THE SELF-DESTRUCT SCHEME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700070053-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 12, 2005
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: January 7, 1976
• Content Type: NSPR

THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN
Approved For Release - 6%/2 .7dlA-RDP91-0 901 R000700070053-9
The Self-Destruct Scheme
one, and answered each by putting generation ago; before the present4
the criticism alongside the facts. CIA leadership was even involved at l
of study, are the major factors in the
excellence of American intelligence
Those were some' of the facts be-
hind the presentation Lt... Gen. Ver-
non Walters made to.'the Oklahoma
City Rotary Club Tuesday, in which
he took the recent attacks on the
Central Intelligence Agency, one :by
FICTIONAL s p 1 e z' anct sleuths that ? consideration did not result in
abound in the world of television action-no one was assassinated.
and paperback books, each with his The infamous toxins, which the
own distinctive device that sets him CIA itself recently revealed to Con-
apart from ordinary men and wom- gress, were developed when the
en as an evil genius. But there is al- agency wanted to learn how the Rus- x
most ` no common ground . between sians were killing emigres who be-
these supersleuths and the intelli- came bones in the Communist throat
gence workers of the real -world. -that was more than 20 ' years ago
The impressive fact ' about our in- now-and .developed the - reported
telligence agencies is not that they poisons to test. their 'effectiveness
invent and use diabolical devices, and to learn if there was a way to,
which they do not, but. that they uti protect our own people from them.
line the most modern technology and?: , The drugs which-'the CIA tested
many long years of specialized study were a part of a: broad national ef-
to produce;' analyses . of events and fort to learn more about such mind-
capabilities- on which?'nations base bending agents, when they were new
their policies. Of the. two, while tech- to Americans, including the medical
'
nology.is.important;...the long years... professions. That came in the wake
Walters cited the charges stem- the agency.
Ming from revelations that some 15 ' 'In keeping up a drumroll of such
years ago,some CIA personnel sere: criticism, which paints the CIA as a-i
,ously- contemplated attempting the nest of terrifying' -threats to our
assassination of Fidel. Castro: He re-.:,freedom, some of its, critics seem to
minded'his,audience :that at the time hope it will become one of those TV
Castro was shooting.. thousands 'of:-` "self-destruct". mechanisms, and ]
Cubans in the stadium,'on live tele-- disappear.. But, the CIA's service is
vision, every day or so, and that so vital that if. it did'iiot exist today,
many Americans found' this a dis-,'. we would:have to invent it. Its mis-
turbing thing to have on our door sion, afterall, is tq ensure that there
step. But -he made the telling point ? will be a'-United States In'the future.
Approved For Release 2007/03/29 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700070053-9
of the Korean War -experience, and.
the degradations of such courageous
men as Cardinal D-lindszenty. .
These efforts to learn more about
our avowed adversaries in the world -
and their person-to-person weapons.'
of war are being used today to P1110;i
ence establish-
ry the entire intelli
g
ment. Yet they occurred almost a