MARY MCGRORY COLBY LECTURES US ON NEED FOR STEALTH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400170008-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 25, 2004
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: December 5, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Releas~iANNI09i12%qWA-k6tyC8sohYibh00040017000~-5
5 DEC DEB 3.975 t . c, C'~. ! t .
Colby Leda res Us
0 n Need for S tea 1 th
Two weeks to the day after the
assassination report was published,
CIA Director William. E. Colby was
standing in a public place, boldly
speaking for "all of us."
Colby. discoursed confidently on
what "we Americans',' should do to,
who suffers from an abiding anxiety simple reason that CIA covert activi-
not to offend anyone, said that he ty has so weakened our moral leader-
thought the congressional investiga- ship that our open intervention would
tions of the intelligence services, spelt the destruction of the forces we
while "entirely proper" and "long wanttoheip.
overdue," should be terminated. That's what the CIA has done to.
Ray Cline, a former CIA official, 't America. We can only do good by
said, he, too, favored covert opera- stealth. We are reduced to covert ac-
tions. He went on to destroy his stand tivity because of what covert activity
by telling of his disapproval of the se-t has done to our good.name.
cret war in Laos, the Bay of Pigs and That's why Colby is sitting in the
catbird seat. That's why he dares to
i
on.
the misbegotten Chile operat
As Colby had depicted the CIA as speak for the American people and
i
d lame its neu
a
C
l
_
n
ongress
ecture
an enclave of efficient elves toiling
for peace, Cline pictured it as a kind genre for the CIA's few mistakes,"
of university, where scholars dill- And why he can say that what this
gently studied and sifted information,; country needs is a law punishing ~for-
ut at 0- disposal nf-rracirlents_ mer agents for_ finking on the
t,.
p
Pell marveled at 'the presence of comYang- .
our CIA director right out in public.
Only in America, he breathed.
restore the agency he loves to the. This prompted Charles Morgan. of
image he has of it as a -force, for the ACLU, the angry man on the
peace, freedom and democracy in the panel, to growl.that. the only reason...
world..
1. 1: Colby was present was because of the
Colby ,was the star.of a panel on horrendous revelations about his;
intelligence at the "Pacem in Terris agency_
Convocation. The great championof Colby serenely defended every-
covert activities was reapiag.the re- thing: the operation in Laos, the Chi-
wards of openess, His agency's plight lean intervention.
has made him a celebrity. He was .
stormily applauded during the ses- THE MENTION OF Chile brought
sion and afterwards besieged by forth from Church a denunciation so
autograph seekers. In America, to be impassioned it-should have caused
a celebrity is to be forgiven every- him to rescind his previous advocacy
thing. of any covert action...
He had friends on the platform, too. "The Western: hemisphere is not a
Frank. Church, chairman of the Se- colony of the U.S.,". he cried:-"It is
l'ect Committee on Intelligence, could not the right of the U.S.. to decide
not bring himself to advocate the . what kind of,.. governments they.,
banning of all covert activity. He should have. eke. once knew that. We {
could think of justifiable instances, once practiced that. Those were the
said Church, who was on the point off days when we were the most respect-
. conducting hearings. on Chile, which ed country`in' the world. Let us get
is generally regarded as the most back to that."
repulsive of these-secret interven- But he was tempted,, obviously, by..
lions. He also is about to become a the thought of covert activity in
candidate, for the presidency. and Portugal, the one. subject on which
apparently does- not want to be Colby had- nothing to say. One panel .
member, Morton Halperin, a former
thought rash.
ed
by
as ta
ffi
i
l
h
NSC
pp
.
w
o: ,w
c
o
a
Henry Kissinger, suggested that we
do it openly...,
But Church dismissed that possibil
ity. Although public opinion' would
support, it and Portugal plainly 'does ?I -
not want to become Communist, wes
cannot'show our hand..
Approved For Release 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000400170008-5