-topic: role of intelligence in policymaking
-served with
-around WWI-glorification of espionage as romantic, adventurous
-what is gathered as intelligence; how is it evaluated and applied in policy?
-can services acquire too much power over policy?
-what is the relationship between intelligence and policy?
-born 1893; educated at Princeton and GWU;
-honorary degrees from several Ivy League universities
-Dulles: job of intelligence to submit info but not to make policy
-appointed to the Warren Commission; refers to multiple Presidential assassinations
-currently the start of the panel’s work; waiting while Ruby case is pending
-admits certain types of intel work are “not tainted by any legality”, international or domestic
-notes that world is almost 1/3 communist; it does not respect principles of law, requiring US to have intel service (especially in regard to threat of Soviet attack)
-says he even worked in intel as early as WWI
-March 1917-in
-met
someone who was traveling to meet Lenin in
-worked as intel officer in WWI; covered Austro-Hungarian Empire; also
participated in Versailles Peace Conference; as well as the negotiations leading to armistice
-notes that that was before the days of mass media
-war ended when German armies were still intact
-considers
-influenced by highly false theory of WWI-that Germans hadn’t been dealt with
stringently
at
-days leading up to WWII-cites several main intelligence failures of the West
-1) did not understand implications of Communist menace
-we didn’t feel we had time for it; thus we didn’t take it seriously
-2) error with dealing w/Hitler’s power and intention
-3) ditto
with
All of these were intelligence failures that could have mitigated (but we only had
military intelligence at the time; this was before the OSS/CIA)
-cites
-does not claim that anyone could have precisely pointed to future attack (but we should have realized that great crisis was on the way with Japanese relations
-calls “bunk” that there was
treachery in
-after war; intel
services had been built up, strengthened (
-but most of it was disbanded postwar under the impression that the Soviets wanted to make a peace; thus we didn’t really need intelligence service
-1945-7: disbanding of intelligence
-feels Russians were going to get into the far eastern war no matter what
-1947: awakening began under Truman; CIA set up
-Truman
doctrine: US (used in
Nation resisting Communist infiltration
-based on
theory that countries would invite us in (as in
-National Security Act; created CIA; Air Force; recombined military divisions
-all done under reaction to Soviet deception; it had used its spheres of influence
As means of communizing eastern European countries
-Chinese takeover by Communism was underway
-
minority subversion (same general pattern of minority rule as in 1917 Russian Revolution)
-says no case where Communism was freely voted in (with one possible exception)
-CIA created as a tool to fight Communism worldwide; its expansion
-other functions: coordinated intel work in gov; collect secret intel (espionage);
In addition to overt intel collected by military, state dept., etc.
-secret intel was only one of branches
-counterintel worldwide (FBI domestically) to penetrate other intelligence
Agencies
-very efficient system-has caught many Soviet agency
-function: prepare national estimates; collation of all intelligence from all
Departments of government (as represented in National Intelligence Board)-produced so as to provide policymakers with accurate, coherent information
-CIA has no business to suggest what policies should be, but rather give its
appraisal of facts to be used by President, Cabinet, etc.
-keeps mentioning subversive threat of international communism
-work to coordinate all especially important areas to National Security (each task assigned to best intel branch, whether an armed forces one, state, etc.)
-no espionage operation is tainted with legality
-cites comparable example of
Soviets sending man over compared to US U2 overflights
over
-hard for him to see how U2 is more a violation of law than agents
-important Cold War functions
-CIA has role because much of Communist subversive work against free countries that are least able to govern selves with weakest economies; covert operation
-their advantage in this sense: worldwide communist parties (once hidden under veil of Comintern, but no longer)
-claims most communist parties of world are directed from Communist central
Committee in
-such parties are an important subversive weapon (US has no such comparable tool)
-often parties receive little voter support
-Soviets tries to use Wests’ free institutions against us and then ban democracy and vote
-also Communist-dominated labor unions; have to be penetrated by intel work
-no secret of how FBI has penetrated US Communist party; CIA’s penetration of
Foreign communist parties is secret, very important work
-a lot of popular fronts cultivated like peace, youth, labor groups (war against progressives)-Soviet intel agencies fund them under Kruschev’s leadership
-essential that we have secret services to penetrate the communist underground;
Cannot be publicly revealed, but gives policymakers idea of the subversive threat
In various nations
-says Kruschev cites “wars of independence” that will be funded by Soviets as
means of covert Communist takeover
-attacks against CIA
-greatest one comes from the Soviets
-more worrying domestic attacks be journalists; who say intel service is not in
American tradition
-claims George Washington spent great energy on intel (but critics say that intel is only appropriate in time of peace)
-says intel services can’t be turned on and off; plus, we are not now in a
Time of peace but of Cold War
-claims that CIA makes policy: Dulles responds that all CIA operations have been
approved by policymakers
-cites 2
embarrassments (
responsibility for them
-uproar in press over CIA actions
in
Important that Vietnamese police
should be given aid to stop the Viet Cong/Communist infiltration; aid resulted
in very efficient instrument, but leaders of
-similarly
in
-raises question of whether these should have been done (but the aid campaigns had been approved
-notes that many journalists are recommending watchdog committee
-cites that last 2 presidents have appointed such committees to report on intel
Services to themselves
-notes that CIA reports to 4 committees in Congress, who study its budget
-notes that budget is secret, but is definitely not at $1 billion
-feels that CIA is stellar group of men and women who deserve American support, as does the entire project
-there are some shortcomings