SEASON'S GREETINGS! (THINGS COULD BE A LOT WORSE)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP77-00432R000100380001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 33
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 20, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 20, 1975
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

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CONFIDENTIAL
j -ASUDLA
INTERNAL USE ONLY
This publication contains clippings from the
domestic and foreign press for YOUR
BACKGROUND INFORMATION. Further use
of selected items would rarely be advisable.
19 DECE BBER 1975
NO. 26
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
AFRICA
Destroy after backgrounder has served its
purpose or within 60 days,.
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TV GUIDE
20 Dec. 1975
Season's Greetings!
(Things Could Be
A Lot Worse)
By John P. Roche
This is obviously the week to ask the
networks for a, Christmas present. Not,
of coume, anything which might be
construed as a.payoff, but rather a psy-
chological favor. Please, please, dear
friends, get off the paranoidal bandwa-
gon. It was kind of interesting for a
while, but right now the American peo-
ple have signed off. It may well be con-
ceivable that Vice President Calvin
Coolidge shipped President Warren
Harding some poisoned crab meat-
and Coolidge's alibi was so solid that
it might bother Dan Rather-but frankly
we don't care.
-Sitting as I do hundreds of miles away
from those great opinion centers,.New
York ~nd Washington, I find my views
of the: public need are often very dif-
ferent from the accepted wisdom. My
Tory brethren Kevin Phillips and Pat
Buchanan, for example, seem to think
.that Western Civilization is going down'
the greased chute, while various liberal
.dervishes indicate that, as payment for
our sins, we should be volunteering for
execution. Maybe I lack the appropriate
perspective or conscience, but I would
much rather be alive in 1975 than in
1675 and I don't feel a fearful burden
of guilt about the misdeeds of the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation or Chairman
Kissinger.
- After all, life in 1975 isn't all that bad.
Sure, the death rate from cancer and
heart attacks is up, but (auto accidents
aside) it is hard to die of anything else.
To be specific, in 1675 the odds are I
would be already among the angels
(or-well, let's drop that). The life ex-
pectancy of the American white male in
1900 was 45, so you can only guess
what it was three centuries ago. More-
over, if I were alive in 1675, 1 would
probably be digging peat out of some
bog and living in a thatched hut with
no television to criticize.
The problem with my friends who
think Western Civilization faces extinc-
tion is that they implicitly assume that
in 1675 they would have been dukes,
not sod cutters, serfs or slaves. I admit
a certain anger when I note that my
electricity bill has doubled over the past
couple of years, but then I recall that
had there been electricity a couple of
centuries ago, my ancestors could not
have afforded it. What I am saying runs
up against some polling data that indi-
cates Americans are unhappy about the
general State of Things, but take a look
at the questions. If asked, "Do you think
things could be better in the United
States?", what red-blooded citizen
could conceivably say, "No!"?
So much for Western Civilization.
Now what about all these calls for col-
lective penance and flagellation? What"
about all these efforts to reopen the
"Strange Death of President Harding"
(a book I remember seeing as a kid),-
the puff of smoke on a grassy knoll in
Dallas, and (at the rate things are going)
every other political murder in American
history? Efforts to reassess the guilt of:
Jack the Ripper, Aaron Burr, John
Wilkes Booth, Alger Hiss, the Rosen-
bergs and-at the United Nations of all
places-ldi Amin's hero Adolf Hitler,
seem to be a great growth industry, but
the American people are yawning by the
million. (American folk wisdom puts a
low premium on conspiracy theories, in
general accepting Roche's Law: "Those
who can conspire haven't got time;
those who do conspire haven't got tal-
ent.")' Let us take Eunice Kennedy
Shriver's sound advice that this search
for second guns and third bullets is
such a waste of the minds of brilliant
men and women. it doesn't lift us up..
or solve anything
Well, now that we have disposed. of
Western Civilization and the grave rob-
bers, what about the tremendous cam-
paign against the CIA and the FBI? For
starters, let me note that it you pump
out a septic tank only once every
quarter of a century, you are likely to
find some strange detritus. With that in
mind, the first question should be, "Why
didn't Congress fulfill its obligation to
the American people by keeping these
outfits on a tight leash?" (The answer
is that Congress didn't want to, an atti-
tude that reflected the views of the
public at large. To say this is not to
justify the position: when I was national
chairman of Americans for Democratic
Action I flayed FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover in season and out. Unfortu-
nately I played to an empty house.)
" Today it's open season on the CIA and
FBI and there is a real risk'that these
agencies will be effectively destroyed.
This would be a disastrous eventuality,
particularly since most of the work of
the CIA and the FBI has not been re-
,motely lawless. But as President Lyn-
don Johnson once observed about his
former colleagues on the Hill, "Once
that pack tastes blood, they go wild."
Moreover, if my reading of the public
need (which is knot obtained by lunching
daily with those who agree with me) is
accurate, the American people want ef-
fective intelligence agencies. The big
complaint I have heard about the CIA,
for example, is not that it tried to knock
off Fidel Castro (whom few confuse with
St. Francis of Assisi), but that it couldn't
do the job right! -
To put it differently, the people of this
country are not innocents. While they
don't articulate their views on "The
Necessary Amorality of Foreign Affairs"
in the convincing' fashion of Arthur
Schlesinger Jr., like him they assume
that "saints can be pure, but statesmen,
alas, must be responsible." (Harper's,
August 1971.) Thus when Sen. .Frank
Church comes on like the Avenging
Angel, suggesting we are all neck-deep
in Sin, the average response is, "What
world does he live in? It's- not a bad.
question.
Naturally nobody is going to get up
in this atmosphere of piety and advo-
cate political assassinations, but there
are 12 or 13 million of us who in our
sinful hearts wish that in 1937 some
intelligence agent had put a slug into.
Adolf Hitler. And, those who have read
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's ' "Gulag
Archipelago" must have a similar atti-
tude toward Joseph Stalin. Interestingly
enough, there is an elaborate literature
on the appropriate Christian grounds
for tyrannicide.: From - my reading
of it, I suspect the Angelic Doctor, St.
Thomas Aquinas, might condone an
attempt on Castro as a tyrant "ex parte.
exorciti," for having, promised the
Cuban people freedom and creating a
dictatorship..
Before someone starts " a 'move "to
expel me from Sunday school, let me
make it, clear that I have grave moral
reservations about many of the actions
of the CIA and the FBI, and I trust that
Congress will establish strong controls
over their activities. But let's stop beat-
ing our breasts and moaning over our
collective guilt-things aren't all that
bad. Season's Greetings! E
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NEW YORK TIMES
19 Dec. 1975
Panel -Backs Bush For C.I.A. as Ford
Bars Political Bid
By'NICHOLAS M. HORROCK
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18-The
Senate Armed Services Com
rcittee voted today to approve
the nomination of George Bush
as Director of Central Intel-
ligence, after President Ford
ruled out the 51-year-old for-
rr er member of Congress as
a possible running mate in
1376. '
The committee's 12-to-4 ap-'
proval of Mr. Bush presumably
assures his confirmation by the
full Senate early next year,
but several senior Congression-
aF sources said that the political i
"cyst" to President Ford was'
"excessive."
In ruling out Mr. Bush from
consideration as a running
mate, Mr. Ford reversed a posi-
tion' taken last November dur-
an appearance on the tele-
a~,;eor panel show `:Meet the
'ss." At that time the Pres-
h
i? n. said he would not rule
!'cat Mr. Bush because "I don't
g eople with talents, indi
:uais with capabilities and
:ecord. ought to be excluded
rf:,am any further public ser-
. n,,Te 99
1~ilr. Bush said today that he
had not contemplated his fu-
'ire beyond service in the
?C.LA. Since it was President
7a id - ruling out Mr. Bush as
a gunning mate in 1976, rather
t rA Mr. Bush making a pledge
nc. to run, Mr. Bush presuma-
ij' would be free to accept a
Vic Presidential nomination(
frcm. any other Republican or
D. mdsrat. But there is no!
sc:?:ous suggestion that one will
-~ ; ffered.
illr. Ford's action today,
r awever, was credited with
getting the nomination four
;etas in the Armed Services.
CC mmittee and thus permitting
to be reported to the Senate
floor with the committee's rec-
cmmendations.
Senator Frank Church, De-
mocrat of Idaho, who is
chair- .,an of the Senate Select Com-
ttee on Intelligence and a
leading opponent of Mr. Bush's
nomination, said that though
he would vote against 'confir-
mation, he would not lead a
,floor fight to halt the appoint-
ment.
Mr. Bush said in an interview
that he hoped the President's
action would remove "legiti-
mate doubts of his willingness
to concentrate on.' the intel-
ligence post. He said he had
"urged and supported" Mr.
Ford's decision to take him
out' of the running.."I' have
no worries about my own fu-
ture," he said,
Mr.. Bush said he hoped that)
the full Senate could, consider,
the matter before the Christ-1
Imas recess, but that several;
Senators had told him that itl
Arrangements by Cline
It was reported today that
when the first hold arrange-
merits on the arms matter were
made in 1972, Ray Clfne, then
chief of the State Department's
intelligence office, told mem-
bers of one intelligence group
that he "must keep Rogers and
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was-clear. his-appointment and
several ,appointment
be held
over until January.
Letter to Stennis
From the momept Mr. Bush
was nominated in November
to head the C.I.A.,. White House
strategists have. known that'
he faced stiff opposition from
IDemocrats who believed his
political background was unsui-
table for the position.
But when the committee's
,public hearings on the nomina-
tion opened Monday, the oppo-
I sition among Democrats to Mr.
;Bush seemed, one source said,
"manageable," in the sense that
,the White House "had the votes
to win in committee and on
the floor."
By late Tuesday, however,
the White House had learned
t'tat seven, and possibly eight,
of the committee members
would vote against Mr. Bush.
The nominee met with Mr. Ford
several times Wednesday for
a total of about an hour and
a half. It was the advice of
White House strategists at
those meetings that if Mr. Bush.
wanted to become C.I.A. direc-'
tor without a massive battle'
and long delay in 1976, he'
must be willing 'to give up
hopes of becoming Mr. Ford's
running mate.
Senator Henry M.. Jackson,
Democrat of Washington, who
is a committee member, had
given the President a relatively
graceful opening to deal with I
the situation the day before
.when he suggested that al-
though Mr. Bush might not
want to, give up his "right"
to run for the Vice-Presidency,
'Mr. Ford could simply rule him
out. By 7 P.M. yesterday, the
decison had been made and
Mr. Ford drafted a letter to
John C. Stennis, the Mississippi
Democrat who is chairman of
the committee.
"Ambassador Bush and I
agree that the nation's imme- i
diate foreign intelligence needs
must take precedence over oth-1
er considerations and there
should be 'continuity in the
C.I.A. leadership," Mr. Ford's
.letter said in part. "Therefore
if Ambassador Bush is con-
firmed by the Senate as Direc-
tor of Central Intelligence, I
will not consider him' as my
-Vice-Presidential running mate
in 1976."
The committee met shortly
before 10 A.M. and debated
some 45 minutes in closed ses-
sion. It voted in public session
and the President's letter was
given to'the press.
The core of objection to Mr.
Bush has been that his partisan
political background might
create conflict of interest prob-
lems -for a Director of Central
Intelligence. And a possible
Vice - Presidential candidacy'
raised' the question that Mr.
Bush might leave the C.I.A.
in so short a time that his
service would be, as- Senator
Jackson put it, "merely tran-
sient."
Responsible Republican Con-
gressional sources believe that
the White House made a
"strategy error" in sending up
Mr. Bush's name without being
"immediately willing to forget
the Vice-Presidential matter"
and that it hurts the President's
credibility on Capitol Hill when
he has to reverse his position
completely to get his nominee
through. . .
If confirmed, Mr.' Bush will
be a departure from the kind
of men chosen to head the
C.I.A. in the past. He will be
the first director with a strong-
ly partisan political background
since the agency was formed
in 1947.
. In addition to having served
as a member of Congress from
Texas, Mr. Bush was chairman
of the Republican Nationall
Committee and United States!
bassad'or to the United Nations'
before Mr. Ford sent him to
the People's Republic of China
as chief of tl3e United Stat'es.
Liaison Office,
NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER, 18, 1975
Cover-Up Is Laid to Kissinger
erly informed President Ford. I beal and Brig
Gen
William)
.
.
By Sp NICHOLAS
York Times HORROCK . ( According to C.I.A. docu- Georgi, the commissioner and
The New \ M.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 - ments, an intelligence report: United States-Soviet commissioner of the
group as-
Some 1973 intelligence reports on Russian -missile-silo con- -signed to monitor compliance.
that the Soviet Union might struction was withheld from Under questioning today by
have violated the agreements certain top Government off , A. Searl Field, staff director of
cials and Congressional leaders the- committee, William R. Hy.
strategic-arms limitation Y?
were withheld by Henry A. Kis- from June 9, 1973,. until Aug. land, chief of the State Depart.
singer from certain top Admini- 8, 1973. ment's intelligence office, ac-
stration officials and Congres- The committee staff mem- these knowledged that even though
these officials were not told,
sional leaders, according ' to bers said there were indications' the matter was raised with the
documents and testimony at'a of :"numerous other withhold- Russians on two occasions.
House hearing today. ings" in the files they ex- "You mean the Russians were
Documents produced at the' amined. According to the testi. told about this?" Mr. Field!
hearing showed that' shortly mony, since the."Bold system" asked. "Well, who were we
after the arms-limitation ac- meant that the person barred keeping the secret from?"
cords were signed in Moscow never -knew the information I Mr. Hyland said ere "hold
system" kept pt the material from
by President Richard M. Nix-, was developed, in effect he United States officials who had
on, Mr. Kissinger, then. the never knew that he had not the clearance to read the intel.'
Presidential Assistant for Na- !been briefed. ligence report but had "no poli-
tional Security Affairs, ar- I In the 1973 instance, Edwards cy considerations in thsi area.
ranged to limit the circulation Proctor, de ut director for in- no particular need to know."
of intelligence reports on s p y It was unclear from today's
b p po 1 telligence at C.I.A., became so! questioning just who had the
sible Soviet violations. Among concerned about the witholding! power to remove the names
those affected, it was dis- that he wrote Lieut. Gen. Ver-' of officials from the C.T.A. cir-
closed, was William P. Rogers, ' non A. Walters, then acting culation list. Nominally, Mr.
'then the Secretary of State. director of the C.I.A., that "at Proctor agreed, the Director
The documents, from the[ of Central Intelligence, at that
minimum I think you should time General Walters and later
rCentral Intelligence Agency, and seek Dr. Kissinger's assurance Willian E. Colby. designated
the testimony were given to that he has informed or will the persons: But the memoran-
tile House Select Committee on inform the President of this dums made it clear that the
Intelligence. situation and the concern, it National Security Council staff
The charge against Mr. Kis- generates." gave the names of persons who
A 'Strong Case' could be told or who could
er has also bee made on la' __
c,n
lA
t be to
g
several occasions by Adm. Elmo At another point in the same
R. Zumwalt Jr., retired chief memorandum, he said he would
of naval operations, -who told not "presume" to suggest
whether key members of Con-
a House panel early this month gress should be -briefed, but he
that the Russians had commit- said there was a "strong case"
ted "gross violations" of the for informing Mr. Rogers, U.
1972 accords but that the Sec- Alexis Johnson, the chief of the
retary of State had not prop- United States delegation at the
arms talks, and Sidney N. Gray-
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Johnson informed about" alli
substantive findings on the
arms issue,
He' asked for clearance to
do so and was, in effect, told
to handle the matter informal-
ly. Mr. Cline was one of the
men who testified today.
Mr. Cline said his concern
with the "hold-down system"
was that it did not have "cer-
tain checks and balance" that
would rule out the possibility'
of "suppression of information)
unattractive to policy-makers.."I
This has been the thrust of
,the investigation by the com-
mittee headed by Representa-
tive Otis G. Pike, Democrat
of Suffolk. It has conducted;
several hearings on whether
Mr. Kissinger and others in
government and the Intel-
ligence community could with-
hold vital data from the Pres=
?ident, thus affecting his deci-
.. .
:'s ion-.making.
1vE7d YORK TIlES
18 Dec. 1975
Cuban Party Talks
.Open With Castro"
Accusing the C.I.A.1
I . MIAMI, Dec. 17 (AP)-Prime
Minister Fidel Castro opened,
the First Cuban Communist,
Party Congress before morel
than 3,000 delegates and 86
foreign delegations in kavana
today by listed crimes he said
had been carried out against
his country by the United
States Central Intelligence
Agency.
"The Central' Intelligence
Agency organized dozens of
attempts agains the lives of
the leaders of the Cuban revo-
lution," Mr. Castro said in part
of a long, historical account
of his regime's 16 years.
Mr. Castro read his statement
in an emotionless, steady mo-
notone; it was carried over
nationwide radio and television
and monitored in' iami.
"Leading members of the
Mafia were also contracted for
these ends," Mr. Castr o said
in his first public comment
on reports of assassination
plots against him. ' I
Among the actions to be to-I
ken during the six-day gather-i
ing is the adoption of a new
Marxist-Leninist constitution,
endorsement of the country's
first five-year economic plan
and appointment of new mem-
bers of the party's. Central
Committee.
Friday, Dec. 19, 1975 TH ' WASFOGTON POST
By Genrge Lardner Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Senate intelligence
committee is drafting
legislation to create a suc-
cessor committee that could
pick up any unfinished in-
vestigations early next spring.
The proposal would create a
permanent Senate oversight
committee with far-reaching
jurisdiction over the CIA and
all other intelligence agencies
and with investigative
authority over spy work
conducted by the FBI or any
other federal law enforcement
agency.
Intelligence committee
Chairman Frank Church (D-
Idaho) said the recom-
mendation will be submitted
next month-before his
committee's final report-and
will be scheduled for im-
mediate hearings before the
Senate Government
Operations Committee
"Now is the moment for
reforms,", Church said in an
interview. "If we wait, the
shock effect of the revelations
we've made will wear away."
He said he hopes for Senate
action on the bill by March 1,
the day after his committee is
scheduled to complete its
work. The legislation would
also require action by the
House, since the proposed new
committee would have
statutory authority.
"The committee would then
have powers beyond what a
Senate resolution could
confer," Church said. "For
example, the legislation would
- WASHa NGTON POST
14 DEC 1975
impose an affirmative duty on
the CIA to keep the committee
fully advised of all significant
activities."
Other senators on the
Church committee have
privately voiced concern that
their investigation is being
wrapped up too quickly, to
meet Church's desires to run
for the presidency.
Staff investigations into a
number of areas, ranging
from the super-secret
National Security Agency to
problems of executive branch
"command and control" over
the intelligence community,
have received only limited
exposure at public hearings.
Church insisted that enough
momentum for reforms has
already been generated and
that no further public hearings
are needed. The committee is
scheduled to spend its last 2 ii't
months behind closed doors.
New public disclosures are to.
be limited to printed reports.
"There'll never be a point
where we can finish this
work," Church said of the
abuses that might,be un-,
covered. "We've already
extended our charter six
months past the original
(Sept. 1 expiration) date. The
function of the committee has
been discharged when we
have sufficient basis for
legislation, for reforfns. If
Congress follows through with
an oversight committee, that
committee will have the time
to devote to any unfinished
business."
Colby S,"ores British TV dhow
By Morton Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
C IA Director William E.
Colby went on local public
television last night to charge
that a British TV program on
? the agency was "tendentious,
partial and biased."
Colby made the charge in an
interview on WETA, which
had carried the British
program, produced by
Granada Television, last
week.
Replying to a question about
assassination CIA Colby told
interviewer Paul Duke that it
"is not justified, and I've
Issued directives against it,
and I've turned down Colby declined to provide
suggestions from high of- details. He- said he had made
ficials in the past that that be ' the statement before and had
done. I have no question about read it in print, although he
that. Certainly it should not be could not immediately recall
done, except in time of war, of where.
course... ' A CIA spokesman who
Colby had proposed, a
reporter asked him about the
suggestions for assassinations
he had turned down.
The director made clear
that he was referring to a
period of time after he became
a CIA operations officer 25
years ago, but before
President Nixon named him to
head the agency.
The permanent oversight
legislation, still being drafted,
would put the new Senate
committee in charge of all
laws, including budget
authorizations, for the CIA,
the NSA, the Defense
Intelligence Agency and all
o1ther agencies devoted to
strategic intelligence. The
oversight committee would,
for example, take over the
confirmation hearings for CIA
director, now handled in the
Armed Services Committee.
For the F'BI and other law
enforcement agencies now
largely under the judiciary
Committee, the Church
committee is considering
asserting only the power to
investigate their intelligence-
gathering activities.
The House could amend the
bill to provide for a joint
congressional oversight
committee, but Church in-
dicated that he thought it
safest to propose only a Senate
committee.
. The House intelligence
committee; headed by Rep.
Otis G. Pike (D-N.Y.), is
expected to submit its final.
report and recommendations
at the end of January, in-
cluding perhaps a joint
oversight committee. Its
proposals may run into far
heavier opposition It seems
likely, however, that the
House would let the Senate set
up whatever kind of com-
mittee it. wants.
accompanied Colby to the
interview said he had been
present on occasions when
Colby had made the statement
to reporters, but could not say
where it had been printed.
The Granada Television
program was produced
several months ago and was
shown on public television in
New York in September.
3
A
rweved-FIGF ease .CIA-RDR77-00432F O=0038QQAl.5. ,a-_
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THE WASHINGTON POST Thursday, Dec. 18, 1975
SAL TyDaul
But Secrets Were Shared
With Russia, Probe Told
By George Lardner Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
High-ranking government
officials, including a-
Secretary of State, have been
routinely denied top-secret
information even after it has
been shared with the
Russians, the House in-
telligence committee was told
yesterday.
White House aide William
G. Hyland told the committee
that he saw nothing wrong
with the practice and said it
was much less ominous than
House investigators seemed to
think.
Former State Department
intelligence chief Ray S. Cline
said, however, that he fought
against the system un-
successfully before leaving
the government and said he
considered it `contrary" to
the 1947 law creating'
reating the
Central Intelligence Agency.
The practice was applied to
intelligence concerning the
1972 Strategic Arms
Limitation agreement under
strict rules laid down by
Henry A. Kissinger's National
Security Council staff,
primarily to guard against
"leaks" of such information.
As a result, Hyland
acknowledged, in mid-1973
reports of possible Soviet
arms control violations were
kept from then Secretary of
State William P. Rogers and
other top government officials
even after the Russians
themselves had been told of
the information in two
separate diplomatic notes.
The House committee's
staff director, Searle Field,
protested repeatedly that the
system kept "our people,"
including officials closely
connected with SALT
negotiations and monitoring.
in the dark without any
justification.
"Who, were we keeping it
(the information) secret
from?" Field demanded.
"The people who read the
(U.S.) intelligence bulletins,"
responded -Hyland, a : former ?
State Department aide to
Kissinger and now deputy
White House assistant for
national security, affairs. He
contended that there was "no
particular need" for Rogers or
others, such as the U.S. am-
hassador in charge of con-
tinuing - strategic arms
negotiations, to have been
informed of the possible Soviet
violations... _ _ , _ _. , .
JOURNAL, Lansing, Mich.
29 November 1975
ence Agency.
Some recent revelations made by the Senate's
Select Committee on Intelligence not only, have
been extremely damaging to. the CIA's credibility
but also could have a strong impact on the nation's
foreign policy. .
Kissinger, obviously concerned about the fu-
ture of,detente,policies, told a Detroit audience the
other day it was time for Congress to direct its at-
tention away front "disruptive" investigations of
Field pointed out that the
information was not even
included in the daily in-
telligence bulletins given
President Nixon at the time,
but CIA Deputy Director The testimony at vester-
Edward Proctor, who also day's hearing indicated that
testified, said Nixon was in- Ambassador Johnson and
formed through "other Sidney INC Graybeal, the arms
channels." .. control- agency4s . special
The secret information at assistant for SALT, were
issue concerned the detection b 1 b
t
h
of Soviet construction of
several silos in Jure, 1973,
while Communist Part.
leader Leonid I. Brezhnev was
visiting the United States. It
later turned out that the silos
were not for missiles.
Proctor wrote a three-page
memo to the acting. CIA
director on July 13, 1973,
expressing growing concern
about the information's. being
kept in a tightly restricted
"hold" status for so long. He
said he thought "a strong
case" could be made at that
point for informing, at the
least, Rogers, SALT am-
bassador U. Alexis Johnson,
and the top officials of the
standing consultative com-
mission that had been set up to.
deal with arms control
compliance.
Apprehensive that the furor
over the Watergate scandal
and other problems may have
left Nixon unaware of the
problem, Proctor also
recommended that Kissinger
-be pressed for assurances that .
""he has informed or will in-
form the President of this
situation and the concerns it
generates."
su Sequen
y roug
t up to
date, but that Rogers may,
inever have been.
Both Hyland and Proctor
said that the restrictions on
arms-control information
stemmed from an agreement
that there be no public
disclosures of suspected
violations until the Russians
had been queried first.
The two witnesses also
contended that in practice it
was assumed that the un-
derlings at the State Depar-
tment, such as Cline, who
were privy to such in-
formation, would inform their
superiors about it even though
this.was not, on paper, per-
missible.
Cline denounced such. logic
and said it overlooked the fact
-that a system denying the,
Secretary of State information
he "had every right to have"
had been established.
Although he could have
ignored it and informed
Rogers, he- said. "any
violation of instructions from
the White House were met,
:with great wrath from the
Nadel al Security Council
staff.'-
intelligence agencies and toward an aggressive de-
tente policy as well as a strong defense policy.
. -President.. Ford has also been-stressing that -l
the nation's foreign intelligence system, whatever
the problems of the past, must not be damaged be-
yond repair in the present investigations.
Certainly the CIA needs some regrouping and
a-chance to repair the damage resulting from re-'
cent public testimony about past CIA operations, i
including a series of assassination plots.
The nature of some of the plots apparently-,
proposed but never carried out against Cuban Pre-,
mier Fidel Castro were so bizarre that one won-',
ders what kind of mentality dreamed up such mea-
sures and how they were given any serious .
thought in such a formidable intelligence organiza-
tion.
The CIA has rightly been put through the
meat grinder. But, as Kissinger suggests, it is time
to start trying to put the pieces back together. We
hope Congress will do that, and a first step would
be the re-establishment of a tough, congressional
committee to oversee CIA operations so that such
abuses of power can never happen again. : .
It is also essential that a weeding out process
take place to fire any of those still around who
played any major role in the clandestine assassi-
nation plots. We hope the Senate committee wilt
start moving in that direction soon.
' Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has good
reason to be upset about ongoing investigations of
the strange past activities of the Central Intellig-
Approved' For Release 2001/08/08: CIA-RDP77-00432R000100380001-5
 Approved For Release 2001/08/08 : CIA-RDP77-00432R000100380001-5
Io% Anccleg Mime
Wed., Dec. 17,1975
BY JACK NELSON and RONALD J. OSTROW
Times Staff Writers
NVASHINGTON-The" Senate In-
telligence Committee's report on CIA
assassination plots disclosed that
President John F. Kennedy had a
"close friend' who, also associated
with two underworld figures that
were principals in one death plot.
But the report concealed that the
friend was a California woman. Ju-
dith Campbell Exner,' who in re-
sponse to recent reports of her rela-
tionship with Kennedy has called a
press. conference for today in San
Lego.
Officials of the Senate committee
'Tuesday confirmed published reports
that the friend was a woman who
met Kennedy-then a senator-at
the 1960 Democratic convention in
Los Angeles, which nominated him
for the Presidency. '
She was in contact with him fre-
quently thereafter, according to the
Senate committee reports. It said.
that records showed a total of 70
telephone calls between her and the
White House over 54 weeks in 1961
and 1962.
The woman. was identified by a
committe source Tuesday as dirs. Ex-
ncr, a dark-haired artist who, accord-
ing to her attorney, has been living
in San Diego for the past year.
The committee discovered Mrs. Ex-
ner's relationship with Kennedy
while investigating a Central Intel-
ligence Agency plot to assassinate
Cuban Premier Fidel Castro. The plot
involved two underworld figures,
Sam Giancana and John Roselli, who
the FBI learned were friends of M ,
Exner.
Giancana, a Chicago Mafia leader,
was murdered last June shortly be-
fore he was scheduled to testify be.
fore the Senate committee. Rosselli,
once a protege of Giancana, testified
in secret session about a week after
Giancana's slaying,
Both Committee Chairman Frank Church (D-Dia.) and
Vice Chairman John G. Tower (R.Tex.) denied Tuesday,
.
that there had been "any effort to cover up any informa
to pertinent to the committee's assassination enquiry.
Church said that there was no evidence that the woman
1new anything about the plot against Castro and that "no'
one on the committee thought that the President's person::
relationships with her, whatever they were, were the
r business of the committee.
"We would have been accused of being salacious and
sensational and rumor-mongering if we had tried to go:
into personal relationships and it would have, been highly
improper," Church said. "Any attempt to characterize the
tfport as a coverup is really outrageous."
'"The Senate committee's two-page reference to Kenne
4y's "close friend" in its 347-page assassination report
Went largely unnoticed when the report was issued Nov.
20. Attention focused on the committee's central findings
that the CIA under four American Presidents had plotted
the death or overthrow of five foreign leaders.
Kennedy's telephone contacts with Mrs. Exner were cit-
ed in a section of the report entitled, "Did President Ken-
nedy learn anything about assassination plots as a result
of the FBI investigation of Giancana and Rosselli?"
!The report concluded that there was no way to know
f' sure, but said that Kennedy could have learned about
t se Castro plot from the FBI investigation.
Shortly before the committee's report was released last
month the Washington Post and Scripps-Howard newspa-
pers reported that the committee had established a link
between Kennedy and a Judith Campbell. The news-
ac-o
cunts also mentioned her relationship with Giancana and
Rosselli and said that the committee was attempting to
determine whether Kennedy could have learned from her
About a CIA plot to kill Castro.
The report, however, gave few clues to the identity of
iennedy's "close friend," mentioning neither sex nor age.
That prompted New York Times Columnist William Sa=
fire to charge Monday that the committee "has attempted.
a? coverup from the government's end; the Mafia, by
atiencing Giancana forever, has clamped down the lid:.
from its end."
'Satire, who served in the White House under former"
]resident Richard M. Nixon, said it was "the public's busi-'
tress" when a President shares a close friend with a Mafia
figure selected by the CIA to arrange the assassination of,
Castro.
Church denied Safire's charge of coverun,
iMrs. Exner, who was in her mid-twenties when she first
net Kennedy, testified in close session that she had no
knowledge of any assassination plot against Castro. Rc-
Belli also testified that the woman had no knowledge of
the plot.
"Rosselli could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but
? a source close to him said, "Rosselli became very annoyed
at the committee for trying to defame American woman-
hnod and the reputation of a past President."
The source said that Rosselli refused to answer. some
questions about the Kennedy-Exner relationship.
The committee report noted that all living CIA:officials
who were involved in.the underworld assassination at-
tempt or who were in a' position to have known of the at-
tempt had testified that they never discussed the assassin-
ation plot with the President.
By May, 1961, however, the President's brother, Atty,
Gen. Robert F. Kennedy and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoov-
er had reason to know that Giancana was involved in the.
plot, the committee reported.
Although there was no evidence to indicate that anyone
ins the FBI had concluded that Giancana was involved, the
report continued, the committee uncovered "a chain of
events.... which would have given Hoover an opportuni-
ty to have assembled the entire picture and to have re-
ported the information to the President."
The committee reported that it had evidence indicating
"that a close friend of President Kennedy had frequent
Contact with the President from the end of 1960 through
mid-1962. FBI reports and testimony indicated that the
President's friend was also a close friend of John Rosselli
and Sam Giancana and saw them often during this same
pCriod."
Mention of the telephone calls between Kennedy and
,his friend was made in a footnote:
"White House telephone logs show 70 instances of
-phone contact between the White House and the Pres-
.ident's friend whose testimony confirms frequent phone
contact with the President himself."
On Feb. 27, 1962, the report continued, Hoover sent
identical copies of a memorandum to the attorney general
and Kenneth O'Donnell, special assistant to the President,