JOHN STOCKWELL: AN EX-CIA AGENT TELLS ALL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000201100020-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2010
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: July 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/17 :CIA-RDP91-005878000201100020-8
John Stockwell belongs to that select
company of former C In-
tell' ce Agency operatives -Phi ip
Agee is t e best known -who have
gone public with shocking revelations
about CIA murders and .dirty tricks
around the world. Stockwell, a striking,
well-built man in his early 40s, might
not wear the trenchcoat and Fedora of
the classic film spy, but he does look
like someone who would be at home in
difficult and dangerous situations.
Born and raised in Africa, he spent
19 years as a Marine and Il years in
the CIA. CM orders from his superiors,
he Fabricated intelligence reports in
Vietnam and in Angola, where he
acted as station chief for the agency's
covert operations. In 1978, after quit-
ting the agency, he published his book,
In Search o~ Encmics; A CIA Story, a lucid
and personal account of his role in the
CIA, and more particularly, in Angola.
Today, he spends his time largely as
a writer and powerful lecturer on the
abuses of his onetime employer. The
Following interview took place en
route from Mexico City to Managua,
Nicaragua. In light of the CIA's current
involvement in Nicaragua, including
the creation and funding of an army of
contras =anti-government guer-
rillas - Stockwell's insight into the
agency's covert operations and the
psy:hology of being an agent acquire
an immediate relevance.
Michigan Voice: What led you to
leave the CIA?
Stockwell: I went into the CIA think-
ing Iwas doing the best thing I could
with my life, the contradicfion being
that I was a humanist at heart. But, of
course, their propaganda line is that
you ie serving humanity by struggling
to keep the world free from com-
munism. It just took a lot of years mak-
ing my way up the chain of command
until I became convinced just the op-
posite was true.
BURTON MICHIGAN VOICE
June-July 1985
I sawiF in A!?rica, but in Africa I was
working out of embassies. I -did not
have Phil Agee's experience from Latin
America where there was more bomb-
ing and torture and terrorism, and
issues were clearer. The inhumanity
was clearer. Then I saw in Vietnam,
there was no doubt.
At that point I was totally disillusion-
ed. Ifelt like my soul had been fucked.
Literally everything I had been taught
to believe in, I realized was untrue
about my government.
Then, they offered me a position on
the National Security Council, in a sub-
committee managing from a global
point of view the covert action
targeting in Angola. I accepted the job
pure and simple because it would give
me a chance to see from the inside
what was at the root of all this honor.
Would it make sense if you were really
inside2 So I took the job just like mak-
ing adeal with the devil, and worked
hard so I would have access to every
bloody piece of paper, conversation, or
whatever that had anything to do with
my program.
I found it even more cynical than
you would ever dream. Meeting after
meeting, 170 meetings, discussing what
lies to tell the American people, what
lies to tell the Congress, what lies to tell
the president, even what lies to tell
each other, and never, ev con-
ception of telling the truth to the
plc or the Congress. There wasn't even
a twitch of-_ honesty in the thing. I
mean, nobody walked in joking one
day and said, "Hey, why don't we tell
the truth this once, just for fun."
MV: How would you describe the ex-
tent of the CIA's reach around the
world?
Stockwell: These case officers ~e
working tirelessly, long hours, highly
motivated. There's a hell of a lot of kill-
ing.
I count -well, all people who were
closely involved count -over a
million people that have died in the
first echelon of violence in CIA-
agitated covert operations, people that
STAT
would not have died it the CIA had not
been there doing its t~iq~Then you
have the Vietnam War, w.
directly from a prolonged CU~- mvei~
action; Cambodia was thoroughly
destabilized by the CIA. Right there,
between those two, you have three to
five million people dead-
Now, that's speaking only in terms
of dead people. You know, "destabi-
lization," which the CIA has done in
dozens and dozens and dozens of coun-
tries, is not fun, it's not nice-guy stuff. It
means by definition that you upset the
ernnomic and social balance of the
country so it doesn't work, so the peo-
plc can't make a living, so they don't
dare send their children to school, so
the hospitals are full of wounded peo-
ple instead of sick, and money is spent
on arms instead of hospitals and
schools and so