DOCUMENTS DISCLOSE CIA RESEARCH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100330009-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: April 17, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100330009-5
COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR
Columbia University (NY)
17 April 1980
Agency financed covert studies in '50s and '60s
By J111 SCHACIITER
Agents of the Central In-i
telligence Agency (CIA) directed'
research projects at Columbia dur-1
ing the 1950's and '60's. Studies,
previously undisclosed, were both
covertly and openly funded by the
CIA as recently as 1969. Supposed-.
ly independent organizations, in-
cluding the National Science Foun-
dation, were used as fronts for CIA
financing of research. CIA
employees have taken courses at
Columbia-and may still.
These revelations and others,
which call into question the integri-
ty of current as well as former Col-
umbia faculty members and ad- I
ministr ators shed new light on the
CIA's operations during its for-
mative years. They are -culled from thousands of CIA and Colum-
via documents released to Spec-
tator under terms of the federal
Freedom of Information Act. '
The documents --accounting
records, correspondence, research
contracts and internal CIA
memoranda-were obtained as
part of an ongoing, two-and-a-half
year legal action. They tell of an in-
telligence agency seeking to ex-
ploit the expertise of a leading
university; of a university willing
to shoulder its patriotic duty as it
sought funding for its teachers'
and students' research; and of a
time before the initials "CIA"
automatically cast doubt on the
propriety of an academic enter-
prise.
All CIA-sponsored-activities at
Columbia, the documents sugges=t,
were apparently harmless. If the
files tell the complete story of the
university's relationships with the
Agency, then no Columbia pro-
fessors engaged in the "mind-
control" drug testing experiments
that raised furors on other cam-
puses when they were disclosed in
1977. None of the Columbia studies,
it appears, used or produeced
classified materials.
But frequently, the resear-
chers-both students and
teachers-were unaware of the
source of the studies' funding, and
when the researchers knew of CIA
support, it seems, they often kept
university administrators and i
faculty colleagues unaware of
their relationships with the agen-
cy..
On two occassions, employees of
the CIA worked at the university as
directors of CIA-financed projects.
From 1956 until 1969, Thad Alton,
an economist, headed a study of
"The National Income and Pro-
duct of Soviet and Satellite
Economies," which was located in
the School of International Affairs.
CIA association with the study of
Eastern European post-war
economies was classified until
1967, when Columbia, with the
CIA's permission, confirmed the
sponsorship after it was alleged by
the Students for a Democratic
Society. - -
But even then, the university
may not have known that the pro-
ject "was under Agency control
and headed by an Agencyl
employee," as one CIA Office of
Logistics memorandum states.
Warren Goodell, an educational'
consultant who in 1967 was
associate director of Columbia's
office of Projects and Grants, said
administrators "had heard some
stories" about Alton being a CIA
employee. The stories, however,
were never confirmed, Goodell
recalled, and 'administra.tors!
assumed the project was directed
by Alton and Schuyler Wallace,'
then dean of SIA. (Wallace died in
1974.)
Alton continued to direct the pro-
ject after it was transferred in 1969,
to the Riverside Research In
stitute, a private research center
Columbia helped establish when it
closed the applied sciences
oriented Electronic Research:
Laboratory. Still a Riverside Drive
resident, Alton denied having any
part in the contractual ar-.'
rangements that established the.
study. He termed the project "a 1
job we did of which we were
proud." He would not comment on
his relationship to the CIA.
Using the Office of Naval
Research as.a funding conduit, the
CIA supported the doctoral
research of five Teachers College
(TC) students in 1957 and 1958. A
sixth participant in the "Study of
Patterns Which Have Characteriz-i
ed Major Scientific Breakthroughs'
of. the Twentieth Century" was'
Robert Scidmore, CIA project
manager for the study and an
employee of the Agency's Office of
Scientific Intelligence (OSI). Scid-
more was registered as a non-
resident graduate student and ap-'
parently received a Ph.D. for his,
efforts on the project.
The study, subject of a $24,000,
contract between TC and the CIA,'
resulted not only in a published
dissertation, but in an internal
classified CIA report by Scidmore
on the possible applications of the
research findings. The Columbia
study was part of a larger OSI in-
vestigation of "Current Soviet!
Scientific Activities Indicative of a
Possible Technological
Breakthrough." -
A TC professor, Frederick Fitz-
patrick, secured the CIA funding
after the Agency issued an open in-
vitation for research proposals, ac-
cording to OSI documents. CIA
support of the project was
classified. The five doctoral
co;TIxU~D
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100330009-5
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100330009-5
students given $4,000 fellowships
by the project were told it was sup-
ported by the Office of Naval
Research, one of them, Herbert
Stewart, now professor of science
education at )Florida Atlantic
University, recalled.
The CIA retained "final control"
of the selection of researchers for
the project, the documents state.
University rules now prohibit con-1
tractors' interference in the selec-
tion of research staffs.
Faculty members were also told
by Fitzpatrick (who died in 1975)
that the funding came from ONR,
said Willard Jacobson, professsor.ofl
natural sciences and friend of Fitz-
patrick. Fitzpatrick had been -a;l
naval commander in World War II
and "maintained close contacts to
the Navy," Jacobson said. -
Lawrence Cremin, president-.of:
TC, was a faculty member in the
'50's, but . said through_ a
spokesman he was unaware of CIA
support of Fitzpatrick's- project.
The study was considered part of
TC's Science Manpower Projet, a
program headed by Fitzpatrick for
improving the teaching of science
in secondary schools.
Other projects at Columbia were
under less direct Agency control.
One, mentioned briefly in a 1963
document, involved "work" on "69
Hungarian refugees" ati
Columbia's Neuropsychiatric In-
stitute by a College of Physicians
and Surgeons staff member.
The study was financed by the
Human Ecology Fund, which in
1977 was revealed to have been a'
CIA-created foundation. The fund,
which earlier was called the Socie-
ty for the Investigation of Human
Ecology, was used as a funding
conduit for much of the CIA's $25
million "MK-ULTRA" mind-
control research program. MK-
ULTRA researchers studied the ef-
fects of mind-altering drugs on un-
witting students, inmates and
others.
The CIA had informed President
McGill in 1977 that two MK-
ULTRA studies were performed at
Columbia in the 'SOs. McGill later
reported that William Thetford, a
professor of medical psychology,
had undertaken Human Ecology-
funded studies in the theory of
human behavior. The research did
not involve drugs.
McGill said last week he had no
knowledge of a study of Hungarian
refugees but that he suspected the'
.research was "more
sophisticated" .than.:Thetford's.
..Edward Sachar,director. of~ the-:
NeuropsychiatrIe ;Institute-. ands
;'chairman a Yips ineu q
Psychiatry, said yesterday he
would initiateran investigation to
determine the content of the
research and name.of the resear
cher. ' .1
"I thought that. the. Institute;
hadn't been involved with the CIA`
after the early.'SOs," Sachar said.
He later added,,''My heart sinks.",
,-,.-,The ;;The-documents; also. reveal... an
MK-ULTRA project at the Educa-
tional Testing Service (ETS) in
Princeton, N.J. ETS, the testing
service which creates the SAT and
other examinations, had previous-
ly acknowledged that seven
Human Ecology-funded studies of
the relation of personality to test
scores had been traced to the CIA.
But a spokesman said ETS was
unaware that the research by E.A.
Saunders, a psychologist, was MK-
ULTRA subproject 77.
A different sort of front was used
by the CIA for its sponsorship in
1952 of a $40,000 project for what
the documents term "research and
planning preparatory to the com-
pilation of a new Russian-English
Scientific Dictionary."
The project, which also produced
brief . mathematical and
metallurgical lexicons, was funded
"through the National Science
Foundation," (NSF) according to
the documents. NSF had been
created in the early '50s as the
Government's mechanism for fun-
,ding basic scientific research. It
remains one of the major financers
of such studies.
While NSF, according to
spokesmen in Washington,
scrupulously avoids any involve-
ment in classified research, it
agreed to administer the dic-
tionary project for OSI. The rela- i
tionship between the two agencies
was designated "Confidential,"
the CIA's least rigorous security
classification. The agreement was
accepted by NSF's founding direc-
tor, Alan Waterman.
Other documents reveal the CIA
maintained contacts in the '50s
with the independent National i
Academy of Sciences. Ad-
ministrators in the two agencies
apparently sought to avoid
duplicating research efforts by
clearing their plans with each.
other.
Other items disclosed by the f
documents include;
? Columbia's War Documentation
Project, headquartered in Alexan-
dria, VA., in the early 'S0s was "of
common concern to the State
Department, the USIA (United
States Information Agency) and
CIA" and was funded by the CIA in
1954. The previous sponsor was the
Air Force. - .
The Project involved "research
studies based on captured German
and Russian documents" dealing
especially with "Soviet
psychological warfare and
counter-psychological warfare."
The Project was administered by
Columbia's Bureau of Applied
Social Research (BASR), headed
by BASR Director Charles Glock
and classified "Confidential."
? CIA employees have attended'classes-mostly,... . graduate
level-at the university. A roster of
the employees and the studies they
undertook is in CIA files but was
denied to Spectator. Lee
Strickland, CIA assistant general
counsel, explained in a letter that
federal law prohibits the Agency
from revealing such information.
The CIA would not say what years
the roster covers.
? At one point, Columbia invited
CIA employees to enter a special
program in the Russian Institute.
In 1951, Institute Director Geroid j
Robinson wrote to General George
Bedell Smith, director of the CIA,
suggesting that 50 CIA, armed
forces and foreign service officers
enroll in a one-year "comprehen-
sive training program .' .. in the
Russian area." JJ
A response from the CIA in-
dicated interest in the proposal,
but no additional correspondence
on the subject seems to exist.
Strickland speculated, "it seems
quite possible. that some CIA
employees attended the program
in 1951-52 or thereafter." But he
said such records would only be fil-
ed under employees names and
thus "are simply not recoverable."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100330009-5
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100330009-5
.
expiration dote 31 August 1969. According t Dchen in op-
proninately $200of, 0.90 unexpended under these cm-'ii e~iontreote,
e
-
tlon. with the Agency vu bated oo r.... t student desooetr.tloo? to the
ea.pu. of Coluebla Otreralty.
2. Tuk Order No. 1 of Contrast No. IO-2521 with It. soendaeats
totals $510,000.00 ad has . co.pletlm d?t* of 31 Dec?bet 1966. Task
Order No. 1 of Contract Mo. iC-1956 1. funded with $125
000.00 ad baa of
'booted out' of it. Coorr?et. with this Ageoey at the ..r11ut possible
tls.; that this desire on the part of the Oot..e It 1
t
l
LTlel. who Si aLe pro t /I
ut o the cub$ntt Contracts. +lsed'th05 be hod reu1.1
that h. currently hat $115,000.00 of ST 68
food. arallabL . a oo-
tract it being with a new roncrsctor--with a..ddtttooal $125.000.00cof,'
FY 69 funds prograved for future obltg?tioa. ~:- Irl
in far on the Prowr?o?et DS.i.im is co.c?r.M, no pr?emt
sat1on 1e eentevpt.tad uod.r either of th..ubj.et Coetreeb milt _h
tLa as th? Agency .q uceive tonal regwet fret Colu.bie D.tw.r L
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100330009-5