FRANK CHURCH ON COLBY, BUSH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100010085-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 19, 2007
• Sequence Number: 85
• Publication Date: November 16, 1975
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/19: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100010085-0
L1'L 1LE ROCK, APE.
GAZETTE
Li - 103, 821
S - 121,741
H OV 16.1975'
Frank Church on Colby, Bush
We agree with Senator Frank
Church that the Republican handyman
George Bush should not be planted in
the vacancy left by William E. Colby
at the CIA. Where we fear we have to
break with Senator Church is on the
question of Colby's removal, yes or no.
Church doesn't think he should have
been. We think he should have been,
though not, to be sure, for the reasons
that he likely was, which. is what;up-
sets Church as chairman of: the, spe-
cial Senate committee investigating
the whole of the American Intelli-
gerce "'community.".
Colby, by CIA standards at least,
had been fairly'"f'b hcorning in testi-
mony before the Church Corttee.-
forthcoming, that is, in comparison
with the. weasling Richa;-d - Helms,
:say-and so the chairmaa naturally
feels that any successor will be less
forthcoming than Colby- t. in fact,
the whole circular sbi` of the old
familiar faces was, as mnc as anv-
thing else, an attempt by :resident
Ford and Henry'Kissinger to put the
kibosh on. the. investigation. There is-
easorv. why
somethin . to fAis, .bow: the.,
we, too, say that Colby was removed
for the wrong reasons is that Gerald
Ford is another of those increasingly
familiar American Presidents who
never does anything good for the right
reasons.
Actually, our position with regard- to
Colby really is that he never should
have been confirmed as Director of the
CIA in the first place, it being in fact
an appointment. that.. we bitterly < op-
posed before and during the confirma-
tion fight.
.But' Bill Colby -is- history now,
though a kind of history , that ' will not
down easily with the defenders of
Colby, so many of whom (though we
hasten to say; not Frank Church) tend
to equate the old unquestioned.' ' 'black"
tricks of the CIA as we have known
up to now . - Colby's personally-su-
pervised "Operation Phoenix" in- Viet-
nam, the-Bay of Pigs; Chile, etc. -
with- the health and wellbeing of this
In the instant matter of the Bush
appointment, Senator Church's (to us)
incontrovertible argument is that
Gorge Bush. not only is remarkably
u::qualified for the job, nice guy. even
though he may be, but. actively dis-
qualified, being the COP "handyman"
that we have called him.
George Bush is- the son of a former
U. S. Senator from Connecticut who
made the familiar trek{ southward to
Texas to try to make even more'
money even faster and succeeded
eminently, thanks to the off-shore oil
bonanza that President Eisenhower
handed over to then Governor Allan
Shivers in exchange for Shivers's and
the state's electoral support in 1952.
In Texas,. Bush-though a -hereditary
Republican, unlike most of his peers
in the regional confraternity - soon
became an adornment among the new
breed of. Southern Republican politi-
cos. He was elected to the U. S. House
of Representatives and might still be
there, had it not been for an abortive
bid for a seat in the Senate.
. The-only-(theoretiealiy) non-
partisan-position. Bush has- occupied since first
coming before- the public's general
attention was that of -U. S. Ambassa-
dor to'the United Nations.
The Ambassadorship to the U. - N.
should be more than just theoretically'
non-political, needless to say. Adlai E.
Stevenson - whose personal political
ambitions were never really much
stronger : than -a,. koala's survival in-
stinct, and those pretty well spent by
then - tried to be as non-political in
the post as a''man could be, only to be
badly. used by John Kennedy in the.
Bay of Pigs-matter.
Arthur J. Goldberg was similarly
"used" by Lyndon Johnson at the
U. N. as a kind of gloss on the: Vietnam
business, though Goldberg did run for
elective office. later on..
supposedly reasonably open democratic -
republic.
George Bush appears to have per-.
formed as the U. N. with a reasonable
degree of non-partisanship. But it was I
after that temporary assignment that
he was moved to the chairmanship of
the Republican National Committee, a.
quite different business and one that
bears directly on his fitness to be-
Director ' of the CIA. And if that'
wasn't enough, President Ford, with
his instinct genius for piling gaffe
upon gaffe, said shortly after Bush's } t
nomination was announced that this
should not- be construed as in any, way
ruling Bush out of -consideration for a
spot on the ticket with him in 1976.
HERE WE COME to an interesting
little sidelight on the combined ques-
tions of Senator Frank Churchs stand'
for' Colby, but against Bush on the
grounds of lack of qualifications
stressed above. Colby, since being t 5:
freed from the office,(he is continuing
in, it, but only on an interim basis,
pending the confirmation of - Bush or!-
0
other successor), understandably
has tended- to- side-with.. Senator.,
the-scenes motivations that led to, his!
ouster, but at the same time thinks,
.dandy for the CIA ,job..
We agree with Colby that perhaps
we could do with. a touch less career
professionalism in the CIA director-
ship at this time, Colby himself being
his own best evidence.. However, it is
a form almost of- simple-mindedness
to mention George - Bush in the. same -
breath with John J. McCloy, a ?ormer
-director of the agency brought in
McCloy, is a non-professional in the
area of counter-intelligence, but that,
is, both the beginning of the compari-,
son and the end of it.
Approved For Release 2007/06/19: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100010085-0