THE BOMBING DISPUTE: COST AND EFFECTIVENESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700080013-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 10, 2006
• Sequence Number: 13
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/10/10: CIA-RDP75-
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T ".E U BING DISPUTE: COST AND EFFECTIVENESS
.A rather anticlimactic and ironic scene took place this month '
-go when CIA director Richard Helms testified in secret session be-
.ore Sen. Richard Russell's (D-Ga.) "watchdog" subcommittee on
CIA' activities. Present for the first time was chairman J. William
Fulbright of the Foreign Relations Committee, whose criticisms last
year of the CIA's allegedly hawkish influence on U.S. foreign policy
led to a compromise agreement to invite him and two members of
his committee to watchdog hearings. In revealing the substance of
rt reports highly critical of the bombing of North Vietnam
.l:' I:ns reportedly gave
t CIA's foremost critic ammunition with which to confront Secre-
~: of State Dean Rusk in closed Foreign Relations Committee hear-',"
i ..fgs last week. Russell, a leading hawk, found the CIA report dis- }
concerting and now feels that much of the bombing has proved tnef-
fec ve and extravagantly expensive.
CIA OFFICIALS HAS{,E GRUMBLED for some time that their in- i
13 -rnation is not receiving proper attention at the White House.. They
mostly blade persuasive foreign affairs adviser Walt W. Rostow, .
=oho was the first and most vigorous advocate of North Vietnam
bombing, proposing it to. President Kennedy just two weeks after he
took office. The anti -bombing faction within the Administration is
increasingly critical of Rostow, referring to him as a "Marxist
turned inside out"--a man who believes in, the historic inevitability
of U.S. success and maximum commitment throughout the world.
Approved For' Release 2006/10/10 ; -CIA-RDP75-00149 R000700080013-6