WORLDWIDE PROPAGANDA NETWORK BUILT AND CONTROLLED BY THE C.I.A.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100010009-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 3, 2006
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: December 26, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

~~ - -- - Approved For Release 2006/11/07: CIA-RE MD131
47'1 ' APPEAR11D
THE NEW YORK TIMES
26 December 1977
` Wo rl ide Propaganda Network
Built and Controlled by the C.I.A.
M I
The following article is based on re-'
porting by John M. Crewdson and Joseph
B. Treaster, It was written by Mr. Crewd-
son.
Not long after John Kenneth Galbraith,
the Harvard economist, arrived in India
in 1961 to take up his new post as Amer-
C.I.A.: Secret Shaper
Of Public Opinion
Second bf a Series. -
ican Ambassador, he became aware of a
curious political journal 'called guest that.
was floating around the Asian subconti-
nent.
"It had a level of intellectual and po-
litical competence that was sub-zero,"
Mr. Galbraith recalled in an interview.
"It would make you yearn for the politi-
cal sophistication of The National Enquir-
er-"
Though an English-language
publica- tion, "it was only in some approximation
to English," he said. "The political dam-
age it did was nothing compared to the
literary damage."
Then the new Ambassador discovered
that Quest was being published with
maney from the Central Intelligence
Agency. At his direction the C.I.A. closed
it down
Though perhaps less distinguished than
most, Quest was one of dozens of English
and foreign language publications around
the world that have been owned, subsi-
dized or influenced in some way by the
C.I.A. over the past three decades. .:: _...
Although the' C.LA. ' has' employed'
dozens of American journalists working
abroad, a three-month inquiry by a team
of reporters and researchers for The New
York Times has determined that, with
a few notable exceptions, they were not
used by the agency to further its world-
wide propaganda campaign. -
In its persistent efforts to shape world
opinion, the C.I.A. has been able to call
upon a separate and far more extensive
network of newspapers.. news services,
magazines, publishing houses, broadcast-
ing stations and other entities over which
it has at various times had some control.
A decade ago, when the, agency's com-
munlcations empire .was at Its peak, it
embraced more than S00 news and public:
information organizations and individu-
als. According to one C.I.A. official, they
ranged in importance "from Radio Free
Europe to a third-string guy in Quito who
could get something in the local paper."
'Although the network was known
officially as the "Propaganda Assets In-
ventory," to those inside the C.I.A. It
was "Wisner's Wurlitzer." Frank G. Wis-
ner, who is now dead, was the first chief
of the agency's covert action staff.
p
ti
hd
i
er than found one or its vwn. ,. a ..--
tern is a going concern," the official said,
"it's a better cover. The important thing
Like the ~lr;hty Wurlitzer
is to have an editor or sameone else
Almost at the push of a button, or so who's receptive to your copy;;'' _
hi
th
k
n
,
e
Air. Wisner liked to t
litzer" became - the means for orches-
trating, in almost any language anywhere
in the world, whatever tune the C.I.A. The C.T.A., which evolved from the Of-
was in a mood to hear. - five of Strategic Services of World War
Much of the. Wurlitzer Is - now dIs- 11, became involved in the mass com
mantled. Disclosures in 1967 of some of munications field in the early postwar
the C.I.A.'s financial ties to academic, years, when agency- officials became con-
cultural and publishing organizations re- cerned that influential publications in
stilted in some cutbacks, and more recent ' ravaged Europe might succumb to the
disclosures of the agency's employment temptation of Communist money. Among 1
of American and foreign journalists have the organizations subsidized in.those ear-
led to a phasing out of relationships with ly years, a C.I.A. source said, was the
many of the individuals and news organ- prestigious French. journal Paris Match.
izations overseas.
A smaller network of foreign journal- No one associated with, Paris Match in
fists remains, and some undercover C.I.A., that period could be reached for comment
men may still roam the world, disguised Recalling the concerns of those early
as correspondents for obscure trade jour- - days, one former C.I man said that
pals or business newsletters. there was hardly a left-wing newspaper.
'in Europe that wasn't financed directly
The C.I.A: s propaganda operation was from Moscow." He went on:-. "We knew
first headed by Torn Braden, who 15 now when the courier was coming, we knew
a syndicated columnist, and was run for flow much money he was- bringing." .
many, years by Cord Meyer Jr., a popular, One of the C.I.A.'s first major ventures
campus leader at Yale before he joined !was- hroadcasting .. Although long sus
the C.I.A. Lpetted, it was.reported. definitively only
Mr. Braden said in an interview that he ., a few years ago that until 1971 the agency
bad never really been sure that "there was
anybody In charge' of the operation and supported both Radio Free Europe, which
that "Frank Wisner kind of handled it off continues, with private . financing, to
broadcast to the nations of- Eastern Eu-
the top of his head" Mr. Meyer declined
to talk about the operation. rope, and Radio Liberty; which is-beamed
However, several other former. C.I.A- at the Soviet Union .itself. _ :-r -'
officers said that, while the agency was ` :The. C-I.A2s participation in those. op-
wary of telling its American journalist- orations _was sroups,.from public view
agents what to write, it never hesitated by two front g groups, American Europe
to manipulate the output of its foreign- Committee and the American Committee,
:based "assets." Among those were a for Liberation, both of which also en'
number of English-language publications gaged in eratio variety of lesser-known props
read regularly by American.correspon- Sandy operations.
dents abroad and by reporters and editors The American Committee for Liberation
in the United Staters, financed a Murdch-based group, the Insti~
Most of the former officers said they tute for the Study of the U.S.S.R., a pu
had been concerned about but helpless to hfng and research house that, arnon
avoid the potential "blow-back"-the pos- other things, compiles the widely used,
sibility that the C.I.A. propaganda fit- reference volume 'Who's Who in i the:
tered through these assets, some of it U.S.S.R." The Free: Europe Committee
purposely misleading or downright false, published the magazine East Europe, dis4
might be picked up by American report - tributed in this country as well as abroadj
ers overseas and included in their dis- and also operated the Free Europe.-Press
patches to their publications at home. Service..,
Approved For Release 2006/11107: CIA=RDP88-01314R000100010009-5