EXPERTS DEBATE COVERT CIA ACTIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100040051-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 2011
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: April 3, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/03/08: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100040051-3
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PACE
ILE ONLY
Experts debate covert CIA actions
by Rabat Lothian
Nasty covert actions are necessary to
save dernnoc=acy, according to &k-
- a former CIA offidal from
% H*M. Gregor.
But what the CIA is, doing in Nica
ragua and a host of other countries
around the world is a form of "state-
sponsored terrorism" said P.S.U. politi-
cal sdenoe professor Gordon Schloming.
Stepha son and Schloming squared
off at a World Affairs Council-
sponsored debate on the ethics of U.S,.
secret involvement in toppling gov-
ernments, rigging elections and other
undercover operations.
Schloming cited a number of cases
where, in his opinion, CIA activities
went astray.
Covert operations in what was
once the Congo in the 1960s contrib-
PORTLAND OBSFRVFR (OR
3 April 1985
uted to the defeat of a national liber-
ation struggle there and the assassina-
tion of African nationalist leader Pa-
trice Lamumba, said Schloming.
Zaire was wed in the Congo's
place Now Mobutu, Zone's authori-
tarian president, is "starving half
the country's people," according to
Schloming.
In Angola, he said, 100,000 lives
have been lost in the struggle by CIA-
backed rightists'. to defeat the An-
golian revolution.
Guatemala, )ran and Chile have
had popularly.,,ected governments.
toppled as a result of CIA covert
actions, said cS i omm~" g.mexico,
Indonesia, Pakistan, The Philippines
and Australia have also,been victimized
by the CIA, he said.
In some cases, said Schloming,
"the same result took place as if we
had not done a thing."
In Viet Nam, for example, he said,
the national liberation movement led
by HoChi Minh won anyway after
nearly 20 years of covert actions and
all-out war, billions of dollars wasted
and over a million lives lost.
"You cannot create a genuine na-
tionalism as an outside power," he
said. "Ho Chi Minh was destined to
rule."
Schloming said that on several oc-
casions the CIA misled the American
public in the interest of national se-
curity. He cited two false stories plant-
ed in the press by the CIA: the one
about Libyan hit squads headed to-
ward the U.S. and another about
massacres in Angola carried out by
Cuban solditPs.
In Nicaragua, the so-called CIA
*ret war there is "a weak substitute
for foreign policy when the public will
riot support U.S. intervention," he
said.
"It doeds not work to fight terror-
ism with terrorism," said Schloming.
But "not all the actors on the world
I me are boy scouts," answered Ste-
phenson. Democracy is under attack
:fin all sides and faces defeat in a few
~*ort decades, according to Stephen-
n. Covert actions are necessary to
meat democracy's enemies, he said.
" "We have to do things we find
pugnant. If we stay pure and clean,
Mn tdemocracy's fate will be decid-
hds"
"Without . secrecy the operations
Almost certainly will fail."
Stephenson alluded to democracy's
"inherent weaknesses," like free
speech, v hich allows enemies to or-
ganize freely. He implied that it might
be necessary to destroy democracy a
little in order to save it. /'-
Approved For Release 2011/03/08: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100040051-3