WORK OF CIA WITH YOUTHS AT FESTIVALS IS DEFENDED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700220013-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2004
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: February 18, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

cv
Fesiva1s Is Defends
By Robert G. Kaiser
Washington Post staff writer
Gloria Steinem, a New York
free-lance writer, acknowl-
edged In an interview yoster-
day that she worked c1'osely
with the Central Intelligence
Agency to organize groups of
American young people to at- 111
'tend World Youth Festivals
in Vienna and Helsinki in 1959
and 1962.
She strongly defended her
actions and had great praise
for the CIA agents with whom
she collaborated. "I1 found
them liberal and farsighted
and open to an exchange of
ideas," she said.,
"I never felt I was being
dictated to at all."
Miss Steinem was director
of the Independent Research
Service, a group that spon-
? cored the trips of several hun-
dred young Americans to
Q Vienna and Helsinki. Its ac-
tivities have been financed by
a number of foundations, in-
cluding the Independence
Foundation of Boston, already
cited by the National Student
Association as a conduit of
CIA funds.
First Admission
/Gloria Steinem had
praise for the CIA
while recounting her
collaboration w i t h
them in organizing
student groups to
attend international
meetings. She is
wearing a chinchil?
la ringed gown in
this picture at a
supper party for
the Shakespeare
Festival Committee
This was the first admission . in New York last
by anyone connected with the June..
Research Service that it had,
collaborated with the CIA.
iss st.einem said Yesterday
-
ed
d
h
.
o k
a
that silt;
sively with CIA agents in this
country and at the two Youth
Festivals.
She said the budget for Re-
search Service activities at the
Helsinki Festival was m o r e
than $100,000. She declined to
say how much of that wasCIA
?
in
Shaul; now
Akron, Ohio, told The Wash-
ington Post yesterday that he
knew CIA money was helping
to filipnce the Research Serv-,
ice. ; . 1
"There- was always legiti-,
mate, money involved, too,"I
"Shaul said. "To this day I'
don't know how much CIA;
money. there was." ,
Service .delegation that his
only job was "to bring togeth-
er a group of young people
who were representative of-
America"
"We had Minnesota school'
teachers" who were farther.
right than Bill Buckley,';
i1Shnul,.said, "as well as mem
b-?rs of Students. for .a Demo
cratic Society. Nobody told
them what to say."
Shaul, also insisted that no,
research Service reports had
been' given to the CIA. He
said only a very few of the
people involved ills the Re
search Service knew anything
about the CIA connection.
or ashamed of what I did,"
Sliaul l said. "The Helsinki
,Festival was a disaster from :
'their (the Communist world's)
)point of :view, and I' think we
: lean take. a good deal of credit l
for that."
The Research Service - now
The current 'director is Bu-[
of Young Citizens for Johnson
"There Js a possibility of a
congressional inquiry on this
matter and I am therefore
going to 'withhold further com-
ment."
Since Theroux took over,
two . World Youth Festivals
have been canceled, One was
to have been held in Algeria
in July, 1965. It was canceled
when President Ahmed Ben
Bella was overthrown. A sec-
ond Festival scheduled for Ac-
era, Ghana, in the summer of
1966 was called off after the
ouster of President Kwaine
were held behind the Irony She said the Research ServJ
Curtain. They have all been [ice was started without CIA
controlled by Communists. funds, but that the Ageneyi
Miss Steinem' .~d ycster- approached her soon after the,
day that "almost none" of the:'nrganization was set up 'and)
e
pl
h
p
o
e w
o went to Viennafoffered to help.
or Helsinki with the Research The CIA was the only one
Service knew that the CIA ..
ith
h
e110Ug
guts and fore-
was helping to lv
Americans went to Helsinki pay for their
I tri sight to see that youth and
with Research Service aid to p- student affairs were re import-
offer an alternative to the She also said that no lnem- `1111"
ber of either Research Service, she said.
Communist line of the Fes- .-She first decided that'youth
tival. delegation had passed informs- -polities was important during
Nkrumah.
helped pay for a daily news-; planned the best ways to op- j n v ~... + .u.a U1L~~
crate "she said. "They, nraduating Phi Beta Kappa
paper put out in. three lan- wanted 'f'rom Smith College in 1956,
guages during the Festival by to do what we wanted. to do- At the Helsinki Festival in
a largely American staff but present a healthy, diverse 1962, Miss Steinem was co-
under the ultimate 'control of, view of the United States." director of the Research Serv-
a Finnish editor. ice, with Dennis Shaul, a for-
All Controlled by Reds mer president of the National
Student Association. 4
There h a v e beell eight
World e d For Release 2005/01/05: CIA-RDP75-00149R000700220013-0
Youth Pesti ~I~Ji ~
World War II. The first, six
WASHINGTON POST
AND TIMES HERALD
Approved For Release M/0,1(Pg96qlA-RDP_75700149R0
Wrrk CM With
ths