BACK OUT INTO THE COLD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100190081-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 14, 2007
• Sequence Number: 81
• Publication Date: January 22, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved-For Release 2007/03/15: CIA-RDP99-00498R0001 30190081 6
U_. I.JJf.=
into the
Washington.
STRONG POSSIBILITY is
,, growing on Capitol Hill that
there will be a . favorable turn this
year in the melancholy. fortunes of
.the Central Intelligence Agency.
We may-and that word "may:'
has to be emphasized-we'may soon
begin to see revitalization- of.-an
agency that for five years hassuf-
fered a fate it never deserved.
If this prospect materializes,,
something good, at least;: will haven
By James J.. Kilpatrick
his judgment.
emerged from the mesa in the Middle
East. Under wise safeguards, not fat-.
uous ones, the CIA may be able to
resume covert operations clearly in
..the national interest
There seems to be a growing senti-1
ment both on Capitol Hill and in the'
Whits House that the time has conzel
to repeal the Hughes-Ryan amend-i
went of 1974. This alone would not
breathe life back into the demorall
ized CIA, but it would surely help.
By way of background: During the
last couple of years of the Nixon ad=
ministration, the .CIA. became the
.target of pacifists and, idealists who
saw the agency as -an unrestrained
monster. I do not question. the_ sin=!
cerity or the good intentions of Sena
*tor Frank Church of Idaho, who came:
to symbolize the campaign against
the CIA. I.do emphatically question.
How as convinced that the agency
had to come in from the cold; he.
'wanted its covert operations severely
,restricted if not halted altogether;
;Though he sought conscientiously-to
`prevent disclosure of the CIA's
names and sources, he cherished the
naive notion that it would be better
-more democratic, you know-=taget
it all hang out.
THE BALTIMORE SUN
22 January 1980
Thus began the systematic; sense-
:less dismantling of an intelligencej
agency that. had been the beat in the..
world. In December of 1974, ' es - an I
amendment-to the Foreign Aid Act,.!
Congress approved a provision spon-
sored by Harold Hughes of Iowa in'
the Senate and by Leo Ryan of Cali-
fornia in the House. This is what it;
said:
"No funds appropriated under.the
authority of this or any other act may !
be expended by or on behalf of the
CIA for operations in foreign cam-
tries, other than activities intended;
solely for obtaining necessary intelli-
gence, unless and until the President
finds that each such operation is Lin-
.portant to the national security and
reports, in a timely fashion, a de-
scription and scope of such operation
to the appropriate committees of the
Congress. " .
There turned out to be eight such
"appropriate" committees on -the ;
Hill. Each of the committees' has- a
. large . staff. Faced.- with the virtual
certainty of massive leaks, President;
Ford threw in the towel: President
Carter, who suffered-until quite re'
cently from - qualms and - delusions, 1
followed in the paths of innocence
that Frank Church had established.
Mr..Carter's. choice to -head the!
CIA, - Admiral Stansfield Turner,.;
fired 800 CIA officers and'pushed an
other 2,000 into retirement. Nothing
very good has happened to the CIA
since then. -
- That the CIA made some gross
mistakes in . the period before
Hughes-Ryan, no one denies, -though
some of us will continue .to believe
that the CIA's role in Chile between
1964 and 1973 was not as diabolical as
The New. York Times would have us
believe. The CIA politicked quite effec-
tively- on behalf of the Christian
Democrat Eduardo Frei in .1964 and
almost succeeded in preventing the
-Marxist Salvador Allende from win-
ning his one-point plurality in 1970.
Through its ' own covert opera-
-tions, the Soviet Union was- doing
precisely the same kind of thing the-?
CIA was doing. No -apologies are:)
called for. The Soviets put their mans
in power and brought chaos on the
country. The anti-Allende coup ? of
1973 would have developed if the CIA 1
had spent its time on. tea and 'chum- l
:pets.
Few observers would give :thel
president-any president--unre`
strained power to conduct covert
paramilitary operations through the
CIA. But in the, kind of world Fve'live
in, a world increasingly imperiled by
aggressive Soviet expansion, it makes,
no sense to fight fire with water pis-l
tols.
We ought to repeal Hughes-Ryan
and limit presidential confidences to,
the two intelligence committees-only:l
Such a move would provide a useful'
first step on a long road back.