign, which is
to be coordinated by William P. Clark,
the national security adviser, the Ad-
ministration is proposing numerous
training, education and exchange pro.'
grams involving- such Government.'
agencies as the U.S.I.A. as well as pri-
vate institutions.
But funds for the program have yet
to be approved-by Congress and the
Administration's $65 million budget
request for the fiscal year 1984 is in
jeopardy.
News Conference Scbeduied
In an attempt to answer some of
these questions, Administration' offi-
cials, possibly-Mr. McFarlane and
Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Under Sec-
retary of State for Political Affairs,
are scheduled to hold a news confer.
ence in the near future. Parts of last
month's executive order may be dis-
closed at that time in order to allay
concerns about any possible covert
component. Earlier this week Mr.
McFarlane agreed to try to declassify
the order, National Security Decision
Document (NSDD) 77, after a request
by a reporter from The- New York
Times.
Other Government documents ob.
tained by The Times show the follow-
c
A document prepared an Aug. 3 by
`If we have the
C.I.A. in this
we can call it off
'right off the bat.'
-Robert C. McFarlane
National Security Council
templated covert activities were not
spelledouL
Palmer document, which was
labeled secret/sensitive, noted under
the beading "DOD Input" that "Both
in the N.S.C. organizational structure
and the N.S.D.D., one must address
bow much of the political action con-
templated is already covered by law
and Executive Order providing for
Covert Action."
It added: "We need to examine bow
law and
Exprn
more liberal to permit covert action
on a broader scale, as well as what we
can do through substantially in.
creased overt political action."
qA Proposed list, dated Oct. 2. of .
more than 75 programs funded by the
U.S.I.A.. included a "Public Diplo-
macy Data Base" project that would
have an "interactive computer net-
work" that would tie "in with c?.ertaiti-
elements of the C.LA. system,.. Mr.
McFarlane and officials of the infor-
mation agency say ,this project has-
been dropped and that the final list of
Projects is still being worked an
Mr. McFarlane said that he, Mr.
Eagleburger and others began to
,worry about the intelligence agency's
involvement in late July, and suc-
ceeded in getting the C.I.A. W. firmly out of the program" at a meet-
ing Aug. 31.
'Let's not be naive - if we have the
C.I.A. in this we can call it off right off
the bat," Mr. McFarlane said he
.remembered thinkiiggat than=e.
Revelations in the 1960's about coy:'
ert financing of educational and chart-
table institutions by the C.I.A. led to a.
national policy adopted in 1967 prohib.?.
itiug covert financial assistance or-
support to such institutions. Some of
the same institutions that figured in,,
that debate are slated to receive open, -
noncovert assistance in the public di-
plomacy project, according to Mr.
McFarlane.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200920016-1