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546 lines
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<conspiracyFile>Article: 571 of sgi.talk.ratical
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From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
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Subject: How the CIA turned `being directed by the NSC' into `getting approval'
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Keywords: the compartmentalized "need to know" security lid locks up the govn't
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Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
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Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 <data type="time" timezone="GMT">18:01:36</data>
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Lines: 573
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. . . Control of a good share of what the Pentagon is doing is
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more important to the CIA than control over the government of
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Jordan or Syria. . . .
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When the CIA wants to do something for which it does not have
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prior approval and for which it does not have legal sanction, it
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works from the bottom, using all of its guile with security and
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"need to know"--a euphemism for "keep the scheme away from anyone
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at any level of government who might stand in its way." Hand and
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Lansdale, among others, were almost always able to line up enough
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support in the right places to make it possible for the CIA to get
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a favorable reading from the "Forty Committee" on any subject,
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legal or not. In fact, this is the great weakness of such a
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committee. Rather than working to control the agency it works the
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other way. The procedure makes it possible for the agency to win
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approval from a lesser echelon of the NSC intrastructure, and then,
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by clamping on a security id, it makes others believe that the CIA
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had orders from the NSC or perhaps even from the President, when in
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fact it did not.
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the following appeared in the 7/75 issue of "Genesis:"
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<div>
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How the CIA Controls President Ford
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By L. Fletcher Prouty
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reprinted here with permission of the author
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In this monstrous U.S. government today, it's not so much what
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comes down from the top that matters as what you can get away with
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from the bottom or from the middle--the least scrutinized level.
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(Contrary to the current CIA propaganda as preached by William
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Colby, Ray Cline, Victor Marchetti and Philip Agee, who say,
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incorrectly, "What the Agency does is ordered by the President.")
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As with the Mafia, crime is a cinch if you know the cops and the
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courts have been paid off. With the Central Intelligence Agency,
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anything goes when you have a respected boss to sanctify and bless
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your activities and to shield them from outside eyes.
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Such a boss in the CIA was old Allen Dulles, who ran the Agency
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like a mother superior running a whorehouse. He knew the girls
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were happy, busy, and well fed, but he wasn't quite sure what they
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were doing. His favorites, all through the years of his prime as
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Director of Central Intelligence, were such stellar performers as
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Frank Wisner, Dick Bissell, George Doole, Sheffield Edwards, Dick
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Helms, Red White, Tracy Barnes, Desmond Fitzgerald, Joe Alsop, Ted
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Shannon, Ed Lansdale and countless others. They were the great
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operators. He just made it possible for them to do anything they
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came up with.
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When Wisner and Richard Nixon came up with the idea of mounting
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a major rebellion in Indonesia in 1958, Dulles saw that they got
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the means and the wherewithal. When General Cabell and his Air
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Force friends plugged the U-2 project for Kelly Johnson of
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Lockheed, Dulles tossed it into the lap of Dick Bissell. When Dick
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Helms and Des Fitzgerald figured they could play fun and games in
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Tibet, Dulles talked to Tom Gates, then Secretary of Defense, and
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the next we knew CIA agents were spiriting the Dalai Lama out of
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Lhasa, CIA undercover aircraft were clandestinely dropping tons of
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arms, ammunitions, and supplies deep into Tibet and other planes
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were reaching as far as northwestern China to Koko Nor.
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While he peddled the hard-won National Intelligence Estimates to
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all top offices and sprinkled holy water over the pates of our
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leaders, Dulles dropped off minor miracles along the way to
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titillate those in high places. If you win the heart of the queen
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and convert her to your faith, you can control the king. This
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works for the Jesuits. It worked well for the CIA. Allen Dulles
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was no casual student and practitioner of the ancient art of
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religion. He was an expert in the art of mind-control. He learned
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how to operate his disciples and his Agency in the ways of the
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cloth.
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But for every Saint and every Sinner in the fold there must be
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an order of monks, and the Agency has always been the haven for
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hundreds of faceless, nameless minions whose only satisfaction was
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the job well done and the furtherance of the cause. One of the
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most remarkable--and surely the best--of these was an agent named
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Frank Hand.
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In my book, "The Secret Team," written during 1971 and 1972, I
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mentioned that the most important agent in the CIA was an almost
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unknown individual who spent most of his time in the Pentagon. At
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that time I did not reveal his name; but a small item in a recent
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obituary column stated that:
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"Frank Hand, 61, a former senior official of the CIA, died in
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Marshall, Minn. . . . (he was) a graduate of Harvard Law
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School. He had served with the CIA from 1950 until
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retirement in 1971."
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After a life devoted to quiet, effective, skillful performance
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of one of the most important jobs in the worldwide structure of
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that unparalleled agency, all that the CIA would publicly say of
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Frank Hand was that he was a "senior official."
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Ask Dick Helms, Ed Lansdale, Bob McNamara, Tom Gates or Allen
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Dulles or John Foster Dulles, if they were with us today, and they
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all would tell us stories about Frank Hand. They would do more to
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characterize the nature and the sources of power which make use of
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and control the CIA than has ever been told before. He was that
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superior operative who made big things work unobtrusively.
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You might have been one of the grass-green McNamara "whiz kids,"
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lost in the maze of the Pentagon Puzzle Palace, who came upon a
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short, Hobbit-like, pleasant man who knew the Pentagon so well that
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you got the feeling he was brought in with the original load of
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concrete. Thousands of career men to this day will never realize
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that Frank Hand was a "Senior Official" of the CIA and not one of
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their civilian cohorts. To my knowledge he never worked anywhere
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else. I was there in 1955 and he was there. I left in December
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1963, and he was at my farewell party. He must have spent some of
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his time at the agency; but it must have been before 1955. If he
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had a dollar for every trip he made in those busy years between the
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Pentagon and the CIA he would have died a very wealthy man. He
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popularized the Agency term "across the river" and the "Acme
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Plumbers" nickname for agents of the CIA. (A term later to be
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confused by Colson and John Ehrlichman, among others, with the use
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of the term "White House Plumbers" of Watergate fame. Someone knew
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that Hunt, McCord, the Cubans, Haig, Butterfield and others all had
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CIA backgrounds and connections and therefore were "Plumbers."
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Only the insiders knew about the real "Acme Plumbers.")
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Frank was as much at home with Allen Dulles as he was with the
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famous old supersleuth, General Graves B. Erskine, and as he was
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with Helms, Colby, or Fitzgerald. Ian Fleming may have popularized
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the spy and the undercover agent as a flashing James Bond type;
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but in the reality of today's world the great ones are more in the
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mold of Frank Hand and "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold."
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There has long existed a "golden key" group of agency and
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agency-related supermen. They came from the CIA, the Pentagon, the
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Department of State, the White House and other places in government
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or from the outside. They have kept themselves inconspicuous and
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they meet in the evening away from their offices. They are the men
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who open the doors of big government to industry-banking law and to
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the multinational corporate centers of greed and power. Their
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strength lies in their common awareness of the ways in which real
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power is generated in the government, the real power that controls
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activities of the government. In many instances this is the power
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of being able to keep something from happening, rather than to make
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it happen. For example, if the President is murdered, real power
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involves the control of government operations sufficient to make
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any investigation ineffective and to assure that the government
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will do nothing even if the investigation should turn up something.
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Real power is the ability to keep the government bureaucracy from
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going into action when the price of petroleum and wheat is doubled
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or tripled by avaricious international monopolies.
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Some of these "gold key" members have surfaced and have accepted
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publicity, as did Des Fitzgerald, Allen Dulles, Tracy Barnes and
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others. Frank never did. He was so anonymous that even his
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friends could not find him.
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The Agency covered for Frank Hand as it did for few others. The
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James Bonds of this world may be the idols of the Intelligence
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coterie; but if you are a Bill Colby, Dick Helms, or Allen Dulles,
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you know the real value of an indispensable agent. Frank was their
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man in the Pentagon, and the Pentagon was always the indispensable
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prime target of the CIA. When the chips are down, the CIA could
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care less about overturning "Communism" in Cuba or Chile. What
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really matters is its relative power in the U.S. Government.
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Control of a good share of what the Pentagon is doing is more
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important to the CIA than control over the government of Jordan or
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Syria.
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Once, when the CIA wanted to move a squadron (twenty-five) of
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helicopters from Laos to South Vietnam, long before the troubles
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there had become a war, I turned down the request from the Deputy
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Director of Central Intelligence in the name of the Secretary of
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Defense for no other reason than the fact that I did not find that
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project on the approved list of the National Security Council's
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"Forty Committee" (then called the 5412/2 committee). That meant
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the agency had neither been directed by the National Security
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Council to move those helicopters into Vietnam, nor had it received
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authorization for such a tactical movement. In other words, the
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planned intervention into South Vietnam with a squadron of
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helicopters would at that time have been unlawful as an
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intervention into the internal affairs of another country.
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This denial then, in 1960, effectively blocked the CIA from
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being able to move heavy war-making equipment into Vietnam. The
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helicopters were actually U.S. Marine Corps property on "loan" from
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Okinawa to the CIA for clandestine operations in Laos.
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At that time my immediate superior was General Graves Erskine,
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the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Special (Clandestine)
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Operations, and the man then responsible for all military support
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of clandestine operations of the CIA. Also at that time, Frank
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Hand, "worked for" Erskine. Of course, this was a cover
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assignment--"cover slot" as it was known to us and to the CIA.
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Frank had a regular office in the Pentagon.
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No sooner had the CIA request been turned down than someone near
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the top of the agency called Frank and told him about it. In his
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smiling and friendly way he came into my office, carrying two cups
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of coffee, and began some talk about music, travel, or golf. Then,
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as was his practice, he would get the subject around to his point
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with such a comment as, "Fletch, who do you suppose took a call
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here about the choppers in Laos?" and we would be off.
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The special ability he possessed was best evidenced by the
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process he would set in motion once he discovered a problem that
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affected the ambitions of the agency. He would talk about the
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choppers with Erskine. Then he would drop in to see the Chief of
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Naval Operations and perhaps the Commandant of the Marine Corps.
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He would talk with some of the other civilian Assistant
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Secretaries. In other words, he would go from office to office
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like a bee spreading pollen, titillating only the most senior
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officers and civilian officials with the most "highly sensitive"
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tidbits about the CIA's plans for Vietnam. In this manner he would
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find out what the real thinking in the Pentagon might be, and where
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there might be real opposition to such an idea--such as in the
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Marine Corps, which knew it would never get compensation for those
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expensive helicopters and for the loss of time of all their support
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people. He would also find out where there would be support, as
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with the ever-eager U.S. Army Special Forces, most of whose senior
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officers had been with the CIA.
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Then he would drop out of the picture for awhile to travel back
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to the old CIA headquarters, on the hill that overlooks what is now
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the Watergate complex, for a long talk with Allen Dulles or the
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Deputy Director, General Cabell. On matters involving the
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clandestine services he would also stop by the old headquarters
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buildings, that lined the reflecting pool near the Lincoln
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Memorial, to talk with Dick Helms, Desmond Fitzgerald, and other
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operators. Within a day or two he would have them fully briefed on
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the steps to be taken in order to win over the Defense Department;
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or failing that, how to overpower and outmaneuver the Pentagon in
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the Department of State and the White House.
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The foregoing is a "case study" on the important subject of how
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the CIA really operates and what it believes is its top priority.
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The propaganda being spread around today by the CIA and its
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propagandists that, "What the CIA does is ordered by the
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President," is totally untrue in all but .<data type="percent" unit="%">00001%</data> of actual
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historical cases. It is much more factual to say that, "What the
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CIA does is to find ways to initiate major foreign policy moves
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without having the President find out--or at least without
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discovery until it is too late."
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"It is in precisely that manner that the CIA today works around,
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beneath and behind the White House to effect policies that could
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influence the survival of the nation and the world. "Gold Key"
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operatives are, at this very moment, carrying out CIA game plans
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entirely outside the power of President Ford's ability to affect
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their activities. He is totally without knowledge of most of them,
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and therefore powerless to stop or alter them.
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In the case of the helicopters, Frank Hand was able to convince
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Allen Dulles that the disapproval from the Secretary of Defense,
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via my office, was real and that the Secretary would, at that time,
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be unlikely to change his mind. Frank also could report that the
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position of other top-level assistants was so cool to stepping up
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the hardware *involvement* of the military in Vietnam, in 1960,
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that none of them would likely attempt to persuade the Secretary to
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change his policy of limited involvement.
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Fortified with the information gleaned by Frank Hand, Allen
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Dulles would have two primary options: drop the idea of moving
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helicopters into Vietnam, or bypass the Secretary of Defense for
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the time being by going to the White House for support. In 1960
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this was a crucial decision. The huge attempt to support a
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rebellion in Indonesia had failed utterly, the U-2 operations had
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been curtailed because of the Gary Powers incident, the far-
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reaching operations into Tibet had come to a halt by Presidential
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directive and anti-Castro activities were limited to minor forays.
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And at that time the large-scale (large for CIA) war in Laos had
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become such a disaster that the CIA wanted no more of it. Dick
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Bissell, the chief of the Clandestine Services, had written strong,
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personal letters to Tom Gates, the Secretary of Defense, wondering
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openly what to do about the 50000 or more miserable Laotian Meo
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tribesmen the CIA had moved into the battle zones of Laos and then
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had deserted with no plans for their protection, resupply, care or
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feeding. The CIA badly wanted to be relieved of the war that they
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had started and then found they could not handle. They wanted to
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transfer and thus preserve the agency's assets, including the
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helicopters, to the bigger prospects in Vietnam.
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So, in 1960, if Allen Dulles dropped the idea of moving his
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assets from Laos, he would not only have lost those helicopters
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back to the Marine Corps but he would have seriously jeopardized
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the CIA's undercover leadership role in the development of the war
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in Vietnam, which it had been fanning since 1954.
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This was a crucial decision for both the CIA and for those who
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wished to contain the agency. If those who wished to put the CIA
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genie back in the bottle had been able at that time to prevent the
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move of those CIA assets into Vietnam, Dulles would have had to
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disband them: helicopters, B-26 bombers from the Indonesian
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fiasco, tens of thousands of rifles and other weapons, C-46, C-54
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and other Air America-supported heavy transport aircraft, U-2
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operations over Indochina, radar and other clandestine equipment,
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C-130's specially modified for deep Tibetan operations, and much
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more. From the point of view of the CIA, the helicopters were
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simply the tip of the iceberg, and the decision was its most
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important in that decade.
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Typically, in his unwitting Mother Superior-style, which
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included bulldog tenacity, Dulles chose the route to the White
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House. Here again he could rely strongly on Frank Hand. Working
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with Hand in Erskine's office was the CIA's other best agent, Major
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General Edward G. Lansdale, who had long served in the CIA. Like
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Hand, he had unequalled contacts in the Department of State and in
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the White House. In support of Dulles, they contacted their
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friends there and began a subtle and powerful move destined to
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prepare the way for what would appear to be a decision by President
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Eisenhower. This was an important feature of the "case study":
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The *apparent* Presidential decision.
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When the CIA wants to do something for which it does not have
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prior approval and for which it does not have legal sanction, it
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works from the bottom, using all of its guile with security and
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"need to know"--a euphemism for "keep the scheme away from anyone
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at any level of government who might stand in its way." Hand and
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Lansdale, among others, were almost always able to line up enough
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support in the right places to make it possible for the CIA to get
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a favorable reading from the "Forty Committee" on any subject,
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legal or not. In fact, this is the great weakness of such a
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committee. Rather than working to control the agency it works the
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other way. The procedure makes it possible for the agency to win
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approval from a lesser echelon of the NSC intrastructure, and then,
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by clamping on a security id, it makes others believe that the CIA
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had orders from the NSC or perhaps even from the President, when in
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fact it did not.
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Thus it was that, about two weeks from the day that I received
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that first call requesting the movement of the squadron of
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helicopters, received word from General Erskine that he had been
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"officially" informed that the White House (Forty Committee) had
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approved the secret operation. The helicopters were moved into
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Vietnam. They were the first of thousands.
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The great significance of this incident is to point out how the
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CIA works powerfully, deftly, and with great assurance at any level
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of our government to get anything it wants done. But the anecdote
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shows only the surface coating of the application of the CIA
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apparatus.
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One year earlier, in 1959, Frank Hand had directed a Boston
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banker to my office. At that time I worked in the Directorate of
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Plans in Air Force headquarters and my work was top secret. Few of
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my contemporaries in the Pentagon knew that I was in charge of a
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global U.S. Air Force system created for the dual purpose of
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providing Air Force support for the CIA and for protecting the best
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|||
|
interests of the USAF while performing that task. My door was
|
|||
|
labeled simply, "Team B"; yet that Boston banker knocked and
|
|||
|
entered with assurance. Somehow he knew what my work was and he
|
|||
|
knew that I might be able to help him.
|
|||
|
In 1959 there were very few helicopters in all of the services,
|
|||
|
and military procurement of those expensive machines was at an
|
|||
|
all-time low. The Bell Helicopter Company was all but out of
|
|||
|
business, and its parent company, Bell Aerospace Corp., was having
|
|||
|
trouble keeping it financially afloat. Meanwhile, the shrewd Royal
|
|||
|
Little, President of the Providence-based Textron Company, had a
|
|||
|
good cash position and could well afford the acquisition of a
|
|||
|
loser. Textron and the First National Bank of Boston got together
|
|||
|
to talk helicopters. Neither one knew a thing about them. But men
|
|||
|
in First Boston were close to the CIA, and they learned that the
|
|||
|
CIA was operating helicopters in Laos. What they needed to know
|
|||
|
now was, "What would be the future of the military helicopter, and
|
|||
|
would the use of helicopters in South East Asia escalate if given a
|
|||
|
little boost--such as moving a squadron from Laos to Vietnam?" The
|
|||
|
CIA could tell them about that, and Frank Hand would be the man who
|
|||
|
could get them to the right people in the Pentagon.
|
|||
|
The banker from Boston phrased his questions as though he
|
|||
|
believed that the helicopters in Laos were somehow operating under
|
|||
|
the Air Force, and then went on to ask about their tactical
|
|||
|
significance and about the possible increase of helicopter
|
|||
|
utilization for that kind of warfare. This was at a time when not
|
|||
|
even newspapers had reported anything like the operation of such
|
|||
|
large and expensive aircraft in that remote war. We had a rather
|
|||
|
thorough discussion and then he left. He called me several times
|
|||
|
after that and visited my office a month or two later.
|
|||
|
As the record will show, Textron did acquire the Bell Helicopter
|
|||
|
Company and the CIA did step up use of helicopters to the extent
|
|||
|
that one of the CIA's own proprietary companies, Asia Aeronautics
|
|||
|
Inc., had more than four thousand men on each of two bases where
|
|||
|
helicopters were maintained. Most of those men were involved in
|
|||
|
their maintenance--Bell Helicopters, no less!
|
|||
|
Orders for Bel Helicopters for use in Vietnam exceeded $600-
|
|||
|
million. Anyone wanting to know more about how the U.S. got so
|
|||
|
heavily ($200-billion and the loss of 58000 American lives)
|
|||
|
involved in Indochina need look no further. This was the pattern
|
|||
|
and the plan.
|
|||
|
At the present time, when the White House, the House, and the
|
|||
|
Senate are all investigating the CIA, it is important to understand
|
|||
|
the CIA and to put it all in the proper perspective. It is not the
|
|||
|
President who instructs the CIA concerning what it will do. And in
|
|||
|
many cases it is *not* even the Director of Central Intelligence
|
|||
|
who instructs the CIA. The CIA is a great, monstrous machine with
|
|||
|
tremendous and terrible power. It can be set in motion from the
|
|||
|
outside like a programmer setting a computer in operation, and then
|
|||
|
it covers up what it is doing when men like Frank Hand--the real
|
|||
|
movers--put grease on the correct gears. And in a majority of
|
|||
|
cases, the power behind it all is big business, big banks, big law
|
|||
|
firms and big money. The agency exists to be used by them.
|
|||
|
Let no one misunderstand what I mean. It was President Lyndon
|
|||
|
B. Johnson who on more than one occasion said that the CIA was
|
|||
|
"operating a damn Murder Inc. in the Carribean." In other words,
|
|||
|
he knew it was doing this--and he was the President! This
|
|||
|
knowledge has been recently confirmed by Defense Secretary James
|
|||
|
Schlesinger (who is a former head of the CIA) and others by their
|
|||
|
admission that they told the agency to end all "terminations." But
|
|||
|
Lyndon Johnson was powerless to do anything about it. This is an
|
|||
|
astounding admission from a President, the very man from whom, the
|
|||
|
CIA says, it always gets its instructions.
|
|||
|
The present concern over "domestic surveillance" and such other
|
|||
|
lean tidbits--most important to you and me as they are--is not
|
|||
|
important to the CIA. It can easily dispense with a James Angleton
|
|||
|
or even a Helms or a Colby (just look at the list of CIA bigwigs
|
|||
|
who have been fired--Allen Dulles, Frank Wisner, Dick Bissell, Dick
|
|||
|
Helms, and now perhaps Colby); but the great machine will live on
|
|||
|
while Congress digs away at the Golden Apples tossed casually aside
|
|||
|
by the CIA--the supreme Aphrodite of them all. Notice that the
|
|||
|
agency cares little about giving away "secrets" in the form of
|
|||
|
cleverly written insider books such as those by Victor Marchetti
|
|||
|
and Philip Agee. The CIA just makes it look as though it cared
|
|||
|
with some high-class window dressing. Actually the real harm to
|
|||
|
the American public from those books is to make people believe that
|
|||
|
certain carefully selected propaganda is true.
|
|||
|
In the story of Frank Hand we come much closer to seeing exactly
|
|||
|
how the CIA operates to control this government and other foreign
|
|||
|
governments. It is still operating that way. Today it is
|
|||
|
President Ford who is the unwitting accessory.
|
|||
|
* * * * * * * *
|
|||
|
the following is taken from an article Fletcher Prouty wrote
|
|||
|
for the February 1986 issue of "Freedom" magazine, entitled,
|
|||
|
"Why Vietnam? The Selection and Preparation of the
|
|||
|
Battlefield For America's Entry into the Indochina War," Part
|
|||
|
7 in a Series on the Central Intelligence Agency. i include
|
|||
|
it to amplify on the curious visit Colonel Prouty received in
|
|||
|
1959 from the vice president of the First National Bank of
|
|||
|
Boston and how it demonstrates that
|
|||
|
There was only one way that vice president of the First
|
|||
|
National Bank of Boston could have come directly to my
|
|||
|
office in the Pentagon. The CIA had sent him there.
|
|||
|
This is one of the most important "truly confidential"
|
|||
|
roles of the agency. The CIA is the best friend of the top
|
|||
|
executives of America's biggest businesses, and it works for
|
|||
|
them at home and abroad. It is always successful in the
|
|||
|
highest echelons of government and finance. . . .
|
|||
|
Translated into everyday terms, Casey's CIA, as was Allen
|
|||
|
Dulles' CIA, is one of the true bastions of power as a
|
|||
|
servant of the American and transnational business and
|
|||
|
financial community.
|
|||
|
--ratitor
|
|||
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Helicopters in Vietnam
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Toward the end of World War II, a small number of
|
|||
|
helicopters made their appearance in military operations.
|
|||
|
During the costly battle for Okinawa, in the summer of 1945,
|
|||
|
General Joseph Stilwell--famed for his role as commander in
|
|||
|
the China-Burma-India theater of the war--began to use an
|
|||
|
early model of the Sikorsky helicopter as a"command car."
|
|||
|
During the early 1950s, the Korean War gave the
|
|||
|
helicopter industry a much needed boost and several models
|
|||
|
were used there. After the Korean War, the use of
|
|||
|
helicopters in all services was severely curtailed by high
|
|||
|
costs of procurement and by the enormous amounts of time and
|
|||
|
money required to keep them in operation. By 1959 almost
|
|||
|
all helicopter manufacturers were broke, or at least on very
|
|||
|
hard times. This included the Bell Helicopter Company in
|
|||
|
Buffalo, New York.
|
|||
|
The helicopters used on operational missions into Laos,
|
|||
|
mentioned in this article, were the only military
|
|||
|
helicopters anywhere in the world getting regular and
|
|||
|
frequent tactical use. However, their very existence in
|
|||
|
Thailand and their employment in Laos were secrets. They
|
|||
|
had been moved from Okinawa to Thailand and were supported
|
|||
|
by my office in the Pentagon.
|
|||
|
One day, in 1959, a man entered my office to discuss
|
|||
|
helicopters.
|
|||
|
Because of the nature of the work my office was doing,
|
|||
|
this was an infrequent event. Outside the door of the
|
|||
|
office there was a small blue card that read:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Air Force Plans
|
|||
|
"Team B"
|
|||
|
Chief--Lt. Col. L. F. Prouty
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
That card by the door drew little attention, and it was
|
|||
|
meant to be that way. Then how did this civilian visitor
|
|||
|
from the outside world know that "Team B" was the place he
|
|||
|
wanted to visit--for business purposes?
|
|||
|
He introduced himself as a vice president of the First
|
|||
|
National Bank of Boston. He said he was interested in the
|
|||
|
tactical utilization of helicopters. Somehow he had been
|
|||
|
directed to "Team B." "Team B" had been established in 1955
|
|||
|
to provide "military support of the clandestine activities
|
|||
|
of the CIA." The use of helicopters in Laos was a
|
|||
|
clandestine operation of the CIA.
|
|||
|
My visitor knew quite a bit about the helicopters in
|
|||
|
Thailand. He wanted to know if this utilization of large
|
|||
|
helicopters on tactical missions was a harbinger of more
|
|||
|
helicopters or was it simply a make-work project? Then he
|
|||
|
got to the reason for his visit.
|
|||
|
He said that the Textron Company of Providence, Rhode
|
|||
|
Island, was a major customer of his bank. Textron was in a
|
|||
|
good cash position and the bank was advising them to
|
|||
|
diversify and acquire a marginally viable company for tax
|
|||
|
purposes and with an eye to future value.
|
|||
|
To the First National Bank of Boston the helicopter
|
|||
|
business and specifically the Bell Helicopter Company in
|
|||
|
Buffalo appeared to be a prime prospect on both counts.
|
|||
|
Textron was interested. The only problem was the market.
|
|||
|
Would there ever be an interest in and a need for
|
|||
|
helicopters by the military, meaning in big numbers? The
|
|||
|
Laotian operation was the only show in town.
|
|||
|
Because of the role being played by my office in support
|
|||
|
of the use of helicopters in Southeast Asia, I already knew
|
|||
|
the Bell people well both in Washington, D.C., and Buffalo.
|
|||
|
I knew Bill Gesel, the president of Bell Helicopter. I knew
|
|||
|
they were competent, but in trouble for lack of orders.
|
|||
|
I described the helicopter as a useful vehicle of limited
|
|||
|
potential, but rather well suited for covert operations. In
|
|||
|
simple terms, the helicopter was too costly for the regular
|
|||
|
military budget, but, as a rule, covert operations had money
|
|||
|
to burn. That was the kind of money helicopters needed.
|
|||
|
Because of the trend of covert operations in Southeast Asia,
|
|||
|
I believed the demand for helicopters would increase.
|
|||
|
As events later transpired, the First National Bank of
|
|||
|
Boston, of which this man was a vice president, was
|
|||
|
instrumental in getting Textron to acquire the Bell
|
|||
|
Helicopter Company. This was the beginning of the Textron
|
|||
|
acquisition of Bell and of the great success Bell had in
|
|||
|
selling helicopters for use in Indochina. As we all know
|
|||
|
now, the Bell "Huey" helicopter was the unsung hero of the
|
|||
|
struggle in Vietnam. Thousands were used there.
|
|||
|
On one occasion, while I was at lunch at the Army and
|
|||
|
Navy Club in Washington, Bill Gesel, still president of
|
|||
|
Bell, came by my table and pulled a check out of his pocket
|
|||
|
that was in the range of nine figures--hundreds of millions
|
|||
|
of dollars. Needless to say, Bell was doing well. Textron
|
|||
|
was doing well. The First National Bank of Boston had
|
|||
|
earned its fees and, as a result, the remains of hundreds of
|
|||
|
Hueys are scattered all over the countryside of Vietnam.
|
|||
|
The Huey had become the famous "gun ship" of that war.
|
|||
|
There was only one way that vice president of the First
|
|||
|
National Bank of Boston could have come directly to my
|
|||
|
office in the Pentagon. The CIA had sent him there.
|
|||
|
This is one of the most important "truly confidential"
|
|||
|
roles of the agency. The CIA is the best friend of the top
|
|||
|
executives of America's biggest businesses, and it works for
|
|||
|
them at home and abroad. It is always successful in the
|
|||
|
highest echelons of government and finance.
|
|||
|
This is the way things were more than 25 years ago. You
|
|||
|
may be assured these successes have not diminished under the
|
|||
|
current director of central intelligence, William J. Casey,
|
|||
|
a true friend of business.
|
|||
|
During a speech, delivered in December 1979 before an
|
|||
|
American Bar Association workshop on "Law, Intelligence and
|
|||
|
National Security," Casey said that he would like to see the
|
|||
|
CIA be a place "in the United States government to
|
|||
|
systematically look at the economic opportunities and
|
|||
|
threats in a long-term perspective, . . . [to] recommend, or
|
|||
|
act on the use of economic leverage, either offensively or
|
|||
|
defensively for strategic purposes."
|
|||
|
Translated into everyday terms, Casey's CIA, as was Allen
|
|||
|
Dulles' CIA, is one of the true bastions of power as a
|
|||
|
servant of the American and transnational business and
|
|||
|
financial community.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
<div>
|
|||
|
--
|
|||
|
daveus rattus
|
|||
|
yer friendly neighborhood ratman
|
|||
|
KOYAANISQATSI
|
|||
|
ko.yan.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language) n. 1. crazy life. 2. life
|
|||
|
in turmoil. 3. life out of balance. 4. life disintegrating.
|
|||
|
5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
|
|||
|
i |