FIVE MEN SABOTAGED ALLENDE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000020101-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 101
• Publication Date: September 17, 1974
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09TOO207RO01 000020101 -1
BALTIMORE SUN
17 SEP lli4
rive en sac botag eat Allende
On March 29 this y
It
n
1964 and 1973.
betwee
By TnAN J_ TARAXER With the Chilean military t___
1 11
Saturday morning, June 27,
1970, Henry A. Kissinger, ad-
dressing the most secret
committee of the. United
States government, laid
down in highly personal
terms what was to become
official U.S. policy toward
But it has produced In re-
oppose Dr. Al-
cent days several develop- lenear u to de the next year.
ments certain to provoke a
new national debate on the ? Another $500,000 went to
role of the CIA and even of opposition party personnel
Dr. Kissinger himself. during the 1970 campaign.
Chile. ? Focused attention, at last,
"I don't see why we should on the 40 Committee, domin-
have to stand-by and let a; ated by military and intelli-
gence professionals of the
du
i
e
st .
tauntry go Commun
to the irresponsibility of its
own people," he reportedly
declared.
That statement, according
to. government intelligence
sources, was made to the 40
p
Committee, a five .member f`cial in the nation's history,
ence was unknown at the
time to the vast majority of
Congress, the press, and
even the White House staff.
Dr. Kissinger, through a
State Department spokes-
man, said he could not recall
making the statement but, in
any case, could not comment
on 40 Committee activities.
The 40 Committee Is
elected by no one and res-
ponsible to no one except the
President, who appoints its
members.
Serious students of for-
eign-policy making have
questioned whether, in a de-
mocracy, such a five-person
directorate should have this
kind of unbridled power,
whether the five are really
in touch with American
public opinion, and whether
Congress should not have
tighter reins on their covert
programs.
As a consequence of the 40
committee's action, however,
large sums of Central Intelli-
gence Agency money were
poured vainly into Chile to
avert the election of leftist
Salvador Allende. That money
was followed in later years by
even larger sums to "destab-
ilize" the Chilean economy
and topple the Allende re-
gime.
The Philadelphia Bulletin ,j. uprising in 1973 and Dr. Allen "'
Washin ton-On a warm de's violent death, the policy ? About $500,000 was ad-
g vanced in 1963 to help Chilean
World War II-cold war vint-
age, as the real overseer,
even operator, of the CIA's
covert activities and responsi-
ble only to the President.
Made clear the emer-
gence of Dr. Kissinger as the
owerful nonelected offi-
most
standing astride the Intelli-
gence, covert operations and
foreign policy apparatus as
secretary of state, chairman
of the National Security Coun-
cil, national security adviser
to the President and chair-
man of the 40 Committee..
? Destroyed what was left
of the belief that at least a
? Following Dr. Allende's
electi . $5 million was
authors ed to disrupt the
Chilean economy from 1971
to 1973, and $1.5 million
more was spent to influence
Chilean municipal elections in
1.1973. Some of these funds
helped finance an influential
Chilean newspaper.
? Finally, in August, 1973;
just one month before Presi-
dent Allende's downfall, an-
other $1 million was author-
ized to press home the effort
to wreck the Chilean econ-
omy, already in trouble be-
cause of Dr. Allende's own
misguided policies.
In each case, - the effort
and the expenditure were ap-
proved by the 40 Committee,
or by the same committee
operating under an alias.
few members of Congress "No more mysterious
have knowledge of and a veto group exists within the gov-
ger as- ernment than the 40 Commit-
the Cloak-and-da
g
t over
pects of the CIA.
"The CIA is the tool of the
President and it works today
for Kissinger," according to
one government source.
The history of the U.S. gov-
ernment's Chilean adventure
dates to 1964 when Dr. Allen-
de, a proclaimed Marxist,
first sought the presidency. man."
tian Democratic opponent,
Eduardo Frei, capture the
presidency that year.
But Mr. Frei could not suc-
ceed himself and the Allende
threat was seen by Washing-
ton as greater than ever. This
time even more money was
funneled by CIA into anti-Al-
Ilende efforts.
In all, according to secret
testimony April, 22 by the Congress was kept in the
CIA director, William E. dark, at least until after the
Colby, as revealed by Repre- il operations were completed,
sentative Michael J. Harring- 11 and sometimes beyond that.
pumped $11 million into
anti-Allende efforts in Chile
tee," David Wise, a journal-
ist who has long been a
student of the U.S. intellig-
ence community, said.
"Its operations are so se-
cret that in an appearance
before the Senate Armed
Services Committee, CIA
Director Colby was even re-
luctant to identify the chair-
The Bay of Pigs invasion
attempt, the U-2 overflights
of the Soviet Union the ov-
erthrow of the Arbenz gov-
ernment in Guatemala-each
of these was a CIA covert
operation approved by the 40
Committee, or its predeces-
Inmost cases, it appears,
an example of how this
blindfolding of Congress
works.
ear,
Charles A. Meyers, the
former assistant secretary of
state for Latin American af-
fairs, told a Senate subcom-
mittee that "the policy of the
government ... was that
there would be no interven-
tion in the political affairs of
Chile ... We financed no
candidates, no political par-
ties ..."
As late as June 12-two
months after Mr. Colby's se-
c r e t admission-Harry
Schlaudeman, No. 2 person
in the American Embassy in
Chile from 1969 to 1973, den-
ied that any such U.S. effort
was made.
"There was no funding, of
that I am quite sure," Mr.
Schlaudeman told a closed
hearing of the House-Foreign
Afairs Committee. '
Mr. Colby emphasizes
when questioned that the
agency makes full secret re-
ports to the "appropriate"
congressional committees,
the so-called CIA "over-
sight" subcommittees of the
House and Senate.
But what they are told,
according to a former top
official of the CIA, depends
on what questions they, ask
-and frequently they do=not
ask the right questions.
"The CIA deals with Con-
gress in the way that Con-
gress requests it to," the
official, who requested anon-
ymity, said "Often they don't
know enough to ask the right
guestions. But it's their
fault."
Among the subjects that
have esaped close congres-
sional questioning has been
the operations of the 40 Com-
mittee.
Despite its anonymity, the
committee appears to have
existed since before 1954,
under several different
names.
The names have been deli-
brately designed to provide
no clue as to its function. Its
members communicate
mostly by word of mouth,
with little paperwork and a
staff of one man, believed to
be a CIA employee.
"You can look all you want
but you won't find any docu-
Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09TOO207ROO1000020101-1 in?e~
 Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09TOO207RO01 000020101 -1
ment with the title '40 Com-
mittee' on it," a former in-
telligence officer said. "It's
like, officially at least, it
didn't exist."
From its pre-1954 origins
as a loose group of top State
and Defense department offi-
cials, the group has evolved
a fixed membership based
on title and formalized in a
directive of the National Se-
curity Council. The name 40
Committee is believed, to
rer,r to a National Security
Council directive No. 40.
Dr. Kissinger, as national
adviser, took charge
of the 40 Committee under and argument. that went on
President Nixon and retains is missing now," one official
the chairmanship today. said.
The other members are { The controversy over Dr.
Gen. George S. Browq, Kissinger's role extends to
USAF, chairman of the joint the Chilean adi'enture and
chiefs of staff; William P. who really Initiated It.
Clements, Jr., deputy secre- t The CIA clearly has taken
tary of defense; Joseph J. most of the heat' to date, but
Sisco, under secretary of { at least one ' official highly
state for political affairs placed in the State Depart-
d M
an
r. Colby, the CIA
director.
They are men In their 50's,
veterans of the World War II
and cold war periods.
Mr. Colby's membership,
according to critics, Is the
classic story of the "fox in
the chicken coop"-the CIA
director, in effect sitting in
judgment on plans and pro-
posals of his own agency.
At times, other officials
have sat in; John N. Mitch-
ell, as Mr. Nixon's attorney
general, was a 40 Committee
member, and there is some
dispute over whether the late
Robert F. Kennedy, in his
turn as attorney general,
also was a member.
It is believed that Mr. Nix-
on's controversial assistants,
H. R. Haldeman and .Tnhn T)
Much 5e time, accord-
ing to s,.. oral sources, Dr.
Kissinger merely confers
with the other members by
telephone, dealing with them
individually rather than as a
group, and passing on to the l
President the consensus that li
the one has had a real-and
in fashioning.
The result
acc
rdi
,
o
ng 0.
specialists who have served
in both the CIA and State
Department, has been to
For example, Victor Ma
chetti and John D. Marks,
former U.S. intelligence offi-
cers and authors of "The
CIA and the Cult of Intellig-
ence," maintain thet covert
operations account for only
$440 million of CIA's esti-
mated budget of more than
$750 million a year. The ac-
tual figures are a closely
held secret.
By far the larger, more
important operation-world-
concentrate concentrate decision-making wide espionage-is subject to'
in fewer hands, mostly Dr. no review by the 40 Commit-
Kissinger's hands. tee.
'A lot of the consultation This is true even if the
ment from 1970 to 1973, the
years of the most ambitious
{ anti Allende effort, believes
the "CIA may be getting a
bum rap."
The idea for intervention,
he said, appears to have
come from the White House
-"from Nixon to Kissinger."
Kissinger's plan
It was then farmed out to
the CIA to develop a plan
and provide funds and routed
routinely back to the 40 Com-
mittee, where Dr. Kissinger,
as chairman, approved what
may have been his own plan,
this source said.
The agenda of the 40 Com-
mittee includes some of the
most delicate foreign policy
decisions of the government.
meetings, but evidently not jects, it also reviews and
as members. approves monthly a joint re-
Each 40 Committee, ac- connaissance schedule that
cording to past and present
intelligence officers, has
tended to become an exten-
sion of the chairman chiefly
because he alone has access
directly to the President.
Dr. Kissinger has come to
dominate the 40 Committee
and to an extent, some intel-
ligence specialists here be-
lieve is dangerous.
In the past, for example,
the 40 Committee met
weekly, but as Dr. Kissin-
ger's own responsibilities , tives in a divided world-the
have expanded, he has con-
vened the committee less
frequently, intelligence spe-
cialists here say.
involves, among other things,
the use of spy satellites ar-
ound the world.
Outside the intelligence
community there is criticism
Of the secrecy that shrouds
the CIA and hands over its
`operations to a non-elected
elate such as the 40 Commit-
tee.
But within the Intelligence
community here-people
sympathetic to the need for
clandestine ;policy alterna-
concern is that there is not
enough control of the CIA by
institutions such as the 40 '
Committee.
espionage involves an opera-
tion as sensitive'as hiring a
key official of a foreign vov- '
ernment-as has been done
in Latin America, at the risk
of a serious diplomatic' inci-
dent.
Even covert operations ap-
proved by the 40 Committee
have some history of gener-
ating capers never envy '
sioneolby the 40 Committee.'
The Soviet sugar case is an
to?ample.
Approved For Release 2011/08/09: CIA-RDP09TOO207RO01 000020101 -1