AL

A

TH

E W

AS

HIN

GT

ON

PO

ST

, TH

UR

SD

AY

, SE

PT

EM

BE

R

-Joseph Kraft

ANXPost SEP 1

9 1974

Chile, the C

IA. and N

ational Security

The fuss over the role of the C

entral In

telligen

ce Agen

cy in

Chile is n

ot

really about that agency or that coun-try

. It emerg

es chiefly

from

a deep

g

eneral su

spicio

n o

f the in

strum

ents

of n

ational secu

rity. If h

e truly

wan

ts to

heal th

e country

, Presid

ent F

ord

w

ill hav

e to g

o o

ut o

f his w

ay to

as-su

age th

is susp

icion.

Tw

o m

ajor q

uestio

ns o

ught to

be

asked at all times about the C

IA. T

he first en

gag

es the ro

le of th

e agen

cy

in making and unm

aking foreign gov-ernm

ents by the black arts of sabotage and subversion.

That issu

e seems to

be cen

tral to

the p

resent stir o

ver C

hile. T

he case

grew

out o

f a letter written

by R

ep.

Mich

ael Harrin

gto

n (D

-Mass.) an

d -

leaked

to th

e press. T

he letter p

ur-

ported

to su

mm

arize testimony to

a H

ouse subcomm

ittee by William

Colby,

the p

resent d

irector o

f the C

IA.

According to the letter, C

olby testi-fied

that th

e agen

cy sp

ent $

8 m

illion

betw

een 1

970 an

d 1

973 to

help

the

oppositio

n to

the P

opular F

ront g

ov-_

ernm

ent of Chilean P

resident Salvador

Allende. T

he letter said the funds Were

used in order to achieve'the "destabili-zation" of the regim

e. The im

plication w

as, that th

e CIA

arranged

the co

up

-which overthrew

Allende last year

In fact, th

e 'word

"destab

ilization"

was not used by M

r. Colby in his testi-

mony.• It is h

ardly

thin

kab

le that so

•sm

all a sum—

for $8 million is virtually

'noth

ing in

the m

odern

intellig

ence

gam

e—co

uld

hav

e caused

the fall o

f th

e Chilean

govern

men

t. Presid

ent

Ford said at his new

s conference what

most inform

ed sources also say—that

the m

oney

was u

sed o

nly

to su

stain

democratic new

spapers and, political lead

ers. It is as clear as it can ev

er be in this sort of m

urky business that the C

IA did not play a significant role

in th

e _Chilean coup. Indeed, F

oreign R

elations Com

mittee C

hairman J. W

. F

ulb

right (D

-Ark

.), who receiv

ed th

e letter in July, w

rote to Rep. H

arrington at th

at time, say

ing h

e saw n

oth

ing

new

in it.

The second big question turns on the

responsiveness of the CIA

to the elect-ed leadership in the W

hite House and

the C

ongress. E

very

body ag

rees that

in Chile the -C

IA _w

as obedient to the w

ishes of the Nixon adm

inistration. W

hat is in

doubt is th

e questio

n o

f keeping ,C

Ongress inform

ed. 'Several

high officials—including S

ecretary of S

tate Henry K

issinger and former C

IA

Director R

ichard Helm

s — denied in

testimony before various elem

ents of the S

enate Foreign R

elations Com

mit-

tee that the United S

tates had foment-

ed the Chilean coup.

Technically, those statem

ents appear to have been accurate. M

oreover, it is trad

itional th

at black

bag

operatio

ns

of th

e agen

cy are not rev

ealed to

the

regular legislative comm

ittees-.of the C

ongress b

ut to

a special w

atchdog

com

mittee. E

ven

if they

did

not tell

the strict tru

th ab

ou

t such

op

eration

s to

the F

oreig

n R

elaions C

om

mittee,

in other words, M

essrs. Kissinger and

Helm

s and th

e oth

ers were o

peratin

g

within established guidelines. H

ow

eVer, if th

e particu

lars of th

e C

hilean

case do n

ot ju

stify th

e fuss,

the general atmosphere of the past few

y

ears do

es. Th

rou

gh

ou

t the V

ietnam

w

ar, the C

ongress. an

d m

uch

of th

e country w

ere systematically deceived

about th

e operatio

n o

f the C

IA an

d

other instruments of national security

po

licy. O

ver an

d o

ver ag

ain in

the

Waterg

ate case, Presid

ent N

ixon an

d

those aro

und h

im in

voked

the term

"national security" as the justification for covering up com

mon crim

es, M

any intelligent and well-m

eaning peo

ple h

ave co

me to

believ

e that th

e w

hole apparatus of national security is

bogus—a cover for som

ething illegiti-m

ate and im

pro

per. T

hat is w

hy th

e ap

paren

t impro

prieties o

f the C

IA in

C

hile have excited such attention. If P

residen

t Ford

is to en

d w

hat h

e has called the long national nightm

are„ h

e will h

ave to

soften

these feelin

gs.

Unfortunately, he seem

s not to under-stan

d th

e dep

ths o

f the d

oubts ab

out

natio

nal secu

rity. T

hus w

hen

ques-

tion

ed ab

ou

t Ch

ile at his n

ews co

n-

ference M

on

day

nig

ht, h

e gav

e a na-

tional secu

rity resp

onse straig

ht o

ut

of th

e 1950s: "O

ur g

overn

men

t, like

oth

er govern

inen

ts, does tak

e certain

actions in the' intelligence field to im-

plement foreign • policy and to protect

national security." T

he same lack of understanding en-

tered in

to th

e blu

nder co

mm

itted in

the pardoning of P

resident Nixon. T

he ad

min

istration th

eory

was th

at the

curse w

ou

ld b

e taken

off th

e pard

on

by th

e amnesty

for V

ietnam

war re-

sisters.. Mr. F

ord

evid

ently

did

not

realize that the opposition to Vietnam

rested

on d

eep g

eneral d

oubts ab

out

natio

nal secu

rity actio

ns—

not o

n th

e relativ

ely triv

ial issue o

f the d

raft-dodgers.

The point of all this is that the coun-

try is seriously -and deeply divided on fundam

ental issues of national security. P

resident Ford is going to have to take

account o

f those d

ivisio

ns. H

e will

hate to

try to

understan

d th

e oth

er side. O

thefwise, he w

ill end up, as his tw

o p

redecesso

rs did

, limpin

g o

ut o

f th

e Wh

ite Ho

use.

01974, Field E

nterprises,

"It is as clear as it can ever be in this sort of m

urky business that the CIA

did not play a significant role in the C

hile coup."