O WHAT A TANGLED WEB THE CIA WOVE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300030026-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 1, 2005
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: January 1, 1958
• Content Type: NSPR

0 'hat^a??~~7r
Cost Likely
T o Rise High
Into Millions
By Biclearrl Hartpond
N 1947,~8rI#Y, ~YEARs the Central In-
I telligence Agency was born, a brawl-
ing Corsican trom the docks of Marv
s?illes was recruited to perform a serv-
ce for the Western Allies.
r His' na as Ferri Fisani. 7{is task
was to see to it, by whatever m
seemed appropriate, that Communists
ong [fie longshoremen of Marseilles
would not impede the unloading of
Dlarshall Plan cargpes in France.
Pisani did the job and got rich iv the
process. ]its CIA retainer was $25BA00
each. I[ was refreshed from time to
time in the years thaE Followed and
Pisani's stature in the rough private
world in which he moved increased ac
cordingly. He became a symbol of Lhe
power that private m and private.
organ zafiol vi'[en wield in the dntri~
cafe game of international affairs.
lt' was evident to the CIA from Lhr
mrt it commenced operations that
en like Pisani and organizations like
the trade union movement had an im~
nsely important role to play in what
'President Kennedy w a to call "the
]oug Ewllight struggle" between the ad~
versanes in Ute cold war.
A llicect Approach
T W.AS NOT enough for the 'United
I States Lo arm its allies, Lo strengthen
governmental instiWtiovs, or to tlnance
the industrial establishment through
and military programs. In-
tellectuals, students, educators, trade
slats, journalists and professional
en had to be reached directly through
their private concm'ns.
Operating from dial premise, the
CIA began in the fate 19466 and early
1B50s avast Program that w a to 'i
volve not on1Y such m s Pisani but
mast o[ the major private inetitudons
n Amer(rao life. The axtevt of that
vovement and the subterfuges that
sad to bring it about a
being dimly grasped a salt o[ul hr
evelations of the past twoeweeks.
r What is' known to the press and the
public n s still far less than what
not known whlrh is to say it is likely
that flte surface has been barely
crotched. But certain basic facts semi
clear enough.
The first is that vrany mHlions of
dollars of public money have been
used by Lhe CIA, with no public ac
unting, to inOUence Lhe polideal and
ideological posture of private groups
throughout Ehe world, including many
within the United States. Haw much
oney Is nvolved is such a tightly
held secret that the President of the
United States as cP last week, apPan
ently had n inkling of the a
Only about $16 million has been Erased,
but unsubstantiated ru [s place Lhe
true figure in the hundrerds of millions.
Top?Level Decision
HE SECOND selRevident tact is
Tthat the decision to fight the cold
verily through private groups
whimsical, unilateral decision
hv~the m who have r n the CIA for
the past ?A years. As Under Secretary
nt State Nicholas Katzennach reportM
to the Presidert last week:
"When the Central Intelligence
Agency lent financial support to the
work oL certain American private o
ganizations, it did not acC mr its a
initiative but in cordance with n
UonaL policies established by the Na-
tional Security Council in 1962 through
1854. Throughout, it acted with lire
approval. of 5 intertlepartmcntai
mmitfees, including the Secretaries
of State and Defense or their xepre
sentahves.'
The agency also acted with rho full
knowledge and consent of the congres-
oval a mittees created to 0
its operations ILc activities, in short,
e the public. policy, never publicly
need, of the Government of the
Un tad States.
It w a polls]', n en ', that heA
the over(. appt'ava! and vcollaboration
n[ what Richard Rovers has described
s the American Establishment, that
rnalldon of Iawyecs, ivdvstrialiste
and iivanciers who are thought, rightly
angly, evbtly to guide the course
oL public affairs In the United States.
A Business Cmmectiou
LLEN DULEES, who ran the CIA
in the 19506, was a product of the
;New York law firm of Sullivan &
Cromwell, which has always dPitomized
t'he Establishment. While he was In
charge at the Agency, his busines's and
legal confreres w re used extensively
to enable the GlAeto achieve its secret
purposes.
The Wall Street investment firm of
1Nood, Struthers & Winthrop provided
' "for at least one. CIA agent,
Ifans Tofte, by issuing ltim credentials
as an employe of the firm. Samuel
Hadlr~. ? ilir presttgioux \eu' ynrt:
law firm r~F .\Iilhsnk, 'T'weed, Hadley,
curl ',IBC t_ all. e,l hL font(--:. t,uhi
an Foundation fo be used as a conduit
for CIA funds.
Hadley, a n nciden[al footnote,
Itas served for soma time as chflirman
of the Carnegie Corp. One of Hadley's
partners, Bohn J. McCloy, has spent
uch of hie adult hfe as a Government
official asst consultant and is represent:
fog the Administration in negotiations
with the NATO aloes aver the size of
the American troop commltmenE to
Europe.
Eli Whitney Debevoise of the equally
distinguishetl law firm of Debevoise,
Plimpton, Lyons & Gates is one o{ the
pr'ineipal figures in the American
Council far the ]nternatianal Commis
' of Jurists. The Council's major
function has been to Funnel CIA
oney into the International Commis-
n. The Plimpton in the firm of
Dehevoise et al. is Francis T. P. Plimp~
ton, former deputy chief oP the U.S.
Mission to Lhe United Nations.
Among Plimpton's outsitle in[eresls
has been the Foundation far Youth and
Student AHalrs, which he has served
as a director along with Arthur A.
Fioughton .Ir. o[ the Corning Glass San dactvto Yund, .me of m v tlumruy
[a lolly, the Roclreteller Foundation, the Foundations set up bt Ihr C'IA to con
Yund t'nr the Advancement of Educa~ eat then ul dre Iunds it w .
tins, the United States Steel Rounds- distributing. The private foundation set
dart and the General Education Board. up by Oveta Culp Hobby and herfam-
For m e than 13 years, FYSA has ily w onduit fat CIA money. Her
been ther principal CIA conduit for backgrountl includes a n the
subsidies to the American college stu~ tiisonhawer Administration asrSeere~
dent movement and Its numerous over- Lary of Health, Education and Welfare.
seas affiliates. Tfie Republic National Bank of Dallas
was uvatee far anotner conduit ana
HE LIS'C o[ Es[ablishntentariane thousands of dollars in what'is called
T involved with (he CIA in its pane- "black m nay" in spy circles.
(ration of pt'ivate institutions is lengthy o
and includes such other figures as EXpuilRitlg lire ~C8111t
Robert J. Manning, editor of the Allan, ALL OF 1'HF.SE distinguished Amer-
tic Monthly, and bicCeerge Bundy, who rued Lhe CIA in two ways.
has had experience both inside antl They cmadeeif possible far the agency
outsitle the Government. As a foreign ~ penetrate financially the structure
pallcy adviser fo Presidents Kennedy of private institutions here and abroad
a d Johnson, Bundy m effect super without public knowledge of what was
iced the CIA operation. Today he is going on. Antl they made it possible
president of the Ford Foundation. for the beneficiaries of this s stet
The conscious involvement of private oney to accept it without suspicion
Americans in fhe clandestine opera of taint.
lions of the agency was nut, of course, This secrecy was vital to the purposes
limited W the cozy confines of the of the GIA. The international influence
Boston-New York law firms, tcunda~ o[ private groups in the United States
lions and financial houees. The Texas has always been based on the aseum
Rttafilichmn.,4 .,.n~ e.,,.e>.. :.,..,,r.,..a P'
The oil baron John W. Mecom was pendent agents, free of Government
one o[ the original incorporators of the control and manipulation. It is for that
Approved For Rte'?,~~=005/11/2
o Thal the([ rredl bilily 3bt,~a,i ha-
been so high.
A State Depai tnreu, uffLLial t _
lu
ttated the point last week. It was im-
possible, he sold, to get certain inter
(actual leaders in India to accept travel
grants from th? Unitetl States Govern
nest. They feared that they would be
inhibited and even discredited at home
by accepting subsidies from that source.
But they were willing t.o be subsidized
by private American foundations o
the assumption that Lhey coWd still feel
and behave like free men,
To deal with this problem, CIA
oney w s put into private founda-
tions to afinance the travel of the
Indians.
AWarenee6 a QlledllOll
IN?MDBT CASES dtaL have been um
ered thus fee, the foundations
which served as CIA conduits far these
purposes were fully aw of what
they w e doing. In [heat of the
ultimate rrecipients of the m nay, the
facts ar a ambiguous. Some of
them, .such as the National Education
Association and leaders of the National
Student Association, had no illusions
about the source of their funds.
Waldemar A. Nielson of the Afrieam
American Institute was also in [hat
category. He was quite aware, he said
last t, eek that the C'[A was subsidizing
the Instil ate from 1853 until 1961 end
hr teas cor a of 'the mheient im-
prudence andoimpropriety" of the ar
angement.
r But once it began, sa[d Nielson, the
Institute became "Ilke a drunk taking
the Pirst drink . . It is easy to overv
indulge." At the time Lhe lvstitufe's
ties with fhe agency were severed, il.
as getting half of its budget Prom the
C7.4.
In other organizattcvs, the level of
knowledge was uncertain at best. O[~
Ficere of the American Newspaper
Guiltl continue to insist that they had
o idea the CLA was the source of more
than $i million spent an the Guild's
s programs in recent years.
George A. Truitf, president of the Inter-
national Development Foundation, one
of them open CIA front groups,
professed shock last week upon learn-
ing of the ages ~y connection.
Hut Atlantic ditor Manning, an .4s~
sietant Secretary of Stat? in the Ken-
nedy Administration, wa under no il-
lus ns during his short term as an IDF
director.
"I was too good a reporter not to see
that (CIA connection)," he said last
week. "I wasn't 'victimi?ed' in any way.
Nebody tried to fool roe, As soon as f
See CIA, Page E3, Column 3
 App,,~oved For Release 2005/11/21 :CIA-RDP70B00338R000300030026-4
'hat a Tar-gled ~'eb the CIA Wove
CIA, From Page EI
inquired, I got straight answers to my
questions."
On balance, it seems likely that few
people involved in the worldwide opera?
tions of the CIA were victimized. Presi-
be issued. The CIA, as they say, is "un-
vouchered."
A11en Dulles claimed last week that
"we obtained what we wanted" in terms
of counterpropaganda and intelligence.
In the case of Ferri. Pisani, the return
Government. In the ideological conflicts
that lie ahead in Africa, Asia and Latin
America, the role these institutions will
play is wholly uncertain now.
Students, teachers, unionists and
others have engaged in an orgy of self-
analysis in the past two weeks and have
come to the conclusion that their credi-
bility as free and urnofficial spokesmen
for the American people has been seri-
ously compromised if not destroyed.
dents, Establishmentarians, students was tangible.
and most other beneficiaries of the In the case of the NEA, the American
CIA's millions were like Manning. They Newspaper Guild and the National Stu-
dent Association, things are not so
saw the connection
,
'1'hc more pertinent question has to clear. They may have supplied intelli- ~~Uhat they fear was expressed in an
do with the balance sheet for the under- Bence, They may have been effective editorial in a Tolcyo newspaper last
taking. ~~%hat was gained or lost? propagandists for democracy. But they week: "It is not pleasant to lcnow that
`Che Administrar@11~d ~r 1~leac2~tlvb/~nlp QiA411~~b~30~3380~~1?b~a~ visitor traveling
avoided the question and there is no geared to be truly private agencies un- abroad might be a secret espionage
reason to suuuose any audit will ever tied to any agency of the United States agent,"