CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD ARENS, STAFF DIRECTOR, HOUSE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00965R000200050075-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 20, 2006
• Sequence Number: 75
• Publication Date: March 16, 1959
• Content Type: MFR

Approved For Release 2007/02/08 -:-Cli1ORDP91-00965R000200050075-2
16 March 1959
MOBANDUM JORTHE MCCORD
SUBJECT:
Conversation wt
Director, House Coi
American Activities
d Arei
25X1A
Following the session Mr. Arens asked me to have a
cup of coffee and a chat with him. He said he thought I was a
"good fellow'". (My bona fides had apparently been established
by the fact that I was an old friend of the Committee Counsel,
Frank Tavenner, whom I had known when we were both practicing
law in Virginia before the ware)
4.. Mr. Arens said he thought I should know that the Agency
relations with Congress were "lousy". He said "all up and down
the halls" it was the common opinion that we did not know what
Approved For Release 2007/02/08 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000200050075-2
Aooroved For Release 2007/02/08 : CIA-RDP91-00965R000200050075-2
,we 'tore doing,that we were spending a lot of money, and that we
were not keeping Congress properly informed. Mr. Arens contrasted
our public relations with those of the Bureau and said it would be
very helpful to us if we could get a lot of articles in magazines like
the Reader's Digest about our operations. He said every time you
pick up tie paper you see that a Bureau agent has done this or
J. Edgar Hoover has done that. He couldn't understand why the Agency
did not learn to make public its own operations in the same way.
Mr. Arens went on to remark that be often heard it said that CIA was
supporting the Russian Intelligence Service by paying high prices for
a lot of fabricated material which the Russians were feeding us.
Furthermore, said Mr. Arens, the Agency apparently had"dropped
the ball" in a number of critical situations and had provided no advance
warning of the attack on South Korea, the Hungarian uprising or the
demonstrations against Vice t resident Nixon in South America.
Finally, said Mr. Arens, the Agency is held in low repute not only
by members of Congress but by other government agencies, particularly
the Bureau and the Immigration Service.
5. I said I had never had any experience with public relations
or Congressional liaison, but agreed that they were important to
any government agency. I asked Mr. Arens if he could be any more
precise in discussing what he thought the trouble was. Mr. Arens
spoke very highly of Walter Pforzheimer but was sorry he hadn't
seen much of him recently. He aided that he thought John Warner
was a "very good fellow" also. Mr. Arens further expressed high
regard for the Director. He said the trouble wan not with any of the
personalities involved in our Congressional liaison, but rather with
Agency policy of simply not keeping other branches of the government
Informed as to what we were doing.
8. I refrained from trying to answer or challenge Mr. Arens
accusations because I suspected he was trying either develop me
as a private source of information about Agency activity, or failing
this, provoke me into saying something that could be used against
the Agency.
Distribution:
0- DCI via DD/P
I - General Counsel
- Legislative Counsel
-2-
Approved For Release 2007/02/08 :-CIA-RDP91-00965R000200050075-2
25X1A
UNCLASSIFIEDfl
INTERNAL
SE 0
El CONFIDENTIAL
SECRET
.. Pk pprovea 1 or R,...ceee Zel J I / JL ?V Co : lolik-PCJI ..)-UV.Fle,"
---ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT: (Optional)
FROM:
Chief, SR Division
NO.
DATE
16 Mar 59
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
DATE
OFFICER'S
INITIALS
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
RECEIVED
FORWARDED
1.
Mr. John Warner
Legislative Counsel
221 Adm'
>
Anne"
25X1
2.
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FORM 1 DEC 56 61 0 USE PREVIOUS
EDITIONS
SECRET CONFIDENTIAL
INTERNAL
nUSE ONLY
UNCLASSIFIED
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1958 0-476731