Watergate Has Damaged Reputations Of

The Harris Survey

For Release: Monday, September 3, 1973

WATERGATE HAS DAfvlAGED REPUTATIONS OF FBI AND CIA

BY LOUIS HARRIS

Part of the serious fall-out from the Watergate investigation, in the judgment of the American people, is that the reputation of both the FBI and the CIA have been "damaged." By 52-36 percent, a majority of the public feels the FBI was used to its detriment in a cover-up of the Watergate affair, while a 46-33 percent plurality feels the same way about the CIA. During the course of the hearings, testimony was given that L. Patrick Gray, former acting head of the FBI, burned papers which might have been later evidence, allegedly on instruction from presidential aide John Ehrlichman. In the case of the CIA, not only were several of the men who were caught in the Watergate break-in former CIA employees, but E. Howard Hunt, a Watergate operative, had borrowed dis- guises and a camera from the CIA, for which he had worked a number of years. High-ranking CIA officials have suggested under oath that they felt the WhiteHouse tried to involve the CIA in the cover-up.

On August 18-19 the Harris Survey conducted in-person interviews among a cross section of 1,536 house- holds nationwide, asking about those alleged White House efforts to use the nation's two leading in- vestigative agencies:

"Do you feel that the White House staff was trying to get the CIA and the FBI to cover up the Watergate affair or didn't you think that was the case?"

DlD THE WHLTE HOUSE TRY TO GET C1A AN11 YBL TO COVEK UP WA'I'EKGA'I'EY Total Public X Tried to get CIA and FBI to cover up 56 Was not the case 20 Not sure 24 Former CIA Director Richard Helms not only related in his testimony that he resisted inferences that the CIA take some responsibility for Watergate and the payments made to the defendants, but he denied vehemently that the CIA had any direct or indirect involvement in the burglarizing of Democratic head- quarters or in the subsequent cover-up. Nonetheless, in the public's mind, the notion persists quite strongly that somehow the CIA was involved in the Watergate. People were asked:

"Do you feel that the CIA was involved in the Watergate affair and other illegal domestic spying activities or not?"

WAS THE CIA INVOLVED IN THE WATERGATE?

Total Public X Was involved 45 Was not involved 24 Not sure 31 his public suspicion that somehow the CIA was involved in Watergate and other illegal domestic spying is a serious charge because such lack of public confidence could prove harmful to future CIA activities. Even more serious, however, is the fact that under the law authorizing its existence, the CIA is speci- fically prohibited from engaging in domestic investigatory operations of any kind.

Former Director Helms did admit under questioning that the CIA undertook to draw "a psychiatric profile" of Daniel Ellsberg, the defendant in the Pentagon Papers case, the only time in its history it had done so. However, the CIA denied vigorously that it had any knowledge and any connection with the break-in to Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. No proof has been offered that the CU had any involvement in that affair.

Public doubts about both the CIA and the FBI continue to persist and likely will for some time, even though the U.S. Senate ~ommittee's inquiry into their possible roles has been concluded. Based on these doubts, the net public judgment is that both agencies have been damaged.

The cross section was asked:

"Do you feel that the reputation of the~FBIwas damaged by the way it was used in the cover-up of the Watergate affair or don't you feel that way?" and "Do you feel that the CIA'S reputation has been damaged or not in the Watergate affair?"

HAVE REPUTATION OF FBI AND CIA BEEN DAMAGED?

Not Not Damaged Damaged Sure X X X FBI 52 36 12 CIA 46 33 21

Across the boards, among every major subsegment of the American public, even including people who voted for President Nixon last November, at least a plurality feels that the reputations of both the CIA and the FBI have been damaged. Both have always prided themselves in being above partisan and political considerations.

Now there is a large measure of public doubt about the nation's chief domestic and international security agencies. It will take much explanation by both agencies in the days and even years ahead to restore to aotn tne presclge ana puollc con~laencethey once possessed.