CIA's Detractors
[Letter printed in the Holland Sentinel, 29 December 1975]
The CIA's work is a bit disreputable, generally covert, and absolutely necessary.
All nations have employed espionage and clandestine warfare agencies. Stalin's agents murdered Trotsky in Mexico, liquidated other inconvenient Russian emigres, and finally stole from us many of the secrets of the atom bomb. These methods are useful to the one employing them and dangerous to the victim. They cannot be countered by second-rate lawyers with textbooks on constitutional law.
Just a few years ago, the KGB attempted to overthrow the Mexican government. It was defeated by the Mexican police and security agencies, not by pious legislative moralizers. Today, detente notwithstanding, the Soviets are bankrolling leftist groups in Portugal and Angola. Why does the Church Committee not investigate in what manner the Russians respect other countries' sovereignty?
Instead, the Church Committee, in its wondrous wisdom and rectitude, has discovered that our clandestine operations bring disgrace and discredit upon us, hurt our international image as "Mr. Clean," and offend world opinion. In God's name, whose opinion? Of the KGB? Of Uganda's Amin? Of Fidel Castro, who sent Che Guevara to subvert Bolivia? Of a score of two-bit Third World dictators who wish they were powerful enough to push others around?
Granted that those who dislike the United States like to attack the CIA, but both the credibility and the frequency of these attacks would be diminished considerably if the Church Committee had just managed to keep its mouth shut.
It is one thing to correct actual CIA shortcomings and abuses. It is another to wreck and demoralize the agency and to expose its operatives to added dangers. These are loyal men who serve this country without public acclaim, glory, or honors. They deserve better than the Church Committee has given them.