PRODUCER DEFENDS ANTI-CIA PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100200018-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 15, 2007
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: May 8, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/15: CIA-RDP99-00498ROO0100200018-3
STAT/
By Arthur Unsxrr
8 "lay 1980
Do we need the CIA at all?
"I think there's a need for intelligence. But
a lot of what the CIA has been doing is not in-
telligence.
It is actively involved in intervening in
these countries, penetrating all kinds of insti-
tutions of power. There is no-reason to think
that the same people who are doing this won't
use the same methods here in the US sooner
or later. The cases are becoming more and
more frequent. This kind of manipulation'
simply does not work in the long run."
But isn't Russia doing the same kind of po-
lew York
Producer-director - Allan Francovich
doesn't flinch for a moment when his inter-
viewer opens the discussion by telling him his
three-hour film is too long and should be cut to
90 rrunutes.
He seats himself carefully in a comfort
able-chair in the interviewer's home and says
calmly: "Well, it has already won prizes and
much acclaim in foreign film festivals in its
three-hour length...." Thatseems to end his
consideration of the idea of cutting a work
which is obviously a labor of love.
INTER VIE W
Mr.- Francovich looks and sounds like a
1960s campus activist finally getting revenge
for the way-out accusations he once aimed at
the CIA, which were -laughed-. off as outra-
litical mischief and manipulation? _
"I don't know. I've asked people in the CIA
and I've been told that, at least in Latin Amer-
-ica, the Russians operate in a different way.
If you look at the historical record, the CIA
has been essentially running Iran for the last
30 years despite the fact that the country bor-
ders on the Soviet Union
There would be ev-
.
geous then, but later proved to be mostly true. I ery reason for the Soviet Union to dominate
However, he insists that be was not a college Iran as much as.- the 'US dominates
activist. He lived and was educated in Latin Guatemala...."
America, attended college in .Lima, Peru, and Or Cuba? What about the Soviet attempt to
Paris. Well, throw in a few years at Notre r dominate Cuba?
Dame and -the University of California at Mr. Francovich looks a bit embarrassed.
Berkeley and you may find a little campus l "Well, you have to ask yourself: The Rus-
a
ti
c
vism.
Why is there not an- interview in the film
with the current head of the CIA?
"People won't make factual statements on
current situations. People like Colby and Phil-
hps and Agee talk Openly because they are not
in the establishment like Stansfield Turner,
who will never talk in any detail about any-.
Is Mr. Francovich a leftist politically?-?'
"Left,- liberal. But that has little to do with
the fi lm. An enormous effort went into testing
everything that is in the film. There is nothing
that could not be backed up by a lot of other
information: A lot of the CIA intervention dur'
ing the early years was a natural response to
Stalin.
"I made a deliberate effort to make sure
that this would not be the kind of film that
those student activists would make: I think if
you do have a certain perspective on things, it
has to be tested against the historical record:
For instance, it's quite different to interview
some student activist who's; been involved
against the current regime in+Chile and have.
him tell you something and then to sit down
with the former ambassador to Chile or Laure.
-Allende-,You getreal perspective that way.''.,:
suns are helping Cuba butdo they have con-!
I over the Cuban government?"
"Well, in my film Victor Marchetti who
was a high-ranking CIA official at the time
that Castro came to power,_believes to this
day that Castro was Cuban nationalist until
Nixon and the CIA.-started a whole campaign
of destabilization, attacks, assassination at-
tempts, etc.^ against the Cuban : regime..
Marchetti believes it was our policies at that
stage-which pushed 'Castro into the, arms of.
,If you start intervening in acountry Like
Cuba or Iran, what you are doing is gradually
pushing them until they will "et help from
wherever they can get it . usual iy'ifie Sovi-
ets-You are polarizing the world rather-than
treating these- countries with some respect
and accepting that these countries have every
right to take the position which they think
they should in the world. If you run sabotage
missions, burn cane fields, poison Iivestock,
try to murder leaders as we did in Cuba for
many years, you can't expect those people to
love you...."
-'. `-`If the-CIA is allowed to proceed in the
.next 20 years the way they have proceeded in
the past 20, it is simply going. to force those
countries into closer contact with Russia and
But what makes Mr. F rancovich so certain
that Russia and. China are not doing very
similar things?
"I think they are obviously involved in fur-
thering their national ends, but I think their
way of operating- is- different. For instance, -
Russia provides a lot.of help to countries in
Africa. They had a long-standing relationship
with the Angolans before the Portuguese were
kicked out. And what. they were doing was
providing training and arms. .
.
Is that so-different from what we were do-
ing? Mightn't a filmmaker find the same kind
of atrocity stories about the KGB which.this
"It's hard for me to say."
Wouldn't it be hard for you to gather infor-
mation? Wouldn't you lack the freedom which
allows youtodothiskindoffilmhere? -
to CBS or NBC or ABC."
Does ;1Ir. Francovich feel the CIA is now
under control? It.is a-question asked in the
third hour of the iiim.
"I think it has always been under control.
If I wanted to summarize what the film says, I.
think it says that the CIA really is not the
problem. You have to look deeper, ask your
self what the foreign policy of this country is.-
And you have to look at the CIA as an instru-
ment for serving this.policy. Why is it that
over the years this country has seen fit to sup-
port all lands of people who are being hated?"
So, does Mr. F. believe there is a secret cabal
leading our relations with foreign countries? ...
No. There are-certain goals, dynamics
that are inherent in our economy. If you were
president of Bell Helicopter, you are not going'.
to let them take-away $300 million that you!
are making out of the Shah's regime just be-y
cause some guy in the State Department or-,
even the CIA says that in the long range this
will be counterproductive....
Does Mr. F. want the CIA to be dissolved?
"No. I think it is part of government. But
the very nature of this beast is to do things in
such a way that the US government itself can
disclaim responsibility. I:think that has to
change."
But hasn't all diplomacy changed?
Mightn't it be that the age of top-hat-and-tails
diplomacy is over, that CIA "mischief diplo-
macy" is the way all the major powers will be
handling foreign relations from now on? Per-
haps what Mr. F. is yearning for is a return to
an era that will never come back?
"No. I don't think so. That is always the ra-
Approved For Release 2007/06/15: CIA-RDP99-00498ROO0100200018-3