MICHIGAN STATE U. DENIES IT KNOWINGLY AIDED CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82R00025R000700050013-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2005
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: April 23, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/03/24: CIA-RDP82R00025R000700050013-0
BALTIMORE STT7V,,:
)AY MORNING, APRIL 23, 1966
~r e
l ic7 ~~?_ @'n S to to 1 m =~ ?;1 r e
East Lansing; Mich., April 22 t41.
The president of Michigan State
University denied today that the
University knowingly provided a
front for the Cetnral Intelligence
Agency in South Vietnam.
The president, John A. Hannah,
made the statement at a news
conference called to .answer
charges by the monthly maga-
zine Ramparts that the university
allowed itself to be used as a
cover for CIA agents while it was
helping the Vietnamese Govern?
ment .from 1954 to 1M.
The magazine, which has been
critical of United States policies
in Vietnam, also contended that
during the mission the university
bought guns for the regime on
then President Ngo Dinh Diem
and violated the 1954 Geneva
agreement limiting the military
capability of both North and
South Vietnam.
Spy Operation Denied
At the news conference, Hannah
said: ',Let me?state without any
reservations that Michigan State
did not have a spy operation with-
in its Vietnam project. It did not
have CIA people operating under
cover provided by the, university,
or in secret from the Vietnamese
Government."
The university's assignment in
part was to provide advice on
setting up a civilian police organi-
zation, Hannah said.
cct in Vietnam asked the Ameri-j
can Civil Liberties Union to aid'
hini "in action for this defamation
of my character and ? attempt to'
destroy My reputation as a,
scholar."
Hannah said a giiick analysis of
the magazine report "revealed no
fewer than 53 errors of fact, not
counting the gross distortions of
statements quoted out of context.":
The Vietnam project, Hannah'
said, employed 54 persons at its.
peak-about 36 of them from out
side the university, with. 25 of these
police officers.
After the university asked to be
let out of the counter-subversive
program, he explained, the Evith
drawal took several months.
But by the fall of 1959, "we had
reduced the size of our'civil police;
administration division to eight
persons-and this included five
from our own Michigan State
faculty," Hannah said.
In answer to Ramparts' 'query,
"what the hell is a university
doing buying guns anyway?" Han-
nah replied:
"Michigan State did not buy a
single gun. Nor did it buy ammu-
nition, nor handcuffs, nor any
other police supplies."
Such supplies may have been
requisitioned by United States
agencies, but not by the school of
police administration, he added.
? Question Of Ilandling
Would the university do things,
from the beginning that President
Diem was going to have serious
trouble with subversion, and that
such international propects are
who had a background of'intelli-
gence work.
"None of these at the time of
employment were known [by us]
to have affiliations with true CIA-
nor did their records indicate that
they.ever had such a connection,"
Hannah added.
. Suspicions Aroused
Later, he said,' "some of our
.people became suspicious that
some of these were CIA men-
I don't know how, and' we don't
to this day know that they were-
and we asked the American- and
Vietnamese Governments to let
!us out of the counter-subversive
program."
The magazine charged that at
least five CIA men were hired
knowingly by the school's Vietnam
project, and added that "the en-
tire unit operated op an identical
hear-no=CIA, see-no-CIA basis.','
" Last fifp i -M is Ter,
acting dean of the university's
international programs, said the
International Control Commission,
the enforcement agency for the
Geneva agreement, ?"was aware
of what we were doing and never
filed any complaints."
Hannah's -denial that the?univer-i
city knowingly hired CIA agentsi
was challenged by the magazine's'
managing editor, Warren Hinkle,
' ho dared Hannah to test the
charges in court. ,
"President Hannah can make
whatever statements he wishes
Chit he is flatly contradicted by the
facts and by his own professors
and the official record of his proj-
ect," Hinkle said in Menlo Park,
Cal.
Shortly after the magazine was
published, Dr. Wesley Fishel,
professor of political science and
onetinie?chief advisor for the proj.
hi
try
Approved For Release 2005/03/24: CIA-RDP82R00025R000700050013-0
asked..
"We probably would handle
things dierently now. For instance,
now handled by the college in-
Goived-not the international divi?
slop," he responded.
"But, it is unfair to look back'
now and say you would have done;
things differently. 1959-that was1
seven years ago. What looked to
be wise once may not appear wise
now," he added.