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It is generally agreed that the activities of the groups supported by the CIA were distinct from its hard-core intelligence functions and from major field operations—although occasionally the lines were blurred. The degree of outright CIA influence varied widely. In the case of the National Student Association—which has made the fullest disclosures—the influence was considerable. Leaders were selected by the CIA at the end of an all-expense-paid, 14-week international seminar; positions on international issues were carefully guided by well-informed arguments and background papers based on CIA information. On occasion, N.S.A. members were used for marginal, low-key intelligence work—an appraisal of the Marxist leadership in Bolivian universities, an analysis of Dominican student attitudes during the crisis of 1965.
In a few situations, perhaps, mere aid or propaganda functions turned into full-fledged political operations—as in the violent general strike that helped bring down the government of pro-Marxist Cheddi Jagan in British Guiana three years ago. It was financed by the CIA-backed Public Services International, whose ostensible aim was to organize government workers into independent unions around the world.
But often the CIA merely supplied money to ensure an American "presence" and made no attempt to influence policy. Says British Author Colin Maclnnes of Encounter: "Were we corrupted by American money? Encounter let me say things which other publications didn't want to know about, and they never touched a word. All I can say is, if the money was coming from the CIA, why in the bloody hell didn't they pay us a bit more?"
Was—or is—secrecy necessary in most such operations? At the time they started, it certainly was—largely because of the very real, all-too-easily dismissed threat from Communist subversion or front organizations, which had to be countered with the free world's own fronts. At the same time, it was also necessary to counter American naivete. The State Department, for example, was working to set up an international labor federation including Communists (who eventually took it over), while the CIA was battling undercover for anti-Communist unions. Liberal opinion denounced cold war measures as hysterical, while conservative opinion denounced any Government agency dealing with the non-Communist left as playing footie with Reds. Only the CIA had the imagination and the funds for programs that Congress would never have approved.
Risk of Exposure