THE CIA: A TWO-EDGED SWORD THAT CUTS THE U. S.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100070094-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 94
• Publication Date: June 29, 1975
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100070094-3
29 JUNE. 1975
f T ~"R ~.5~" .f?.~
3
C M
Ilv RMIAltl` c-ltEVERTn\'
L,
;1C C1 A, .:e are bcgi':aing to
arn, is a two-cd.-cd -word.
It is e`fcc;i~e for inflicting woounds
tst?:ne (f then; fat::it on cnettlic:i of
:he state-but it i also capable of in.
;ictin, deep wounds on us as ,vci!.
The problem is that in washing the
CIA's dirty linen, we may also Wash
away some shared assumptions about
the way the nation is supposed to
work and the ideals it is supposed to
stand for. With terrible irony, it will
rca?hh a fever pitch in the Biccntea-
nial Year.
The revelations-already leaking
with the deadening regularity of a
faucet heard in a room at midai ht-
seem destined to touch departed
Presidents. VV`nile history demands
that we must know whether or not
they used min der as an instrurnent
of foreign policy, the nation retains
an almost child-like need to be reas-.
cured about the legitimacy of its his-
tory.
If history is rewritten - if Presi-
dents become killers - what will
that do to the way we perceive the
present
It is a troubling question, for this
nation - niorc than most others -
cannot afford to drift in a moral vac-
uum. Theodore White, America's pre-
mier President=watcher, knifed to the
heart of the matter when he wrote
that Richard illixon's "true crime
i::+; that) he destroyed the myth
that c,;+; ++!r_rc in A;rcriean tire
there i< at least one man who stands
for law ....?' White wrote that in a
book titled, with remarkable preci-
sion, "Breach of Faith."
If (and it is a big if) the Kcnrcdys
- plus Truman and Johnson - are
thrown into the historical nteat-
grinder by the CIA hearings and by
the asserted White douse and Con-
gressional leaks, it will be almost im-
possible (as Ford seems intent on
doing) to contain the damage: after
all, if they did it, why are we to ac-
cept the bland statement'. that the
President no longer makes use of this
terrible swift CIA sword.
We cannot - not unless we believe
that what Presidents say is true, no'
questions asked. And, infected by all
this history, that is a belief we can-
not rationally support.
We cannot afford it, in Ford's case,
because he does not allow it. In re-
sponding to a press conference ques-
tion about CIA efforts to "destabi-
lize" the Allende government in
Chile, Ford said: "I'm not going to
pass judgment on whether it's per.
mitted ... under international law.
It's a recognized fact that histor-
ically as well as presently such ac-
tions are taken in the best interests
of the countries involved."
The question is: who decides the
"best interests"? And how?
Ford had no answer, except to unto
that Congress should be kept "fully
infoi ined'' in order to be '?it %;iudcd in
the Opetati',ns for any such action."
The word, lint not so much it ;c-
bate and consensus as at cooptlon.
Congress has y et to login gr?p-
pling with this problem - but its hi's-
torical dirty linen is also abucdantl
on display (Lucicu Nedzi. chairman
of the House CIA "oversight" com-
mittee admitted he had been briefcl
about CIA domestic operations-hut.
did nothing to pass the word along).
What then is to stop an American
foreign policy that rests en the
whims of the President and Secre-
tary of State alone? Dr. Kissinger
himself has publicly called for a
broad agreement on foreign policy
goals; it's the only effective wvay he
can operate, he says.
But how can such blind, trusting
consensus ever act as a guard on the
unseen hand of the CIA? The poison
.spreads; from history into the pees-.'
eat, covering our perceptions of the
world with an oily film of cynicism.
If ,we cannot believe what the Presi-
dent says, then there can be no
ground for realistic debate: it would
make more sense to talk to a mirage.
If we have one foreign policy in
public, and another in secret, there
can be no national commitment in
any visible anal. We would nun the
risk of being just another CIA
"front;" the biggest "proprietary" of
all might turn out to be the United
Stales of America.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 CIA-RDP90-01208R000100070094-3