THOSE TITILLATING HIGH-LEVEL RESIGNATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201830081-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 28, 2012
• Sequence Number: 81
• Publication Date: March 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

NEW YORK TIMES
14 March 1986
Those Titillating High-Level R~signat i
ons
By STEPHEN ENGELBERG_
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, March 13 -There
is nothing like a high-level resigna-
tion to get people talking in this city.
After all, this is where a shift of
White House office assignments and
the type of plane given a senior offi-
cial.for a foreign trip can set off days
of speculation.
When somebody actually leaves the
Government, vague official state-
ments citing the ever-popular "per-
sonal reasons" are seen as inherently
suspect. Journalists, lobbyists and
players in the power game suspect
that darker meanings lurk just be-
neath the surface of such seemingly
innocuous announcements.
So it was the other day when the
White House announced that John N.
McMahon, the No. 2 man at the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency, was ending
his 34-year career with the agency.
The White House said he was leaving
for unspecified personal reasons. But
the speculation began immediately
and has continued, both in print and
among those who follow the twists
and turns of the intelligence'agencies.
Did he jump? Was he pushed? Was
his leaving some kind of protest?
Critics of the agency, contending
that Mr. McMahon had opposed cov-
ert aid for insurgencies in Afghani-
stan, Angola and Nicaragua, saw his
resignation as proof that those pro-
grams would soon be stepped up.
Tass, the Soviet press agency, offered
a similar hypothesis. And two conser-
vative groups that had been pushing
for Mr. McMahon's dismissal im-
mediately claimed credit.
All of which led Mr. McMahon to
vehemently deny all the theories,
which made some of the speculators
all the more convinced that their as-
sertions were correct.
Goals of the Lobbying Groups
The conservative lobbying groups,
Free the Eagle and the Federation for
Aterican Afghan Action, have been
pushing for a more confrontational
American policy in Afghanistan.
They would like the United States, for
example, to provide expensive Amer.
ican-made arms to the rebels fighting
the Soviet-backed government of Af-
ghanistan. Foreign-made arms are
now provided to the guerrillas on
what officials call a "covert" basis,
meaning the weapons cannot be di-
rectly traced to American sources.
But the t vo groups have also been
trying to build their reputations, and
a letter-writing campaign against
Mr. McMahon has been a primary
tactic.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201830081-2
The groups said repeatedly that
Mr. McMahon was opposing an in-
crease in the size of the Afghan pro-
gram. Officials said his concern was
that more aid would only be lost as it
is moved through Pakistani middle-
men to the Afghan guerrillas.
"We said, 'Hey, McMahon's the
bad guy,' " recounted Neal Blair,
president of Free the Eagle. He said
that as a result of his group's efforts,
more than 10,000 letters were de-
livered to Donald T. Regan, the White
House chief of staff.
The conservative lobbying groups
have had mixed success in getting
people to believe their- claims in
Washington, but they seem to have
had little trouble convincing Moscow
of their prowess.
Tass, in its article on Mr.
McMahon's resignation, said the
White House had been pressured by
"the ultra-reactionary group Free the
Eagle." This assertion is a favorite
theme of the Soviet press, which regu-
larly portrays Mr. Reagan as being a
prisoner of the far right.
Tass also suggested that Mr.
McMahon had resigned in protest,'
saying he had "dared to express
doubts on the utility of giving military
aid through the C.I.A. channels to the
anti-Afghan rebels.''
McMahon Is 'Dismayed'
All of this apparently infuriated
Mr. McMahon and led some allied in-
telligence services to think that the
agency was undergoing some sort of
internal uphea'.al. Within a few days
the C.I.A. was issuing a statement
under Mr. McMahan's name intended
to quell all the speculation.
"I have been dismayed and an-
gered by the reaction of those in the
press and special interest groups who
have sought to interpret my retire-
ment from C.I.A. as an expression of
discontent with the President's poli-
cies," he wrote. "Nothing could be
further from the truth. I must draw
the line when these uninformed and
erroneous reports provide fodder -
as indeed they already have - for
propaganda in the Sandinista press in
Nicaragua and others abroad."
Administration officials who have
I known Mr. McMahon for years say
that there was no hidden meaning in
his retirement and that he had talked
about leaving Government service
for several years.
These associates contend that, in
this case, it was accurate for the
White House. to say he was resigning
for personal reasons. The timing of
Mr. McMahon's decision, they said,
was linked to such prosaic factors as
pending Federal legislation that
would lessen pension benefits to reti-
rees.
It is true, they say, that Mr.
McMahon has sometimes been a
doubter when it comes to expanded
covert programs. But they say he had
proven to be a loyal soldier once a
particular policy was decided.
"Why wouldn't he have left years
ago if he. had such problems with cov-
ert programs?" one official asked.
Others said that Mr. McMahon, to
all indications, had retained the confi.
dence of William J. Casey, the Direc-
tor of Central Intelligence, who is a
leading proponent.of the Administra-
tion's covert aid to insurgencies.
Mr. Blair, of Free the Eagle, is not
persuaded.
"McMahon was right in the middle
of this, and it appears he lost out," he
said. "The indications are persua-
sive."
Asked if he knew for a certainty
that Mr. McMahon had been forced
from his job, Mr. Blair said:
"I can't think of one resignation
where we've ever really known what
happened."
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/29 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000201830081-2