the white house. the pardoning of president nixon. the if …jfk.hood.edu/collection/white...
TRANSCRIPT
AL
A
TH
E W
AS
HIN
GT
ON
PO
ST
, TH
UR
SD
AY
, SE
PT
EM
BE
R
-Joseph Kraft
ANXPost SEP 1
9 1974
Chile, the C
IA. and N
ational Security
The fuss over the role of the C
entral In
telligen
ce Agen
cy in
Chile is n
ot
really about that agency or that coun-try
. It emerg
es chiefly
from
a deep
g
eneral su
spicio
n o
f the in
strum
ents
of n
ational secu
rity. If h
e truly
wan
ts to
heal th
e country
, Presid
ent F
ord
w
ill hav
e to g
o o
ut o
f his w
ay to
as-su
age th
is susp
icion.
Tw
o m
ajor q
uestio
ns o
ught to
be
asked at all times about the C
IA. T
he first en
gag
es the ro
le of th
e agen
cy
in making and unm
aking foreign gov-ernm
ents by the black arts of sabotage and subversion.
That issu
e seems to
be cen
tral to
the p
resent stir o
ver C
hile. T
he case
grew
out o
f a letter written
by R
ep.
Mich
ael Harrin
gto
n (D
-Mass.) an
d -
leaked
to th
e press. T
he letter p
ur-
ported
to su
mm
arize testimony to
a H
ouse subcomm
ittee by William
Colby,
the p
resent d
irector o
f the C
IA.
According to the letter, C
olby testi-fied
that th
e agen
cy sp
ent $
8 m
illion
betw
een 1
970 an
d 1
973 to
help
the
oppositio
n to
the P
opular F
ront g
ov-_
ernm
ent of Chilean P
resident Salvador
Allende. T
he letter said the funds Were
used in order to achieve'the "destabili-zation" of the regim
e. The im
plication w
as, that th
e CIA
arranged
the co
up
-which overthrew
Allende last year
In fact, th
e 'word
"destab
ilization"
was not used by M
r. Colby in his testi-
mony.• It is h
ardly
thin
kab
le that so
•sm
all a sum—
for $8 million is virtually
'noth
ing in
the m
odern
intellig
ence
gam
e—co
uld
hav
e caused
the fall o
f th
e Chilean
govern
men
t. Presid
ent
Ford said at his new
s conference what
most inform
ed sources also say—that
the m
oney
was u
sed o
nly
to su
stain
democratic new
spapers and, political lead
ers. It is as clear as it can ev
er be in this sort of m
urky business that the C
IA did not play a significant role
in th
e _Chilean coup. Indeed, F
oreign R
elations Com
mittee C
hairman J. W
. F
ulb
right (D
-Ark
.), who receiv
ed th
e letter in July, w
rote to Rep. H
arrington at th
at time, say
ing h
e saw n
oth
ing
new
in it.
The second big question turns on the
responsiveness of the CIA
to the elect-ed leadership in the W
hite House and
the C
ongress. E
very
body ag
rees that
in Chile the -C
IA _w
as obedient to the w
ishes of the Nixon adm
inistration. W
hat is in
doubt is th
e questio
n o
f keeping ,C
Ongress inform
ed. 'Several
high officials—including S
ecretary of S
tate Henry K
issinger and former C
IA
Director R
ichard Helm
s — denied in
testimony before various elem
ents of the S
enate Foreign R
elations Com
mit-
tee that the United S
tates had foment-
ed the Chilean coup.
Technically, those statem
ents appear to have been accurate. M
oreover, it is trad
itional th
at black
bag
operatio
ns
of th
e agen
cy are not rev
ealed to
the
regular legislative comm
ittees-.of the C
ongress b
ut to
a special w
atchdog
com
mittee. E
ven
if they
did
not tell
the strict tru
th ab
ou
t such
op
eration
s to
the F
oreig
n R
elaions C
om
mittee,
in other words, M
essrs. Kissinger and
Helm
s and th
e oth
ers were o
peratin
g
within established guidelines. H
ow
eVer, if th
e particu
lars of th
e C
hilean
case do n
ot ju
stify th
e fuss,
the general atmosphere of the past few
y
ears do
es. Th
rou
gh
ou
t the V
ietnam
w
ar, the C
ongress. an
d m
uch
of th
e country w
ere systematically deceived
about th
e operatio
n o
f the C
IA an
d
other instruments of national security
po
licy. O
ver an
d o
ver ag
ain in
the
Waterg
ate case, Presid
ent N
ixon an
d
those aro
und h
im in
voked
the term
"national security" as the justification for covering up com
mon crim
es, M
any intelligent and well-m
eaning peo
ple h
ave co
me to
believ
e that th
e w
hole apparatus of national security is
bogus—a cover for som
ething illegiti-m
ate and im
pro
per. T
hat is w
hy th
e ap
paren
t impro
prieties o
f the C
IA in
C
hile have excited such attention. If P
residen
t Ford
is to en
d w
hat h
e has called the long national nightm
are„ h
e will h
ave to
soften
these feelin
gs.
Unfortunately, he seem
s not to under-stan
d th
e dep
ths o
f the d
oubts ab
out
natio
nal secu
rity. T
hus w
hen
ques-
tion
ed ab
ou
t Ch
ile at his n
ews co
n-
ference M
on
day
nig
ht, h
e gav
e a na-
tional secu
rity resp
onse straig
ht o
ut
of th
e 1950s: "O
ur g
overn
men
t, like
oth
er govern
inen
ts, does tak
e certain
actions in the' intelligence field to im-
plement foreign • policy and to protect
national security." T
he same lack of understanding en-
tered in
to th
e blu
nder co
mm
itted in
the pardoning of P
resident Nixon. T
he ad
min
istration th
eory
was th
at the
curse w
ou
ld b
e taken
off th
e pard
on
by th
e amnesty
for V
ietnam
war re-
sisters.. Mr. F
ord
evid
ently
did
not
realize that the opposition to Vietnam
rested
on d
eep g
eneral d
oubts ab
out
natio
nal secu
rity actio
ns—
not o
n th
e relativ
ely triv
ial issue o
f the d
raft-dodgers.
The point of all this is that the coun-
try is seriously -and deeply divided on fundam
ental issues of national security. P
resident Ford is going to have to take
account o
f those d
ivisio
ns. H
e will
hate to
try to
understan
d th
e oth
er side. O
thefwise, he w
ill end up, as his tw
o p
redecesso
rs did
, limpin
g o
ut o
f th
e Wh
ite Ho
use.
01974, Field E
nterprises,
"It is as clear as it can ever be in this sort of m
urky business that the CIA
did not play a significant role in the C
hile coup."