LETTER TO THE HONORABLE J. W. FULBRIGHT FROM LARRY HOUSTON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01720R000500030049-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2004
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: April 8, 1966
• Content Type: LETTER

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DRAFT
OGC, LRH: jeb
8 Apr 66
I have received your letter of March 31, 1966 concerning
the article on the Vietcong by George A. Carver, Jr. in a recent
issue of Fore}#n Affairs. is. It is correct that there was no indication
in the magazine of his employment by the Central Intelligence Agency,
an assumption by the reader that Mr. gency?
Carver was writing for
himself and not for the Administration would also be correct.
The Honorable J. W. Fulbright
Dear Senator Fuibright:
Mr. Carver has known the editor of foreign Affairs for
a
long time and had in fact written an article for that magazine about
a year ago on the subject of
He was asked by the editor if he would do another article on the
historical development of the Vietcong because the editor was aware
of Mr. Carver's long interest in and knowledge of the area.
Agency regulations do not prohibit publication by employees
of matters within their professional competence, provided there
is no violation of security. Mr. Carver submitted his article for
the required security review and security approval was given, but
the Agency did not encourage or discourage Mr. Carver in connection
on
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with writing an article. Likewise, the Agency neither approved
nor disapproved of the article.
As to whether Mr. Carver used the information available
to him only by reason of his employment, it should be noted that
long
Mr. Carver has specialized in the Vietnamese area aver a/period,.. _;
for a number of years during which time he was an employee of
the United States Government. He also spent a great deal of his
own time studying the situation in Vietnam, the Far East, and
Southeast Asia generally. How much of the information in the article
was apcquired through his own efforts and how much by virtue of
his employment, no one can say, but subject only to security require-
ments this would not appear to make much difference.
As to your question whether the Agency would have approved
the article if it had been critical of the Administration's policy,
I repeat that the Agency neither approvesmr disapproves of such
articles. But, in fact, the article in question does not comment
on U. S. policy. It is a historical treatise by a careful student of
the problem. Therefore, whether Mr. Carver would have been free
to write a critical article for publication is not at issue. In this
connection, the Agency's reaction to an article by an employee
which is critical of the Administration would depend entirely on the
circumstances of any one case. If an employee were to write for
publication on a theme which supported your own ideas critical of
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the Administration, I believe he "would be free to do so although
I also believe we would be inclined to review his objectivity as an
intelligence analyst. Obviously, an article by an employee in the
vein of a Birchite or Daily Worker smear of the Administration
would raise a definiteq estion as to his suitability for continued
employment.
Since Mr. Carver did the article on his own time as a
personal matter, he saw no reason to put in his official connection
with the Government, although no attempt was made to conceal
his employment when an inquiry was made by the newspapers.
A number of other Agency employees have written for pi blication
in their fields of technical competence subject only to the security
clearance by the Agency. These have ranged from articles on
technical and scientific matters to economics and history. In
some instances articles have been written in response tote quests
from congressional committees and are published by these com-
mittees as their own with full knowledge of the fact that the author
is employed by the Agency but without attrib .ition to the Agency.
You ask how this kind of activity is related to the role of
the Agency as an information-gathering institution. While the
Agency does have some collection responsibilities, its primary
statutory duty is to correlate and evaluate intelligence relating to
the national security and provide for the appropriate dissemination
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of such intelligence within the Government. I find nothing inconsistent
in this responsibility with publication by individual employees of
articles, even though at least a portion of the information is acquired
by virtue of his employment. If we are to continue to attact able,
intelligent employees in the essential work of this Agency, we cannot
stifle their desire to express themselves so long as the national
security is not involved. In fact, I am not aware under what
authority we could attempt to prevent such publication except
as noted above in those cases where the nature of a publication
might question the employee's fitness for further employment.
Sincerely,
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 JOHN SPARKMAN. ALA.
MIKE MANSFIELD. MONT.
WAYNE MOREL, OREG.
RUSSELL E. LONG. LA.
ALBERT GORE. TENN.
!RANK J. LAU:SCHE, OHIO
!RANK CHURCH. IDAHO
STUART SYMINGTON, MO,
THOMAS J. DODD. CONN.
JOSEPH $. CLARK. PA.
CLAIBORNE FELL, R.I.
EUGENE J. MC.CARTHY. MINN.
SOURKE K. HICKEN LOOPER. IOWA
GEORGE D. AIKEN, VT.
FRANK CARLSON. KANS.
JOHN J. WILLIAMS. :. DEL.
KARL K. MUNDT, DAK.
CLIFFORD F. CASE. N.J.
CARL MARCY. CHIEF OF STAFF
ARTHUR M. KUHL. CHIEF CLERK
Cn feb zfafez Zonate
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
March 31, 1966
The Honorable William F. Raborn
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington 25, D. C.
Dear Admiral Raborn:
I have seen press reports to the effect that
George A. Carver, Jr., the author of a recent arti-
cle in Foreign Affairs on the Vietcong, is an em-
ployee of fie -Central--Intelligence Agency. There was
no indication of that fact in the magazine and it
would be logical for the reader to assume, therefore,
that Mr. Carver was writing for himself and not for
the Administration.
This raises questions in my mind, as to the role
of Agency employees in engaging in activities designed
to influence foreign policy attitudes in the United
States. For example, was Mr. Carver encouraged by
the Agency to write this article? Did Mr. Carver use
information available to him only by reason of his em-
ployment? Did the Agency approve the article? Would
the Agency have approved the article if it had been
critical of Administration policy? Would Mr. Carver
have been free to write a critical article for publi-
cation? Why was Mr. Ca2ver's official connection with
the Government not made public?
arti-
How hefield Agency have
cles in in their
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United States without attribution? How is this kind
of activity related to thl_ role of the Agency as an
information gathering institution?
I would appreciate very much having your com-
ments on these questions and a statement of Agency
policy on this matter.
Sincerely yours,
aT, r'ulbrigj
Chairman
Enclosures
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 SEND_ E_ R yy~LL CHECK CLASSIF[ ION
F 0
SECdET
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
OFFICIAL ROUTING SLIP
Remarks :
George:
Attached you will find a draft letter to
Fulbright done by Larry Houston. In
addition, I have made some modifications.
I will be in touch with you this afternoon
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