JED REVEALS HIS CIA PAST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000300020007-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 2, 2001
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: May 13, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

TIE OKLAHOMA JOURNAL
Approved For ReleatT511474RefA-RQP71514t5R0,0030002009?1-6 ?
Candidate Critical N ixo n rolicy
eveals
By STEVE DIMICK
Of The Journal Staff
S. senatorial hopeful Jed Johnson spent
?-thraCentr
4.96(tbe_saiditiLIaL
id he carried in C
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AratrjgalLgagalxikazhill_worl_. dt_l:fm(,)11e of
the front gronizatima?saps.
04.caccs.luil624.
Jormer Sixth District congressman Fri-
da released a e-
ees convention Satur-
invo vement.
He said a controversial trip to Cuba hide
while a student at Oklahoma University which
was later thrown back at him during his 1964
congressional race, also was actually a goy-
; ernmenf-sponsored "intelligence-gathering"
trip. ?
atrze_clo le,..Itlyseezj2hr....1121_..1 will
attack 131-7get Nixon'sNi new interdiction pcil-
isy against North Vietnamese 3upptritcrtes.
kle_bases Iiis,criticisry on his knowledg-e
41:the CIA, whicb_reportedly Traryfed-th7t
iheblixckade will not work.
'Johnson quotes from the "Kissinger Papers,"
a secret government study conducted by the
CIA and other information gathering groups
and made public by columnist Jack Ander-
son two weeks ago. The study reported the
CIA's belief that no amount of interdiction
Will be successful in stopping the flow of war
materiel to North Vietnam.
,Larp personally acquainted in some depth
with theAggree of precision that the CIA o-
& within. its intelligence activities,, because
1-worked under contract as overt agen or
Vie CIA_ prior to my election to the Congress,"
:.Johnson said.
"At that time, the CIA had extremely de-
tailed .information on such things as which
hand an obscure African provincial chief
would eat with and the vintage of his favorite
twines," he said.
arn convineed after_reapg_the Kisstnger
.t.Papers that the CIAestimates of-our ca acit
40. interdict supplies Was done with simi ax a
-tention to precision and gave absordely no
areason for _encouragement that this military
'.aCtiQO will successfulVbring
In an interview with The Oklahoma Jour-
nal before his announcement Saturday, John-
.= sajd.he worked for the CIA from 19_62 to
)964. _He said his experience as an agent:his-
towed him to haveowl.ele faith" ill Pie
LIALs_assess_rnents of prippiv_vittalllpiis
in the agency's non-partisan, position.
rupathi, India, I debated a couple of older
?If t
ver to the Oklahoma
l's
"I know that the CIA is very, very meticu-
lous and careful in its evaluations and is ac-
curate and preciie," he said.
"The point is, if the CIA has given such an
evaluation (of the Vietnam blockade', I know
they've done a thorough assessment of the sit-
uation. They're very capable people and are
not political; they're very apolitical. ?
"While I was never involved in CIA
operatIons in Southeast Asia, I know per-
sonally that they literally can tell you the
minutest details about minor African political
figures and I'm sure they have done the same
type of investigation in Vietnam," Johnson
said.
_,Johnson' said he was not at liberty to di.
close his former CIA ties while he was a mem-
bi-i:--nrebngrarterausejl,,m -Formdaties for
Student Affairs, the dummy foun-
dation _for which_ ht_y_v_o_r_ usi-
ness, . .
"For me to say anything would have literal-
ly endangered the lives of some of our people
overseas," he said. ?
He came back to the U.S. early in 1964, on
leave from the Foundation, and then resigned
from the organization before he made his suc-
cessful race for Congress.
ankrison served in Congress from 1964-66.
He said t1-37WriMrwas blown" on me cosier'
of the dummy foundation in 1967.
"I'm still not sure how much I'm at liberty
to tal you," be said.
The former student leader at the University
of Oklahoma said he was approached by the CIA
(referred to among agents as "the firm" in
1962, a year after his graduation from col-
lege.
"They contacted you to see if you were in-
terested and then did a very thorough security
clearance," he said. "Later, you were taken
you had to sign an oath
divulge any secrets or
I I t
to a hotel room where
saying you would not
critical information.
"After that, I was
contract' to the CIA
said.
what they call 'under
until I resigned," he
I. 4 ?
I/
I ?
ladn't run for Congress, I might have na4Le
a.. rareer out nf the ('JA." ?
Johnson said he actually worked for the U.S.
Youth Council, which was, funded by the Foun-
dation for Youth and Student Affairs, which in
turn was funded by the CIA.
His duties, about which he was never too
specific, involved basically being a sort of good-
will ambassador-cum-spy. ?
"I led delegations of yonng Americans to de-
veloping nations and spoke before various le-
gislative assemblies," he said. "We met with
leaders of countries, presidents, prime minis-
a1/t 1
44 2001/01 : CIA-RDP74B004,15R000300020007-6
once. an maian Youtn uangress in tr-
CIA Pas1
Communist officials," he said.
"I also did get information on what the
political ideology was of up-and-coming poli-
tical leaders," he said.
Johnson balked at the word "propaganda"
, when asked whether his job entailed more
gathering of information or disseminating
, propaganda.
"It involved a lot of both," he said. "But we
were never told what to say. by the CIA. We
were never giver. any orders about what to say
in a speech. ?
"I was simply a youth leader telling them what
we believe, why our economic system is the
most productive, why our political system is
the best."
Johnson's undercover activity began when he ?
was still in collegc, with a 1959 trip to Cuba
which later returned to haunt him during his
congressional race in 1964.
"There were chat ges made during the cam-,
paigning (hat I, had taken this trip with other
student leaders in defiance of the State De-
partment," he said. "This , was untrue. The
trip was sponsored by the U.S. government.
"I was asked by people in the State Depart-
ment to make the trip to get information about
what was going on;" he said.
At the time the group of young student lead- ?
ers made' the trip, shortly after the Cuban re-
volution, "we didn't know that things in Cuba
would go the way they went," Johnson said.
He said another of his missions was to
, debate young Communist leaders in Cuba.
However, he was not able to reveal in 1964
that he had known in 1959 that the Cuban trip
was a government-sponsored one.
"It was a very interesting experience, but
it was frustrating that I couldn't rebut some of
the charges made against me," he said.
"As a result of that trip and some other ac-
tivities I was involved in, I was later asked to
become an agent for the CIA."
During his years as an agent, under the
code name "Mr. Page" ("I chose that name
because I had been a page in the Senate and ?
thought it would be easy to remember," 1,
he was at liberty to tell only his wife of his
activities.
"There were a couple of agents before me
who had just disappeared," he said.
Johnson says he still has faith in the per-
suasive and example type of diplomac2 50(lA
former the kind he said is practiced by the
CIA.
UNCLASSrn,csri --?csIkficciflItlfYfl1 Ill mi -
in INTERNAL n SECRET
-- ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT: (Optional) The Oklahoma Journal,
13 May 1972, "Candidate Critical of Nixon Policy"
?4.---
FROM:
Executive Officer, DCS
912 Key Bldg.
EXTENSION .
2265
NO.
DATE 22 May 1972
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
DATE
OFFICER'S COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
INITIALS to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
RECEIVED
FORWARDED
L Office of Legislative Counsel
7D43 HQ
Disseminated also to the 25X1/
Assistant to the Director and
to Office
2.
25xi;
of Security.
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Am-tress/cal or
'"1I1
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FORM 610 USE PREVIOUS
3-62 EDITIONS
SECRET 0 CONFIDENTIAL
INTERNAL
USE may 0 UNCLASSIFIED