SHOULD CIA GO PUBLIC?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020063-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: September 20, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09TOO207RO01000020063-4
THE PUnAMPSTA INQUIRER
2 0 SEP 1974
Should CIA go public?
To judge from his comments to the
press this week about the Central Intel-
ligence Agency, President Ford has de-
cided on a new policy of candor and
plain speaking. He frankly said the CIA
will go right on being as deceptive and
underhanded as ever. That's letting it.
all hang out,
Ford had to say something, of
Mr
.
course, and his choices were rather lim-
ited. He couldn't very well denounce the
CIA, particularly now- when congress-
men are queuing up on:all ?sides to in-
vestigate its role in bringing down the
Allende government in. Chile.. On the
other hand, he couldn't come out four-
square for imlimited undercover med-
dling by one nation in the internal poli-
tics of another.
So he took a middle course, explaining
that everybody engages in this sort of
meddling and suggesting that it is very
bad except when we do it. The explana-
tion is not, let us say, perfect.
After seeing one President destroyed
by Watergate,. it is not comforting to
hear from the new President that there's
something to be said for lawbreaking-
after all, it does help us get what we
want. That, we hope, is a minority view
right now. Beyond that, Mr. Ford seems
convinced that the cold war is still on
and still justifies any tactics we may
care to use against governments we
don't trust. Former President Nixon's
optimism about an "era of cooperation
instead- of confrontation" evidently left
the scene with him.
.
Obviously this country must have an-
efficient worldwide intelligence system.
,The rub comes when the system starts
making other governments' decisions for
them, and enforcing the decisions by
criminal means. Whatever this approach
may' do for other countries [not much,
we suspect], for us it succeeds mainly
in setting off riots outside United States
embassies and discrediting American in-
tentions and policies everywhere.
The' time may have come to change
our. approach to the whole business. We
might, for -instance, deemphasize the
cloak-;and-dagger scene-which is getting
a bit old-fashioned, and counterproductive
anyway-and try something really new:
A public-spirited CIA. A force of frank,
manly, plainspoken intelligence agents
may be just what the world is waiting
for.
CIA agents could be clearly identified
by lapel badges. These should carry the
agent's full name and say something
engaging, like "Hi, there!" Operatives
should be friendly but frank with the
people they're spying on; interviewees
should be asked to speak up and talk
directly into the agent's martini olive.
Any secret drawers around should be
plainly labeled "Secret Drawer."
It would be a wholly new, thoroly
American approach to spying, and
it would completely paralyze enemy
agents. They'd spend all their time try-
ing to f igure out what we were really
up to.
0 0 7 3 Aft
Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09TOO207RO01000020063-4