Patriotic Betrayal: The Inside Story of the CIA’s Secret Campaign to Enroll American Students in the Crusade Against Communism

550 Pages·2015·3.24 MB·English

by  Karen M Paget

PATRIOTIC BETRAYAL
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PATRIOTIC BETRAYAL
The Inside Story of the CIA’s
Secret Campaign to Enroll American Students
in the Crusade Against Communism
K A R E N M . PA G E T
/new haven & london
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 any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except
by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business,
or promotional use. For information, please e-m ail [email protected]
(U.S. office) or [email protected] (U.K. office).
Designed by Mary Valencia.
Set in Janson O.S., Friz Quadrata, and Birch types by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
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.I6P27 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
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Prologue 1
PART ONE COOPERATION OR COMBAT
1 A Fighting Faith 11
2 Apostolic Catholics 26
3 Behind the Scenes 43
4 Enter the CIA 61
5 Allard Lowenstein and the
International Student Conference 79
PART TWO DENIAL OPERATIONS
6 The Counteroffensive 97
7 The Battle for Members 115
8 Opening the Spigot 130
9 The Spirit of Bandung 144
10 Shifting Battlefields 156
PART THREE COMPETITIVE COEXISTENCE
11 Hungary and the Struggle Against Nonalignment 173
12 Debating Democracy in Red Square 186
13 Courting Revolutionaries 196
vii
CONTENTS
14 Gloria Steinem and the Vienna Operation 214
15 Social Upheavals 228
PART FOUR LOSING CONTROL
16 Showdown in Madison 243
17 Pro- West Moderate Militants 256
18 A Pyrrhic Victory 270
19 The Persistent Questioner 280
20 Lifting the Veil 295
PART FIVE THE FLAP
21 Philip Sherburne Takes on the CIA 313
22 The Game Within the Game 330
23 Hide- and- Seek 344
24 Do You Want Blood on Your Hands? 360
25 The Firestorm 370
26 The Enemy at Home 388
Cast of Characters 403
Chronology 409
Notes  413
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms 505
Acknowledgments 509
Index 511
Illustrations follow page 240
viii
PREFACE
From 1950 to 1967, the Central Intelligence Agency ran a series of
international covert operations through the U.S. National Student As-
sociation (NSA)—most of whose members had no idea they were “work-
ing” 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 Com-
mission 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 some-
day 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 ob-
tain 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 tim-
ing 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 render-
ing 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 perspec-
tive 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.
ix