A FREE MARKET FUTURE FOR OUR SPIES?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403700001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 21, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
i Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403700001-0
LEWIS LAPHAM
ON PALE I
WASHINGTON TIMES
21 November 1985
A free market future for our spies?
The CIA lately has been mak-
ing so persuasive a mess of
things that probably the
time has come to transfer
th u in ss to the private sector
Certainly the change of venue
ought to fit the ideological
specifications of the Reagan admin-
istration. If it is true that the nation
owes Its greatness to its entrepre-.
neurial genius, then why allow its
safety to remain in the hands of mud-
dled bureaucrats who can't tell the
difference between a defector and a.
double agent?
Define espionage as a growth in-
dustry, and let the operation be run.
by a management team that ac-
knowledges the moral beauty of the
bottom line. Hire people that under-
stand that, a well-executed coup.
d'etat deseAes to be ranked with a
$1 billion merger or a $500 million
real estate deal.
Organized discreetly as "Potomac
Associates," the new company would
need to be privately held. The
absence of stockholders would
eliminate the nuisance of having to
render a public account of the com-
pany's activities or a statement of its
profit or loss. If the company could
be structured as a tax shelter, the
initial financing probably could be
raised over a long Fourth of July
weekend. A series of telephone calls
to a consortium of patriotic interests
ought to yield enough money to pay
the agency's current expenses and
provide for an expanded program of
clandestine war.
Among the likely contributors, I
can imagine the Heritage Founda-
tion as well as Clint Eastwood and
Johnny Carson, the Lockheed Corp.. work responsible for "Dynasty,"
as well as General Dynamics, E.F.' 'Nightline;' and "Wide World of
Hutton and Citibank, Joseph Coors Sports" already has established an
and the American Israeli Public Af- ethos in which combativeness,
fairs Committee, Richard Mellon. greed, and mindless competition ap-
Scaife, the Bechtel Corp., William F. pear as virtues devoutly to be
Buckley, the American Legion, Rich- wished. The transmutation of the
and Nixon, the editors of Commen- Cold War into commercial melo-
tary magazine, George Stein- drama or athletic spectacle should
brenner, Armand Hammer, and Joan present only logistical difficulties.
Rivers. At the very least the network deal
Given an adequate budget of be- would improve the public image of
tween $30 billion and $60 billion in the American intelligence services.
the first year and relieved of the in- Instead of being seen as incompe-
dignity of having to suffer questions tent ideologues who lose track of So-
viet master spies in small, well-
from members of Congress or the
press, Potomac Associates would be
free to do the work of liberty. Let the
company offer its executives proper
incentives and within a matter of
weeks it would attract many of the
vigorous young Americans now be-
ing drawn to careers in loan-
sharking, casino gambling, and in-
vestment banking.
Suppose that the vice president in
charge of Nicaragua accomplished.
the destruction of the Sandinista
government. Instead of merely re-
ceiving a medal - which he couldn't
wear to the opera or a dinner with
Princess Diana - or a letter of com-
mendation written on plain statio-
nery in thin, Protestant prose, the
hero of Managua would be entitled
to a coffee plantation and hereditary
right to manipulate the Nicaraguan
currency.
Or suppose that the group vice
president for Mediterranean affairs
arranged the assassination of
Muammar Qaddafi - not only would
he receive a share of the Libyan oil
revenue, but he also could expect a
place on the National Security Coun-
cil, and a seat on the board of TWA.
Let the forces of the free market
come into play against the inertia of
socialist economics, and Potomac
Associates surely would return a
handsome profit. The investors obvi-
ously could count on a percentage of
the spoils from deregulation of gov-
ernments in places like Angola and
Iran; by shrewdly exploiting the sec-
ondary markets, they also could ex-
pect important money from the sale
of theatrical and publishing rights.
Of the available deals, an exclu-
sive contract with ABC probably
would make the most sense. The net-
lighted Washington restaurants, the
agents employed by Potomac Asso-
ciates would be represented as men
of action, daring, and resolute fel-
lows capable of reading a menu in
Italian and finding their way
through Bulgarian customs.
On "Good Morning America" and
"World News Tbnight;' a personable
young woman could read daily re-
ports of changes in the geopolitical
weather, pointing out revolutionary
disturbances and the movement of
Communist fronts on a map of the
world.
Whenever Potomac Associates
captured a cadre of foreign terror-
ists, I can imagine their fate being
decided every Sunday morning on a
news show entitled "Day of Judg-
ment." David Brinkley and George
Will might preside over a drumhead
tribunal, and maybe Barbara Wal-
ters could be persuaded to interview
the prisoners about the foolishness
of their politics and the sorrows of
their childhood and early youth.
If the transfer of the CIA to the
private sector accomplishes the re-
sults that the nation has every right
to expect, then it mi ht be prudent
to consider assigning the manage-
ment of both the State and Defense
Departments to Lee Iacocca or the
faculty at the Harvard Business
Sc ioo .
Lewis H. Lapham is the editor of
Harper's magazine.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403700001-0