WE'RE ON THE WRONG SIDE AGAIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R001200960001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 29, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 18, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

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Several weeks ago, I visited
an East Bengali refugee camp
near Calcutta and an incident
there stuck in my mind. I
haven't previously w r i t t e n
about it-because, I think, I
didn't know quite ? what to
make of it.
Here I was, with war clearly
imminent, in this beseiged cor-
ner of the world, surrounded
Batista, Chiang, T r u j i l l o, Bangla Desh will be defiantly
Diem. against tis.
Tyrants every one of them, I fail to see the American
but. to say it now has the pas- self-interest in appearing be-
sionate ring of Tom Paine fore the world as the champi-
("Tyranny, like hell, is not on of Pakistan's Yahya Hahn.
easily conquered; yet we have
this consolation with us, that Like Batista et al., he's not
the harder the conflict, the only a tyrant but a loser.
more glorious the triumph.") When' my East Bengali friend
is fashionable not to be pas-
ith th
i
"
e
ca, w
Why, Amer
sionate but to be cool.
Indeed, we were told by the same bewilderment I am
the John Fitzgerald Kennedys know,
that we were engaged in an
epic struggle for men's minds
- but then we summarily dis-
missed men's minds as being
of no importance, and gravi-
tated to where we thought the
power lay.
How cool we were, proclaim-
ing our dedication to the Free
World - while sending out our
CIA, our military advisory
groups, our Green Berets and
sometimes our Army and
Navy to rescue tyrants from
the mobilized force of men's
minds. We said we were ideal-
ists, but we took pride in being
tough-minded and practical.
But, being so tough-minded,
were we really practical? We
have almost invariably been
on the losing side in these do-
mestic struggles. Something
has gone wrong.
We have, I believe, ignored
our most potent weapon - the
inherent esteem held for our
system by most of the com-
mon people of the world. What
we used instead were self-
defeating weapons - the same
dirty tricks used by our ene-
mies.
As a practical matter, we
might justify supporting Paki-
stan if there were any pros-
pect that it could re-establish
its rule over East Bengal. But
- during the weeks and
months that we silently sanc-
tioned its tyranny - that pros-
pect vanished.
STATINTL
p
don't know what the Pakistani Right now, the Bangla Desh
army is doing-and that if you rebellion is essentially free
did, you would put a stop to it. and democratic. It may not
Even now, I can't hate Ameri- long remain that way. Anti-
ca. We still look to it with democratic elements within it
hope. But why is America - favorable to the Soviet Un-
helping the Pakistani army to
murder us? ion - may emerge as the
What I began to wonder was dominant force.
how many times since World But what we are doing,
War II these same sentiments while incurring the wrath of
had been expressed-in the the Indians, is to increase sub-
villeages of Cuba, China, the
c tt t , ~' to m stantially the odds that the re-
',`rei~sg~Q;;l~l4{;4t?IyGIiRDP80-01601 R001200960001-6
by a crowd of intense Bengalis
with whom I felt strangely
comfortable.
Only a few spoke English.
They said they had been
school teachers in a small
town on the Pakistani side of
the border. A half-dozen others
participated in the conversa-
tion, but the school teachers
acted as interpreters and car-
ried the argument. They were
uncommonly intelligent and
thoughtful.
In its level of sophistication
and courtesy, this was like a
Washington cocktail p::rty-
but make no mistake: 'These
were men consumed by deep
emotions. With a dignify that
belied their tattered clothing,
,they conveyed genuine bewil-
derment.
"I don't understand," said
the most eloquent among
them, as I reconstruct the con-
versation, "why you Ameri-
cans are doing this. The Paki-
stani array has come into ou
land with your guns and is
killing us with your ammuni-
tion. I have lost a brother-
in-law and an uncle. Everyone
here has lost part of his family.
"I don't understand because
I was brought tip looking to
America as the land of democ-
racy and of freedom. We
learned about Lincoln and
Washington in our schools. For
us, America has always stood
for what we wanted for our-
selves. I have never been near
America, but I learned to love
it.
thinkine that you
"We kee
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Available
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 STATINTL
Approved For Release 2001ri i IA RDP80-01
1 0 0 1 1 9 7 1
CARL T. l'O\'VAN
(J r r e
i??
t
t_, _.r i
President Nixon will go to
Poking with greater feelings of
confidence because sopuisti
cated intelligence procedures
have made it possible for him
to know many things that tihc
Chinese do not know he knows.
There are "pur'itans'' who
say that they can never accept
this as a_ necessary activity,
for to do so v. ould be to co:u-
promise- with immorality anti
indecency. So it becomes a ii-
tual of cl anliness for Man to
launch attacks on the CIA and V
other American inte]iioence
operations whenever r, n.c,rs
item pops up to remind nom
of their revulsion to `:d;ity
t ricks.''
But that. story cut of London
is just anotler reminder eLr
how mean the real world is --
a " d that the p acemak rs
very often are those who -
kcep ITS alert to both flee dar.-
gers and the promises of that.
real world.
That bombshell out of Great
Britain about the expulsion of
105 Soviet diplomats and offi-
Cis.} fo spying- has had one
predict'. le mfcet.
It has res ivcdl editorial corn-
) meat and cocktail chatter
about our own Central I it ali?'
genre Agency and the "cov-
ers" it uses for spies. And It
has aroused new spasms of
naive et^;?xr?.meut to the effect
that our counli ought 'to get
out of - the cloak-anti-dagger.
business.
Well, just. as sure as Tdata
'Mari. was a MUD", the es}:?ul
sions v, ill not he It massive So-
viet spying in Britain --or in
the United States, at the Unit-
ed Nations or?anvplaca else.
Some Americans just can't
.get over the sanctimonious no-
tion that spying is a dirty busi-
ness that,. like dandruff, we
can warh BOA out of our hair.
Some spying is a sordid,
dangerous brininess. It in-
volves blackmail, sexual en-
traprnent, peeping ton?isni.
double-crosses, political and
character assassinations
and outm;ght Inurder.
Yet, spying is not nearly as
haft as are some of the alter-
natives to having a good sys-
ten.1 of intelli gcnce. Not many
Americans would accept vul
?2ernbility to a sneak nuclcat?
attack as Me price for getting
rid of spies.
The fact is that if use are to
move closer to peace we are
likely to go through a period of
more spying rather than less.
Millions cf sensitive, intelli-
gent Americans deplore the
fact that in the decade of the
1960s the United States and
Soviet Union poured a trillion
dollars into arms. 'T'hese
Americans know that we shall
never rescue our cities or save
man's environment or find a
cure for cancer unless we Zan
stop the arias race and its States will use ships like the
mad waste of r;ealth. USS Pueblo, special aircraft
But the glaring truth is that and other measures to conduct
distrust stands W. the any of a el ?ctronic intelligence - and
cc'rtailinciit in the manufac- ' th of it will go 0,, -spending bil-
turc of horrible weapons, not lions to intercept other coun-
to mention the destruction of tries, messages and break
those already in arsenals. their Co:''.?es.
Steps toward disarmament John P. Kennedy was fright-
\'; ill. Proceed only as rapidly as
intelligence procedures We
it possible for rival countries
to be reasonably sure. that
they wilt not be destroyed by
the perfidy of a potential axe%
my.
As far ahead as man can
see, the. United States and the
Soviet Union will launch so-
phisticated satellites whose'
fantastic cameras will record
troop movements, I;lissile ern-
placements, production cen-
ters for fissionable materials,
weapons storage areas and
other vital inforinetion bear-
ing on the other country's (or
Coma's) mb-ntions.
It is taken for granted by
American officials that the So-
viet Union will hcep 3.) or so
trawlers operating off the
shores of the United States,
their powerfill, sensitive elec-
tronic gear intercepting U.S.
diplomatic and military mes-
sages, picking IT conversa-
tion at U.S. airfields and bas-
CS, or even plotting the noise
patterns emanating from key
U.S: cities.
The Soviets likewise take it
for granted that the United
cued by Khrushchev at. Vien-
na because intelligence told
the young President that we
were not as prepared to fight
as we neeclcd to be should the
Russian carry out his treats
regarding Berlin. Later, I:en
nedy could stand eyeball-
to-eyeball with - Khrushchev
during the Cuban missiles cri-
sis because intelligence opera-
tions, including the U2 fiights
of the Eiscnho-?rcr year, mace
it clear that the United
States was stronger if it came
to m.clear wan lioreove.r, cur
intelligence was such that we
knew Ithrushchev knee.' who
was stronger.
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 Approved For Release 2001/03/04: I]Afl`1DP80-01601
The Ce n t r a I Intelligence
fAoency should receive none of
the blame for creating crises
In foreign lands, W. Averell
Harriman, one of America's
senior diplomats, yesterday
told about -200 at a Woman's
Nat i o n a I Democratic Club
luncheon.
In answer to an anonymous
inquiry from the audience
/asking "how the CIA could be
curbed from stirring up trou-
'ble abroad," Harriman replied
testily:
"That's the silliest question
?I ever heard. Whenever the
CIA has received such blame,
one 'should look to whatever
man occupied the presidency my complete memoirs," he
at that time and find the said refectively, "because I
proper person for that respon- would wind up trying to prove
sibility ..... It makes me that I always was right."
tired.to think that one maga- / He said his present aims are
zine, Ramparts, could destroyv "to see this unhappy war in
the important activities and Vietnam ended, and to insure
abilities of the CIA." that President Nixon is a
Harriman, former U.S. am- one-term President; I think we
bassador to the Soviet Union have a very good- chance of
and Great Britain, former gov- seeing that happen."
ernor of New York and secre- Of women's emerging role,
tary of commerce, and now Harriman commented that
the chief American delegate to "perhaps, in.the future, there
the Paris peace talks, actually will be a woman chairman of
was on hand in the interests of the Democratic National Corn-
his new -book, "America and mittee ?.... If that happens,
Russia in a Changing World." we men would know 'how to
STATINTL
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