THE CIA: CHILE AND ELSEWHERE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020068-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 68
• Publication Date: September 19, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09TOO207RO01000020068-9
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE HONITOR
g SEP 1974
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CIA: Chil
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By Charles W: Yost
New York The consequence of a quarter con-
Is it not high time that the United tury of "dirty tricks" by the CIA, that
States Government, Congress, and is, the U.S. Government, has been to
people drew some operative con- make the agency throughout the-
clusions from the repeated and em world a symbol for unscrupulous
b.-rassing public- predicaments in intervention in other people's Internal
w ,ch the CIA has involved them over affairs and hence often to undermine,
the past 15 years? rather than to serve, the objectives of
The, most recent debate on the U.S. foreign policy.
subject arises from the avowal by the we see how it is almost universally
director of the agency that it did believed in Greece that the CIA
expend considerable sums in Chile to., Inspired the July 15 coup in Cyprus
prevent Allende's accession to power which set in train the subsequent
and, after he had. nevertheless ac-; disasters. I believe this is a' mistaken
ceded, to weaken or undermine him. judgment,. because upsetting the
I have., not had an _,opportunity .to 'status quo was-so obviously counter to
examine the' record sufficiently to'; U.S.- Interest. But the. fact it Is
judge wheth er, i as. claimed,- other; plausible to suppose that the CIA
witnesses -misled congressional com- might have inspired the coup if It had
mittees on: this point, 'though there been in the'U.S. interest lends color to
certainly is prima'facle evidence that the accusation.
they were not wholly candid. I should A New York Times story last week
m self however- support the U S quotes a" telegram from the.. U.S.
mine whether this superficial 'change
has any lasting effect.
In referring at a public meeting in
Washington last week to proposals
that CIA abandon its covert action
programs, director William Colby
said: "In light of current American
policy, it would not have a major
impact on our current activities or the
current security of the United
States."
While the triple use of the word
"current" is ominous, this statement
is mildly reassuring. It is to be hoped
that the President and Secretary of
State will be persuaded that, in the
broader perspective, these "dirty
tricks" do more harm than good to the
national security and should be
phased out.
Government's contention that, what- Ambassador in Delhi to the effect that
ever the CIA mayor,. may not have the recent ;revelations about CIA-
done in Chile-it did not "overthrow" activities In Chile have confirmed the
Allende. worst suspicions of the Indians about
Allende was overthrown by Chii that agency and caused Indira Gandhi
eans. He never at any time had the to wonder whether the Indian Govern-
support of the majority of the people. ment may-not be the next target for
H?z was overthrown because he and " elimination: This is hardly the image
his more radical adherents alienated. ~?ot Its foreign policy and practice the
frightened, and ultimately radi- ? ' U.S. Government should wish to-see
calized In the opposite sense the widely held around the world.
unconverted majority, particularly Supporters of CIA activities of this
its most powerful element, the mill- kind think of -themselves as "hard-
Lary nosed" realists:=The Bay.of Pigs is
It Is necessary to make this point in one instructive example and Gordon
'
order to clarify the broad issue -
whether admitted CIA activities in
Chile, even if they played no substan-
tial part in the overthrow of Allende,
were in the national-interest of the
U.S. I would argue that they were not,
American and-:.o ther.. Western
spokesmen have for., the past half
century been pointing,out that, while
the Marxist reyolutions in the Soviet
Union and elsewhere were no doubt
directed to noble ends, the atrocious
means so often employed grossly
distorted and even vitiated those
ends. ' Yet since the onset of the cold
way the U.S. has taken a leafoutof the
s little operation at Watergate
Liddy
is another.
The fact- is'the "dirty tricks" con-
ducted by agents, of the U.S. Govern-
ment very- rarely serve the national
interest of the United States, even if
one interprets these interests in
strictly "cold-war" terms. Ex-
perience has shown that they cannot
be adequately "controlled" within the -
executive branch, because it is so
often the controllers, as in the case of
the Bay of Pigs and perhaps of Chile,
whose perceptions and judgments are
at fault. -
ted the limitation on the capacity of
sorted to means so shabby we dare the U.S.. to determine the structure of
not avow them. In the long run this an alien society even by a massive
does not pay. injection of armed force. How much'
Ignoble means debase and demoral- less likely that America could hope to
ize the actors, corrupt and brutalize do so by clandestine operations. The
those acted upon and, in so doing, - U.S.' can, no doubt, occasionally con-
transform and disintegrate the end tribute to the rise or fail of a particu-
Itself. This Is as t,- ue for democrats as lax government or politician, but over
for Communists. the longer run indigenous, forces.
which it cannot control, will deter-
0073
Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09TOO207RO01000020068-9