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"RESTLESS YOUTH"

Document Type: 
CREST [1]
Collection: 
Library of Congress [2]
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
LOC-HAK-424-4-11-4
Release Decision: 
RIFLIM
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
3
Document Creation Date: 
January 11, 2017
Document Release Date: 
September 16, 2010
Sequence Number: 
11
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
February 1, 1969
Content Type: 
MISC
File: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon LOC-HAK-424-4-11-4.pdf [3]189.69 KB
Body: 
No Objection to Declassification in Full 2010/09/16 LOC-HAK-424-4-11-4 CIA UxA/G_ S TATS.... Aeo:= VIA/11_ RMCC _ TR AS, ANAiCC N C~, ,, _, , ~r:4 a rc .Rani ON-FILE NSC RELEASE INSTRUCTIONS APPLY No Objection to Declassification in Full 2010/09/16: LOC-HAK-424-4-11-4 No Objection to Declassification in Full 2010/09/16: LOC-HAK-424-4-11-4 "RESTLESS YOUTH" (CIA Paper 0555 /69, February, 1969) The section on "Radical Students in America" (pp. 25-36) comprises 12 pages out of 264 pages. There is not the slightest indication in, this section that it is derived from surveillance or any.sensitive sources and methods. It quotes extensively from student publications and academic and sociological analyses. It traces the evolution of student activism in the United States in a way that suggests nothing other than normal research methods (reading of newspapers, journals, and student activist literature). The section was included for comparative purposes. 95% of the report is a series of country analyses varying in length from 2 to 23 pages. They cover, in order: Congo (Kinshasa), Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, the Arab World, Argentina, Brazil, PRC, Czechoslovakia, France, FRG, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Pakistan, Poland, USSR, Spain, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. There are .46 pages of introduction (of which the section on American students is a part), which attempts a broad sociological and historical analysis. The paper explicitly does not discuss the broader Peace Movement or left parties or Civil Rights or black activist movements as such, except in passing as they contribute to student dissent. ' - In a discussion of foreign. Communist influence, there is mention of "marginal evidence" of Cuban financial support to Black Separatists in the U.S. (p122). There is a brief discussion of "evidence" of CP membership by+some SDS militants (p. 34). The former is clearly a foreign intelligence matter; the latter would likely have come from.. FBI materials. In no case is the source indicated one way or the other. Helms' cover note to you of February 18, 1969 (Tab A) simply flags for you the fact that the "section on American students" is "an area not within the charter of this Agency." I. e., a discussion of American student activism is outside CIA's normal area of analytical responsibility. There is not the slightest indication to you of unusual or illegal investigative activities or "donne stic spying. ? This supports your spokesman's statement of December 23, 1974, that you were unaware of domestic surveillance by CIA and did not know of any "surveys of American citizens" by CIA. (The report that such a survey did cross your desk. in 1969 was denied on December 24, 1974.) No Objection to Declassification in Full 2010/09/16: LOC-HAK-424-4-11-4 No Objection to Declassification in Full 2010/09/16: LOC-HAK-424-4-11-4 134 C. Evolution of Operation CHAOS--Domestic Unrest in 1968 Continuing antiwar demonstrations in 1968 led to growing White House demands for greater coverage of such groups' activities abroad. As disorders occurred in Europe in the summer of 1968, the CIA, with concurrence from the FBI, sought to engage European liaison services in monitoring United States citizens overseas in order to produce evidence of foreign guidance, control or financial support. In mid-1968, the CIA moved to consolidate. its efforts concerning foreign connections with domestic dissidence and to restrict further the dissemination of the information used by the Special Operations Group. The Group was given a cryptonym, "CHAOS." The CIA sent cables to all its field stations in July 1968, directing that all information concerning dissident groups be sent through a single restricted channel on an "Eyes Only" basis to the Chief of Opera- tion CHAOS. No other dissemination of the information was to occur. Some time in 1968, Director Helms, in response to the President's continued concern about student revolutionary movements around the world, commissioned the preparation of a new analytic paper which was eventually entitled "Restless Youth." Like its predecessor, "Restless Youth" concluded that the motivations underlying student radicalism arose from social and political alienation at home and not from conspiratorial activity masterminded from abroad. "Restless Youth" was produced in two versions. The first version contained a section on domestic involvements, again raising a question as to the propriety of the CIA's having prepared.it. This version was delivered initially only to President Johnson and to Walt W. Rostow, the President's Special Assistant for National Security Affairs. Helms' covering memorandum, dated September 4,1968, stated, "You will, of course, be aware of the peculiar sensitivity which attaches to the fact that CIA. has prepared a report on student activities both here and abroad." Another copy of the first version of "Restless Youth" was delivered on February 18, 1969, after the change in Administrations, to Henry A. Kissinger, then Assistant to President Nixon for National Security Affairs. Director Helms' covering memorandum of February 18 specifically pointed out the impropriety of the CIA's involvement in the study. It stated : In an effort to round-out our discussion of this subject, we have included a section on American students. This is an area not within the charter of this Agency, so I need not emphasize how extremely sensitive this makes the paper. Should anyone learn of its existence it would prove most embarrassing for all concerned. A second version of "Restless Youth" with the section on domestic activities deleted was later given a somewhat wider distribution in the intelligence community. The CHAOS group did not participate in the initial drafting of the "Restless Youth" paper, although it did review the paper at some point before any of its versions were disseminated. Intelligence derived from the paper was, of course, available to the group. No Objection to Declassification in Full 2010/09/16: LOC-HAK-424-4-11-4

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[1] https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document-type/crest
[2] https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/collection/library-congress
[3] https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/LOC-HAK-424-4-11-4.pdf