On March 19, the National Security Archives of the US George Washington University (NSA-GWU), while interpreting the documents released by the US National Archives, said that most of these documents were already released earlier with redactions to protect intelligence operations and the method of operations during “covert operations”. It said that this was the first time such uncensored documents were being released and is likely to cause some amount of damage to the secret organisation.
Although the ‘Kennedy assassination case’ papers released under orders of President Donald Trump did not reveal anything sensational, intelligence historians and RTI activists have discovered some peripheral facts on the functioning of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at that time.
The US National Archives released 2,182 records (63,400 pages) in two tranches on March 18 and said that more would be released as soon as they are digitised. The records show how overwhelming the presence of the CIA was in diplomatic missions, reminding the late US Senator Patrick Moynihan’s warning in 1998.
Moynihan had quoted Merle Miller, biographer of President Harry Truman who created the CIA, that the president had set up the CIA only to help him “looking through a bunch of papers two feet high”. However, “in course of time, CIA became as big as the State Department”.
This is confirmed in Document No. 1 by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr, who was President John F. Kennedy’s “Special Assistant” in 1961. Arthur wrote to the president that 41% of the political officers serving in US embassies at that time were intelligence agents under diplomatic cover and known as CAS, or Controlled American Sources.
He said, “CIA today has nearly as many people under official cover overseas as [the] State [Department] – 3900 to 3700.”
Arthur said that their Paris embassy had 123 “diplomats” who were CIA undercover agents, while in Chile, 11 of the 13 embassy “political officers” were CIA undercover operatives.
Also read: Political Assassinations Have a Long History in the US
Incidentally, Arthur too had served the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner of the CIA, in Washington, London and Paris. During those days even well-known journalists had chosen to serve OSS for patriotic causes. However, many of them distanced themselves from intelligence work when the CIA started “covert operations” during the Cold War.
Document No. 2 reveals summaries of briefings by Director John McCone given to members of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), providing details about known CIA political action programmes and “the Agency’s covert financial support to political parties in the fight against communism” around the world.
Incidentally, in my book, Intelligence Over Centuries (2022), I had given details of 46 such covert operations beginning from the 1948 interference in Italian elections to defeat pro-communist parties. In 1975, the CIA had given details of these operations to the Congressional Pike Committee which inquired into CIA’s activities.
In Document No. 3, the CIA inspector general reports on how the agency’s Mexico City station worked. According to NSA-GWU, this provides “one of the most detailed views of how the CIA organizes its operations on the ground”.
Document No. 4 deals with a counter espionage operation against the French embassy in Washington, D.C., that included “breaking and entering and the removal of documents from the French consulate”. It also deals with CIA director John McCone’s dealings with the Vatican, including Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI, which “could and would raise eyebrows in some quarters”.
“National Catholic Register” followed up with a report on March 21 that this has revealed a “previously unknown back-channel dealing” between a Catholic CIA director with two Popes during the 1960s and which could be cited as “examples of activities, which to hostile observers or to someone without complete knowledge and a special kind of motivation could be interpreted as activities exceeding CIA’s charter”.
Document No. 5 reveals the history of CIA operations in the Western Hemisphere, covering 1946-1965, including expenditures by CIA stations in Latin America and details on CIA payments and influence operations in Bolivia to get their preferred candidate General René Barrientos elected.
Lastly, Document No, 6 deals with the CIA inspector general’s report on the 1961 assassination of Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic, revealing the names of CIA officers and others who assisted in the plot.
All of these documents are going to embarrass the CIA for a long time.
Vappala Balachandran is a former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat. Views expressed are personal.
