THE KGB AND THE NUCLEAR FREEZE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100130054-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: November 27, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/05/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100130054-7
I `D
The KGB and the
Nuclear Freeze
HUMAN EVENTS
27 November 1982
Critics of President Reagan's charge that the
Soviets have manipulated the U.S. nuclear freeze
movement are finding themselves with egg on their
faces. Not only is there much public evidence of the
KGB-freeze connection, but the House Intelligence
Committee is expected to release a declassified ver-
sion of testimony on the subject given before that
committee by FBI counter-intelligence chief Ed-
ward O'Malley.
According to one source familiar with the testi-
mony, the FBI has developed "hard intelligence"
on KGB efforts to penetrate and exploit the so-
called "peace movement."
FBI Director William Webster said last week
during an appearance at the convention of the
International Association of Chiefs of Police
(IACP) in Atlanta that the bureau has supplied the
National Security Council with a special report on
the issue of Soviet influence in the freeze move-
ment "which included factual data on this prob-
lem...."
Webster also indicated that Soviet activity,
In this area was part of an "Active Measures"
campaign, which, by definition, involves a
wide range .of activities-the use of front
groups, disinformation, political influence
operations and media manipulation-to pro-
mote Soviet foreign policy objectives.
At his last news conference, President Reagan
was asked by a reporter if he had any evidence of
foreign involvement in the U.S. peace movement.
"Yes, there is plenty of evidence," the President
replied. "It's even been published by some of your
fraternity. There was no question but that the
Soviet Union saw an advantage. . . built around the
idea of a nuclear freeze, since they are out ahead."
After noting that the "overwhelming majority"
of freeze supporters are sincere and well-inten-
tioned, and that his Administration is dedicated to
negotiating reductions in U.S.-Soviel nuclear
weaponry, the President said, "But, yes, there has
been [foreign involvement) in the organization of
some of the big demonstrations-the one in New
York and so forth. There is no question about for-
eign agents that were sent to help instigate and help
create and keep such a movement going."
Asked about the extent of foreign involvement,
and whether any money had changed hands, the
President said, "I can't go beyond what I've done
because I don't discuss intelligence matters, and
that's what I would be getting into now."
Roger Young, the assistant FBI director for con-
gressional and public affairs, told HUMAN EvENI'S
that the President spoke "from a solid base of
information, which we, the FBI, furnished the
White House back in early October." Young add-
ed, '.'We know that the KGB has done certain
things to target the peace movement, the freeze
movement-they are relatively interchangeable at
this point-to exert influence on them."
At the White House press briefing the day after
the presidential news conference, journalists asked
spokesman Larry Speaker if he could produce any
evidence supporting President Reagan's state-
ments on the Soviet-freeze connection. Speakes
said, "The Soviet effort to exploit the well-
motivated intentions of those in other nations who
are seeking peace is well-known. There is con-
siderable U.S. government documentation on-this,
and a good deal is on the public record."
He then provided the following list of govern-
ment reports and magazine articles:
"Department of State Special Report No. 88,
Soviet 'Active Measures'-Forgery, Disinforma-
tion, Political Operations, October 1981; and its
update, Special Report No. 101, Soviet Active
Measures: An Update, July 1982.
"Department of State Foreign Affairs Notes,
World Peace Council: Instrument of Soviet For-
eign Policy, April 1982.
"Department of State Foreign Affairs Notes,
Expulsion of Soviet Representatives in Foreign
Countries, 1980-1981.
"House Permanent Select Committee on Intel-
ligence [report] entitled, 'Soviet Covert Action'
(The Forgery Offensive), February 1980. This
committee has just completed extensive hearings
on 'Soviet Active Measures' and will issue an
unclassifed transcript in the very near future- [a-
reference to the O'Malley testimony]
"Among a number of interesting'articles on this
subject are:
"John Barron's article in the October 1982
Reader's Digest.
"Others include an article in the May 1982 issue
of Commentary by Vladimir Bukovsky, now con-
nected with Kings College at Cambridge, England,
'The Peace Movement and the Soviet Union.'
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"A June 1.982 article in The American Spectator
by Rael Jean Isaac and Eric Isaac, 'The Counter,
feit Peacemakers, Atomic Freeze'.
"June 1982 Reader's Digest article by Frank
Chapple, general secretary of Great Britain's elec-
trical union, 'Perspective on the Peace Movement,
I. Ban Whose Bomb?, II. Masters of Manipula-
tion.'
"Plus studies published by the Heritage Foun-
dation, the American Security Council and
others."
Perhaps the most important article on the list
was the John Barron piece, "The KGB's Magical
War for 'Peace,' " which appeared in the October
issue of the Reader's Digest.
In that article, Barron points out that less than
one month after Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev
issued his Feb. 23, 1981, call for a nuclear freeze,
the first national strategy conference of the Ameri-
can nuclear weapons freeze campaign was held at
Georgetown University in Washington, and was
attended by Oleg Bogdanov, a Soviet "Active
Measures" specialist, and Yuri S. Kapralov, a
KGB operative who represents himself as a coun-
selor at the Soviet Embassy in Washington.
Barron also. points out that the World Peace
Council, the most important international Soviet
front group, has played a key role in the peace
movement, primarily through its American af-
filiate, the U.S. Peace Council.
(In fact, even before the Reader's Digest published
John Barron's explosive article, HUMAN EVENTS
had exposed Soviet agent Kapralov's involvement
in the freeze campaign and the key role played by
the Mobilization for Survival, which includes both
the U.S. Peace Council and the Communist party.
See HUMAN EVENTS, April, 17, 1982, "How Far
Left Is Manipulating U.S. Nuclear 'Freeze' Move-
ment. ")
Despite the abundance of evidence showing
Soviet manipulation of the peace movement, sup-
porters of the freeze were quick to denounce the
President for drawing attention to the Soviet link.
The New York Times quoted ACLU spokesman
Morton Halperin as saying, "It is disheartening to
see an American President returning to 'the, tactics
of McCarthyism. Charges of secret manipulation
by foreign agents poison the well of public
debate."
The Washington Post quoted Sen. Mark Hat-
field (R.-Ore.), a co-sponsor of the nuclear freeze
resolution in the Senate, as saying, "I fought the
Communists in China when I was with the Navy. I
fought them on the platforms in a debate on an
ideological basis..I just haven't found one in the
nuclear freeze movement."
Nevertheless, to its credit, the Washington Post
story on the controversy caused by the President's
remarks actually noted some of the contents of the
Barron article, mentioning, for example, Soviet
agent Kapralov's involvement.
NBC News carried a story on the President's
remarks, but correspondent Robert Hager tried to
downplay the importance of Soviet front groups
and Soviet agents in the freeze campaign. Hager
then introduced Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
(D.-N.Y.), the vice-chairman of the Senate Intel-
ligence Committee, as someone who "says he has
access to as much intelligence as the President."
Moynihan then said, 'There has. never been
from any of the intelligence agencies, any part of
that community, the least suggestion, the least
suggestion that Soviet influences were behind the
nuclear freeze movement." (Moynihan repeated
the phrase, "The least suggestion," as if to em-
phasize that charges of a KGB-freeze link were
totally made up.)
Intelligence and internal security experts con-
tacted by HUMAN EVENTS were aghast at the com-
ments of Sen. Moynihan, who; incidentally, was
not identified by NBC News as a co-sponsor of the
Kennedy-Hatfield nuclear freeze resolution in the
Senate. (Moynihan's also a sponsor of, the Jack-
son-Warner resolution that calls for reductions on
both sides before a freeze.)
These experts charged that Moynihan, in fact,
does not have access to the same intelligence as the
President. Secondly, if he does have such access,
he has obviously refused to take the evidence (the
FBI report and the O'Malley testimony) seriously.
Whatever the case, observers agree that Moynihan
has revealed himself to be totally out of touch with
reality.
As the President himself noted, however,
evidence of the Soviet-freeze connection is not
necessarily secret. Some of it has been published.
.What remains is for some members of the news
media and the Congress to acknowledge its ex-
istence.
t?
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