DULLES HAS THANKLESS JOB

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP70-00058R000200140078-9
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
3
Document Creation Date: 
November 16, 2016
Document Release Date: 
November 1, 1999
Sequence Number: 
78
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
May 28, 1961
Content Type: 
NSPR
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PDF icon CIA-RDP70-00058R000200140078-9.pdf209.8 KB
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EXPRESSEN AW1?WOd1 o61+ lase 2000/04/13: CIA-RDP71640098R000 LULLES HAS THANKLESS JOB US Espionage Chief May Only Acknowledge his Mistakes Well Paid, but no Medals By Arne Thoren New York ( ressen) -- Successful secret agents do not receive medals; they must be content with the praise of their superiors and, pos- sibly, good pay. Unsuccessful espionage agents are traditionally men without a country, without friends, and without protectors (one of history's most notable exceptions to this rule is Gary Francis Powers, the U-2 pilot whom Presi- dent Eisenhower personally defended). But those who rely on the information and data collected by their spies and agents as a basis for their decisions on government policy can get into trouble. A recent example is the 68-year old Allen Dulles, brother of former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. He is chief of the supersecret CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), or the US intelligence service. Trouble with Cuba The CIA and Allen Dulles suffer from the inevitable disadvantage of being forced to answer for their mistakes and reverses without being able to balance the account with successes and achievements. But even with such privileges, Dulles & Co would have had difficulty in balancing debits and credits in recent weeks: CIA bore the direct responsibility for the tragic landings on Cuba, and moreover supported an anti-Communist action in Laos, while "forgetting" to investigate whether there was any real po- litical sympathy among the people for this action. In the Cuban affair, President Kennedy personally took the main re- sponsibility. But the CIA chief has not denied total misjudgment of the situation and, above all, the grossest underestimation of Fidel Castro's influence and military power. Among the enemies of the US, there was doubtless rubbing of hands in delight over the worries which Dulles and his assistants reaped, in ad- dition to those they already had. The fact is that the CIA is without doubt a very effective organization in many areas. The problem is that, so far, it has not only been responsible for the collection of facts but, to a large extent, has also taken part in policy decision based on such facts. Approved For Release 2000/04/13 : CIA-RDP70-00058R000200140078-9 Approved For Release 2000/04/13 : CIA-RDP70-00058R000200140078-9 It Costs Money The CIA was established in 1947. Its mission was to work in close cooperation with the so-called National Security Council, which in turn must advise the President for the purpose of coordinating domestic, foreign and military policies. The CIA was given the mission to coordinate intelligence activity in all departments, to evaluate the result, and furthermore to be at the service of the Security Council for such tasks as sabotage, espio- nage, and counterespionage. Allen Dulles has been head of the CIA since 1953, and he was the first in a top post to be reappointed by President Kennedy after the latter took office in January. The CIA has access to enormous sums of money each year, but where this money goes and what results the expenditures yield are matters of absolute secrecy. There is no committee in Congress authorized in any way to "audit" the CIA operation. Certain members of Congress now and then receive some information about what goes on. But none is given an over-all picture. All told, the CIA is reported to have about 30,000 employees. Its headquarters are in Washington, where it has Just acquired a new, huge building. Only a few officials besides Dulles are identified as con- nected with the CIA. The man next in line after Dulles is Air Force General Charles Cabell. On the "espionage side," the work is directed by Robert Amory Jr.; and the chief on the propaganda and guerrilla side is Richard Bissell Jr. Allen Dulles himself has occasionally complained that he is the head of an "absolutely hush organization." "?] Sometimes, I should perhaps have liked to advertise my wares, but that is naturally out of the question, given the work we do. Our dreams of public relations must give way to security in our work. ["?] Even inside the CIA, secrecy is preserved as far as possible. Secretaries and other subordinates are instructed to say that they work for the "Army," and employees who receive inquiries from colleagues in other departments must always ask themselves "does he need to know the right answer?" before giving out information. , An Effective File Just as very little information is available on the number of people who work for CIA, who they are, and what they do, little is known about their achievements. It is only the big reverses which are publicized. Approved For Release 2000/04/13 : CIA-RDP70-00058R000200140078-9 MAY 2 8 1961 Approved For Release 2000/04/13 : CIA-RDP70-00058R000200140078-9 Among the CIA's known and most prized exploits was that of a communica- tions expert who in 1955, while studying a map of Berlin, discovered that the Soviets' main telephone cable, at one point, was only 300 meters re- moved from a US radar station. A tunnel was quickly dug, and all Soviet telephone conversations tapped for several months before the tunnel was discovered. New personnel are subjected to an extremely thorough investigation before they are employed; for instance, it is an invariable rule that everyone must take a lie-detector test. It has been found that the lie- detector does not primarily serve to expose liars, but rather that the presence of such an instrument automatically makes everyone tell the truth. The CIA has a file which is thought to be the largest and most ef- fective in the world. It makes available everything from detailed in- formation about persons in Germany, Iran,. or Thailand to information about the quality of tractors in the Ukraine or guns from Bofors. The events in Cuba and Laos caused President Kennedy to set up a special committee to investigate all CIA activity. The President has called upon General Maxwell Taylor to head the committee; Taylor's as- sistants are Attorney General Robert Kennedy and CIA Chief Dulles him- self. It is expected that Taylor-Kennedy will come forth with a proposal that CIA's purely political activity be sharply curtailed. And as soon as President Kennedy has found a successor to Dulles, the latter is ex- pected to retire. The CIA has run into stormy weather, but it is only a matter of getting the vessel back on an even keel; its activity is much too valu- able to the US for it to be endangered by organizational weaknesses of a series of faulty evaluations of available data. Caption under three pictures accompanying the article: Three key figures in the U-2 incident: left, pilot Francis Powers in court during the great Moscow trial; center, Khrushchev waves the evidence in the air; and right, espionage chief Allen Dulles, brother of US's former Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles. When an espionage agent fails, he is traditionally a man without a country, without friends, and without protectors. Once it happened that an agent was publicly defended by a statesman. That statesman was Eisenhower, who personally came to the defense of Powers. Approved For Release 2000/04/13 : CIA-RDP70-00058R000200140078-9 MAY 2 8 1961