RUTGERS RECEIVED CIA FUNDS TO STUDY HUNGARIAN REFUGEES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400330008-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Sequence Number: 8
• Content Type: NEWSPAPER CLIPPING

(0
Approved For Release 2006/09/28: CIA-RDP88-01315R0
X16
WASHINGTON POST
By John Jacobs
washincton Post Staff Writer
The Central Intelligence Agency se-
cretly funneled at least $5,000 to the
sociology department at Rutgers Uni-
versity in the late 1930s to study IHun-
;;arian refugees who fled to this coun-
try after taking part in the 1956 Hun-
garian uprising.
Documents the CLk released yes-
terday relating to its TtK-ULTRA be-
havior-control program of the 1950s
and 1960s and an interview with a
Rutgers sociologist who took part in
the research confirm the details of
the project.
The New Brunswick, N.J., university
is one of about a dozen universities
that have publicly admitted getting a
letter from CIA Director Stansfield
Turner notifying them that they were
among the 86 institutions knowingly .will involve the interviewing of Hun-
or unknowingly involved in the illK-
t LTR. Program.
Dr. Richard Stephenson, a socio`o;,-
9st at Douglas College, part of Rutgers,
.said the research was sponsored by the
Society for the Investigation of Iiu-
anan Ecology. The society has been
identified as a CIA front, but Ste-;
phenson said he did not know that at
the time.
Stephenson said the study consisted
of Interviews with between 40 and 60
Hungarian refugees by sociologists,
psychiatrists, medical doctors and an-
thropologists. Many of the refugees
had come from Hungary to Camp Kil-
mer, then a military base in New
Brunswick. ? .. I
"It was a good opportunity for us to
study people who had been through a
crisis situation," . Stephenson said. "I
wanted to find out"how they got in-
.rolved with the activities of the Hun-
garian revolution."
Stephenson said he was first ap-
proached to do research by Dr. Law..
Pence B. Hinkle Jr. of the society. Ilia-.eie was the "key man." according to
Stephenson. Hinkle co-founded the so-
ciety with Dr. Harold Wolfe. and both
were' from the Cornell Univrsity
Medical Center. Wolfe had been a
close friend of Allen W. Dulles, then
CIA director.
A March. 19, 1957, memorandum for
the record by" Sidney Gottlie, then
head of the Chemical Division of
Technical Services and in charge of
MK-ULTRA, . described what the
agency wanted from the research:
"The scope of this program will en-
tail an intensive study designed to
throw as much light as possible on the
sociology of the Communist sytem in
the throes of revloution. The study
garian refugees..." -
group, whose name was deleted
(apparently the h u m a n ecology
group), would transmit agency funds
and "act in the capacity of a cover or-
ganization." The agency would supply.
$5,000 for one year, and another or-
ganization, whose name also was de-
leted, would supply another $5,000.
Another letter' among the newly re-
leased CIA documents, from a writer
whose name was deleted said: "Only
fragmentary information is available
on the social processes through which
a totalitarian government secures co-
operation or falls to 'secure it. This
means, for example, as you well know,
that our U.S. psychological warfare.
program In Iron Curtain countries IS
greatly hindered ... And now Hun-
gary has revolted gad the fleeing
Hungarians are in our midst. This
seems an Ideal moment to study a to-
?
talitarian system In disruption."
The refugee research was part of
1 September 1977'
MK-ULTRA subproject 69. CI. Direc-
tor Turner told Senate investigating
committees last month that "there
were 149 projects. Subproject 63, the
details of which also were released
yesterday, reveals in more detail what
the CIA was looking for..
- This subproject, with a budget of
$87,621, apparently was concerned
with studying refugees from China.
Its scope, according to a June 28, 1956,
memo, was to look at factors influenc-
ing human behavior ."that could be
used as a means of achieving intelli-
gence objectives."
The goal, according.to the memo,
was to understand what caused people
to "defect, commit treason or change
loyalties," to better locate potential
defectors and to increase "the chances
of defection of various target individ-
uals." . .
Stephenson said . he was . n=
"particularly disturbed" that the CIt1?`
would be interested in Hungarian ref-
ugees, "but I would object to not'be-
ing informed that the CIA financed
the research."
A public relations official at Rut-
gers said the university wouldinvesti?
gate the matter once it receives docu-
ments it has requested from the CIA.
Until then, the official said, the uni-
versity will reserve comment.
Approved For Release 2006/09/28: CIA-RDP88-01315R000400330008-7
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