CIA LIED ABOUT ANGOLA, FORMER OFFICIAL SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100670017-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 8, 2010
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: March 14, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/08 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100670017-9
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CIP~..lied about Angola,
former official says
By Steve McMillan
Sentinel staff writer
The United States lied about its
covert operations in Angola in the
mid-1970s, said John Stockwell, a
tough-talking CIA turncoat, in a
speech Tuesday night at Mesa Col-
lege.
"We lied and we lied and we
lied," Stockwell said. "I found that
the Central Intelligence. Agency
lied about every aspect of this pro-
gram to every one that it talked to."
Senate subcommittees, the press
and the public all heard those lies,
'said Stockwell, a former Marine
who spent 13 years in the CIA and
served as chief of operations. for
the agency in Angola, working di-
death of a million people, not in- .
eluding the victims in Vietnam and
Cambodia.
rectly under Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger and CIA Director
William Colby.
In his book, "In:Search of Ene-
mies," which he wrote after quit-
tingthe CIA in 1977, Stockwell cata-
logues how U.S. undercover actions
escalated the civil war in Angola,
where the Cubans and Soviets were
also involved. The U.S. involve-
ment was built around a concern
that Angola would fall under the
sphere of communist influence.
Speaking to a crowd of more than
300 in Liff Auditorium, Stockwell
explained how he was recruited by
the CIA, why he joined and later
quit and what kind of people are
spys for the top-secret agency.
He talked about CIA destabiliza-
tion efforts in China, Cuba and
Chile, the recruitment of Soviet
KGB double agents in Africa, the
petty bickering of cabinet members.
over decisions about Angola, the
CIA's condonation of gruesome tor-
ture in Vietnam and the ultimate
result of continued CIA actions -
nuclearholocaust.
"Covert action is what I was into'
most," Stockwell said. "Secret ac-
tivities -often violent - to manip-
ulateother peoples' affairs."
He said in its 35-year history, the
CIA has engaged in several hun-
dred covert actions a year, and
been directly responsible for the
Covert actions include plots to
assasinate leaders of foreign cogn-
tries, the bombing of schools, the
burning of crops and other tech-
niques to disrupt the smooth opera-
tion of a society.
Stockwell attended the Universi-
ty ofTexas an an ROTC scholarship
during the 1950s. He joined the Ma-
rines, but never fought in a war.
He was contacted by the CIA in
Denver in 1964. Along with 42 other
recruits, he went through a year of
training that included .instruction
on how to ingratiate himself to pea
plc and easily recruit them as in-
formants.
"They taught us to assess what
makes people tick" and play to
their. carnal, venal or religious na-
tures, Stockwell said. "This tee
pique works. It's a very, very powe
ful thing."
Stockwell's first assignment w~C
Africa. During his years there, h'
said he came to realize that the CIA
was a corrupting influence on the
Third World.
In 1973, Stockwell, then a colonel
in the CIA, was sent to Vietnam. He
saw that the U.S. was losing the war
yet lying to its citizens. He became
dissillusioned with the agency dur=
ing the U.S. pullout because it cal-
lously abandoned its South Viet-
nameseallies to the Viet Cong.
He toyed with quitting after Viet-+
nam, but the Angola post was" of-
fered to him. He took the job be-
.cause~it was a "career move."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/08 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100670017-9