Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors: Religion and the History of the CIA

260 Pages·2021·2.245 MB·English

by  Michael Graziano

Errand into
the Wilderness
of Mirrors

Errand into
the Wilderness
of Mirrors
Religion and the History of the CIA
Michael Graziano
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2021 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission, except in the case of brief quotations in
critical articles and reviews. For more information,
contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St.,
Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2021
Printed in the United States of America
30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21  1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 76740- 6 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 76754- 3 (e- book)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/
chicago/9780226767543.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Graziano, Michael (Religion scholar), author.
Title: Errand into the wilderness of mirrors : religion
and the history of the CIA / Michael Graziano.
Other titles: Religion and the history of the CIA
Description: Chicago ; Illinois : The University
of Chicago Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020046181 | ISBN 9780226767406
(cloth) | ISBN 9780226767543 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: United States. Central Intelligence
Agency—History. | United States. Office of Strategic
Services—History. | United States. Central Intelligence
Agency—Religion. | United States. Office of Strategic
Services—Religion. | National security—United States—
Religious aspects. | Intelligence service—United States—
History—20th century. | Intelligence officers—United
States. | Cold War—Religious aspects.
Classification: LCC JK468.I6 G737 2021 |
DDC 327.1273—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020046181
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO
Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
To my parents

Contents
Introduction: Charting the Wilderness 1
1 American Spies and American Catholics 13
2 Refining the Religious Approach 29
3 The Great Jihad of Freedom 45
4 On Caring What It Is 67
5 Baptizing Vietnam 95
6 Counterinsurgency and the Study of World Religions 127
7 Iran and Revolutionary Thinking 153
Conclusion: A New Wilderness 177
Acknowledgments 185
Notes 189
Index 249

Introduction
Charting the Wilderness
Understanding the system of ideology that operates in one’s own society is made
difficult by two factors: (i) one’s consciousness is itself a product of that system,
and (ii) the system’s very success renders its operations invisible, since one is
so consistently immersed in and bombarded by its products that one comes to
mistake them (and the apparatus through which they are produced and dissemi-
nated) for nothing other than “nature.”
Bruce Lincoln, “Theses on Method”1
These values of freedom are right and true for every person, in every society.
The National Security Strategy of the United States (2002)2
In 1988, American spies dispatched psychics to observe Pope John Paul II.
Known as Project Sun Streak, the operation was part of the US Army’s
and Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) “remote viewing” program that
tested whether telepaths could observe targets from an extraordinary dis-
tance.3 Stationed in a room in Fort Meade, Maryland, the “viewers” were
given anonymized descriptions of the Pope (“Although he may not have
been born in this country, he respects the American flag”) and instructed
to report whatever details they could discern. The DIA officer in charge of
one session noted that viewer 025 “worked brilliantly to answer specific
questions about Pope Paul’s [sic] personality and clothing.”4 Viewer 025
also produced this image of their target (see fig. I.1).
Project Sun Streak is now remembered largely as an object of derision
and as a legacy of a Cold War national security state that had more cash
than good sense. This book suggests other interpretive possibilities. To
Jonathan Z. Smith’s argument that “the disciplined study of any subject
is, among other things, an assault on self- evidence, on matters taken for
granted, nowhere more so than in the study of religion,” we might append
intelligence work.5 The strange and the exotic are familiar to both the his-
tory of intelligence and the history of religion but, in each case, to rely
solely on these elements is to miss the larger picture.
1