THE SECRET GOVERNMENT STRATEGY TO CHANGE THE WORLD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100560002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 1, 1975
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100560002-1
OUT
G0`,I_' .IiNT )lTFZ_STFC~_ T3 : Ai.I -j" `- DT t,P
spa. :Glu e~.t1ia
On': Scptember. 11;.1973, a ;.
band - of :.right-wing -generals
overthrew the popularly elect
ed socia Iist --government of
Chilean president . Salvador
?Ailende and set -in motion-' an
unprecedented reign of terror.-
The events leading - to': the
coup' bad' been .strange' and
"dramatic. `.Upper-middle-class
housewives ' had = marched
through' the streets- banging'
pots and pans in protest, of.:
:Allende's ;economic measures
-and on :the eve of the coup,'.
the country was `virtually, pat--
owners. ? "
W e , ;
the:
United States govern'i- en: not.
oniy looked approvi ,-on''
the' coup itself but that it fr
nanced - the truck rtners
:strike and the so-c:'_ d %'ach:
.of the Pots, as, w a a host .
of . other protestsa:i of'
.Which `..e time,
sporltaneous._-CL- - L- ctor,
William E.: Colby? the -man'
whose agency aid -most of the
financing,::.has`-'charts terized
the U. S. .contribution 'to Al.;'
i Jende's downfall as a policy
of.. "destabilization." Desta-
bilization, is twice as many
syllables as it takes to say sub-
version,-but is not different in
other significant, ways.
.:.This : policy-=-as ? well ~ as
plans to - assassinate certain
Latin ,leaders-had been de-
,eloped in:a--sess'ion of a top-
'secret war game. known to
'.classified Washing on as po-
LITrcA. `The, game 'makes .-it
'possible forAmerican counter
'insurgency experts to think
to undermine. leftist parties
sand nationalist :.movements..
'and .ultimately`?to:-.overthrow
.governments -throughout ;the
It is. ray belies that r'oLrri
cA was?used'to-plan the coup
in, Chile,'.'' says-- Daniel ' Del
Solar, the social scientist.who
designed the' project.; while
working ;for a Massachusetts
think:-tanle called Abt?-Asso-
ciates. 'I am certain of this by
.
extension of. the-fact that the
game was paid for.[by the De-
fense _ -.Department].:?,When-. a.
war isplanned, every instru-
ment is examined and: tested.
The- news from Chile seemed .
too fatrti iar to ine These are
the --kinds of events"that; are
. the gist of POLrczcA'-':.
>^or - I S Years, the United
-States. has been secretly in,the
business of exporting counter-
revolution,_, to those ;Latin
-American an and Asian nations
where nationalists, leftists and
can elements--have-, gained in:
strength .and :popularity We
have 'exported stri es,;riots,
-torture, kidnaping ' and -assas
sination---anything; in . fact,
..that is likely, to result in strife
in the victim nation.",;-'*
-.The strategy was . formu-
lated in the early Sixties,
when John -. F. ' Kennedy
brought to Washington such'
men as Walt W.. Rostov, an
MIT. professor. and interns=
tional-affairs expert.- Rostov
perceived that communism ?
was .-spreading around.- the
globe- by means of guerrilla
wars of national liberation;
other'-Kennedy advisors, were was to create a U -'.'R- `Arm
senhower Administration pol- Green .Berets-that would go
icies of ;brinkrnanship ,and off :to the..
Jung 6, and slug it
massive retaliation .whereby out"tree to -tree: with peasant
every petty-foreign-crisis-was terrorists, :on- Mau.: His
seen.; to lead ultimately , to second initiative was.tne re
a confrontation between: the furbishing ,; of a- little-known
United. -States and' the Soviet ard?highly .unusual Pentagon
Union and a test of Arri` rica's department=' called th
Ad
e
-
ability and, willingness to blast, vaned;' Research' Projects
Russia to ashes and vice versa Agency ARPA was formed in ;
Rostow described `4Ho Chi '1958-4o develop defense tech-
Minh's and Che Guevara's nology and bythe.time ken-
work~- as communism, nedyca-me to`power, its bright
and in theatmosphere"of early staff-of civilian scientists had
Sixties Washington:=with Cas -brought the burgeoning pri-
tro' `guerrillas ',in.-charge in vase think-tank'.complex into
Cuba and 'insurgent ;move hne with the 'Pentagon by
meats hard at rt ;ins :Laos handing them grants' for the
and South Vietnam-Rostow: study of ballistic=missiles, nu
-
found a ;receptive --;audience ciearbombs and other dooms-
among the.- ambtttous young day-weaponry x- McNamara
intellectuals; of the;Xenne turned < ARPA away from
dy .Adminisiratloa.,What-the massive retaliation to focus or.
.U. S. needed, they argued, was flexible response
that would "make it possible to The .first top-secret re-
fight limited wars ?agatnst un- sear ch-and-development pr oj-
ruly ' uerriIlas while at?: the ect.launched by McNamara's
same: ttm holding nuclear r
' eoriented RPA-was code-
~ weaponsrnreserve as'a-des-; named Ag.Aile Its' original
perate last measure-As-David mandate: was `to'develop new
Hal bcrsta1",,"rate in The. Best battle. field`te hnology fo- the -
and -the -B?ightert,`_ the defiri-; Green `Berets=-such _ as tnc
itive study -of s the : Ken AR-15 rifle and radios caoa-
nedy; men; , Suddenly-; the' ble:of operating in a junrie
stopping of, guerrilla .warfare' climate-=-but,:soon Agile Was
became a great fad.-: also ,looking into ps'. cho-
The natural choice to make. logical warfare,. electronic in-
the policy of flexible response -telligence gathering and other
operational; was Defense Sec ways of transforming counter
retary Robert S: McNamara,, insurgency "from ;. haphazar'
the. former Ford Motors pres-: clandestine :operations into a
ident who had suddenly begun. sophisticated social science.
describing wars: of national .:One-_A_gile ?.contrac for
liberation as nothing less than example, resulted in the or-
'insurrection, subversion and, velopnient: of a hamlet-eva1u-,
covert. :armed
aggression." ation
that graded tic
system
:
;
-
these wars, said Rostow.-and McNamara's?: 'first initiative- allegiance of Vietnamese vi
continutLd
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100560002-1
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/11: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100560002-1
(Iages'. to,tie regime in Saigon.: Ito be evaluated by compater
Tihd'.low t grade _was VC._::
fors alle ante ,to.:3the
C ong;'-a illage so-graded be-
came a ;free-fire zone, '.and : .
U. S., air`'and artillery;-forces
were' en' uraged- to 'blow the---
village t :smithereens. But
Vietnam was =not : the only
area-`of' Bile's -:concern.- :A
major thr t of .the new policy.
was to:" rotect ' the-. United
States fr ? getting caughtin.'
another ietnam-style insur-
Mercy sit anon
In the early Sixties, Rostow,
returned rom: a trip jd. Latin,
America-: and , reported -10' ; a
State'._D partment:' plannidg-.
group at `` certain.-.: South
American, nations, dlosely -re ;
sembled- ietnard..The.Foggy;
Bottom -d plomats,are'saidto
'have ch riled at . "Rostow s
cruus . eq ation,t but', Ros tow
was =.not:: inkan of sirnrlan
ties in'c ture or herktage:?He 4 '
was think gof similarly vole
tile) and`nstabie`political sit
uations.`.I .was Lot long.after-'
'ward the Agile. spun 'off -yet.
another t secret operation=
7this desi ned:.to-avert:future ,
problem. situations; in- Latin'
America:::
The ::p
oject, 'founded in
1963,'wa
one'of it
arm resCa
naires' an
lected Lat
called Came-'M, and
first :actions was to':
chers with question-
l. send them to . se
The questions'-were designed
to :.gauge lthe` tendencies and
nuances of a 'nation's -politics,,
across t ee~. social'- spectrum.-
The -, salint '.question to.-be
asked of unwary subjects was'.
back in the United States.
Camelot was the.. perfect
example of-the new ARPA
amalgam of. espionage": and .
sociology,-but; like -the myth
ical kingdom, and the. real ad-
ministration frornwhich ittook
its `nanie,''it-.was. star-crossed
from the start