LETTER TO JOHN N. MCMAHON FROM ARNOLD BEICHMAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83M00914R002800050046-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 27, 2007
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: August 10, 1982
• Content Type: LETTER

EXECUTIVE SECRETARIAT
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Executrv etcrty
 Approved For Release 2007/03/27: CIA-RDP83M00914R002800050046-1
10 August 1982
John N. McMahon, Esq.,
Deputy Director, CIA,
Washington, D.C. 20505
Your letter of 14 July, addressed to me at the Consortium
for the Study of Intelligence, was forwarded to me at my home in Canada.
I regret the unfortunate delay in responding to your thoughtful letter but
it was unavoidable. The mills of the postoffice in Canada and Washington
grind-?aNceedingly slow.
$ wonder whether you have seen an earlier article of mine
in the American Spectator (April 1981, pp. 32-34) which dealt with Cord
Meyer's book, Facing Reality. In that review I raised serious questions
about Congressional oversight and whether CIA could function successfully
under such a regime. I cited the Tad Szulc article (N Y Times Sunday Mag-
azine, 6 April 1980) which described how the CIA was planning to pr6vide
help to the Afghans. Szulc's report was based on a behind-closed-doors
briefing by CIA officers in Senate Room S-407 to Sens. Bayh, Goldwater,
Biden and two staff members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
I would assume that the CIA would not be leaking the details of such an
operation to the Times. In an earlier article in Policy Review 15 (Winter
1981, pp. 93-101), I dealt with the problem of counter-intelligence and,
whether because of its virtual dissolution several years earlier, the
CIA had not been turned around. In the Policy Review essay I wrote (p. 9t),
"To put it simply, the crisis of U.S. intelligence is a crisis of count-
erintelligence." Has counterintelligende, under the new regime, come in
from the cold ? And can CI function under Congressional oversight ?
I am happy to know that the CIA's legitimate powers are
"well:~defined and implemented" to the agency's satisfaction and that there
is, therefore, no need to test the "outermost limits" of these legitimate
powers. Yet will there not be moments, whether during a CI or Covert Ac-
tion operation when the problem of the margin; the borderline, will arise ?
Will the CIA officer in the field, confronted by the need for an immediate
on-the-spot decision, be willing to take the necessary risk not against
the "opposition" but in the light of ambiguous guidelines and their inter-
pretation ? Only you will know whether it is working out to the satisfac-
tion of national security needs.
My phrase, "then we'd be better off without an intelligence
agency" (p. 39, col. 3, American Spectator) was intended as a piece of
shocking hyperbole, a Swiftian "modest proposal." My truer feelings are
summarized by M.R.D. Foot's sentence (The Economist, 15 March 1980) which
I tsed as the epigraph to my Policy Review article-- "The best hope that
the free world will remain free lies in an efficient, constitutional, free-
dom-loving-- but adequatel.,s,,cret7- CIA and FBI."
r s~ 1
kf
P3io
 Approved For Release 2007/03/27: CIA-RDP83M00914R002800050046-1
John N. McMahon, Esq. -2- 10 August 1982
I plan to be in Washington, o.C, at the end of October
for the meeting of the Consortium for the Study of intelligence and then
going into residence at the Hoover Institution. Perhaps, if there is an
opportunity during my visit to Washington,or if you get out to Palo Alto,
to discuss some of these matters at your leisure, if any.
For various reasons, I am rather cautious about the mail
I receive here. Should you reply to me, I would appreciate an innocuous re-
turn address. As you will note my letter is mailed in the U.S.
ours sincerely
A Ai
P.S. I have found an extra copy of the American Spectator, April 1981,
article and it is herewith enclosed.
P.P.S. In re your "I wish to commend the Consortium's efforts at Netter
educating the academic world" etc., etc., that commendation is
well-deserved by our coordinator, Professor Roy Godson, who has done
a remarkable job which, in the present state of the academy, is
too little appreciated by the academy.
 Approved For Release 2007/03/27: CIA-RDP83M00914R002800050046-1
safely won, Esoteric Wisdom might
well become Revealed Doctrine.
The victory of the New Class, if and
when it comes, would not have sur-
prised H.G. Wells. In facte pre-
dicted it! What is nowadays widely
referred to as the New Class, Wells at
the turn of the century called the
"New Republicans." Wells believed
that this educated elite was Best:
to come to power, and he forty
that it would ultimately "take the
world in hand" and create "a sane
order." But prior to this happy de-
nouement, society would first have to
undergo a catastrophe of sufficient
magnitude to induce its members to
entrust their collective destiny to the
wise and beneficent New Republi-
cans. Just what -this catastrophe
would be remained an open question
for Wells, but certainly a massive
energy shortage would do as nicely as
anything else. Prof. Bethe's figures
-and those of the 'National Academy
of Sciences, Resources for the Fu-
ture, and other learned societies-
suggest that . vnl
GENTLEMANLY SPOOKS
There is only one absolutely safe
prediction to be made about Presi-
dent Reagan. 'Should the Soviet
Union invade another Afghanistan,
he will not, as did his predecessor on
a 1979 New Year's Eve Broadcast,
utter one of the most fatuous state-
ments ever by an American presi-
dent, to half-wit:
This action of the Soviets [their aggres-
sion againstAfghanistan] has trade-a
more dramatic change in my own opinion
of what the Soviets' ultimate goals are
than anything they've done in the
previous time I've been in office.
On the contrary, we now have'a
president who knows full well what
detente means to the Soviet Union.
He knows what Leonid Brezhnev, at
the 1976 Party Congress, said about
the Soviets' "ultimate goals":
Detente does not in the slightest abolish,
nor can it abolish or change, the laws of
ceal the fact that we see detente as a way
of creating more favorable conditions for
the peaceful building of Socialism and
A major beneficiary of President
Reagan's politico-ideological aware-
ness will be the U.S. intelligence
system. Nothing concentrates the
mind of an intelligence executive as
much as the knowledge that he is
working for a president who fully
understands that the 1980s will see
the zenith of Soviet military power.
The Carter administration's blind-
ness to the implacable hostility of the
Soviet Union helped to attenuate CIA
functions and, in particular, FBI
Arnold Beichman is a founding
member of the Consortium for the
Study of Intelligence.
counterintelligence, as did Carter's years and years of merciless media
perception that America's primary and congressional exposure: because
enemies are Latin American military of the debilitation of its counter-
juntas. Couple this presidential intelligence capability; because of
blindness and moral obtuseness with its politicization and the finger-point-
an effective ten-year campaign in and ing game in which past and present
out of Congress against the very idea CIA ' executives suggest that every-
of American intelligence-by which I body-Colby, Angleton, Kissinger,
mean covert action, counter-intelli- and-heaven knows who else-is a
gence, clandestine collection, analy- mole.
sis, and estimates-and one can.say ' To put it bluntly in intelligence par-
without exaggeration that American lance, the CIA may have been
intelligence is in crisis. ' `turned around"; that is, the CIA
do not exonerate the CIA and FBI
from blame for the follies and
excesses which were uncovered in
this campaign. Nor do I believe that
these follies and excesses could have
occurred without resolute "blind
eye" encouragement by Presidents
.Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and
Nixon. Under President Ford, intelli-
gence activities began to falter,
however, when the spotlight began to
shine brightly on the agencies. And
under Carter, even routine intelli-
gence activities were discouraged.
The Reagan administration is cer-
tainly prepared to undertake changes
in the CIA and ancillary intelligence
agencies. The real question, how-
ever, is not President Reagan's-
desires, but whether the ailing intel-
ligence system, some three decades
old, can be returned to life and again
become an effective instrument in
furthering American security and
foreign policy objectives. Or is the
CIA at present really as immovable
and' uncontrollable as some people
think?
Indeed there are many who believe
that the CIA may have become ir-
retrievably unreliable because of
may unwittingly be working for the
Soviet KGB. There is no point in
calling for a congressional investiga-
tion because the problem might well
be the Congress itself, where under
the recently repealed 1974 Hughes-
Ryan amendment, eight congres-
sional committees and their staffs-
some 200 people outside the CIA-
were allowed access to CIA secrets.
Let me supply a documented example
of how Congress might be part of the
problem:
On April 6, 1980, the New York
Times Magazine ran a long article by
Tad Szulc entitled, "Putting Back the
Bite in the C.I.A." The article led off
with a report of what had transpired
on Saturday, January 9, 1980, in
Senate Room S-407 ("the most
`secure' room in all of Congress").
On that Saturday, three Senators-
Bayh, Goldwater, and Biden of the
Senate Select Committee on Intel-
ligence-and two committee staff
members met with two CIA execu-
tives who briefed them about covert,
paramilitary operations in Afghan-
istan. Szulc described how the CIA
would provide the Afghan anti-Soviet'
rebels with assault rifles, antitank
weapons, and SAM-7 surface-to-air
missiles and launchers.
sources.are_ brou
relatively soon, suc
ble. History tI
following the We
rather closely, and
ss new energy
`on stream''
shortage is in-
appears to be
l1 ian blueprint
e time remain-
ing for critics of the New Class/New
Republicans-to cha ge its course is
rapidly running out. ^
Now what the hell) kind of security
is that? Who told wlon? The White
House? The CIA? Congress? How
can any secret be kept when some-
thing as significant as the CIA
Afghanistan operation becomes
known so quickly? I have singled out
Congress as the "leak,'' if only
because, as Cord Meyer has pointed
out in his highly infojted syndicated
column,. congressio al intelligence
committe-e staffs need not take the lie
detector tests periodically required of
CIA and National Security Agency
employees. Says Meyer of these
tests: "They are unpleasant but
formidably effective in spotting KGB
plants. "
Or take the recent lamest and con-
viction of CIA vettian David H.
Barnett after he tried q get a staff job
on the Senate and House intelligence
committees. According to committee
staffers, reports Meyer, it was sheer
chance that no job openings were
available when Barnett applied in
1977. Otherwise, in I w of his fine
record and the reco niendations he
brought with him, t fs KGB plant
would have penetrated the inner
sanctum of two crucial congressional
committees.
Security lapses, leaks, and other
faux pas are simply ,the manifesta-
tions of an unsettled', and unending
debate over the future of the CIA and
U.S. intelligence. It's really a debate
as to whether a democracy like ours
which lives by selective lapplication of
the Bill of Rights can justify a secret
intelligence agency, and whether it
can organize an agency which can be
trusted. Cord Meyer has had a
singular opportunity to meditate on
the nuances of the de ate: He served
in the CIA for'26 ye #s from 1951
THE AMERICAN SPECT.A APRIL 1981
 Approved For Release 2007/03/27: CIA-RDP83M00914R002800050046-1
staffs of the larger foundations, the
upper levels of the government bu-
reaucracy, and so on.'' This class,
Kristol goes on to say, is not so much
interested in money as it is in
power-the kind of power which, in a
capitalist society, ordinarily resides
in the free market: "The `New Class'
wants to see much of this power re-
distributed to government," where it
will then have a major say in how this
power is exercised.
ry. .,
But how can the New Class achieve
its aims? To any competent Marxist,
the answer, once again, is exceed-
ingly obvious: through supporting
those movements whose proclaimed
goals would facilitate the emergence
of an administratively dominated
society. As it happens, the anti-
nuclear movement meets the require-
ments of the New Class to a tee. The
movement's program, if imple-
mented, would result in an energy-
deficient society, one in which every-
thing from speed limits to room tem-
perature to home design-and ulti-
mately, to life-style itself-would
have to be regulated by the govern-
ment. Needless to say, the New Class
would do the regulating.
In addition to aligning its with
movements that further'its inter-
ests, Marx argued, a class on the-
make will also elaborate an ideo-
logy which, although cast in universal
terms, actually serves to legitimize
its bid for power. Thus, in the
eighteenth century the French mid-
dle class carried out its revolution
in the name of the "Rights of Man,"
by which it really meant the rights of
the French middle class. Not surpris-
ingly, the New Class is also terribly
preoccupied with rights: the right, for
instance, of clams to live in a
"thermal-pollution-free" environ-
ment, of snail darters to go right on
darting, and of the furbish lousewort
to continue doing whatever it is a
furbish lousewort does. The ide-
ology by which it justifies these con-
cerns is called "Limits to Growth,"
and its ideologues-writers like Rich-
ard Barnet, Jeremy Rifkin, and Paul
Ehrlich-argue tirelessly that our
society must adjust itself to what
Barnet calls the "politics of scarcity"
if it is to avoid ecological ruin. The
immediate corollary of that argument
-that, the politics of scarcity must
inevitably empower the New Class-
is a point these writers invariably fail
to develop.f
fThe most succinct and effective rejoin-
der to the "Limits to Growth" argument
was penned in 1830 by the great British
historian, Thomas Babington Macaulay.
In an essay for the Edinburgh Review
Macaulay wrote: "We cannot absolutely
If and when the New Class is levy
empowered, it is not ir'onceivable
prove that those are in error who tell us
that society has reached a turning-poin*,
that we have seen our best days. But so
said all before us, and with just as mueb
apparent reason. . . . On what principle
is it that, when we see nothing but im-
provement behind us, we ate to expect
nothing but deterioration before us?"
that its hostility to nuclear power will
disappear. Even now, it is possible to
detect two distinct trains of thought
within the anti-nuclear movement.
On the one 'hand, there is the
Revealed Doctrine, preached by and
to the movement's faithful, which
proclaims nukes to be wicked and the
On the other hated
ood
b
u
.
,
.
e g
n to
s
there is the Esoteric Wisdom, knowul of hierophants, lest the rank-and-
only to the higher cadres, which file grow confused; Once the battle is
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admits that nuclear power might not, i
be so dangerous a t r'all, were it to
be administered y the benevolent
members of tble``N: * Class instead of
by profit hungry apiral ists. In poli-
tics, 'however, timing is everything.
Until the New Class achieves its
political objectives, the Esoteric Wis-
dom must remain confined to a hand-
 Approved For Release 2007/0
until his amicable departure in 1977,
held the top job in the CIA's Covert
Action section, and was slandered as
a Communist Party member and even
suspended from his job without pay
at the height of the McCarthy era.
The result is a contribution to the
debate in the calm, reasoned voice of
his recent memoir..
One of the major reasons for the
weakness of public understanding of
U.S. intelligence is the lack of a
theory, a philosophy, a clear state-
ment of purpose to justify the time,
money, effort, manpower, and un-
pleasant strategies required to make
the thing function at all. The reason
for an intelligence agency is not that
because they do it, we should also do
it, nor is it simply that we want to
catch the Alger Hisses in our midst.
In 1979, Henry Kissinger came
close to enunciating a theory of intel-
ligence when he spoke about the
need for U.S. covert capabilities
which at the time were practically
non.-existent: ". . . there is a huge
grey area between military inter-
vention and normal diplomatic pro-
cesses." Or in the words of Hugh.
Trevor-Roper: "Secret intelligence is
the continuation of open intelligence
by other means." It is far safer to
understand a potential' or sworn
enemy and_ what he is up tap __
live in ignorance and be driven into a
crisis where it is war or surrender.
And far better for both sides to
engage in "dirty tricks" among the
professional few than for massed
armies to start tossing nuclear mis-
siles against each other. (It is
interesting to note that although the
USSR has always propagandized
about disarmament and SALT trea-
ties, it has never suggested any limi-
tation treaties on intelligence.)
Another cause of the CIA's trou-
bles has been its old-school-tie syn-
drome. On May 20, 1967, there ap-
peared in the Saturday Evening Post
an. article by Thomas W. Braden en-
titled, "I'm Glad the CIA Is Is Im-
moral." (Braden was Meyer's prede-
cessor in the CIA as chief of the
International Organizations Division,
where he served until 1954 when he
resigned to become a California
newspaper publisher.) Braden's
article with its curious title gave
names, dates, and places of people,
organizations, and publications
which, he said, had been subven-
tioned by the CIA. Braden's article
followed in the wake of a March 1967
Ramparts "expose" of CIA funding
of the National Student Association.
'Facing Reality: From World Federalism
to CIA, Harper & Row, $15.95.
THE.AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1981
I have it on good authority that
several of Braden's associates
pleaded with him not to publish the
piece, photocopies of which had cir-
culated in Washington and New YozJt
well before publication. Allen W.
Dulles, the ex-director of CIA, said
he would never again speak to
Braden. The article created a furor
because it named names in the same
way that Philip Agee names names-
excthat Braden's motives, we because Meyer is
might suppose, were different. Curi- William Colby, M
ously, Braden never suffered for his Copeland, Rampa
indiscretion nor presumably for a EhElichman, Agee
violation of some agreement not to stc'r. He refers o
talk out of turn.t (Meyer, by the way,
says he submitted his manuscript for, '1'A few years later, aden ignored his
CIA vetting.) cheers for the CIA's 'ipnimorality" and in
S
i
1 .~It
lhaut ,
t [town.
makes no reference to Braden's Quoted by Williamldolby,'Honorable
article. It is even more startling Men, p. 443.
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arply critical of
le Miller, Miles
magazine, John
nd Admiral Tur-
iquely to leaks
Ji
----------------- --------------------------------------------------- ----------------
 Approved For Release 2007/03/27: CIA-RDP83M00914R002800050046-1
about CIA activities, which is all well
and good. But these criticisms of
others merely underscore his failure
to mention one of the biggest leaks,
which came from an agency executive
who said he was proud of its "im-
moral" projects. Whether the title of
Braden's article was intended as
deep irony or as camouflage to justify
an expose of labor o f f i c i a l s and anti-
Communist intellectuals and o r g a n -
" M E R I C A N SALOON SI 1U -
tween betraying on ' friends and
one's country.
Having , ,aid all thi I would still
stres_ t Facing Reality is a
valuable contribution to the CIA
debate. Cord Meyer's analysis of
'Soviet strategy in the 1980s and his
inside knowledge about the Soviet
KGB are outstanding, All I wish is
that he'd get rid of that old school
tie. Ci
izations, I cannot say, but the
damage it did to the CIA is unde-
niable.
Yet not only was Braden, so far as I
know, never publicly criticized but
the article seems to have had little
effect on his relationships with CIA
executives. In fact Richard Helms,
former CIA director and then ambas-
sador to Iran, was reported in both
the Washington Post and New York
magazine as guest of honor at a
homec dinner hosted by
Braden an is wife.
It is this kind of behavior which has
always mystified CIA buffs like my-
self. Why should Meyer, who has no
hesitancy in criticizing others in the
CIA for their weaknesses, omit even
a--reference to Braden's article?
Surely he cannot believe in E.M.
Forster's casuistical distinction be-
BARMAIDS
Bad enough the profession is
loaded with mere tads and rank
amateurs-now we have to put. up
with girls!" A comment by a sports
purist? Perhaps- the plaint of a crusty
newspaperman? Or possibly the bar-
rack-room remark of an Old Soldier?
They are all good guesses, and they
are all wrong, because the author was
a drinker on his way home from a
night's serious- work.
A workingman on his way home
from his night out with the boys, he
was referring not to the scantily clad
lasses serving them up in Play-buy
Clubs, airport lounges, singles bars,
sex dives, discotheques,, Studios, and
related alcohol pits where imbibing is
secondary to ogling, but to the
alarming increase in the number of
barmaids in the country's remaining
saloons, pubs, and ginmills.
There are no surprises in an age
which finds nothing sacred but the
profane. But it is stretching the limits
of toleration to have sweet young
things working the taps for brakemen
and boilermakers and sundry other
toilers. It is jarring to the senses, it is
unnatural; it is even absurd. It is as if
you were confronted by the sight of a
male manicurist.
Do not misunderstand. It is, if the
one behind the stick is pleasing to the
eve, nice, very nice indeed. But it is
not the way of the saloon.
attitude toward the problem of life
was benign rather than cruel. He was
a just arbiter when disputes arose.
a patient listener to long and
rambling narratives ....a fair-mind-
ed referee ... always a peace-
maker."
Keep this in mind, and add the
qualities which only the experience of
many seasons gives: timing and
proficiency in the arts of mi:C:,!agy.
The bartender is a man of years, v: ith
pride in his work. He is not moon-
lighting-this is his career. I-Ii l;r: -
the regulars, what they diit,l:. 1 7
what they tip. He knows when it a5
turn to -buy.
Now compare this inestimable
individual to the typical barmaid.
Perhaps typical is not the word. I am
not referring to those superannuated
bunnies, heavy users of peroxide and
rouge, now familiar in many corner
bars, nor to the unwholesome or
simply obscene. I am talking about
winsome, apple-cheeked cuties closer
to cheerleading than motherhood,
and escapees from status jeans
commercials, in their early twenties.
This is a very agreeable sight. But
looks are deceiving. The bonnie
barmaid is doing this only "for extra
money." Or "just fora few months."
Or "for summer vacation." Ask for
anything more complicated than a
beer or.p-rhaps a Scotch and soda
and you are asking for trouble. Only
one in ten knwvs how to make a
proper Bloody i/lary, while none
knows how to make a Fog-Cutter.
Needle-, to say, she is never very far
from the i;6-)age Bartender's Corn-
'u.'. l v of l : very far off the
- tse t +c u,u, e u.ierit legally re-
tot a caeki:vl.
['': yu?tnt;, toothsome barmaid has
:;,, use t. or lung. rambling narratives.
:is fur creaking Lip arguments and
rl:sposing of [outs and bone-bruisers,
;lit is obviously deficient, and has no
recourse but to call for the constabu-
lary, the owner, or a disinterested
patron. She knows nothing of timing:
Either the drinker goes for long
.stretches dry, or he is drowned. The
last swallow of beer is swept away
and the glass refilled. '
Such sloppiness can be chalked up
to inexperience and lack of a real
feeling Cot drinking. But the tender
barmaid brings with her a certain
amount of built-in, as it were,
he American philosopher and
t'iihl. , faker George Ade describes
[he ideal bartender in The Old-Time
)""loo n (1931), a memorial volume
uuhlished during Prohibition: "His
Joe Alysak admires barmaids of the
Garden State.
by-Joe Mysak
p oblems. To wit: She is a distraction,
and is bound to bring out the worst in
otherwise inoffensive tipplers. An
episode: A chap who jooks for all the
world like. a high school teacher, but
in his cup 'yells out, "Hey, where's
my brother's birthday kiss?" Not
once, but three times. Finally the
harried miss behind the bar declares,
sternly, "1 don't kiss irtarried men."
Witnessing such a little incident is
nobody's idea of unjwinding over a
few drinks.' ft would not have.
occurred had the one dispensing the
potables been a fatherly figure by the
name of Mike, I can assure you.
Who is to blame forlthe invasion of
the saloon by giggling girlhood? The
hordes of flaming harpy feminists?
The customers? The owners? The last
is the most likely: The professional
bartender is a dying breed. At the
very least, he commands a wage
large enough to raise a family, if not
one commensurate with his skill and
rarity. It'is cheaper to hire little girls
and boys 'quit out of their rompers.
For one thing, they are more comely.
For another, the general assumption
is that a sweet young thing attracts
crowds. But every saloonkeeper must
know that this is wrongheaded at
best, and pernicious at worst, and
that there is no substitute for
professionalism.
In sum, bad enough the profession
is being mauled by those who
ostensibly know and appreciate their
high calling-now. we have to put up
with a botched job ly the young and
the foolish who never really knew
what it was all about. Having sur-
vived its enemies, the old-time saloon
might not survive its friends. ^
THE AMERICAN SPECTi TpR . APRIL 1981
 Approved For Release 2007/03/27: CIA-R DP83M00914R002800050046-
John N. McMahon, Esq.,
Central Intelligence Agency,
Washington, D.C. 20505
 Approved For Release 2007/03/27: CIA-RDP83MOO914RO -1
r d 7ase 2007/03/27: CIA-RDP83M00914R002800050046-1