THE SECOND SHOE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100150197-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 197
• Publication Date: July 4, 1975
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
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COi~i~?10I~Pfr EAL
4 JULY 1975
Qalanrinn itte 18,ooks
To hell with tha taw, but
not the budget. .. .
Congressman Robert Drin-
an recently asked the FBI
and CIA for photostats of
the files kept on him.
The FBI sent around a
dossier of 81 pages; the CIA,
10 pages plus 10 newspaper
clippings.
The FBI billed Drinan
$8.10, or 10? per page as
allowed. As of 3une 19, the
CIA had not sent its bill.
, The New York Times has, in effect, recently apolo-
gized to one of the few genuine reporters it has. The
reporter is Seymour Hersh, who last December exposed
domestic wrong-doings of the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA).
Hersh first "brake" the .story on a Sabbath last
December. He wrote that the CIA "had violated its
charter by conducting massive, illegal intelligence opera-
tions aimed at (domestic) anti-war activists and other
American dissidents inside the United States." Hersh
estimated that the CIA had collected information about
"at least" 10,000 Americans. Within a few days, the
Tomes published an editorial downgrading the Hersh'
story-a position it maintained for a considerable length
of time. Hersh persisted in his explanatory reportage, so
unappreciated by influetttial persons at the Times.
Finally, President Ford was obliged to establish an
investigatory commission headed by Vice President
Rockefeller. Within carefully circumscribed limitations-
it was not, for example, to inquire into the extent, scope,
nature or value of the CIA's overseas "dirty tricks"
operations-the Commission set to work. In mid-June,
it released its findings. The Rockefeller Commission vali-
dated the Hersh exposures.
The Commission, among other things, reported that
the CIA had unlawfully collected, during asix-year pe-
riod beginning in 1967, materials on dissident Americans
that produced .13,000 files and related documents that
contained the names of more than 300,000 persons and
organizations. It investigated federal income-tax records
of sixteen persons. The CIA gave President Nixoit clas-
sified information relating to military actions abroad
that Nixon used to his political advantage, although the
Rockefeller Commission said the CIA didn't know the
materials would be used that way. The CIA., at the
request of Nixon aides, kicked-in $38,000 to defray
costs of replying to those who wrote to President Nixon
following the invasion of Cambodia.
In its .reporting of the Commission's findings, the
Times published three stories paying tribute to Hersh.
One, appearing on page one, was written by Clifton
Daniel, chief of the Times's Washington bureau, where
Hersh is currently assigned. Another pointed ottt that
the principal allegations of the numerous stories ~by
Hersh were validated by the Rockefeller Commission.
A third story similarly credited Hersh. All three were
suitable secular acts of contrition-long overdue.
The second shoe has yet to drop. It's held by Senator
Church, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence Activities, like the Rockefeller Commission,
established after the Hersh revelations to explore activ-.
ities of the CIA. Its writ, however, includes permission
to inquire into the clandestine operations (dirty tricks)
of the CIA. The Church Committee is scheduled to corrt-
plete its work this year. Church, a conscientious, right-
eous "loner" at age 50, has in his typically mannered
and cautious way let it be known he'd like to be elected ~
President next year. I
zontinuec~
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Church talks a pretty, good game these days. Rocke-
feller recently said that the law-breaking offenses of the
CIA were not "major." Church responded tartly that his
Committee had from evidence that planning of assassina-
tions of leaders of other governments was one CIA
activity. "I don't regard murder plots as a minor matter,"
Church said. "Ours is not a wicked country and we
cannot abide a wicked Government."
But the question before the house is whether Church
will let the second shoe drop, assuming, as he is publicly
indicating, that it should be dropped, or simply will
place the shoe softly on the floor. "I hope we can relate
the acts in a manner that will least injure the country,"
he said the other day. The past lions of the Senate-
Borah, for example, who, like Church, represented Idaho
-would have let the shoe drop, if warranted. But his,
Borah's, was not an Organization Man's age and Borah
did not want to be President. His were other times and
other customs, wheci thunder in the Senate was accepted,
even approved, and men of the President's Cabinet left,
if they disagreed on major issues, with a bang, not a
whimper-the latter is the case these days. Outspoken-
ness was the order-of~the-day; while in contemporary
times, the conventional wisdom, as applied to, say, a
thuncierer like (the late) Senator Wayne Morse of Or-
egon,'is "The Senate can stand one Wayne Morse, but
not two."
Church has walked courageously alone, or nearly so,
in the days when opposition to our involvement in Indo-
china was just developing. He was set upon by Lyndon
Johnson and risked political death in Idaho, with its
large gun-toting Mormon population. But housebreaking
the CIA is the most hazardous of undertakings. The
right-wing members of his Senate Select Committee will
be watching and running to the CIA if matters begin to
cut toward the bone. The CIA, itself, may have infil-
trated the Senate Committee's staff. And, if not, it is
capable of putting out stories to willing correspondents
to make it seem as if the Church Committee, or, more
specifically, Church, himself, is, innocently or otherwise;
playing into the hands of "America's enemies." The
stakes are high; the dice are not Church's; anti the com-
mittee doors are under surveillance. Committee members,
especially Church, himself, meet not so much in a room
as in a minefield.
The Church Committee does still have some leeway.
The Town-that is Washington-has not yet made up
its mind which way to play the CIA matter. Perhaps
that is because the country doesn't seem to have made up
its mind either, nor has the press corps.
So much is at stake and so many disparate matters
are wired to each other, politically speaking.
The chances that the investigation be concluded in a
manner fair to all-including the CIA, the existence of
which can be persuasively defended-is made more diffi-
cult because the 1976 presidential election .year is only
six .months away. The elective offices of the federal'
government have phases. Like the moan, occupants of ,
these elective offices-the President and the 535 r,~em-
bers of Congress---have (political) phases. Freshly,
elected, they may understandably perform as if they have'
a "mandate" to continue business as i.~sual ~~r to vigor-,
ously pursue some course or other. t~or Seuaiurs, with,
a six-year term, and Presidents, with a four, this lasts
about two years. For Representatives, with two-year;
terms, it only lasts a year or less. 1fien, for reason of
political opposition or fatigue or discouragement, comes
a slackening off of efforts. As the end of tl-eir terms,
approach, precinct politics begins to shade the issues:
What maneuvers, what positions, what votes (or vetoes)
will look most advantageous during the approaching re-
election year? As the 1976 year mars, this outlook
grows large. It is possible under these circumstances. for
public benefit to accrue. But usually this. comes about on
the part of putative candidates r-ow heginnir~g to bean
on the do6r to be admitted to elective oftice. Those in-~
side tend .to defend what they've done-not to embark
or continue on with a difficult program or project.
This is where we are now on the CIA matter, and,
the energy-policy matter and the disarmament matte;,
and the economy matter. ~
But there is no immutable law. Things in America
are never as bad as they seem. The Nixon impeachment j
proceeding took place in an election year, 1974. Those j
who did their duty, at that time and in a most difficult
situation, were elected, it should be remembered, from
the shabbier precincts of America-among them, Rep.
Rodino of Newark, N.J., chairman of the impeaching ~
House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Thomas (Tip)
O'Neill of Cambridge Mass., Majority Leader. Jimmy ~.
Breslin in his book on the affair, How the Good Guys
Finally Won, suggests that in a chapter entitled "The ,
night-school students are saving the country." ,
So with the unfinished CIA investigation before the
Senate (and the nation). Looking for a descriptive
phrase to apply to the situation, one is tempted to reach
despondently for a remark made a long time ago by the
painter Van Gogh: "I believe more and more that God .
must not be judged on this earth. It is one of His sketches i
that has turned out badly."
But, after all, a sketch is tentative-and Church still ;
holds the second shoe. stsYPxus ~~
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