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Wikipedia Article on Operation Mockingbird, Part 2
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17 October 2014
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mockingbird
As it is on October 16, 2014:
After Richard M. Bissell, Jr. lost his post as Deputy Director for Plans in 1962, Tracy Barnes took over the running of Mockingbird. According to Evan Thomas in his book, The Very Best Men (1995), Barnes planted editorials about political candidates who were regarded as pro-CIA.
First exposure[edit]
In 1964, Random House published Invisible Government by David Wise and Thomas Ross. The book exposed the role of the CIA in foreign policy. This included CIA coups in Guatemala (Operation PBSUCCESS) and Iran (Operation Ajax) and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. It also revealed the CIA's attempts to overthrow President Sukarno in Indonesia and the covert operations taking place in Laos and Vietnam. The CIA considered buying up the entire printing of Invisible Government but this idea was rejected when Random House pointed out that if this happened they would have to print a second edition.[2]
John McCone, the new director of the CIA, tried to prevent Edward Yates from making a documentary on the CIA for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). This attempt at censorship failed, and NBC broadcast this critical documentary.
In June 1965, Desmond FitzGerald was appointed as head of the Directorate for Plans. He took charge of Mockingbird. At the end of 1966, FitzGerald learned that Ramparts, another CIA backed left-wing publication, had discovered that the CIA had been secretly funding the National Student Association and was considering publishing an account.[17] When the magazine advised the CIA it had "lost control of the information," and would likely be forced to publicize, FitzGerald ordered a plan to either neutralize the campaign and/or wind-down Mockingbird.
He appointed Edgar Applewhite to organize a campaign against Ramparts. Applewhite later told Evan Thomas for his book, The Very Best Men: "I had all sorts of dirty tricks to hurt their circulation and financing. The people running Ramparts were vulnerable to blackmail. We had awful things in mind, some of which we carried off."[18]
Ramparts publishing the account in March 1967. The article, written by Sol Stern, was entitled NSA and the CIA.[citation needed] As well as reporting CIA funding of the National Student Association, Stern exposed the wide system of anti-Communist front organizations in Europe, Asia, and South America. It named Cord Meyer as a key figure in this campaign, which included the funding of the literary journal Encounter.[10] Applewhite managed to control some of the account by steering references away from leftist organizations and toward most of the few conservative organizations backed by the CIA. Those organizations named in the article were not ones that could not be linked to Ramparts, itself a CIA proprietary organization.
In May 1967, Thomas Braden published "I'm Glad the CIA is 'Immoral'", in the Saturday Evening Post. He defended the activities of the International Organizations Division unit of the CIA. Braden said that the CIA had kept these activities secret from Congress. As he wrote: "In the early 1950s, when the Cold War was really hot, the idea that Congress would have approved many of our projects was about as likely as the John Birch Society's approving Medicare."[19]
Meyer's role in Operation Mockingbird was further revealed in 1972 when he was accused of interfering with the publication of a book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia by Alfred W. McCoy.[citation needed] The book was highly critical of the CIA's dealings with the drug traffic in Southeast Asia, especially in its critique toward how the agency subverted French control of the opium trade. The publisher, who leaked the story, had been a former colleague of Meyer's when he was a liberal activist after the war.[20] Church Committee investigations[edit]
Further details of Operation Mockingbird were revealed as a result of the Senator Frank Church investigations (Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) in 1975. According to the Congress report published in 1976: "The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred foreign individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets."
Church argued that misinforming the world cost American taxpayers an estimated $265 million a year.[21]
In February 1976, George H. W. Bush, the recently appointed Director of the CIA, announced a new policy: "Effective immediately, the CIA will not enter into any paid or contract relationship with any full-time or part-time news correspondent accredited by any U.S. news service, newspaper, periodical, radio or television network or station." He added that the CIA would continue to "welcome" the voluntary, unpaid cooperation of journalists.[22] "Family Jewels" report[edit]
According to the "Family Jewels" report, released by the National Security Archive on June 26, 2007, during the period from March 12, 1963 and June 15, 1963, the CIA installed telephone taps on two Washington-based news reporters. See also[edit]
Categories:
After Richard M. Bissell, Jr. lost his post as Deputy Director for Plans in 1962, Tracy Barnes took over the running of Mockingbird. According to Evan Thomas in his book, The Very Best Men (1995), Barnes planted editorials about political candidates who were regarded as pro-CIA.
First exposure[edit]
In 1964, Random House published Invisible Government by David Wise and Thomas Ross. The book exposed the role of the CIA in foreign policy. This included CIA coups in Guatemala (Operation PBSUCCESS) and Iran (Operation Ajax) and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. It also revealed the CIA's attempts to overthrow President Sukarno in Indonesia and the covert operations taking place in Laos and Vietnam. The CIA considered buying up the entire printing of Invisible Government but this idea was rejected when Random House pointed out that if this happened they would have to print a second edition.[2]
John McCone, the new director of the CIA, tried to prevent Edward Yates from making a documentary on the CIA for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). This attempt at censorship failed, and NBC broadcast this critical documentary.
In June 1965, Desmond FitzGerald was appointed as head of the Directorate for Plans. He took charge of Mockingbird. At the end of 1966, FitzGerald learned that Ramparts, another CIA backed left-wing publication, had discovered that the CIA had been secretly funding the National Student Association and was considering publishing an account.[17] When the magazine advised the CIA it had "lost control of the information," and would likely be forced to publicize, FitzGerald ordered a plan to either neutralize the campaign and/or wind-down Mockingbird.
He appointed Edgar Applewhite to organize a campaign against Ramparts. Applewhite later told Evan Thomas for his book, The Very Best Men: "I had all sorts of dirty tricks to hurt their circulation and financing. The people running Ramparts were vulnerable to blackmail. We had awful things in mind, some of which we carried off."[18]
Ramparts publishing the account in March 1967. The article, written by Sol Stern, was entitled NSA and the CIA.[citation needed] As well as reporting CIA funding of the National Student Association, Stern exposed the wide system of anti-Communist front organizations in Europe, Asia, and South America. It named Cord Meyer as a key figure in this campaign, which included the funding of the literary journal Encounter.[10] Applewhite managed to control some of the account by steering references away from leftist organizations and toward most of the few conservative organizations backed by the CIA. Those organizations named in the article were not ones that could not be linked to Ramparts, itself a CIA proprietary organization.
In May 1967, Thomas Braden published "I'm Glad the CIA is 'Immoral'", in the Saturday Evening Post. He defended the activities of the International Organizations Division unit of the CIA. Braden said that the CIA had kept these activities secret from Congress. As he wrote: "In the early 1950s, when the Cold War was really hot, the idea that Congress would have approved many of our projects was about as likely as the John Birch Society's approving Medicare."[19]
Meyer's role in Operation Mockingbird was further revealed in 1972 when he was accused of interfering with the publication of a book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia by Alfred W. McCoy.[citation needed] The book was highly critical of the CIA's dealings with the drug traffic in Southeast Asia, especially in its critique toward how the agency subverted French control of the opium trade. The publisher, who leaked the story, had been a former colleague of Meyer's when he was a liberal activist after the war.[20] Church Committee investigations[edit]
Further details of Operation Mockingbird were revealed as a result of the Senator Frank Church investigations (Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) in 1975. According to the Congress report published in 1976: "The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred foreign individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets."
Church argued that misinforming the world cost American taxpayers an estimated $265 million a year.[21]
In February 1976, George H. W. Bush, the recently appointed Director of the CIA, announced a new policy: "Effective immediately, the CIA will not enter into any paid or contract relationship with any full-time or part-time news correspondent accredited by any U.S. news service, newspaper, periodical, radio or television network or station." He added that the CIA would continue to "welcome" the voluntary, unpaid cooperation of journalists.[22] "Family Jewels" report[edit]
According to the "Family Jewels" report, released by the National Security Archive on June 26, 2007, during the period from March 12, 1963 and June 15, 1963, the CIA installed telephone taps on two Washington-based news reporters. See also[edit]
- Judith Miller
- Propaganda in the United States
- Radio Liberty
- James Risen
- Robertson Panel
- White propaganda
- Special Activities Division
- Katharine the Great: Katharine Graham and the Washington Post by Deborah Davis, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979. This book makes many claims about Katharine Graham, then owner of the Washington Post, and her cooperation with Operation Mockingbird.
- Wilford, Hugh (2008). The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02681-0.
- Operation Mockingbird at the Spartacus Educational website. An extensive article with detailed primary sources.
- Jump up ^ "Operation Mockingbird: CIA Media Manipulation".
- ^ Jump up to: a b David Wise and Thomas Ross (1964). Invisible Government.
- Jump up ^ Deborah Davis (1979). Katharine the Great. pp. 137–138.
- Jump up ^ Cord Meyer (1980). Facing Reality: From World Federalism to the CIA. pp. 42–59.
- Jump up ^ Deborah Davis (1979). Katharine the Great. p. 226.
- Jump up ^ Carl Bernstein, CIA and the Media, People, 1977
- Jump up ^ Carl Bernstein (20 October 1977). "CIA and the Media". Rolling Stone Magazine.
- Jump up ^ Evan Thomas (1995). The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA. p. 33.
- Jump up ^ Alex Constantine (2000). Mockingbird: The Subversion of the Free Press by the CIA.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Thomas Braden, interview included in the Granada Television program, World in Action: The Rise and Fall of the CIA. 1975.
- Jump up ^ John Ranelagh (1986). The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA. pp. 198–202.
- Jump up ^ Evan Thomas (1995). The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA. pp. 98–106.
- Jump up ^ Cord Meyer (1980). Facing Reality: From World Federalism to the CIA. pp. 60–84.
- Jump up ^ Jack Anderson (1979). Confessions of a Muckraker. pp. 208–236.
- Jump up ^ Evan Thomas (1995). The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA. p. 117.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Evan Thomas (1995). The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA. pp. 148–150.
- Jump up ^ Cord Meyer (1980). Facing Reality: From World Federalism to the CIA. pp. 86–89.
- Jump up ^ Evan Thomas (1995). The Very Best Men: The Early Years of the CIA. p. 330.
- Jump up ^ Thomas Braden (20 May 1967). "I'm Glad the CIA is 'Immoral'". Saturday Evening Post.
- Jump up ^ Nina Burleigh (1998). A Very Private Woman. p. 105.
- Jump up ^ Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Government Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities. April 1976. pp. 191–201.
- Jump up ^ Mary Louise (2003). Mockingbird: CIA Media Manipulation.
Categories:
- Central Intelligence Agency operations
- American political media
- Propaganda in the United States
- 1948 establishments in the United States
- Code names
