'REPORT' ON PEACE GETS MIXED VIEWS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200370013-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 12, 2004
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: November 5, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

iQU 53 ~~ - REPORT Rom
Approved For Release 2004/11/01: CIA-RDP88-01350R0.002003 343 ~r: Cl- TA
aim.ed`at reaching unreachablel'
l'1
11 r 1 ON `1 r i"I points in space.
X 11 P A publishers, reviewers-and-Gov-1 "I disagree that the end of
ernment officials who, have seen war would wrench and destroy
1' r ~' ~q advance copies consider the' the nation-state system," said
C 7TS hr? I .E `~ II`i :` book a hoax. Arthur I. Way a resident
} book
our knowledge no special OW ? e Institute for Pol.
icy Studies in Washington. "But
Some See Book as Hoax- study group ever existed," said a this-is the best case I've ever
Others Take It Seriously
By JOHN LEO
The book is variously de-
scribed as "a harmless subter-
fuge," "a hair-raising analysis,"
"the sinister work. of a ? sick
mind," "a serious fraud."
It is ":w' ort From Iron Moun-
tain One l~o`s`sb'ility and'De-
y..
suability ot'~'eace;'- published
last week by the Dial Press and
;described as a suppressed Gov-
ernment report arguing that
tthe world would face an un-
paralleled catastrophe if the
world ever achieved peace.
The report states that war
and war preparations are po-
litically, psychologically and
culturally indispensable to
world stability. Its unidentified
authors conclude that. "lasting
peace, while not theoretically
impossible, is probably unat-
tainable; even if it could be
achieved it would almost cer
tainly not be in the best in-
terests of a stable society to
achieve it."
"If it's authentic, it's an
enormous roaring scandal;'
said Lee Rainwater, a sociolo-
gist at Washington University
' it's a brilliant job. There are
people who ; really think like
that."
r Richard Baron, president of
i Dial, - says the report is au-
thentic. Harold Hayes, editor
- of Esquire magazine, which is
publishing' a 28,000-word con-
l densation of the. book in its
i December issue, 'says he ac-
cepts Dial's assurances on
trustworthiness., But generally
press spokesman for the State read on the other side. It gives
Department's Arms Control and me very tough 'arguments to
Disarmament Agency. "But it's answer.
cleverly done, and who ever did' Mr., Waskow? said that if the
it obviously has an appreciable report is ? authentic it would
probably have -come from the
grasp of the disciplines in- B
.,..
Q
d_..
urg
-
the Bu
or
d
va+veu, However, no a
vance apex He
reviewer has flatly labeled the added that he was surprised to
book fiction. see one of his privately circu-
The 109-page book has an in. lated reports mentioned in the.
who states that "John Doe," a "As far as 'I know, only
professor of social science from about 60 people in Washington
a large Middle Western univer- ever saw my report: If it's a'
hoax, it must,involve somebody
sity secretly passed the manu- high up."
script to him last winter. '
'
Many analysts
believe that
- Doe is described as one of the report reflects a grasp'
the 15 members of a special the. Washington -,scene as well
,Government study group con- as 'n undcrstend`.n of social
evened at "Iron Mountain, N.Y." psyrhe1og~', ccolog;', economics
from 1963 to 1966 to produce nnrl so^'?.olor, th?.t is beyond
the report for an unspecified the , b'lit, of most satirists.
Federal agency. -- P ubl'sh`.n figures who asked
Iron Mountain is described not to be i,'entif'ed said that
in the book as being near the the Harvrrd econoriist John
city of Hudson, N. Y., appar- Kenneth Galbraith h^.d -such
ently a reference to the Hudson qualifications. Under the pseu.
Institute, the think tank where donym Mark Epernay, he has
"war games" and studies on written several political satires,
life in the future are developed including "The McLandless D1.
under the direction, of Herman mension," wh'ch a^ncared in
,Kahn for Government and pri- Esquire several years -go.
vate agencies. ? He is rev'ew'r^, the Iron
The institute is actually in Mountain book rir!-r the pse_u-
Harmon-on-Hudson, just north donym- "I-Iersc',,^i r cT.nndless
} of Ossining. for Book World, a weekly sup
"We 'had nothing to do with plement of The Chicago Trib
it,' said Mr. Kahn. "It sounds une and The. Washington Post.
!nutty to me-either a practical When asked if he was re-
joke or something sinister. No viewing his own book for Book!
analysis of conversion to peace- World, he said: "That would
time that I've seen has sug- be unethical. Is The Times sug-
Igesteci such radical measures." gesting I acted unethically?"
Slavery and Poison He added that he couldn't say
whether he had a hand in
In ' a -cold, flat style-dc- writing Iron Mountain because
scribed by some readers, as "some things are so far removed
'perfect bureaucratese" - the from reality that they can't be
report suggests that if the so- comma ", I ch."
,cial cohesion brought by war According to the book's intro-
lis allowed to disappear with- duction, the study group met
out extensive planning, the between, 1963 and 1966.. That
world may have to introduce was when a study was made
"a sophisticated form of slav- by the Washington Center of -
:: cry," invent enemies' from out- Foreign Policy Researci for the
side, the planet, or deliberately Arms Control and Disarmament
poison the atmosphere. "in a Agency. The study, published
politically acceptable manner." July 10, 1966, said President
The end of war, it said, would Johnson's disarmament plan
necessarily mean the end of the could. upset world stability in-
'
nation-state, and would
intro- stead. of promoting peace.
duce world government?.and the However, both the center and
' need for wasteful spondigg? on the agency denied this report
a large scale, perhaps through was the basis for Iron Moun?
Approved For Release 2004/11/01 CIA-RDP88-01350R000200370013,-0