MCGILL AND THE AGENCY: RECRUITED BUT NOT SIGNED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403900010-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: April 18, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403900010-6
COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR
Columbia University (PiY)
18 April 1980
President 'McGill has been a from the CIA that professor, at
subject of the CIA's attention' his institution had worked on
since his years as, a Harvard- projects in the Agency
L raduate student. MKULTRA program.
In 1953, McGill said. in a re- He initiated an investigation,
cent interview, he received a`,''. based on documents the CIA
later from Virginia asking him provided, to determine who at
ro attend an employment inter= 'Columbia had been involved in
Niew in Boston. A second letter: the studies of mind-altering
identified the ' potential em- drugs and related personality
pioyer as the CIA. McGill, who control research. (Professor
then was completing his Ph.D. William Thetford's studies,
in psychology, wasn't interest- described in the accompanying
ed. - article, were those involved.)
About six years later,. when . McGill corresponded with
?McGill was an assistant pro- CIA Director Adni. Stansfield
tessoi? at Columbia, lie got a call, Turner through the fall of 1977,
asking him to go to a midtown in an effort to expose all possi-
"lanhattan office. This was just ble links between the university
before tie was to make a trip to and the Agency. That exercise,
i.urope for an academic meet and his previous contacts, in-
i,hy, spired McGill's fascination with
McGill recalled that he went the CIA's work. Ile is philo- It
office and "was then sophical about the ultimate of-
'o the
hriefed by a woman who told forts of the Agency's contact
;ne they were the CIA." The, with the academic world.
ia;ency, he said, "wanted me to. "The real evil that the CIA
tell them who represented the has let loose on us is that by
.ioviet Union at the meeting I engaging in these sort of ac-
1.111a s to attend." tivitics without formal guide-
McGill agreed to take notes at.'lines, they have raised a level of .'i
the proccedin:s and be debrief- paranoid suspicion in all the
ea by the CIA on his return to universities,.
die United Sta.-s. "This whole problem
Almost 20 years later, the,! wouldn't have arisen if the CIA
Agency became the subject of had understood the fact that the
? cGill'sattention. Likc43other whole center of our activity is
college presidents, he learned based on truth," McGill said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00552R000403900010-6