HOW CENTRAL IS OUR INTELLIGENCE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000300030077-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 14, 1999
• Sequence Number: 77
• Publication Date: June 27, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/05/23 : CIA-RDP70-0005
SATURDAY REVIEW
NNE 27, 196
CPYRGHT
How Central Is Our. Intelligence?
The Invisible Government, by
David Wise and Thomas B. Ross,
(Random House. 375 pp. $5.95), ex
plores the dark corners of the Ameri-
can secret intelligence , apparatus.
Harry Howe Ransom, Vanderbilt
University political scientist, has writ-
ten on the same subject in his books
"Central Intelligence and National.',
' .' Security" and "Can American De-.
By HARRY HOWE RANSOM
America today has two central gov- visible" sources of power, such as a
rnments, according to Washington State Department, Pentagon, and an
urnalists David Wise and Thomas FBI, competing with each other and
oss. The visible . one is presided over with CIA and thus willing to tell tales-.'
y the President and' Congress and out of school.
perates generally in public view. The The book's picture of invisibility is
ther is the "Invisible Government." Its also overdrawn. Does the public really
cart" is the Central Intelligence know "virtually nothing" about the in-
gency. Its bead. is the director of telligence establishment, as the authors .
entral Intelligence, currently John A. claim? Surely a substantial numberj
cCone. know something about Gary Powers's
This invisible government "... con-m. U-2 flight in May 1960; these same''
ucts espionage, and plans and executes authors published an excellent book
ecret operations all over the globe." It about it in 1962. And more than a few
llegedly hides behind and secretlyR ! know about CIA's role in the Bay of
Aq, F., RIM
Pig, "A "Ous 0, `61 awler
SIX WEEKS before his death Presi- stricted" floors in American embassy have read one or more of the half-dozen
dent Kennedy denied flatly that the . buildings abroad and hires soldiers of major books published on the subject in
Central Intelligence Agency was operat- fortune for Para-military adventures. All recent years. One, for example, was by
ing independently in secret maneuvers of this reportedly takes place beyond Allen W. Dulles, the not precisely
overseas. Referring to Viet Nam, he' ? the effective control of the President.. anonymous former head of the, "Invisi-
asserted, that CIA was under "close and Congress and outside the public's ? ble Government."
control",and was functioning "under my view. Wise and Ross assert as a "fact" Raving said this about the book's
instructions." The President, who as a: that "The Invisible Government has simplistic conception of power in Wash-
Senator had voted unsuccessfully in achieved. a quasi-independent status ington and its overstated thesis, one
1956 to establish a Joint Congressional and power of its own." Secretly it "is ! hastens to add that much of this vol.
Committee on Intelligence, also said he shaping the lives of 190,000,000 Ameri- ume's substance represents competent,
was "well satisfied" with existing con.. cans." Furthermore, it has been spec- resourceful reporting. Although claim-
trols over CIA. 'tacularly unsuccessful in many of its, ing too much for the book's originality,
Shortly before he died, however, covert foreign maneuvers. Wise and Ross have pulled aside the
Kennedy called for the creation of a An "intelligence community" grown': ' curtain of secrecy further than ever.
Presidential task force to survey Ameri- with Cold War to enormous size may s ? before. They reveal a substantial amount
ca 's world-wide intelligence activities, accurately be characterized as a par- of new information. There are fresh
hoping to effectuate greater coordina- ? tially invisible subgovernment of sub- facts and interpretations of the Bay of
tion and efficiency. It remained for stantial influence. It is simplistic, ! Pigs and Cuban missile crises. Also
Lyndon B. Johnson, who had voted.:, however, to label it as the single "other" described in penetrating detail are
against the Joint Congressional Corn- ' government. Rather it is but one of a other ' CIA-sponsored adventures and
mittee in 1956?to constitute this special number of loci of power in the nation's i? misadventures In Burma, Indonesia,
task force and receive its report. Neither mammoth national security bureauc- '
Congress nor the public is likely to learn racy. The intelligence system, in fact, Y Continued
details of its findings or of actions taken , is itself fractured into several 'major , .
to remedy deficiencies. Doubts remain ' autonomous and competing units. In-
about the adequacy of responsible con- i deed, this book probably could not have
trol. Similar. doubts prompted the writ- ,1 been written were there not several "In
ing of this book.
Approved For Release 2000/05/23 CIA-RDP70-000588000300030077-1