from Geoff Coggan An article by Geoffrey Wolff, Book Editor of the Washington Post, appeared in the New York Herald Tribune on February 9th. Under the title "Government Control of Books", Mr, Wolff warns of "the double activity, the secret suppression and creation of history, which reinforces the fears of American writers that their government cannot be trusted and that it is not mature or brave enough to subsidize the open dissemination of ideas." "Recently, for example, George Carver wrote for the highly respected periodical Foreign Affairs an article supporting our official policy towards North and South Vietnam, Mr, Carver is with the CIA but this crucial information was not related by Foreign Affairs. Worse, it is possible it was not given to the magazine. It is illegal for the CIA to operate as an intelligencegathering or intelligence-disseminating organisation in the United States. The same restriction applies to the United States Information Agency, which is bound to confine itself to propaganda activities abroad. Yet its officers admitted several months ago in hearings before a sub-committee of the House Committee on Appropriations that part of the activity of its 'Book Development Program' has been the secret production of manuscripts, published by private companies which the USIA subsidizes, and sold in this country without any government impramatur or other acknowledgement of the circumstances of origin." " ,... Reed Harris, appearing before the sub-committee in his capacity as director of the USIA Information Center Service, said of these books: 'We control the things from the very idea right down to the final edited manuscript.' Perhaps the booksare valuable and accurate ..... what is certain is that they surely do not tell the reader what he wants to know: that they are works which the USIA admits would never have been written without government support and would not have been released by a commercial publishing house with subsidization - either because they were unworthy of publication or they were unmarketable," At the same sub-committee hearings, Leonard Marks, director of USIA, and Ben Posner, assistant director, were questioned about the Book Development Program by Rep. Lipscomb. After listing four books developed during 1965, li. Posner made it clear that this material was "not for the Record." The following exchange then ensued: "Rep. Lipscomb: Do I understand that this list is considered classified? Mr, Posner: In the sense that we have not in the past divulged the government's connection with it, yes sir. Rep. Lipscomb: Are any of these books on this classified list distributed and sold within the United States? Mr. Posner: I belive that they are; yes," At this point the interrogator makes it quite clear that he has no objection to the manipulation of the overseas reader: eseeee "Rep. Lipscomb: I am for the Book Development Program for distribution overseas, I believe you can do lots of good with it ..... but there is a principle involved in my mind that when an American citizen who subsidizes a book reads it, he should know, Mr, Marks: That's a point of view which I understand. Rep. Lipscomb: I ass-— ume you are distributing them overseas for propaganda purposes? Mr, Marks: Yes, definitely; to tell a story. Rep. Lipscomb: Is it being sold in the United States for propaganda purposes? Mr, Marks: No."
eestads over/
How the CIA and USIA manipulate public opinion continued "In other words what is meant to manipulate a foreign reader is believed by Mr, Marks to be a fair and objective account to an American reader, But the truth is that a student writing a paper about our intervention in the Dominican Republic has before him in Mallin's account of 'The Truth About the Dominican Republic' a controlled package which is not truly labelled. If he is misled before he gets past the dust jacket and title page, what can he expect of the book itself?"