A UNIVERSITY PROJECT CLOAKED C.I.A. ROLE IN VIETNAM IN '55

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82R00025R000700050007-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2005
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: April 14, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/03/24 CIA-RDP82R00025R000700050007-7
SECRET
Attachment C
Article that appeared In 14 April 1966
issue Of the New York Time
Approved For Release 2005 ~PI RDP82R00025R000700050007-7
 Approved For Release 2005/03/24: CIA-RDP82R00025R000700050007-7
THE NEW YQRK TIMES,
A University Project Cloaked
C. I. A. Role in Vietnam in '55
W YORX, THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1966..
Continued From Page 1, Col. 7
and other universities "on the
make" were lending scholars to
Government agencies in ex-
change for lucrative contracts
and exciting overseas assign-
ments.
Prof. Ralph Smuckler, acting
dean in the Office of Interna-
tional Programs at Michigan
State, confirmed the role of the
C.I.A. in the Vietnam project,
which he headed. He described
the Ramparts article as false
and distorted in many respects,
but he acknowledged there had
been a reluctant relationship
with C.T.A. agents.
Prof. Robert Scigliano, a
former assistant chief of the
pro4-^t, said he had not read
th nparts article closely but
de ed as "absolutely cor-
rect" the report that the univer-
sityy had operated as "cover for
a C T.A. team" until July, 1959.
He said he had written a book
generally critical of the project
and the Diem regime that al-
luded to this. But he was upset,
he added, by Ramparts' "inac-
curate" quotation of him.
Professor Smuckler implied
some difficulties in severing
the C.I.A. connection.
"It may not have been right
to get into it," he said in a
telephone interview from the
campus in East Lansing, Mich.
"We were caught and felt we
had to follow through."
The university tried to rid
itself of the connection as early
as 1956, he indicated but it
took until 1959 to terminate the
arrangement.
. Other university officials,
from President John A. Hannah
down, said they would not
dignity the charges with a for-
mal reply and could not deal
with the massive job of rebut-
ting its points one by one. How-
ever, James Dennison, the uni-
versity spokesman, who played
a small role in the Vietnam
project, said, "Whatever Profes-
sor Smuckler says is our reply."
Prof. Alfred Meyer of the
Mich'-an State political sai-
en partment said it was now
cond at the university that
there had been some fronting
for the C.I.A. But lie said that
the full story was in dispute
and was not likely ever to be
known.
Professor Meyer said that
Dr. Hannah had alerted the
Academic council to expect a
hostile article In Ramparts and
had conceded that there was "a
certain amount of substance"
In Its allegations.
Professor Smuckler had hired
Rampart's Informant, Mr. Shein-
baim, for the Vietnam project.
He said he may, as the article
states, have been the first to
tell M?r. Scheinbaum that the
me~ orrowed" from the Gov-
ernIt"t for the project were
C.I.A. agents interested in po-
lice and other "eountersubver-
sion" activities. These men were
nominally from the Department
of the Army.
But almost everything else in
the Ramparts article struck
Professor Smuckler as distorted
or wrong.
Ho disputed its calculation of
the cost of the Vietnam project,
its portrayal of the relationship
with the agency, its account of
the circumstances under which
the university project was ended
and its basic argument that
universities had no right t
o
mediate comment on the article,
is known to have had various
operational relationships with
universities. In recent years, the
agency is said to have limited
itself to more or less open deal-
ings with academic consultants
and with research, institutions.
In 1950, the agency con-
tributed $300,000 to the crea-
tion of the Center for Interna-
tional Studies at the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology
and sustained It with subse-
quent grants in return for many
studies of the Soviet Union and
Communist activities. The rela-
tionship did not become public
until it had virtually ended sev-
eral years ago, but M.I.T. found
that the disclosure hurt its
other activities abroad an
aroused resentment and contro-
versy among faculty member.
Since then, other educators
have expressed concern about
the C.I.A.'s Involvement in aca-
demic and foundation activities.
Officials of the Kennedy and
Johnson Administrations have
contended that no infiltration
of educational activities has
been authorized in recent years
and the few formal dealings
were well known to the heads
of cooperating Institutions.
Ties Rejected by Harvard
Harvard and some other uni-
versities have long refused in-
stitutional ties and have let in-
dividual scholars decide
whether they wish to have any
dealings with the intelligence
agency.
Ramparts, an iconclastic West
Coast magazine founded by Ro-
man Catholic laymen, has been
especially outspoken against
United States policy in Viet-
nam.
Its article, "The University
on the Make - or How M.S.U.
Helped Arm Madame Nhu,"
makes the following major
points:
cThe university neglected
scholarship and suspended its
critical function in society by
obediently serving American
policy in Vietnam and advising
"on the very writing of South
Vietnam's Constitution." One
professor, Wesley Fishel, was
described as instrumental in
helping to install Ngo Dinh
Diem as President of South
Vietnam and selling him on the
technical assistance program
that brought Michigan State
$25-million worth of projects.
At least five men hired byi
the university as "police admin-
istration specialists" and given
"faculty rank" operated In Sal-
2on as a separate unit In "coun-
terespionaee and counterintelli-
gennP." assianments.
lTn helping to train South
Vietnamese internal security,
forces, the university project at
firct "a.ctnalwv supplied them
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