CARL T. ROWAN CRITICS FIND CIA SUBSIDIES HARD TO REPLACE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300210019-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 10, 2006
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: December 24, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/10/10: CIA-RDP70B00338R000300210019-2
CO d S-(At r 2A" e_7
ROWAN
State pretty smart and pow-
erful Americans are conelud-
ins; r'ueiuliy, that the nasty
olds Cent;. al Intelligence Agen-
cy (CIA) isn't as easy to re-
place as they thought.
'r ten who got swept up In a
wave of anti-CIA idealism
months ago, aren't so sure of
their grounds now that they
stand face to face with some
pragmatic problems of nation-
al interest and survival.
I refer, of course, to the.
revelations that CIA was cov-
etily financing student groups
and a ;lost of other voluntary,
or private, organizations.
American indignation at that
dine was so great that Presi-
.1.;.-,t Johnson ordered CIA out
f the "covert support" busi-
ns,^,far as educational,
and similar groups
:1. cet'ned.
as n, high-powered corn-
set about trying to fash-
;,__ e kind of clean,
The committee' has
that Idealistic talk is
The first fact of life that the
canimittee is up against, is
hat the Soviet Union is still
;a,enel%n hundreds of millions
of dollars a year, much of it
covertly, to influence political
nac; ies, labor unions, student
g,:: iz_itions. journalistic so-
ciehes and many similar
s all over the world.
1i tlhr committee were to re-
por t: the whole truth, which it
=:.n'L Ii?ely to, it would admit
that it can't conceive of any
rice, clean, genteel, open-
nn,id-above-board system for
effectively doing what the
C 4 ,vas'.
Let private groups send stu-
cie;:ts to international confer-
ences to do intellectual battles
i Communist-financed stu-
d'en'ts? Well, it turns out that
nti; to money" exists more
I i the tai,:;ng.than in the hour
of need.
More Important, student
groups have a vital backup of
inie: li fence and other informa-
taon about who their. adversar-
ies were, who was helping
so no wiled tile Cli, ',i a;
:i:sidiizin; them.
w'o send American kids off
har um-searura to a "world
h festival" in, say, Prague
well-rmeaning private grotin,
would be like sending Central
High's football team out to
play the Los Angeles Rams.
Then, there is the ugly rcaii-
ty that sometimes the groups
needing a. subsidy are ford; n
organizations in country X.,
whose members do not have
the resources to combat
groups that are heavily fi-
nanced by the Soviet Union or
Communist China.
The groups on "our side"
are eager to use U.S, money to
fight democracy's battles. 1'ut
when the opposition's funds
are given secretly, pro-
democratic groups sini,iy
cannot afford to take money
openly from a cuasi ,u:,iie
U.S. or ;anisatiom--nor Irma a
private group, for that lager.
"Why must i ; ,
c.
Communists .r d,._.s u.:ty u(,-
ties?" someone surely asks.
Lies'!"
Because we want to win.
Sole Americans pretend
that we only play the game
cleanly, not caring whether we
win or lose. The truth is that it
is an American tradition to
win.
This desire to win has been
bothering some of the idealists
on the committee trying to fig-
ure out what to do for, with or
h ui; t11e moneyless groups
they call "CIA orphans."
They have tried to forget
this dilemma by indulging in a
big fight over whether or not
to create a huge quasi-public
commission and give to it cer-
tain functions now performed
by the State Department Cul-
tural Affairs Bureau, and by
tie U.S. Information Agency.
he committee has given
F, William I' uIbright,
D-Ark., a forum for his of
theory that r_:;chanEes of ate-
dents and professors eel oIl e?r
edii cati.oii tland -ul
activities ou#` t to 5 removed
frcrn the t,,i ?t of USiA's
propaganda orientation, and
from the coatamilnti m of
State Department's policy.
But a new commission ret-
up under these ae;uf amish : .
Lions would ~:'.eri.aL,, y h i n ree-
placement for C?. 'For hog,
t :'ui r it
could it
Iectual innenence }.v
students, neighbcts or oi,u:JS
off to do died',
tles with the Cal;:: luc.ats i
The committee t=r:;b: i,;y iii
reach agree C n ?; , nt-try.
But don't von ;ncl e r -,
moment that, it will prosh'ee a
sanitary w: y r it g vi:
this nation's i i! cur ,less in a
mean and sotctc i l- or_d.
Approved For Release 2006/10/10: CIA-RDP70B00338R000300210019-2