FORMER CIA AGENT CALLS AGENCY ACTION ARM OF IMPERIAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000200780023-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: April 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/17: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200780023-2
STAT
26 April 1985
Former CIA agent calls agency
action arm of imperial America
By Tim Cuprisin
Of the Press-Gazette
Ralph McGehee spent much of
his hour-long t Thursday night
recounting the history of U.S. in-
volvement in Vietnam.
His lecture was part of Central
America Information Week.
That was McGehee's point.
The 25-year veteran of the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency drew par-
allels between his agency's activity
in the early stages of U.S. involve-
ment in Southeast Asia and the
current stage of activity in Central
America.
"Espionage, being called the sec-
ond oldest profession, is a lot like
the oldest profession. There ain't
much Aew, profession.
said McGehee, who
left the CIA in 1977.
He has since written a book
about his experience in Japan,
Thailand and' Vietnam. At one
"It's (CIA) going
around the world
trying to overthrow the
things we're
supposed to uphold."
"We have an elitist government.
71a gency is an arm of the elite."
the start of his talk to more
than 100 persons at the Union Con-
gregational Church, 716 S. Madi-
son St., he warned the audience he
wouldn't be cheering them up.
"What I'll be saying is pretty
much of a downer," McGehee said.
"But don't be put down by what I
point, he was the adviser to the
head of the South Vietnamese
equivalent of the FBI.
McGehee's central theme is that
the CIA is actually the secret ac-
tion arm of the president's foreign
policy, rather than an information-
gathering network of secret agents.
"It's the action arm of imperial
America. It's going around the
world trying to overthrow the
things we're supposed to uphold,"
he said.
- Former CIA agent
say.
McGehee said that events like
the statewide Central America In-
formation Week -coordinated lo-
cally by Dave Steffenson of the
University of Wisconsin-Green
Bay Ecumenical Center - are
pointing out the dangers of Ameri-
can military involvement in Cen-
tral America.
That involvement is made possi-
ble by the still-dominant theme of
the threat of world communism, he
said.
"Van aav the communists are
coming and that allows you under
that smokescreen to do what you
want to do," he said.
He cited the U.S. invasion of the
Caribbean island of Grenada in
1983, charging that the CIA and
the government created the illu-
sion that U.S. medical students
were endangered by the political
situation on the island.
"The only danger they were in
was when American troops came
in," he said.
McGehee warned of a domestic
side-effect to the CIA's attempts to
topple governments deemed un-
friendly to U.S interests.
"You cannot do all these things
abroad without doing the same
things here. That is my great fear,"
he said.
However, America's defeat in
Vietnam may have actually been a
positive development, in McGe-
hee's estimation.
"The Vietnamese defeat of em-
pire America was probably the be-
ginning of the crumbling of this,"
he said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/17: CIA-RDP91-00587R000200780023-2