Gaining Access to CIA's Records (Evan Thomas)

A Singular Opportunity Gaining Access to CIA™s Records Evan Thomas Editor™s Note: Mr. Evan Thomas was I sometimes had the feeling reading allowed to see CIA classified record~ under the Church Committee reports that the historical access policy. The basic author the public knows more about the ityfor this policy is Executive Order 12356 inner workings of the CIA™s Clandes April 1982], as implemented in HR 10- tine Service than it does about the 24(c)4. Under these provisions, CIA may Department of Health and Human grant individual researchers andformer Services. Presidential appointees access to classified files, once the reczpient ofthis access signs a Yet, for a variety of reasons, the CIA I sometimes had the feeling secrecy agreement and agrees to allow the hangs on to the illusion of secrecy reading the Church Agency to review his manuscript to ensure about these early operations. Sources that it contains no class~f1ed information. and methods must be protected, Committee reports that the Former DCI Robert Gates granted Mr. even from many decades ago, and public knows more about Thomas historical access in 1992, and there is a certain tradition to con the inner workings of the directed that the CIA History Stafflocate sider. To some old hands like andprovide records that would satisfi Mr. Richard Helms, secrets are forever. CIA™s Clandestine Service Thomas™s research request. Mr. Thomas™s Thus, numerous books have reported than it does about the manuscrzpt was subsequently reviewed in that the Guatemala operation was accordance with his and codenamed PBSUCCESS. To the of Heahh and secrecy agreement Department approved on2March 1995 by the Informa CIA, however, the code name Human Services. tion Review Officer ofthe Directorate of remains classified. This is under Operations, with the concurrence of the standable to officials of the ‚9 Office of General Counsel. The views Directorate of Operations (DO), per expressed by Mr. Thomas in his manuscript haps, but to historical researchers it and in this article are his own, and do not seems slightly surreal. There is not a necessarily represent the opinions of CIA or lot historians can do about it, any ofits components. because the operations of the CIA are largely exempt from the Freedom of Information Act It is no secret that, over time, many (FOIA). CIA secrets leak. The most sensa tional stories have a way of surfacing, This may be about to change. There especially in the covert action arena is a move afoot in Congress and the where there are often many witting Clinton administration to declassi& participants and the action has tangi CIA records from the early daysŠ ble consequences. In the early days, more than 30 years ago. But it will the larger, more spectacular covert be a slow and cumbersome process, actions in Indonesia and at the Bay if my own experience is an indication. of Pigs all were the subjects of rumors and newspaper accounts I have had the singular opportunity within a few months (or hours) of of being allowed behind the veil their occurrence. Post-Watergate and permitted to see all of the Congressional investigators uncov Clandestine Service™s classified histo ered much of what remained secret: ries and some of the Agency™s Evan Thomas is an Assistant Manag the assassination plots, drug experi classified records. I believe I am the ing Editor of Newsweek magazine. ments, and mail-opening campaigns. first outside historian or journalist to 19 CIA Records be granted such an opportunity. But they were ideally suited to take a lead improving those stories. If there was the process I went through tells a lit ership role. a paper trail to the stories I was hear tle about the difficulty the CIA will ing from the old hands, I wanted to have for wider opening up viewing. I settled on four subjects: Wisner, see it. The result was satisfactory to me, Richard Bissell, Tracy Barnes, and and Agency officials, though encum Desmond FitzGerald. Wisner, Bis In the winter of 1992, I called out to bered by bureaucratic imperatives, sell, and FitzGerald were Deputy the CIA™s Office of Public Affairs, showed faith. the good Nonetheless, Directors for Plans, and Barnes was not quite sure what to expect. I process was complex and, at times, an Associate Deputy Director for was pleasantly surprised when Joe sligh~dy comic. Plans and a major participant in DeTrani, then the Agency™s chief some of the bigger actions, including spokesman, invited me to visit Lan My access was granted for a book I Guatemala and the Bay of Pigs. They gley to discuss possible access. was working on, entitled The Very all were distinguished by a certain Noting that the Cold War was over, Best Men, published last year by social backgroundŠmembers of the he said that the Agency was looking Simon & Schuster. Several years ago, same set in GeorgetownŠand they for ways to open up to historians and I had the idea of writing a joint biog all believed in acting boldly and tak journalists. When I arrived at CIA raphy of four men who were ing risks. Within the Agency, they headquarters, I was received by promincnt figures running covert were known for their dash and DeTrani, Ken McDonald, the head action in the first two decades of the charm, and, by some, for their inno of the CIA™s History Staff, and Cold War. In a way, I wanted to cence of tradecraft and occasional another official who handled FOIA write a sequel to The Wise Men, recklessness. requests. The Agency officials were which I co-authored with Walter friendly and seemed eager to help, in Isaacson, published 1986. The All four show up in various books on but I got a taste of what was in store Wise Men was the story of six states the CIA. Bissell was briefly but viv when I reached down to pick up the men who shaped the doctrine of idly portrayed in Tom Powers™s The CIA résumés of my four subjects, containment in the years right after Man Who Kept the Secrets. Wisner one-page summaries that were laid World War II. Two fwise men,f was somewhat cruelly captured in out on the table. The résumés George Kennan and Chip Bohlen, The Old Boys by Burton Hersh. seemed innocuousŠthey consisted were close friends with Frank Wis Barnes and FitzGerald are more of titles and dates of employment. ncr, the man most responsible for obscure figures. I hoped that I would But one of the officials present creating a covert action capability for be able to find out more about these quickly stayed my hand. Classified, the United States in the postwar era. men from their families and friends. he explained. Although of a much later generation, Wisner™s story, of an impassioned, I was reasonably well connected to Nonetheless, the Agency officials driven man who helped create a their world through my own acquain hoped that we could work out some counterforce to Soviet subversion tanceships and through my kind of an arrangement. Although and later became a tragic suicide, employer, Katharine Graham of The records of Agency operations are intrigued me. As I looked into it, I Washington Post. But I was eager to largely exempt from FOIA, there is found that there was a group of see as well if I could persuade the an obscure executive order that men within the CIA who, like Wis CIA to open up its records. Oral his allows historians to have access if ncr, were similar to the group we tory is useful to get a feel for the they sign an Agency secrecy oath. wrote about in The Wise Men. This motivations behind official acts and The provision had been used once group shared the same social back the character and temperament of before, they explained, for Jerry ground, the same ideals, and the the officials themselves. But it is not Schecter, who wrote a book about same confidence in America™s role in always accurate. People tend to the Penkovsky case called The Spy the world. They had a sureness of remember stories they have told Who Saved the World. Schecter purpose, a deep confidence that about events, not the events them had been allowed to see Penkovsky™s America™s time had come and that selves, and memories have a way of file, although he had not been 20 CIA Records The CIA was talking about giving me the entire run of Agency records from the allowed to cite Agency records in his I read public accounts, looked at late 1940s to the footnotes. some of the scant archival material, mid-1960s. I wanted to and interviewed about 50 former offi I knew that I could not sign the cials who had worked with find some way to take my would Agency™s secrecy agreement. It subjects. I also spent several days aliow the advantage of the offer government to censor my interviewing the one survivor in my work before DeTrani publication. without sacrificing my own group, Richard Bissell. Almost every assured me that the CIA would be one I contacted, Bissell, freedom to including reasonable. But how could I be sure? publish. spoke freely and on the record. I of the lawsuit thought Agency™s There are no unattributed quotes in Frank a former 9~ case against Snepp, the book, and in the end I was able officer who had secrets in published to cite all my sources by name, with his book, Decent Interval. The a single exception of an official who had a for rates.) Together, we worked out a Agency reputation fighting did not want to reveal his knowledge to keep its secrets.

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