In search of . honorable men HONORABLE MEN. MY LIFE IN THE CIA by William Colby Simon and Schuster. 474 pp. $12.95. IN SEARCH OF ENEMIES- by John Stockwell W.W. Norton. 288 pp. $12,95. It is a sad duty to review these books by former CIA officials William Colby and John Stockwell shortly after a Virginia judge denied Frank Snepp permission to write a few innocuous ar- ticles dealing tangentially with his CIA experience. Those who tell the truth about the CIA are severely punished, contrary to the slander put forth by Agency prop- agandists that those who criticize the CIA get rich on tales out of school. Snepp's modest profits from his Viet- nam expose, Decent Interval, have been expropriated, and his livelihood for the immediate future, at least, is gravely jeopardized by the Virginia judge's decision. Meanwhile, one of the CIA's whis- tle-blowing pioneers, Victor Marchetti, continues to labor under what amounts to a gag order imposed on him following the writing of The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence with John Marks in 1973. Under severe fi- nancial pressure, Marchetti and his wife eke out a living near Washington through his articles and reviews and her income as a doctor's receptionist It . the authority of an expert, the passion of a mother, the vision of a world citizen . luclearvo`l Madness is a difficult life for a proud and well's tight little narrative about the honorable man. CIA in Angola, In Search of Enemies, That brings me to Honorable Men• to evaluate Colby's treatment of at My Life in the CIA, by former CIA least one important CIA episode. Col- director and clandestine operator by, as CIA director, was responsible At last, a book that should awaken William E. Colby and Peter Forbath. A for what the CIA did in Angola; Stock- America to the dangers of the rather more clever than demonstrably well, a CIA career spy-handler, was put nuclear age." honorable man, Colby opens his in charge of carrying out the program. —Richard Falk, Fh.D ghostwritten book with a dramatic The CIA's program, of course, failed. re-creation of his firing by Gerald Colby discusses Angola in only four "Dr. Caldicott's message . delivered with sound facts, sincere Ford. From there it is all downhill, in pages, Stockwell in 254. They differ compassion, and irresistible con- every aspect. He reviews his under- radically on the basic facts of the situa- viction . needs to be heard now." cover career from World War H in tion. Colby, for instance, begins his —John W. Gofman M.D., Ph.D. Scandinavia and Italy, plods on narrative with a recitation of what the Chairman, Committee for Nuclear through the 1950s and 1960s in Viet- Soviets were doing — arming the Responsibility nam, and finishes with Watergate and Popular Movement for the Liberation its aftermath. He leaves no dirty deed of Angola (MPLA), headed by "Required reading for all members unrationalized. Today, Colby can be Augustinho Neto, in "late 1974." of the human race." spotted about the corridors on Capitol Moving on to sum up Soviet postures —Dale Bridenbaugh, Nuclear Engineer Hill, where he often comes to testify on in the Indian Ocean, Somalia, and intelligence matters. You see, Colby Guinea, and a purported Soviet at- "This book should be read by all wants to be helpful; he believes in the tempt "in the middle 1960s to estab- members of an informed democratic way, to a point. lish a position in the Belgian Congo democracy." "But I realize that my view of [now Zaire]," Colby reports that —Thomas Najarian, M.D. American intelligence and of its leading against this backdrop in "early 1975," J element, the CIA, is much different the National Security Council's Forty Please send me I ) copy(ies) of from that of the ordinary citizen, and Committee (that is, Secretary of State NUCLEAR MADNESS at $3.95 each. even from that of the well-informed Henry Kissinger) began a secret pro- Enclosed is my check or money minority," he writes in the last few gram of assistance to two contending order plus $.50 postage. pages. "Their harsh opinion," he ad- Angolan factions. mits, "in part, is, of course, the result Stockwell, however, points out Name of those questionable activities that something Colby omits: that back in Address have come to light and have cast a July 1974 the "CIA began funding shadow of meanness, cynicism, and Roberto (Holden Roberto, leader of State Zip amorality over the intelligence profes- the National Front for the Liberation sion." Look at the forest, he pleads, of Angola, or FNLAI without Forty A UTUreir PRESS not the trees. Committee approval, small amounts at I 25 Dwight St., Brookline. Ma. 02146 So, it is handy to have John Stock- first, but enough for word to get L_ _t THE PROGRESSIVE / 57 rl around that the CIA was dealing itself obliged to keep Congress fully in- 1889 on the centenary of the French into the race." It was the following formed. Then, as now, he does not. Revolution were convinced that politi- month that Moscow announced its Stockwell's rich and sometimes ter- cal power would inevitably pass into backing for the MPLA. rifying narrative recounts other details their hands. The process turned out to Colby reports that the CIA "stayed Colby avoids, such as planting "black" be slower than even pessimists among well away from" South African forces, propaganda stories in the American them expected. The Social Democrats who were backing another U.S.-sup- media to bolster the images of Savimbi were split by the Bolshevik Revolu- ported group. Jonas Savimbi's and Roberto, smear Neto and the tion, defeated by Hitler, and out of - UNITA,: or National Union-for the MPLA, and etch the conflict in Cold power during the Cold War in the Total Independence of Angola. Stock- War outlines. It is, unfortunately, an 1950s everywhere except in Scan- well, on the other hand, details inci- utterly fantastic, and true, story, as dinavia, Austria, Israel, and briefly dences where the U.S. and South subsequent accounts in the press and France, where Guy Mollet saddled the African intelligence services cooper- the version told by former Assistant party with the responsibility for the ated in covertly shipping aid to the Secretary of State Nathaniel Davis Algerian War. rebels. "Especially in the field, CIA of- have shown. But the last decade has seen the ficers liked the South Africans, who Although such sentiments may be triumph of the Social Democrats not tended to be bluff, aggressive men unfashionable, it seems not entirely only in Scandinavia but in Austria, without guile. They admired South out of line to suggest that such gradu- Britain, Germany, and Portugal; they African efficiency," Stockwell writes. ates of the "honorable men" school of have shared governmental power in Colby says that "no CIA men were national security should somehow be Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, permitted to engage in combat or punished for spreading their lies. But Iceland, Ireland, and Italy. In post- train" in Angola. Stockwell reports the Colby (now a lawyer), Richard Helms Franco Spain, the Socialists emerged as movements of CIA case officers in (a lobbyist for the Shah of Iran), and the major party of the Left, and in Angola, as well as the secret operations David Philips (the former Western France, under Mitterand, they dis- to hire mercenaries to fight there. A Hemisphere chief of dirty tricks who placed the Communists from that role. handful of Americans died in Angola. panders myths and mischief as a Surprisingly, Social Democratic Finally, Colby volunteers that he was full-time ex-officio spokesman for the dominance in Western Europe has oc- spook kingdom) remain tantilizingly casioned little comment; it is the out of reach, plying their business-as- Eurocommunists — serious contend- usual trades with the blessing of every- ers for power only in Italy and (as body, it seems, except Joseph Kraft, junior partners) in France — who have who apparently doesn't like Colby's captured the attention of press and ass Catholicism. publishers. Some of the reasons for this This is indeed a sad and unfortunate become apparent when one reads thing. Snepp and Marchetti remain Social Democratic Parties in Western muzzled, whipped by the courts at the Europe, edited by William E. Paterson CIA's bidding. Stockwell, for twelve and Alastair H. Thomas. This some- years a CIA officer who resigned in what uneven collection of fifteen April 1977, must be an inviting target. essays, penned by British and Euro- Perhaps you should read his moving, pean political scientists, provides the appalling tale before it, too, is confis- best account available of the current cated, and he, the son of a missionary, Kim Chi Ha Is state of the European Social Demo- is sent off to his own gulag. cratic movement. ON TRIAL —JEFF STEIN The picture is mixed. A loss of vi- FOR HIS LIFE (Jeff Stein, a former intelligence officer sion is coupled with achievement of in South Korea. His "crime in Vietnam, is Washington some of the old dreams. Marxist Writing articles criticizing the correspondent for the Boston Phoenix.) i~4i i South Korean government's rhetoric has been replaced with an am- harsh treatment of political biguous blend of managerial modera- dissidents. tion and realistic radicalism. The Social Kim CM Ha and half a million other "prisoners of conscience" Democrats have become a govern- are in tails around the world, not mental party with all that that entails, tor anything they've done, but for Moving left what they believe.