CIA RECRUITMENT ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302470001-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 2, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 15, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO IV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
FOR
PROGRAM
DATE
PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
CBS News Nightwatch
December 15, 1986 2:00 A.M.
STATION
SUBJECT CIA Recruitment on College Campuses
WUSA-TV
CBS Network
Washington, D.C.
4 FRED GRAHAM: Voices of protest can be heard these days
on college campuses across America. At issue, CIA recruitment.
The agency has been traveling to schools, looking for potential
new employees. That effort has triggered several demonstrations,
including a recent one at the University of Massachusetts. Jimmy
Carter's daughter Amy and activist Abbie Hoffman were among those
arrested.
More on the story from Mike Lawrence of our Boston
affiliate WNEV-TV.
MIKE LAWRENCE: The rally turned into a building
takeover, a demand for an end to campus recruiting by groups
believed to violate international law.
[Chants of demonstrators]
LAWRENCE: Campus police broke LIO the sit-in at 7:00
P.M., backed by state troopers with riot gear and dogs.
Fifty-one people handcuffed and loaded on a bus.
Brown University student Amy Carter had planned to avoid
arrest, but changed her mind when she saw police tactics.
AMY CARTER: It's not only to keep the CIA off this
campus, it's to sort of like spotlight the things the CIA has
been doing recently.
LAWRENCE: Like Nicaragua?
CARTER: Like Nicaragua. Yeah. And I think if it
doesn't accomplish keeping the CIA off campus, it will at least
OFFICES IN: WASHINGTON DC. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES
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raise the consciousness.
LAWRENCE: In court, dozens of U-Mass students joined
Amy Carter in pleading not guilty to disorderly conduct.
Abbie Hoffman, a Worcester native, now 49, replayed a
court role familiar from the 1960s.
ABBIE HOFFMAN: I'd also like to say I'm ashamed to be
from Massachusetts because of what happened last night.
It was just Birmingham, Alabama 1963.
dogs. It was excessive use of force.
It was police
I was invited, along with a lot of other people who have
concerns about 18 months of arms deals with Iran, all in secret,
without the advice and consent of the Congress, without the
American public knowing about it.
GRAHAM: That report from WNEV-TV reporter Mike
Lawrence.
Joining us now to look at this CIA controversy is Abbie
Hoffman; and John Greaney, a former CIA agent. He's Executive
Director of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. As
an associate general counsel for the CIA, he's represented the
agency in a number of high-profile cases.
Abbie, I'm sure that the first question that a person
would ask is, you're 49, it said there...
HOFFMAN: Fifty.
GRAHAM: Fifty? You've passed that big 50. So why are
you doing this?
HOFFMAN: Well, this is not may first arrest against the
CIA. The first one was two years ago. I've been in Central
America four times leading delegations. I tought ten years
against the Vietnam War. I see signs of it happening again. And
I recognize that the CIA has played a role over the past 40 years
that's dragged us into war, that's involved political
assassinations, destabilizing governments, that's involved lying
to the American people.
GRAHAM: You don't like the CIA.
HOFFMAN: It's undemocratic. It's -- and it gets us in
trouble, and it's going to do it again.
It's my patriotic duty to speak out against what I
consider to be an unpatriotic organization that's not serving...
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[Confusion of voices]
JOHN GREANEY: Wait a minute.
HOFFMAN: I guess my ba -- my basic question is, what's
so intelligent about the CIA?
GREANEY: Well, to begin with, it is nut an unpatriotic
organization, Abbie. It was established by -the National Security
Act of '47. It has two committees of Congress which oversee its
activities. It has a budget that is approved by the Congress,
it's voted on by the entire Senate and the House. And it is a
government agency.
Now, the activities fur which this incident took place
is CIA only goes on campuses when it's requested to by the
placement officers looking for jobs for their own students. They
do not go out and push their efforts against the campuses. They
go only when they're invited, and they're offering students job
opportunities, which is certainly nothing unpatriotic about
offering job opportunities to college students.
GRAHAM: John, can I ask something, though? Abbie
brought the paper there. That's the newspaper from the campus
there.
Do you have it with you?
HOFFMAN: Yeah. But they're all pretty standard.
The...
GRAHAM: Yeah, but it seemed to me...
HOFFMAN: Well, you know, it's [exciting opportunities
aoruad."
GRAHAM: Well, that's on the front page, isn't it?
Would you hold that up?
HOFFMAN: Yeah. Well, this is on the right small front
paper.. It's about four pages.
GRAHAM: And here it is, "CIA"...
HOFFMAN: "CIA offers you career opportunities"...
GRAHAM: Hold it up, holo it around so the camera -- the
camera right here.
HOFFMAN: "Where your options are as diverse as your
interests. If you're looking fur an exciting job"...
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GRAHAM: Isn't that a bit of -- that's d bit of a
provocation, isn't it? I mean...
GREANEY: No, it's an opportunity.
HOFFMAN: Nothing about mining harbors, about printing
political assassination manuals.
GREANEY: Well, now wait a minute. You're talking about
policies of the United States Government that are authorized.
HOFFMAN: No.
GREANEY: You're talking about activities that have been
ordered by the United States Government for the Agency to carry
out.
HOFFMAN: That's not it.
GREANEY: And they are that.
Now, the Agency has a whole panorama of activities that
get involved in very technical --they want the brightest people
that can do the best job for this government. And if we don't
have intelligence, we don't have a good defense. We need
intelligence for the first line of defense.
HOFFMAN: Well, I'm not against intelligence, gathering
intelligence for the protection of the United States. It's the
kind of intelligence.
For example, when the CIA goes to Chile and tin miners
there are being maltreated and abused, what they do is come --
they don't come back on the conditions of tne tin miners. They
go to the Pinochet government and they finger the leaders of the
unions who are organizing those arrests.
They do the same thing in South Korea when they students
pruteset no academic freedoms.
GREANEY: Wait a minute. You don't nave any evidence
that CIA is involved in these things.
HOFFMAN: Wait a minute. The first entire ten years of
the CIA, where they overthrew the Mossadegh government, the
Arbenyez[sic] government, where they conducted a
multimillion-dollar war in Tibet, were not known to 75 percent of
the Congress, were not know to 95 percent of the Americans. It
wasn't until Francis Gary Powers was shot down...
GRAHAM: That things in history. Come on now.
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HOFFMAN: ...that we even knew that there was a CIA
existing. Well, It's still going on.
GREANEY: The CIA was established by statute in 1947.
HOFFMAN: It's still going on.
GRAHAM: Those kids you were with there, none of them
were alive when Francis Gary Powers...
HOFFMAN: Yes, but Hasenfus went down. What the
Hasenfus case reveals Is that the CIA has violated the Boland
Amendment. It has violated the War Powers Act.
CIA...
GREANEY: That Is not true. There Is no evidence that
HOFFMAN: They have not consulted with Congress.
GREANEY: Walt a minute. There's no evidence of that.
HOFFMAN: Yes, there is. What, are you kidding?
They've been delivering arms. What's all this stuff about Iran
and the money going to the Contras?
no...
GREANEY: The CIA has nut been delivering arms. There's
HOFFMAN: That's ridiculous.
GREANEY: ...evidence of them delivering arms.
HOFFMAN: Well, who's Gomez 3nd Medina, and how are they
tied to...
GREANEY: They're not working for CIA.
GRAHAM: Well, they used to. They're In that old-buy
CIA network.
GREANEY: They're an alumnus, yes. But you don't say
that if somebody worked fur CBS and they go out and start a
revolution, they're still CBS's employees, do you?
GRAHAM: But It does seem to me that the taint of the
CIA lasts a little bit longer than associations of other...
GREANEY: Hasenfus had a job with Air America. That was
a proprietary. There's no doubt about it. He lived well.
HOFFMAN: Free enterprise, equal opportunity employer.
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Come on! I mean he's been doing this since...
GRAHAM: What you really object to is...
HOFFMAN: Is their lies.
GRAHAM: No, the policy of the government, which is
being carried out by the CIA. And what you should do is vote
against Ronald Reagan.
HOFFMAN: Well, I du vote against Ronald Reagan. And
obviously, this is a sad moment for our country
because.. .[confusion voices].. .suckered in by...
GRAHAM: Forty-nine states voted for him. And how can
you blame an agency of the government that carries out his
policies?
HOFFMAN: But what they don't -- for example, 72 percent
du not support aid to the Contras, any kind of aid.
GREANEY: The Congress voted the money. That's the part
you've gut to remember.
HOFFMAN: The Congress voted humanitarian aid, from '82
to '85.
GREANEY: But the Congress voted $100 million for
weapons. Don't forget that.
HOFFMAN: During that period, weapons were being
supplied to the Contras to the CIA.
GREANEY: No, they weren't. There is no evidence to
support that, and you can't come up with that statement and
support it.
HOFFMAN: In the case of Massachusetts, Massachusetts
has laws about affirmative action programs. The CIA, unlike the
other companies, the Company doesn't have to abide by that law.
Unlike other companies...
GRAHAM: You mean you're doing this because they don't
abide by affirmative action guidelines?
HOFFMAN: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Well, this was
why the University of Mass...
GREANEY: What kind of a guideline are you referring to,
hiring practices?
HOFFMAN: Yes.
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Unlike other companies -- If you go to IBM...
GRAHAM: Oh, come on.
GREANEY: Come on. that's ridiculous.
HOFFMAN: If you go for a job at IBM...
GRAHAM: Should spies be picked according to affirmative
action guidelines?
GREANEY: Are you going to have a quota? I mean how
many people speak the foreign languages?
HOFFMAN: I'm not speaking out against intelligence
gathering. I'm speaking now of the covert action program of the
CIA. The dirtiest word over 40 years has been a nonaligned
country.
GREANEY: The covert action is...
HOFFMAN: If you aun't choose, if you don't choose, your
government can be destablized, as it was in Indonesia, as it was
in Guatemala, as it is trying to do right now in Nicaragua by the
CIA.
GRAHAM:
I want to a break here.
But I think that one
thing
that we may
have established
is that
you two don't agree
about
the nature
of the CIA.
HOFFMAN: I don't agree that he's a former agent.
GRAHAM: About the nature -- but that still leaves the
question of...
HOFFMAN: You're dead when you're a former agent.
You're dead.
GRAHAM: ...whether or not these are the proper tactics
to use. And I want to take a break and come back and talk about
that narrower issue.
GRAHAM: We're back with a rather rambunctious
discussion here about protesting against the CIA.
Abbie, two questions. First of all, you are, as I
understand it, trying to launch a syndicated radio talk show.
HOFFMAN: Well, that's just...
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GRAHAM: Is that not true?
HOFFMAN: I'm raising my voice across in the media.
GRAHAM: So yuu may be doing this for publicity,
personal publicity.
HOFFMAN: No. That's ridiculous. I've been doing this
25 years. There are 66,000 pages of files. I spent seven years
underground. I've been busted 43 times. Come off it.
GRAHAM: But why don't you let the kids...
HOFFMAN: There's an easier way to make money. All you
have to do is ask some of the more famous big-chilled people of
the 1960s.
GRAHAM: Some people might say you are contributing to
the delinquency of either near-minors, or in some cases perhaps
minors here. You're leading these kids to get themselves
arrested.
HOFFMAN: Well, I am not a leader. I was invited on,
and there were several other people that were my age.
GRAHAM: But isn't it time to let this generation...
HOFFMAN: I'm a teacher now. I'm a teacher.
GRAHAM: Isn't it...
HOFFMAN: Oh, yes. Absolutely. Women and children to
the front.
GREANEY: Abbie? Do you teach them how to get busted?
HOFFMAN: Absolutely. On this case, yes. Because in
Massachusetts you can -- they have necessity laws. And I'm
charged with trespassing. And Amy Carter, myself, and others
will put on trial this spring the CIA in open court by saying
that here was a necessity to break a smaller law because larger
laws, like the War Powers Act,...
GREANEY: Just remember the CIA...
HOFFMAN: ...like the Neutrality Act.
GREANEY: The CIA was invited on that campus for good
reason,...
HOFFMAN: Hey, he just interrupted me rather rudely.
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you...
the jobs.
it!
9
GREANEY: ...to recruit people for jobs. Why should
HOFFMAN: But jobs -- but they lie about the nature of
GREANEY: They do not lie.
HOFFMAN: They don't talk about mining habors.' Come off
GREANEY: They don't lie about the jobs. They offer the
students the opportunities for a career if they can meet the
criteria. They want the brightest people available to do the
best job.
HOFFMAN: But they lie. But they lie about the jobs.
GREANEY: They don't lie. The recruiters don't lie.
HOFFMAN: You can't go look up in a manual. They don't
even say how much money the CIA has, like IBM has.
GREANEY:
Congress said so.
That's right. It's classified because the
HOFFMAN: They offer them a secret job, a job -- a job
which McGeorge Bundy, by the way, said the covert action program
of the CIA in 40 years has been a dismal failure. He should
know. He was head of the National Security Council for two
Presidents.
GRAHAM: Let me...
HOFFMAN: I don't think -- I tnink it's a complete
failure, too. Where's it been a tremendous success?
GREANEY: We have stayed out of war. We are not at war.
HOFFMAN:
sending 200...
At war? We've stayed out of war? We're
GRAHAM: Can I ask you this? When you have these
protests, are you trying to save these innocent students from
being employed by a nefarious organization?
HOFFMAN: We are trying to draw attention to the fact,
number one, that the CI -- what the CIA activities are. We are
saying this is a crisis period because we need the grand
distraction right now, and that is war, and that's what's going
on on the Honduran border.
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GREANEY: But what about the students that want a job?
Why don't you give them the opportunity to get a job? Why do you
interfere with that?
HOFFMAN: They can got to Boston. They can qu to
Washingtun.
GREANEY: But why du they have to pick up with...
HOFFMAN: They can go to the CIA. And the CIA can du
what it did in the '60s. It went and gut all the Mormons it
could in Utah and it went to the Southern technical colleges ani
it recruited...
GREANEY: Well, that sounds like a racist argument.
HOFFMAN: Let 'em go there. Let 'em go there. Let 'em
go there.
GRAHAM: Let me redirect this just for a minute because,
Abbie, it dues seem to me...
HOFFMAN: Most students on the campus did nut even know
that the CIA is there recruiting.
GRAHAM: Well, I saw that front page, that huge ad
there.
HOFFMAN: That has a thousand circulation. I'm sorry.
They don't know.
GRAHAM: Let me ask you this, a little bit different
direction here. It is interesting...
HOFFMAN: They certainly don't know its history.
Look, I was one of 12 people singled out, and admitted
to, domestically spied on by the CIA, Illegally. Jack Anderson,
your colleague was one. Jane Fonda...
part.
what?
GRAHAM: All right. Well, maybe this is revenge on your
HOFFMAN: No, it's not. Revenge for what? Revenge for
GRAHAM: For being spied on.
HOFFMAN: Oh, come off of it.
GREANEY: But wasn't it for good reason?
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HOFFMAN: No, it's not.
GREANEY: [Laughter]
GRAHAM: Wait a minute. You have to answer for that.
HOFFMAN: No. It was illegal.
GRAHAM:
justifiable by...
If that was illegal, do you think it's
GREANEY: I'm not sure it was illegal.
HOFFMAN: It's one thing...
GREANEY: Wait a minute.
HOFFMAN: It's one thing if I break the law, especially
if it's civil disobedience.
GREANEY: Obviously. You've been arrested 43 times.
HOFFMAN: If people entrusted by the public within
government break the law, that's an entirely different case.
GREANEY: All right. The reason for that was very
important, because it was an element that considered the fact
that the antiwar protesters were Influenced by the Communist
governments of the Soviets.
HOFFMAN: Oh, come off it. That's ridiculous.
GRAHAM: That's not a very persuasive argument. Now
wait a minute.
GREANEY: That's the reason for the investigations.
GRAHAM: Let me go to one last question.
HOFFMAN: Is that reason to go to my father's customers
and tell them not to do business with come on. You don't even
know -- you can't even guess at what...
GRAHAM: I do have a question that I want to ask both of
you, and that is: This has surfaced, these protests against CIA
recruiting...
HOFFMAN: And it will continue.
GRAHAM: Yeah. And I want to ask you about that, both
of you. Because I think it's significant that for a number of
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years now the CIA was recruiting on campuses and there were not
protests.
HOFFMAN: That's right.
GRAHAM: Now, protests usually mean that there is
something happening here.
HOFFMAN: There is something happening.
GRAHAM: Now, I want to ask both of you. What's
happening?
HOFFMAN: Well, I can...
GRAHAM: I mean other than you being there, is something
deeper than that happening?
HOFFMAN: In the last two years there's definitely been
a change in students' attitude. They're much more engaged in
political activism. Over 7000 have been arrested in the
anti-apartheid movement. And there's a movement of students who
are questioning authority, who are outraged about foreign policy,
who are paying attention to lack of student rights on the campus.
And the anti-apartheid movement in the '60s...
GRAHAM: Well, wait a minute. I'm sorry to cut you off
because we only have half a minute.
What do you think? Do you think that's a fair statement
of what's happening here?
GREANEY: No, I think it's a totally distorted
statement, because the fact that the students that want a job are
looking for employment, they're looking fur a challenge. The
Central Intelligence Agency has the highest number of
professional advanced degrees than any government agency in the
country. It's a very challenging place to work. This government
needs the best people to protect our intelligence sources and get
the best intelligence we can. And to protest this is just a
sideline that is not a very effective manner at all.
GRAHAM: Last word.
HOFFMAN: This is where students on campus meet the
coming war in Central America. So that's why it's becoming an
important issue. Just like the issue of Vietnam did not become
important while the CIA conducted that war for eleven years. It
wasn't until '65 that you had the Vietnam War as an issue on
campuses.
GRAHAM: I'm sorry our time is up.
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HOFFMAN: Let's go for it.
GRAHAM: And you're like ships passing in the night.
We'll be back with more on Nightline.
HOFFMAN: Yeah. But he's got a mine...
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