CIA SUBSIDIES STUDY REACHES NO DECISION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300210025-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 10, 2006
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: December 19, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Release 2006/10/10: CIA-RDP70B00338R000300210025-5
4 Tuesday, Dec. 19,1961
. M.
CIA Subsidies Study
Reaches No Decision
By Richard Harwood
Washington Post staff writer
When the Central'Intelli-
gence Agency's secret phi-
lantropies were discovered
last spring, President John-
son's response was to ap-
point a study committee.
It was headed by Under
foreign aid program (Plan 2),
through a new "quasi-
public" corporation with
limited responsibilities (Plan
3), or through a "quasi-
public" corporation with
very broad responsibilities
(Plan 4).
One reason for the Com-
"no in-built deadline which
was interpreted by Clark at
the Budget Bureau to mean
no "external" deadline fixed
by the President. or by Rusk.
Sen. J. William Fulbright
(D-Ark.) was under a differ-
ent impression. lie thought
he and his fellow committee-
men were expected to come
up with a plan by Dec. 31,
which is the date the CIA
expects to cut off its covert
subsidies: "But I guess,"
said Fulbright yesterday,
"that deadline has been drop-
ped."
Deadlock Reported
A third explanation for
the position in which the
Secretary of State Nicholas decision is that it has spent
deB. Katzenback and it rec- very little time on the job.
ommended that still another There have been only three
study committee be ap- meetings of substance since
pointed because of the- March. The last one, accord-
"considerable complexity" of ing to Dr. Milton Eisen.
hower of John Hopkins Uni-
m
bl
th
.
e pro
e
The President agreed and
the new committee was
formed with Secretary of
State Dean Rusk as its
chairman. It was a "consen-
sus" group that included
Senators and Representa-
tives, young men and old
men. Democrats and Repub-
licans, academicians and
businessmen. thinkers and
doers. Its assignment was to
figure out how the govern-
ment of the United States
could do publicly what the
CIA had been doing cov-
ertly, which was to subsidize
the overseas activities of
countless religious, cultural,
labor, and scholarly organi-
zations.
Nothing Decided
In the nine months that
have passed, the Committee
had decided nothing except
that there are at least four
ways for the Governement
to hand out money to the
CIA's former clients-
through the State Depart-
ment (Plan 1), through the
versity, was held three
months ago.
"We are all," said another
committee m e m b e r, Dr.
Frank Rose, president of the
University of Alabama, "very
busy men. The Secretary of
State is very busy. So is the
Budget Bureau (whose direc-
tor, Charles Schultze, is a
committee member, and
whose international pro-
grams man, James Clark, is
the committee's executive
director.)"
No Sense of Urgency
Senator Milton R. Young,
one of the congressional Re-
publicans on the panel, has
been so busy that he hasn't
"been to a one of those
meetings" and isn't sure what
is going on.
Another reason for the in-
action is the general feeling
that, as Rose put it, "there's
no sense of urgency about
this. No deadline or any-
thing of that kind." A State
Department official on
committee finds itself at
Christmastime is that it is
hopelessly deadlocked over
what should be done.
This is denied by Rose, Ei-
senhower and men in the
Administration who prefer
anonymity. Fulbright, how-
ments and Young has hea
rumors to the same effect.,
as Fulbright puts it, is rep- the CIA's secret beneficiar-
resented by three House les may begin the New Year
members on the committee with pinched budgets.
-George Mahon (D-Texas),
.L. Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.), "But there's no real prob-
and Frank Bow (R-Ohio). lem," says Dr. Rose. "All we
They favor the inexpensive have to do is sit down and
Plan 1 (about $5 million a come to a conclusion."
year) which would be admin- That effort will be made
istered by State. again in January.
Fulbright, Eisenhower and
Rose favor the more ambi-
thellirase. Clous Plan 4 which would in
Rusk's
$2 r wou ex
tend subsidies to groups pres-
e n t 1 y unsubsidized, and
would take over some of the
cultural and information
programs presently adminis-
tered by State, USIA,, and
AID.
Schultze, presumably
Eakin for - i?c President
.programs awa 'from exls -
ing agencies.
Plan 3 would be cheaper
than Plan 4'and for that rea-
son Rose is willing to go
,along with it "in view of the
'budget squeeze."
In reply, the Administra-
,tration says money is no prob-
lem.
Tie pel in any case,
Approved For Release 2006/10/10: CIA-RDP70B00338R000300210025-5