NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON O C 2 0506 60 P-iFIDENTIAL November 5 1975 Dear Mitch Attached are the NSC Staff comments on the Senate Select Committee's draft Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973 The fundamental point to be made from o11r perspective is that a public statement confirming not only the fact of but specifics of past covert actions will have a terribly damaging impc1-ct on our position of leade rship in the international community our position vis-a-vis the Soviet Union and other adversaries and our ability to preserve intelligence relationships with many countries These matters may be considered in Executive session and if need be legislation proposed based upon these hearings 0 ' ci co J Cl 0 0 ' L Cl J Ul 0 0 0 LL - i As a practical matter we recognize the difficulty of publishing a report of subs_tance without citing examples from which to draw conclusions The alternative to a report of substance could be a statement of general findings conclusions and recommendations along with a classified annex suitably sanitized to support these findings I think the attached comments support the necessity for avoiding public disclosure of the type and scope of our activities in Chile and the concomitant dange_r of placing at hostage the sue cess of future covert activities In short we s upport a strong objection on principle to any uncla ssified publication of this material Sincerely E O 1s a6 CG SSC 3 3 MRfi' fJ'l- OI 2 µSC lJ' t tP-dl g - - McFarlane Lt Colonel U S M C Military Assistant to the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs I Mr Mitchell Rogovin Spec ial Counsel to the Direct r Centr a l Intelligence Agency £ECRE1' ATTACHMENTS 0 c 0 b r 0 Comments on Senate Select Committee Repo r t on Chile I We have reviewed the Church Committee Staff Report on Cove rt A c t ion in Chile 1963 - 1973 and concur most strongly i n the CIA pos ition that this material should not be published and should not be discussed in public session In general the report is markedly one -s ided It refers to mas siv e invo l vement but as compared to what It makes it appear that only the United States was involved in this activity and makes no attempt to correlate our activity with that of Cuba and the Soviet Uni on on the other side It also infers from the documentation that has been provided the Committee that there was direct U S involvement in the coup and the death of General Rene Schneider which was not the case a a a' J a a 0 ' l a J UJ 0 In addition we recognize the legitimacy of a debate on whether or not the Unite d States should conduct covert activity at all or whether we should have done so in Chile However such a debate cannot take place in public without in effect prejudging the issue S uch public debate would provide our potential adversaries with sufficient material as well as frighten off any potential collaborators to destroy for all practical purposes any U S capability to conduct covert operations even if it should be decided such operations were in the U S i nterest Also how can they equate this study with the legal requirement of the Di rec tor of Central Intelligence to protect intelligence sources and methods The Committee study clearly says it is describing CIA methods - - it uses that label It also exposes individuals and groups 0 '1 IV-18 it describes an advertising agency in some detail and ii one misses the correct identification well more details are offered on page IV-20 - - and while the study notes that Unconfirmed charges of CIA involvement were made the study proposes to correct that by confirming that CIA was indeed involved Why is it necessary to name names The story could be told in generalities -- a l a r ge newspaper a pajor political party a political splinter group etc But throughout the paper names are named In fact sometimes specific individual agents may be E O 13828 as anendod SEC U SECRET MR# t J SC D 9- 0 1 · 2- '- 4# pJ _3 I 'f 2- By • 0 a LL i 0 c 0 1-- 0 r Q SECRET 2 identified - - e g IV 7 -- a Radical journalist and CIA as se t who joined wi th others - -_o are identified on 2 June to organize the Legion of Lib erty IV 19-- an individual press asse t who produced regul ar radio commentary shows on a nationwid e hookup aimed at fe mal audiences Specific individual s who took risks to collaborate with us in clandestine endeavors which our policy makers deemed were in our national interests are to be subject to public exposure and worse It is ·not cloak-and-daggerish to suggest that some lives could be in jeopardy And what about the impact on our efforts elsewhere in the world Can we expect to attract the collaborators we need to conduct clandestine operations if they see that their names and roles may be publicized by the Congress And what about other laces where le a d e rs are looking for paper tigers to bash around and use this material to claim that a newspaper in their country or a rival p o litician- -Australia today for example- -or military group etc is obviously being supported by CIA because here is an official document of the Cong ress which describes this as one of CIA 's metho ds I co 3 0 ' L 0 -l UJ 0 0 a L i 0 v 0 '- b r 0 On page V -2 the study philosophically notes the fact ''That the United Sta tes was involved has been taken for granted in Latin America for many years 11 Again it proposes to remove all doubts by offering confirming evidence n ming names telling who got the 1noney a nd how much On page V-4 it throws some tar on AID and AIFLD too but notes on page V-6 that CIA faces a difficult situation in talking about relations with multinational corporations for fear it may reveal sensitive sources and methods Specifically with regard to the International Development Foundation mentio ned on page IV- 7 not all its employees were witting of CIA suppo rt but all will be t ainted if this connection is confirmed by this Congressional pub lic ation We hurt the innocent as well as the guilty Whatever the IDF did f or us in Chile it also did many good things e lsewhe re and yet each and every employee in each a nd every country where IDF operated will be tainted E x posure could ruin careers de stroy the economic well being or worse of many individuals And the £act remains that in spite of charges tha t CIA SECRET gscRE'f 3 backed the IDF and th e latter knew it IDF officials persistently denied this fac t with some success But no w th e Committee proposes to wipe all that away with a public confirmation that CIA and IDF were hand -in- glove ' The DCI says this material remains classified To give it public exposure could endanger the lives of individuals who cooperated with us affect our foreign relations not only with Chile but with other nations and would be a serious and harmful blow to future clandestine and covert action operations of our government We have marked in red the various identifications which we believe should be protected Stating this information in gene ralities would not detract from the conclusions of the study or its purpose of analyzing the system There would still be sufficient details to s upport the conclusions Cl J UJ 0 0 0 If we are going to fight against release of classified information which would damage our foreign policy and national security interests this is the time i 0 v 0 h b c 0 -_ ri l' f· - ' SECRET