CIA: A RADICAL CHANGE FROM ITS ORIGINAL GOALS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100010021-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: November 30, 1975
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

t
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 CIA-RDP90-01208R000100010021-9
NEWSDAY (TD? ~S )
30 NOk E 1:*8FP 1975
( telligence under a previous interimnCIAan simply provided for----
--transfer-to
By Robert J. Donovan, ..:; intelligence establishment. "I do not,theit of the.:
think there is anything in the billfunctions. personnel. proper
How did the CIA go wrong? How?1 since it is all foreign intelligence, that'ty and records of the CIA
did it turn out to be radically I can possibly affect any of the privi=? When the House took up the
different from what those who voted.; leges of the people of the United 'question, however, it decided
to establish it believed it would be? States." . to spell out. in the new law=
The answers to those questions will Officials of the Truman adminis. the functions to be assigned
help shape whatever future restric to. the CIA so that a Presi-..
tions are to be placed on the CIA.. tration recognized the concern in dent-could not alter themt?
Congress that a new-fangled opera-
. lications for without first obtaining ap=-?
The main cause of the miscarriage tion with dangerous imp
of the law creating the CIA was the proval - of - Congress. The?_
cold war and the feeling it engen a democracy might be in the making, House - accornpl fished . this-
dered that the end of achieving secur- James V.. Forrestal, then secretary: simply by picking up.the--
ity ; against the : supposed Soviet of the: Navy, assured ?a House com- language of Truman's 194&.:-
threat justified the means...;' . mittee: `The purposes of the Central -directive .:establishing the}
Intelligence [Agency] are limited CIA and, without essential
The law is the National-Security:, definitely to purposes outside of this change,- applying it to the`,
Act of 1947, the-principal purpose of country, except the collation -.of. CIA.
-.which was not to create the CIA but information gathered by other gov- !t; yto achieve the so-called unification of ernment agencies." Most of the terms thu
-the armed services. The CIA. was "Collation" was a clue to under= adopted-were unexceptional.i_
incidental to the larger goal of;., standing what was being asked of Two other descriptions of -;-
coordinating military policy and for- Cori ress. The' CIA was to be an functions transferred from;:-
eign policy. ' organization' for centrally gathering. the old CIG directive, howev4-
Even so; members `of the 80thl= and coordinating information. The er,.were:to have quite eacep
~Qngress who`voted for the act went CIA was to collect, evaluate, esti tional. implications_.One of-:?
?--out of their way to try to nail down i mate: There was only. a passing these-was to: perform. such=
the limits of the CIA's authority, and hint--rand that from Allen Dulles, other functions and duties,
soma of those-old tigers would have later a'director of Central Intelli"-re1ated:to intelligence affect
been astounded at the things the-CIA ence--that the CIA would conduct ' -national security ;as z...
has done at home and abroad since operations intended not to report on ni'';ht,b&..directed by highec;, .
the legislation cleared Congress and events that had happened, but to do authority:_The_oiher.was.to--;-i
was,signed .by President Truman things-such as pou into takere-sponsibility for
July 26,1947. r money i
rces: -,
;. Chile in a covert operation-to cause teet>ng-intelligence sou
Incredible as later events were: to. them to happen. ? - .. ' . $admethods fromunauttw -I
rized.disclosure.~
}:
be, however, a*rereading of the 1947 On Feb. 26,1947,-Truman submit-
:..hearings: almost suggests- that the ted the National Security Act to -'Thes-e abstract; open-endue
legislators of a generation ago in- Congress as a permanent arrange- ed provisions?became part-oi'
stinetively feared . what the CIA ment for unifying the armed forces the National.SecurityRct oft
eto..-
.might get into: '_ :. ', :..,:..:: .:;, :?.1:,: and coordinating military policy and 1947 ?and eventually cam
Rep. Clarence J. Brown (R-Ohio) t foreign policy. nder the draft le -is etalren:.in the government_.~
said that. while : he wanted the lation that he recommended, the CIA as Justification for activities=;'_;
country. to have the finest -intelig would be established to replace the that--wwould have astonished'
Fence service, he "did not wish the,; makeshift Central Intelligence: the 80th Congress that had
President-any President-"to have Group. The CIA would be under the inserted the clauses:;~s_;~
-.a Gestapo of his own." He inquired at proposed new National Security The clause authorizing the
"a hearing whether the proposed CIA Council, also included in the act' CIA to perform-other duti
,'might possibly affect the rights and In his letter of transmittal, ?Tru- and functions related to inn
privileges of the people of the United E man dwelt on military unification tell igence-was: the- loophol,:
States.". hand did not even mention the CIA, through which he CIA en= _;`
"No;. sir,". replied Gen. Hoyt S. I let alone "dirty tricks," as the covert: gaged. in-' political and pars''
Vandenberg; director of Central In-. overseas operations came. to be military-operations abroad.k --j
called. The authority; to assume re=p:
-sponsibility.forprotecting-in--:
Truman's draft was bare of any
'details on the duties of the proposed telligence sources-and.meth _i
ods became the-I.pophola for.'__j
domesticactivities-- - ' ''--,
'-These abuses did ni trconner .~
about automatically: With=.:':
cold, war. tension --growin
dramaticallywoise; the Sov
et Union shook ' Washinggton,` t
to ats'fouridations-in Fetirtr
ary 1948, by-.seizing coin
plete control of Czechoslovak
kia through'a coup byahe '
Czech Community Party. ~~" Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100010021-9