(SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000400170011-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 11
• Content Type: MEMORANDUM

Approved For Release 2006/07/20: CIA-RDP74B00415R000400170011-4
Approved For Release 2006/07/20: CIA-RDP74B00415R000400170011-4
 Approved For Release 2006/07/20: CIA-RDP74B00415R00C 1 OV11c f l 2 -
WASHINGTON POST
'Helms at Camp David
It's Time to Look
At the CIA
By Stephen S. -Rosenfeld
MR. HELMS, director of the Central Intel-
ligence Agency, was publicly summoned to
Camp David this week to participate in what
the White House terms its "major" reassess-
ment of the American foreign policy, struc
ture. If 'his summons indicates that the
United States' large secret intelligence es-
tablishment is to undergo the same Execu-
tive scrutiny being accorded the agencies
which operate more in the public eye,; then
this is welcome and important news.
Before saying more, I should perhaps
state that I am not one of those journalists
with a close discreet, working relationship
with, the ,;CIA; for purposes of this article I
requested an on-the-record interview' with
Helms or his chosen representative and did
not receive one.
that
however
nt
id
lf:e
u
,
,
v
e
ld seem se
It wo
as the United States moves from an -era of
confrontation to an era' of negotiatiofy from
a time when Russia and Communism., were
widely perceived as terribly menacing to a
time when both the country and the ideol-
qgy are'inereasingly regarded as adequately
neighborly, then the role of the CIA has got
to be reviewed.
Now, obviously a great nation must have a
professional intelligence service. The imper-
atives of defense, not to say elementary pru?
dence, demand It. A case can even be made
that a certain kind of technological intelli
genre Is. more essential in a period of in-
cipient etente.-in order to supply, policy
makers and their publics with the assurance
they need' in order to enter into new agree-
ments with old adversaries
THE SALT-I agreement.?apparently is uni-
que in granting; explicitly each side's, right
to lob. intelligence satellites over the other's
territory to count missiles, tests and so on.
Presufn'ably satellites would be similarly
useful in verifying and in nourishing public
confidence in, any shifts made as a result of
the forthcoming European force reduction
talks. In all cease-fire situations, Mideast,
Indochina or , what-have-you, intelligence
can be vital.
In at-,least, tworareas however, Intelli-
gence needs review: for, "dirty tricks" and
for its secrecy.
? The act of 1947 setting up the CIA speci-
fied that, in addition to intelligence duties,
it was to perform "such other functions" as
the National Security Council might direct.
A "plans division" was set up in 1951. Most
CIA directors, including Helms, have come
up through Plans. The group seems to have
been active, and conspicuously so, through
the 1950s, toppling uncooperative govern-
ments, harassing wayward Communists,
etc. The whole atmosphere was permissive:
it was. a ,President who ate up the Jarhes
Bond books who let the Plans Division or-
ganize Cuban exiles (and a few Americans)
to invade at the Bay of Pigs.
It is now nl.urm1,tred around town that the
deptiit.:dt4r. M. Flans, an: `old , ,llelm8
mafi; operates pn i much ? tighter. leash
s(doing no more,' it i said; than the ltepltbli
cans are allege d to` 1i#tv4 done*'to;-rho
Demoerats); that the old ptoblems of policy
control and separation bfIntel ligonce from
pperations are in hand; that thq, ;all and
,weak,countries Which once were' tft8t CIA's
playgraugds, are no longer so vulnerable to
its deeds
At the same time, 6ne hears that the Pres-
ident's old anti-Communist juices have not
altogether :stopped fermenting and .that lie
receives' and is responsive to reports that
the Russians still play sortie pretty rotten ;
tricks and, by dolly, we. ought, to show them
trey can't do that to us'and get away;with it.
WHATEVER THE.TRUTH, i wogld sub-
mgt tkr+ri~ t9rises rope for the Co esa
_TT C W a guar er-ten 'y a q as,tlie . cold .
t eA
egimm~g to dominate th0;Ameri-
a
ri. 4 ),-&
war w
can outlook on the world. It is ineonslstept,-,
at the least,!-.that. the State Department_
should now be zeroing in on measures,tq
combat. "international .tgrrorism" while the,
CIA retains a ,.'capacity'to. practice certain
forms of ft. Cuba's, continuing lack of,.love,
for the CIA, restated in its bid for hijacking,
talks last week, underscores the point.
Secrecy is sgmething else. No one whq ac- .
cepts the need for intelligence would argue..
that the whole process and products shpuld
be made public. But no one concerned with
the health of democracy can accept that con-
dition with equanimity. The general sense, of* being at war with communism since World'
War II has produced a far more secretive,
government than we would want or tolerate
if, other times. With that. sense df being at,'
war danger fading, the rationale or spur for
secrecy diminishes accordingly. There is fur-
ther the claim that the secrecy surrounding
the CIA may have undermined the larger
job of conducting a wise policy, i.e., one well
discussed and debated.'
This. is the principal basis on which Sena
for Cooper earlier this year proposed th
the relevan act be amended to g ve the fo
er n re ons an a ense comm e ri
b _T
0 ousel access o e exactly as the'
Y sla o 0 .aln e
omit nerg has given,: stish
ommission
secret material for decades to the Joint
Committee on Atomic Energy. Predictably,,
the President objected. The Foreign
tions Committee approved the proposed'
amendment; the Armed Services Committee,
otherwise preoccupied, did not act on ' it,
C oper is retirin but Senator
who as is own sense oft a need to assert
the Congress' foreign policy responsibilitie 1C Page and his own record of concern. for improving
congressional oversight of the CIA, ma b
prepared to receive the torch. He's No. 2 on
rme oo.
The CIA is out of the news these days. It
usually gets into the news only when it fouls
up. But a lot more about its place in the new-.
bureaucratic and international scheme df..
things ought to be known. Whether the
CIA's activities are all essential and whether
they are all organized efficiently are ques
tions which a responsible Congress should
not want to leave to a Chief Executive hud-
dling privately out in the woods at Camp
David.
Approved For Release 2006/07/20: CIA-R?P74B00415R000400170011-4