ACADEMIC INTEGRITY TIED TO CIA - NSA CONTROVERSY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400280023-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: February 16, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Controversy CPYRGHT
Washington Post?Los Angeles Times News Service One Of the forms this effort took was the domination of
obviously con erences that were called in various uropean cape a s in the
scholarship hip obweighed on President Johnson Wec]neR' 1950's. With
day when he ordered an investigation of the possibility of government funds Moscow sent shock troops of
its own students to these conferences to take command.
governmental interference with the academic communit:,. Few American students, however, had money to go to
The investigation was ordered after disclosure that, for 14 Helsinki or Prague and thus, in the closing
years, the Central Intelligence Agency had been subsidizing g year of the Tru-
?the National Student_ Association.. man Administration, there was deep concern here that the
Indicative of the significance of the controversy, persons United States and the free world could not hold their own in
.close to the CIA were worried it might lead to a curbin?g of the international student movement. e- the orgaiazation's functions and add to its problems in dialing To men then In charge"of the CIA it seemed it, perfectly
natural and sensible thing-to advance the money as a matter
with nongovernnnent organizations of all types., Richard 1. elnis, of national policy to let students go abroad and combat corn-
director of Central Intelligence, was described by Sen. Eli- monism in the arena of the student conferer.ces. There was,
gene McCarthy as "unhappy." apparently, nothing illegal or irregular about it. The step was
Furthermore it was regarded as almost a foregone cnnc?lu_ judged to be in the national interest and it was taken. At the
lion th;.t the disclosure of the clandestine CIA-NSA rcla,i,n- time it was felt that for the United States to subsidize the
ship would course a'sharp backfire on college campuses. l"or studerts opcnl' would have made them appear to be U.S.
many ',.Iudcnts and teachers believe injection of CIA n oney agents and thus much less effective.
into t1-' academic community has a corrupting influence and The fact there was no wrongdoing was suggested Wednes-
undcini: ies the integrity of American scholars in the eyes day in the remarks of McCarthy and Rep. Melvin R, Laird, R-
of the world. Though it bears only collaterally on the CIA-NSA Wis., chairman of the house Republican Policy Committee.
issue, ihcre it ,]so- fear on the campus that government sub McCarthy said he did not necessarily "fault" the CIA, and
yitly threaten, c, decree of-government control over e atm. Laird said: "I believe it is necessary for American students
dnhnEon's action was amroun,-ed by Undersecretary of State to be represented at international meetings. Communists are
Nicholas Katzenbach who said in the following statement: represented, and they are financed by their government. Never
"The President believes strongly that the integrity and at. any time were the positions taken (at the conferences) die-
tatecl by the government (CIA). But these programs should
independence of the education community must be preserved. be rem by the Office ,of Education. It was the manner of
He has directed. a careful review of any government activities handling them and the announcement of the subsidy that were
that may endanger this integrity and independence. %,cry unfortunate, I don't think-it should have been secret."
"lfe has further directed me in consultation with John ? The secret and clandestine nature of the arrangement is
Gardner, secretary of health, education and welfare, and IN-. what causes the shock and criticism in this time long re-
rector Richard Helms to formulate a policy which will pro- moved from the days of the Stalinist menace.
vide necessary guidance for government agencies in their role. In the light of today's ethics it is widely regarded as
wrong for scholars to accept CIA money in any form lest
tionship to the international activities of American educational their motives be misunderstood by other scholars throughout
organizations. the world. This is partly bdcause the main function of the-
"At the same time the President recognizes the great need ? CTA is espionage, even though NSA was not expected, accord-
of -America's private organizations to participate in the world ing to all accounts, to participate in espionage activity. Any
community. Other countries provide substantial subsidies; for link 1A American scholar has with a spying organization, how-
such activities. He has asked me to explore the mean,; inc ever, jeopardizes his ;,w d relations with scholars in other
ass;u^ng.that United States organizations play their proper countries, which-is a serious niat(cr for American education.
and vital role." By today's standards. it would be much more acccptaJle
Isatzenbach's statement about 'the President's-interest in d
tor to entsoabroade-espec llysagencieslwithout thebc ntr versial aura
the great need of America's private organizations to -par- of the CIA.
tic]pate in the world community" approaches the heart of the It seems one of the real slips the CIA made was in not .
CIA-NSA issue. - grafping this change in attitude in time to end the arrange-
A key to understanding this complex issue is to take a meat with NSA before the word leaked out as it now has
look at the difference of the world today from the world of to ti-.c CIA's serious embarrassment. -
1952 when the CIA began subsidizing the. NSA, the coantry's ? The disclosure is already bringing calls for re-examination
of the organization's functions and for closer scrutiny of the
In 1952, when hostilities raged in Korea and the Cold War
was at its height throughout the world, the Soviet Union under
the late Josef V. Stalin was trying to 'dominate the globe
through international communism.
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CPYRGHT Approved :