THE CIA: WHAT WAS SO WRONG ?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100500022-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 26, 1999
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: May 22, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

t raden also slipped $50,000 in $50'
ills to United Auto Workers president
.
alter Reuther for international opera-
ions run by his brother Victor-a partic-
laxly vociferous critic of Lovestone's.
1 e ng-rumored ties with the CIA. "Victor
cuther ought to be ashamed of him-'.
]f" for attacking Lovestone, said
raden, since both men were only per.!
rming a patriotic service. And, Braden
ent on, Reuther performed his with'
ss than perfect wisdom," banking the
0,000 in some West German -unions
t at had cash enough and were alread
y;
ti-Communist.
As long rumored, the CIA had fun-
led money through the European-;
sod Congress for Cultural Freedom-/
8anitiTove
tt'!C CIA:' '
What Was So Wrong?
MAY 2
1967
FOIAb3b
unions were sabotaging U.S. aid ship.
i ments to Europe and threatening to top-
' ple friendly governments. The U.S., by
contrast, was .s icamish about fighting
o? somas Braden
it was roughl
b
n
,
e!
ack. covertly-;a
d too paralyzed by Me-
like sitting through a James Bond movie; Carthyisnn to navigate: Overt subsidies for
with everyone else in th
di
e au
ence root-
ing for SMEI'SII. He had suffered in si_
lence through mounting attacks on the
Central Intelligence Agency for secretly
bankrolling a wide assortment of private
American groups abroad-a scheme Bra-
den himself hatched during a 1950-54
hitch with the CIA. "I asked myself what
was so wrong with what we did," he
said last w I. S B d 1,1: 1 d I
ce
So Braden sold his pl:u1 to CIA chief AI-
]en Dulles: secret subsidies to private
organizations-even if they did not "sup
port every aspect of official American
Policy." His argument: "When an adver- t.
'ary attacks with his weapons disguised
as good works, to choose innocence is to
hoose defeat."
.o ra en pu sic its Some entries in the Braden casebook:
case for the defense-and succeeded The CIA funneled money into some
mainly in reopening the whole messy' nti-Communist union or unizi:jg
scandale all over again. rises run by onetir g e Braden, 49, a sometime spyailaster, ed- ne (1927-Z.9 9) U.S.
ncator, museum executive, newspaper ommunist Party boss Jay LovestoneV
publisher (of The Oceanside [Calif.] hen an International Ladies Garment
llladc ;rib (of and liberal Oceanside orkers Union staffer, now the AFL-
'? politician, mapped his strategy carefully. 10's Director of International Affairs.
I of wanted maximum impact, so he raden said lie still has a pseudonymous
,000 he once signed over
eceipt for $15,000 his piece ("I'm Glad the CIA Is'
'Immoral"') in The Saturday Evening as "Warren G. Haskins") to one "Nor-
Post, and lac tried to limit himself to, is A. Grambo, a cover name for Love.
cases already mentioned in the press. tone lieutenant Irving Brown. Brown,
His choice of a mass magazine height- i ys Braden, had tp have the money "to
oiled the splash, all right-but his in- i ay off his strong-arm squads in Medi-
sider's standing seemed to confirm links rranean ports, so that American sup-
lies could be unloaded against the op- '
` 1/ t support then nglo-American Intel-
A..horlnied rreen Y `? ....._v but embellished
iF_ y saying the CIA had placed o
Braden: raden: One for our aide " ,
that had only been rumored between the' ecame an editor of Encounter."
CIA and a variety of clients ranging fiom The over-all 1nruL; B
as essential to
t, ?? h mot, r , ..............._ ,
r
in the U.S. t u t the people. he implicated, anti-Con.
Brade 's point was that the CIA and its; m nists all, acted tie>netheless scandal-
beneficiaries were simply doing their; 1z d. Encounter's fopr past and present
patriotic duty, "defending the U.SJ e tors-each suspect under Braden's
against a new and cxhnordinthe sue an nynnous reference to an "agent" edi-
ans weapon the iinarily s1 to each denied having known for sure'
Columnist front." .
In cold 1 . the early nati ue was -: ab ut the CIA link until recently, and
years, by his accounting, the Russians; of rank (poet e) Stephen ape
t
were socking $250 million a year into a`'cin 1e FrankICeimod quit as a gesture
miscellany of cultural, labor, student,* ,to disown _ it. , (Braden .later explained
u,UL cue ecntor III 'ills account hau UCe,l ,
an "unwitting' agent who was editorially
independent but served U.S. ends sim-
ply by doing what came naturally.)
Lovestone and Brown, too, insisted they
never took CIA money, and their boss,
AFL-CIO president George Meany,
blasted Braden's story as "a damn lie . .
Not one penny of CIA money has ever,
come in to the AFL or the AFL-CIO to
my knowledge over the last twenty
vears." Only Walter Reuther, of all the'
Principals involved, admitted knowingly
taking CIA money-;and then only once,
in an "emergency situation," to his sub-
?equent regret. Reuther added his own
OstSCript-that Braden had tried recruit-
ng brother Victor as a CIA agent and
hat Victor had "emphatically rejected"
he bid. Braden denied that.
'New Flap': And so the attorney for
he defense became an exhibit for the
rosecution. The CIA was unhappy, (Be-
ore publication, said Braden, "they
ailed me to express their sorrow.") So
ere the newspapers. (The, CIA-labor
'ilk-up, said The New York Times,
merely underscores the mischief inTier-
tit in clandestine ties between unions
nd an espionage agency, no matter 1mw
irtuous the purposes of the relation-
lip.) And so, in the end, was Toni
radon. "I wanted to get across the nes-
ge of what we set out to do," he said.
succeeded better than I intended. 17'
ally didn't expect to create "
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000100500022'-5.