Patriotic betrayal : the inside story of the CIA's secret campaign to enroll American students in the crusade against communism

569 Pages·2015·4.97 MB·English

by  Paget

PATRIOTIC BETRAYAL
PATRIOTIC BETRAYAL
The Inside Story of the CIA’s
Secret Campaign to Enroll American Students
in the Crusade Against Communism
KAREN M. PAGET
Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory
of Amasa Stone Mather of the Class of 1907, Yale College.
Copyright © 2015 by Karen M. Paget.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in
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Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Paget, Karen M.
Patriotic betrayal : the inside story of the CIA’s secret campaign to enroll
American students in the crusade against communism / Karen M. Paget.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-20508-4
1. United States. Central Intelligence Agency—History—20th century.
2. United States National Student Association. 3. Anti-communist movements—
United States—History—20th century. I. Title.
JK468.16P27 2015
327.1273—dc23
2014021916
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of
Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to my late parents,
Robert (2011) and Maxine (2013) Eggert,
whose unconditional love and support
made everything possible
CONTENTS
Preface
Prologue
PART ONE COOPERATION OR COMBAT
1 A Fighting Faith
2 Apostolic Catholics
3 Behind the Scenes
4 Enter the CIA
5 Allard Lowenstein and the International Student Conference
PART TWO DENIAL OPERATIONS
6 The Counteroffensive
7 The Battle for Members
8 Opening the Spigot
9 The Spirit of Bandung
10 Shifting Battlefields
PART THREE COMPETITIVE COEXISTENCE
11 Hungary and the Struggle Against Nonalignment
12 Debating Democracy in Red Square
13 Courting Revolutionaries
14 Gloria Steinem and the Vienna Operation
15 Social Upheavals
PART FOUR LOSING CONTROL
16 Showdown in Madison
17 Pro-West Moderate Militants
18 A Pyrrhic Victory
19 The Persistent Questioner
20 Lifting the Veil
PART FIVE THE FLAP
21 Philip Sherburne Takes on the CIA
22 The Game Within the Game
23 Hide-and-Seek
24 Do You Want Blood on Your Hands?
25 The Firestorm
26 The Enemy at Home
Cast of Characters
Chronology
Notes
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
Acknowledgments
Index
Illustrations follow page 240
PREFACE
FROM 1950 TO 1967, the Central Intelligence Agency ran a series of international
covert operations through the U.S. National Student Association (NSA)—most
of whose members had no idea they were “working” for the U.S. government.
The operation came to a halt in 1967, when Ramparts magazine published an
exposé of the covert relationship.
In 1965–66, my then-husband served on the NSA International Commission
staff and was among those who knew about the CIA. As his wife, I also had been
sworn to secrecy by agents of the U.S. government. Even after the Ramparts
exposé, we kept quiet, cowed by the threat of prison terms if we divulged
information. I remember thinking then that someday someone would tell the
whole story. Years passed, but no one did.
One day in 1982 or 1983, two young Washington lawyers approached me in
my role as a foundation director on behalf of the United States Student
Association, the successor to the NSA, to request a grant to obtain documents
under the Freedom of Information Act. Unaware of my background, they were
surprised when I immediately awarded them the funds. I also helped them search
for someone to write a history of the NSA-CIA relationship. Several people
expressed interest, but the timing was not right for them. A friend from NSA
days finally said to me, “Why don’t you do it—you know more than all of us put
together.” A seed was planted. Decades later, it has blossomed.
Readers of this book will find a tension between the need to establish a solid
historical record that scholars can mine in the future and rendering a good yarn.
Since the NSA-CIA operation spanned continents and countries, often painful
narrative choices had to be made. I decided to focus on well-known episodes of
the Cold War, such as the Hungarian uprising, to reduce the need for background
information. The perspective is American-centric, since the NSA is the prism
through which this history is told. It is my hope that scholars from affected
countries can build on this work and deepen the understanding of how the
American operation influenced international student politics.
Since the sine qua non of Patriotic Betrayal is detail, the voluminous notes in