-Stone magazine that some 400 American journalists had "secretly carried out as- signments" for the C.I.A. since the agen- cy's founding in 1947, in many cases with C.I.A. the knowledge and approval of top news Established Many Links executives. W) However. all of the past and present C.I.A. officials who were interviewed in 75 TJournal' is 'n U.S. and Abroad The Times's investigation were unani- • mous in asserting that the number of journalists who have been on the C.I.A.'s The following article was written by communications industry at home and payroll was, as one former official put John M. Crewdson and is based on re- abroad, and especially its relationshipg it, "Otte modest." porting by him and Joseph B. Treaster. with American journalists overseas. "If you scan a history of 25 years. In interviews with scores of past and you could come up with totals like 40 One day several years ago, a corre- or 50 people," the former official said. T-C, spondent for a large Middle Western present intelligence officers, journalistg Others put the total as high as 100. newspaper, arriving in Belgrade, was and others with knowledge of the situ. In that time there have been literally asked by some colleagues whether he ation, The Times checked the names of thousands of correspondents for do- would like to meet his newspaper's local 200 individuals and organizations 'whom mastic news organizations working "stringer." • abroad. Several former intelligence officers 4-4-1 Knowing that his newspaper did not C.I.A.: Secret Shaper. I, pointed out that the C.I.A. itself does It-1-1 employ anyone in Belgrade, or so he not know precisely, and probably can • T'"'l thought, the correspondent ascended the Of Public Opinion never know, how many American jour- nalists have been on its payroll over stairs of the stringer's hotel, only to Last of Three Articles ` glimpse he man racing down another set the years. Agency files are widely scat- tered and incomplete, they say, and of stairs on his way, he shouted, to catch hC some of the arrangements made abroad (j) an airplane for Prague. various sources identified as having pos• may never have been recorded at C.I.A . 11) The correspondent was puzzled, but sible intelligence connections. • headquarters. said he learned later that the man had Nearly 20 correspondents were founA As attention to thc C.I.A.'s past at- Cl) been an operative of the Central Intelli- who said they had refused offers of tempts to use the press in its propaganda • 1.-1 employment by the agency. efforts has been renewed in recent gence Agency, fleeing to protect his months, correspondents overseas have "cover," and that he had obtained his But Tne Times 'also obtained the neatest reported that intensified suspicions press credentials directly from the news- of more than 30 American journalist!) among citizens of other countries have paper's publisher. who have worked since World War II made news gathering more difficult. as paid intelligence operatives, in moss A poll by The Times of its own foreign correspondents produced several remind- keepHe theand matter the publisher as their had secret, agreed appar- to cases for the C.I.A. and at least a dozen other American reporters who, although ers that in some parts of the world American journalists, like those of most theently newspaper's never anticipating legitimate that correspondents one of unpaid, its operational were counted "assets." by the C.I.A. among other countries. have always been sus- might turn up unexpectedly. pected of serving as intelligence opera- In addition, at least 12 full-time CIA That instance was but one of dozens . tives on the side. But one correspondent cabled from uncovered during a three-month inquiry Continued on Page 40, Column I - India that "a rather new practice among by The New York Times into the C.I.A.'s some of us is to avoid public contacts three decades of involvement with the, reporter-agents last year, aria VIM el' with known C.I.A. people." Such con- sus- tee' ' them, until recently a CBS reporter in tapiccitoriss, he.. wrote, "might only confirm Continued Stem Page L. Europe, is wrapping packages in a Florida department store. In all, the three-month investigation aefficers have worked abroad over the by The Times found thhat at least 22 last 30 years while posing as employees American news organizations had em- not American-owned news organizations. The Cold War Climate ployed, though sometimes only on a casu- -I' Of the more than 70 individuals identi- al basis, American journalists who were Several of the journalists and C.I.A. afied by The Times as falling into one Sts working fat the C.I.A. In a few in- serif these categories. 'several are dead and officials interviewed made the point that stances the organizations were aware of 34 score could not be located. But a num- during the height of the Cold War it was acceptable to cooperate with the agency the C.I.A. connection, but most of them ,rber of the others Confirmed their involve- appear not to have been. --anent, and several spoke freely about in ways that both the C.I.A. and the jour- The organizations, which range from their experiences, though nearly all re- nalistic community now deem inappropri- ate. some of the most influential in the ration eguested that their• names not be used. to some of the most obscure. include ABC • "The thing to do was to cooperate." wantoo live over here in a country said one retired intelligence officer. "I and CBS News, Time, Life and Newsweek .1:Lhat I like without having to worry about guess that looks strange in 1977. But co- magazines. The New York Times, The "getting a bomb through my window," operation ,didn't look strange then." New York Herald Tribune, The Associat- amid one mart, a former correspondent Earlier this month, the C.I.A. made ed Press and United Press International. for ABC News who worked for the C.I.A. , Also included were the Scripps-Howard sn the 1950's. public a new executive order proscribing except with the explicit approval of the chain of newspapers. The Christian Sci- 3: ence Monitor, The Wall Street Journal, At ABC, William Sheehan, •a senior Director of Central Intelligence, any paid :mice president, has said that the network or unpaid operational relationships with The Louisville Courier-Journal and Fo- dor's, a publisher of travel guides. :staffSea "satisfied in such athere dual was role." no one. on our reporters for general circulation Ameri- Among the lesser known organizations can news organizatiOns. e All of those interviewed, like one man The agency's long-standing relationship were the College Press Service, Business twho had been a Time stringer in Rome, with American journalists was first called International, the McLendon Broadcasting insisted *that they had been able, though to public attention in 1973, when William Organization, Film Daily and a defunct in some cases at psychological cost to E. Colby, then the Director of Central underground newspaper published in': themselves, to maintain a separation be- Intelligence, provided reporters in Wash- Washington, The Quicksilver Times. e_ween their intelligence work and their ington with some of the details on a Edward W. Estlow, president of rdurrialistic careers. background basis. Scripps-Howard, said that although some of the organization's correspondents rj) None said that the C.I.A. had ever The Washington Star reported on the e. — encouraged them to slant their dispatches practice, and that led to investigations might have had such connections "back to suit its purposes or to compromise by two Congressional committees. One in the old days, we combed our organiza- themselves journalistically in any other of the panels, the House Select Commit- tion thoroughly about five years ago' and way. tee on Intelligence, will hold hearings on could find none at that time. For the most: part, according to past Some expressed fear that publicity the subject beginning today, and its Sen- ■'*1 would cost them their jobs or make ate counterpart is also considering a pub- and present C.I.A. officials, the journal- 1. ists who worked • for the agency were • future emp;oyment more difficult. The . lic inquiry. C.I.A. made rib financial provision to The issue was renewed three months a mélange of stringers and freelance lessen the shock of separation when it ago when Carl Bernstein, the freelance writers with a few staff correspondents • terminated relations with the last of its i nvestigative reporter, wrote in Rolling thrown in. Another former official agreed, saying. I have the same thing with John McCone.'" Stringers and freelancers, the offidials "The matter went forward only if Asked whether anybody had come to said; were free from the demanding the representative himself wanted to be him after he took over from Mr. Dulles schedules of the top foreign correspond- covered in that way. If he said, 1, don't L to renew such an arrangement, Mr. ents for major news-gathering organiza- want anybody to know,' the matter went McCone replied, "Nobody." tions and were also more likely to be no farther." in need of the extra money that such Most of the reporter-agents, sources .service provided. said, were asked to sign agreements Major Outlets Used Most One former senior official said that he pledging to keep secret any confidential information that came their way. But the In The Times's 'study it appeared that had always preferred "hard-plodding" re- the C.I.A. relied on its connections with porters with anti-American reputations, agreements also bound the C.I.A. to a pledge of confidentiality, and the former .Time, Newsweek, CBS News and The men "who found not enough satisfaction Times itself more extensively than on its in their jobs" rather than those seeking official said that most of the reporters "wanted if for their own protection." contacts with other news organizations. monetary rewards. "I wasn't after merce- Several sources said that there had naries," he said. Only in instances where "cover" was been nothing in the files given by the In general, the pay was not high. supplied by a news organization for a le- C.I.A. to the Senate Select Committee Several former station, chiefs said that gitimate C.I.A. officer, officials said, was on Intelligence last year to indicate that a local stringer who performed occasional the management of the organization cer- such .men as Henry Luce, the founder chores might be paid as little as $50 a tain to know of the arrangement. of Time Inc., or Arthur Hays Sulzberger. month. For others more heavily engaged. for many years the publisher of The New the sum might increase to a few hundred Subsidiary Roles York Times, had ever been asked for or dollars. had ever given their personal approval Where cover jobs were involved, the In a number of such cases, the jobs for such arrangements. money was passed through the financial .they provided involved not the reporting The Times has said repeatedly that it offices of the news organizations, but of news but such subsidiary functions can find no record of such arrangements in most cases the agency preferred to as advertising, circulation and distribu- nor anyone on its staff with knowledge Pay its agents through accounts in large tion. Over an eight-year period in the of them. New York banks 1950's. for example, three business man- Edward S. Hunter, a retired C.I.A. man Reporters for major publications likely agers in the Tokyo office of Newsweek ' who was Newsweek's Hong Kong corre- to have better access to foreign officials were reporting to the C.I.A. spondent in the late 1940's, said he be- and broader local contacts were some- Edward Kosner, Newsweek's executive lieved that only Harry Kern, then the times offered amounts equal to their editor, has said that the magazine's magazine's foreign editor, and not Mal- regular salaries, however. Wayne Phillips, policy "as long as I've been around here cairn Muir, the magazine's founder, had while a reporter for The Times in New is that Newsweek employees work for been aware of his intelligence connec- York in the early 1950's, said he was Newsweek and Newsweek only." But he tions. offered $5,000 a year by the C.I.A. if added, "I can't really go back into ancient Mr. Kern said that if he ever had been he agreed to work for them abroad. history." aware of such a relationship he could Another man, a correspondent for Time But jobs as correspondents were not recall it, and Mr. Muir said he had magazine in Brazil, said he was offered provided as well, and in some instances never known that "Newsweek chaps" a similar stun about the same time. Keyes the C.I.A. went so far as to reimburse had been taking money from the C.I.A. Beech,. the longtime Far Eastern corre- the news organization for the added cost The situation with respect to William spondent for The Chicago Daily News, involved. "We might contribute. money S.' Paley, the chairman of CBS Inc., is said he had been offered $12,000 a year for an office, or the expansion of an of- less clear. Sig Mickelson, a former presi- by the C.I.A. "to make inquiries and fice," one former C.I.A. man said, dent of CBS News, has said he was in deliver messages" as he made his rounds Even then, according to several sources, Mr. Paley's office some years ago when in Asia. it was not likely that top news executives two C.I.A. representatives acknowledged Mr. Beech and the Time correspondent would be called upon to arrange the de- that Austin Goodrich, the network's said they declined the C.1.A.'s offers, and tails, even though most C.I.A. directors, Stockholm stringer, was working for the the arrangement with Mr. Phillips fell C.I.A. especially Richard Helms and the late- through because of complications. Allen Dulles, have been close friends with CBS said in a statement that Mr. Paley the chief executives of some of the na- did not recall that meeting, although he did. remember a meeting with Mr. Mickle- Few Had Knowledge tion's most influential news organiza- tions. son and someone from the C.I.A. to dis- In nearly all of the organizations When such men met, as they frequently cuss "arranging press credentials for a where employers were found to have did, it tended to -be on what one C.I.A. C.I.A. agent to be assigned to an area aided the C.I.A., executives said, in some official called a "lofty" plane. "They re- of key interest to the agency, but of cases after conducting internal inquiries, viewed the world," he said, adding that minor interest to CBS News." that they had no knowledge of past re- he had never heard a discussion of the "No one currently at CBS," the state- lationships between their correspondents recruiting of reporters or the providing ment said, "knows whether these creden- of cover, "and I was there for brandy tials were indeed arranged." and the C.I.A. When such arrangements were struck, Eugene Fodor acknowledged in an and cigars on several occasions." interview, that he had allowed C.I.A. Mr. Dulles is dead, Mr. Helms, reached one agency official said, they were most at his residence in Washington, commonly worked out "at the middle- agents to "cover" themselves abroad by said "I've management level" within both the C.I.A. working as reporters for his series of decided that I won't talk about this, and the news organizations involved, but travel guides. "They were all highly ever." Mr. Colby has consistently de- professional, high-quality," he said of clined to comment in any detail. even then on an almost casual basis. the agents. "We never let politics be But Jahn A. McCone, who was Director smuggled into the books." of Central Intelligence from 1961 until No Binding Contracts Another who acknowledged a connec- 1965, confirmed the impressions of other tion was Elliott Haynes. with his father a agency officials about the absence of "It was not formal, there were no con- co-founder of Business International, a top-level involvement. tracts. nothing that would carry over," widely respected business information In an interview at his Seattle home, the official said. "It was simply an under- service. He said that his father, Eldridge Mr. McCone said: "As far as any top-level standing. There were meetings sometimes Haynes, had provided cover for four discussion with Time or Newsweek or to talk. But it was never, never reduced C.LA. employees in various countries be- the Washington Post or The New York to any kind of formal understanding." tween 1955 and 1960. Times. saying, 'Look, we need- a stringer The official would not identify the mid- In many instances, sources said, the. over in Brazil and we'd like him to be dle-level news executives who had par- management officials were unaware that under Newsweek cover,' there was none ticipated in making such arrangements, they had harbored C.I.A. agents or offi- of that, to my knowledge." some of whom are understood to still cers on their staffs, and several former Mr. McCone said that there had also be active in the news business. agency officials said that in cases where been no high-level discussions of which One C.I.A. agent who worked on an a working reporter was recruited as an he was aware that related to the C.I.A.'s American newspaper, Robert Campbell, agent there was no requirement that his employ ment of American journalists acquired a reporting job several years superiors be advised. abroad on a part-time basis. ago with The Couner-Journal in Louis- On occasions when he added an Ameri- "1 would think if there were any formal ville, Ky. The C.I.A. had intended, one can journalist to his string of agents, relationships," Mr. McCone said. 'they i official said, to give Mr. Campbell some one former official recalled, "1 didn't ask newspaper experience before sending him to what extent his employer knew about would have to be renewed. i wouldn't abroad under journalistic cover, but be- this activity." say any responsible publisher would say, cause of complications he never went 'I've got an arrangement with Allen overseas. Executives of The Courier- Dulles and it goes without saying that iligtx.CaltIECTWIT-A,MANX,3173.W anitasissatesSeleateseetwateaseesemessinesteetareeetei... eenelleedeerseetissmeisesioesisiesieseres ttRiMOASek1WWIMSW:SIZICMI the. late Henry Luce, for example, said official put it, "it was felt that they he never gave them any indication, if would refuse you and that their bosses he knew it, that any of Time magazine's wouldn't let you do it." reporters were on the C.I.A. payroll. Besides, the former official said, to take James Linen, for 11 years the publisher advantage of the local contacts of the of Time, said that although he never principal correspondents in a foreign Journal said that they never knew until knew for certain that any of his corre- capital "all you really had to do was spondents were working for the C.I.A., ygo tooo. t.he cocktail parties they invited after Mr. Campbell had resigned that he "I always assumed that some of them had been with the C.I.A. must have been." But he said he never One C.I.A. official said that the Bidder Accordingly, the agency's emphasis in took steps to find out. recruiting began to shift away from the chain of newspapers, now part of the A number of major news organiza- Knight-Ridder organization, had agreed largest news organizations and toward to take part in a similar arrangement, as tions have asked the C.I.A. for informa- the less prominent ones. In Tokyo, where tion about any connections that their the Newsweek office alone had contained had the San Diego-based Copley News employees may have had with the Service. at least four C.I.A. employees during the B. H. Ridder Jr., vice chairman of agency, and in sonic cases partial as- 1950's, a C.I.A., man named Glenn Ireton surances have been supplied. was sent out in the mid-1960's as a cor- KMght-Ridder and president of Ridder For example. Benjamin Bradlee, execu- Publications, said: "If any such services respondent for Film Daily. tive editor of The Washington Post, said Mr. Ireton is dead and Film Daily is were rendered they would have been his newspaper had been told by the rendered only at the request of the out of business. Government. I'm not at liberty to discuss C.I.A. that records going back to 1965 Before an offer of employment could these matters, frankly." did, not disclose any ties with its staff he made to an American journalist, agen- Copley has said that none of its execu- correspondents, but that it was the cy sources said, it was necessary for yi United States tives had any knowledge of such ar- agency's policy "not to comment on C.I.A. investigators in the stringers." to quietly, check the reporter's back- rangements with the C.I.A., and none of Even those news executives who had the sources interviewed could provide the close working relationships with the names of any Copley correspondents who grOund for any signs that he or she might C.I.A. in this country might not be told prove to be a security risk. had ever simultaneously been on the which of their correspondents overseas C.I.A,'s payroll. were working for the agency. One agency official acknowledged that One former Copley correspondent' re- Joseph G. Harrison, the longtime for- the investigations were carried out with- called, however, that at important news eign editor of The Christian Science Mon- out the subject's knowledge, but ex- events in Latin America over the years plained that under C.I.A., regulations she would sometimes find herself sur- itor, said that he had been "happy to rounded by as many as a half-dozen cooperate" with the C.I.A., in the 1950's, any time you have anything to do with strangers bearing Copley credentials. providing the agency with letters and a guy you've got to run a check on him." memorandums from correspondents that In most cases the investigations Upon inquiring of editors in San Diego, contained background informationenot in- she said, she was invariably told that cluded in their dispatches, and occasion- amounted to a formality, but one former she was the only Copley correspondent ally assigning a story in which the C.I.A. station chief recalled that a married cou- on the scene. ple living in Mexico City, both distin- C.I.A. officers working under journalis- had expressed an interest tic cover were not immune from the often- But Mr. Harrison said he had never guished correspondents whom he had considerable pressures faced by those of known that one of his reporters in the considered prime candidates for recruit- Far East was also serving as a C.I.A.. ment, had failed to pass the background their colleagues who pose as American political adviser to the Asian head o businessmen abroad or who work under state about whom he was writing. check because of purported left-wing as- other "non-official" cover. Not all of the America journalists wit sociations. Equal attention must be paid to both intelligence connections were paid by the One former C.I.A. station chief talked careers. "Journalistic cover will not stand up for C.I.A. Once, Penns Morphos, a war cone-I about the reasons for approaching a local any period of time," one former spondent for Newsweek in Central Eu- correspondent, whom he described as C.I.A. mart said. "The local newspaper- rope, was an agent of the Office of "the guy who knows where all the skele- I men will spot a phony, unless he is pre- Strategic Services, the C.I.A.'s World War tons are, what's the real story on so and pared to spend 99.9 percent of his time II predecessor. so. The station chief, a new one, makes in bona fide work, in which case he's A few others, according to C.I.A. offi- an appointment with him. They talk. The just about useless to us." cials, were believed to be paid agents agency man has information to make him of foreign intelligence services, some of 'look good. If those meetings don't prove Dismissed by Newsweek them friendly and some not. One, a lime fruitful to the agency man they will end. magazine correspondent in Eastern , Eu- So it behooves the journalist to make One such example is Robert G. Gately. rope, was working for a Soviet-bloc-intel- them useful." a C.I.A. officer who took a job in the ligence service. But a former Time edi- While they did not qualify as agents tor said the magazine had known of the of the C.I.A.. such correspondents were late 1950's as Newsweek's Far Eastern connection and ''considered it a kind of often considered "assets" of the local business manager in Tokyo. When his double bonus." C.I.A. station and catalogued in the agen- work for the magazine began to suffer, At least one other journalist may have cy's files that way. he could not tell his immediate superiors been a double agent_ Edward K. Thomp- Not all of the relationships between, about the other matters that were occupy- son, the former managing editor of Life ing his attention and so lost his job. journalists and the C.I.A. involved money, magazine, said he had been told in 1960 nor were all of them formed abroad) He wound up in the Tokyo office by an American intelligence official that of Asia Magazine, a regional newspaper Manycorrespondents who have spent one of the magazine's contributors was their careers in Washington have devel supplement published in Hong Kong, only working simultaneously for the C.I.A. and to lose that job as well for poor per- oped close friendships with senior C.I.A. a hostile foreign intelligence service. He officials. formance. said that Life never again employed the Reached at his home in suburban man. Charles J. V. Murphy, while a writer Washington, Mr. Gately declined to Several former C.I.A. officials spoke for Reader's Digest, was asked by Allen answer any questions about his past em- of a minor "flap," the agency's term for Dulles after the latter left the C.LA. in ployment. a compromising situation, that they said 1961 to help him prepare his memoirs, One indication of the general lack of occurred in the mid-1950's in the Mideast and was actually given office space at knowledge among news executives about when the management of a major Ameri- the agency's headquarters. The memoirs the industry's ties to the C.I.A. was the can news organization discovered that never appeared, and Mr, Murphy lost his astonishment recorded in the New York one of its correspondents had secretly office shortly after it was discovered by offices of The Times some years ago been working for the agency. John McCune, Mr. Dulles's successor. when the newspaper's correspondent in Germany mentioned in a letter that Henry Pieasants, a stringer who reviewed Declining Practice New York Liaison music for the paper, was also chief of No formal directive was issued within Several large American news organiza- the C.I.A.'s Bonn station. After the dis- the agency then or later requiring the tions were themselves considered assets, closure, The Times terminated his work approval of management in future cases. though in a different sense, and in New for the newspaper. But the agency's use of reporters for York, where most of the major publishing The same absence of knowledge at the prominent news organizations began to and broadcasting organizations have highest levels appears to have been tote decline, partly because approval from their headquarters, one man in the case with other news organizations as C.I.A. headquarters became harder to ob- C.I.A.'s Manhattan office was assigned, well. Several ofthe. editors closest to tain and partly because, as one former as the liaison with several publications.:

takes three years." years before he defected to the Soviet The value of such individuali; the man The man, who is still on active ditty Union, the C.I.A., its suspicions aroused said, was more as "a support-asset, not and asked that his name not be used, necessarily somebody you Want to use uent visitor at Life magazine, but not substantiated, kept a careful was a freq watch on his movements. as a spy." where he viewed unpublished photo- There were, however, sonSe' instances gazine's world- Several Americans in Beirut were en- graphs taken by the ma ed to help, officials said, including in which American journaliiti-had con- wide battalion of photographers. gag siderable value as intelligence"operatives, quent Sam Pope Brewer, then a correspondent He was also known as a fre for The New York Times who, by one especially in Europe. "He could talk with luncheon companion of editors at The authoritative account, had been an agent people that the station and the Embassy New York Times, where his chief interest of the Office of Strategic Services while couldn't," one C.I.A. man said."He could seemed to be which correspondents were a Chicago Tribune reporter during World identify and talk with Soviets, could soon to return to the United States on War II. travel places we couldn't." An, example home leave and might be available for "We were all told to keep an eye on of this cited by the C.I.A. man was the debriefing. Philby, and Sam was one of us," said a Soviet Union. It was considered much Until a few years ago it was virtually former C.I.A. official. Mr. Brewer died too risky to have deep-cover men there," common practice for American corre- last year. he said. "The only person We .had there spondents returning home or preparing For several years in the 1950's and for years was an economist." ' ' to go abroad to spend time with the 1960's, former agency officials have said, In rarer instances—there were at least C.I.A.'s experts on their region or the the C.I.A. placed great stress on the num- two several years apart in Hong Kong world, and the practice continues, though ber of assets "recrikuted" by each C.I.A. and Beirut—the C.I.A. attempted, suc- less extensively than in the past. officer working abroad. As a result, one cessfully in one case, to use American Frequently, according to former agency said, a number of people were listed as reporters for the tricky assignment of act- officials, such reporters were asked to ing as an intermediary withea . member of a foreign intelligence service who keep alert for certain items of informa- assets "who didn't even tripes they'd tion of interest to the C.I.A. when they been recruited." i wanted to defect to the United States, reached their foreign posts, and many a delicate task usually rederved for cooperated. - In such instances, the official said, an skilled professionals. At yet another level of relationships, individual might be entirely unaware that At least once, the agency, even used the C.I.A. would sometimes pay the ex- what he viewed as a social relationship an American reporter in an unsuccessful penses of a correspondent who agreed with a C.I.A. officer was taken far more effort to induce another repoeter to "de- to undertake such tasks, especially if he seriously by the agency. :.: fect" During the armistice. talks in were visiting an area where the agency Several longtime C.I.A.hands expressed Korea, sources said, the CIA:Persuaded was not well represented. considerable skepticism aboiii the value Edward Hymoff, then a correspondent for "If a guy was going to Iraq," said one of an American journalist as an intelli- the International News Servi_eti ,to offer former officer, "the C.I.A. would say, gence agent, particularly ink-Africa, Asia $100,000 to Wilfred Burchett.the Austra- 'Will you stay a couple of extra days if or the Middle East, where he would be lian journalist who had fanned a close we pay your expenses?'" He said that more likely to stand out. relationship with the North 16M-um Com- many did. "If you're seriously interested in espio- munists. One journalist who was said by a senior nage," said one former station chief, "you Mr. Hymoff said he argued with C.I.A. C.I.A. official to have accepted travel don't run around with guys Who are sail- officials that Mr. Bur nett Could not be money was Hal Hendrix, who as a report- ing through Jakarta for a couple of weeks. won over, and that proved to the case. er for The Miami News won a Pulitzer All they want to do is pick your brain. Other American reporters also recalled Prize for his stories on the 1962 Cuban would treat them like the plague. What having done tasks for the C.I.A. that, missile crisis. can a white-faced American jeitrnalist do they said, seemed somewhat silly to them Mr. Hendrix said in an interview that for you, anyway?" at the time. he had never had anything beyond a But others disagreed. ItCone case, "normal journalistic relationship" with a retired C.I.A. man recalled ehet a C017Z- Flattery by the the C.I.A. and that he had never accepted spondent "could do things Air me. They Money from the agency for any purpose. were marginal, they were not'clandestine. Noel Busch, a reporter fai7rjrne mag, Mr. Hendrix, the official said, was con- He would ask questions, sriobp around. ency, and part azine in the Far East, said he:had been ,,, sidered an asset by the ag There was no money, no subversion. But asked in the mid-1950's by the agency to 4.- of the confusion over the number of jour- he could do these things." interview an Asian political-efigure for a e nalists with past C.I.A. relationships may gped up, the be attributable to the distinction, clear Once a reporter had si an in-depth profile. gency but not to C.I.A. would provide him with training Mr. Busch said he told ihe agency zi:ge to those inside the a in the "tradecraft" of espionage, the use that the man was not of sufficient im- many outside it, between the two. g "The essence of an agent," one official of secret writin , how to conduct surveil- portance that Time or any other meg- .6".0 as is under some degree lance or arrange for clandeetine meet- azine could possibly be interested in such E said, "is that Ste ings and the like. a story, but he said the CIA.. agreed to "...q. of control and carries out assignments d, Vt1:-2, 9 ei The training, another former station pay him $2,000 for the articicif no one e 0 46 es because you are paying him to so do." „, An "asset," on the other }rind, can be thief said, was "tailored to-each case" else wanted it. 0 .5; e e; anyone the C.I.A. finds useful as a source and might last "a day, sometimes a week, No one else did, and Mr. 13usch said sometimes longer." >tea, he later learned that the C.I.A. had ' of information or in any other way. e-this guy f: " One such individual, a C.I.A. official "In no case," he added; !lid we try simply wanted "to flattee e= 0pa Eo t to make real spies out of the-media peo- through an approach by an American said, was Kennett Love, a former New t York Times correspondent in the Middle ple. It doesn't pay to give them the whole correspondent.? He said he left- Time soon 1.5 course." afterward to join the Asia ,Foundation.F a East who, though never paid, had what - the C.I.A. the official described as "a cooperative Far from approaching tha,adventures Perhaps more typical war of James Bond, the assignments given agent, a stringer for Time in.... remote c relationship" with the C.I.A. in which he g Stst "ran errands." journalists most commonly amounted to Asian capital, who was assi ned to "cer- Reached at his home in California, Mr. writing longer, more detailed versions of culate in local society and report whiter. Love said that shortly after the over- the dispatches they had filed to their she heard." The agent was finally let go, throw of Premier Mohammed Mossadegh news organizations. after several years of reportineeethat there of Iran in 1953, he helped the C.I.A. was nothing worthwhile to report. distribute copies of a declaration naming Executives of several neWS,: organiza- Ardeshir Zahedi as Mr. Mossadegh's suc- Trafficking in Gamin tions pointed cut that it was far more difficult for them to exercise ,beeitrol over cessor. But Mr. Love said he had not Not infrequently, the repaIs to the known at the time that Joseph C. Good- the activities of their part-time reporters. C.I.A. were spiced with unprtetable gos- or "stringers," than over these; of staff win, the American official who had asked sip and innuendo that mIgle, helpful him for help. had been a C.I.A. man and correspondents. to the agency in gaining advantage Fred Taylor. executive eater of The that he had never knowingly done any- with a foreign political figu—"whose thing else for the C.I.A. Wall Street Journal, said that; ene of his wife was jealous of what retifister," as European stringers had been an employee Another journalist said to have been one former C.I.A. man put it.M an "asset" wasejellgeejleagite the late of the C.I.A. a decade ago and that he Latin American correspondent for The Another former officer saitegiat often- had never known it. nor could he con- hicago Tribune, described by one former times a reporter would bellmmensely firm or deny it now. "Who the;bell knows lecke as "well and favorably known" valuable to any intelligence-gathering what stringers were up to?" he said. the agency though never on its payroll. operation. He can move around town. He The work was not without its. serious/ When Harold G. ?hay, the British can open a post office box, kfcan open and even dangerous aspects. however. double agent, was living in Beirut in the a safehouse, he knows how to get a tele- Darriel Berrigan, a New- York Times phone in a place where it sometimes stringer In Bangkok and a C.I.A. agent