Tantalizing Bits of Evidence

The invitation came as a complete surprise, but the members of the family said yes, they could arrange to make it all right. On the appointed day, the widowed mother, her two sons, her daughter and her son-in-law were shown into the office of their host. For the next quarter-hour, President Ford did what he could to apologize to the family of Frank Olson, the Army's civilian biochemist who committed suicide 22 years ago after the CIA had spiked his drink with LSD.

The President called the incident "inexcusable and unforgivable" and "a horrible episode in American history." He also directed the CIA to give all relevant documents and information to the family, which has said it plans to sue the Government for Olson's "wrongful death." Eric Olson, 30, a graduate student in clinical psychology at Harvard, quoted the President as saying that "he knew nothing could be done to totally make up for what had happened, but to whatever extent we could be repaid for our suffering, he felt we should be."

Continuing probes of the agency's activities turned up more tantalizing --although still inconclusive --bits of evidence on the central question of how responsible any President may have been for dirty tricks abroad, notably the assassination plots.

CUBA. A new source on what happened during John F. Kennedy's Administration emerged into public view: Lawrence Houston, who had been general counsel for the CIA from its founding in 1947 until his retirement in 1973. One of the "old boys" of the agency and the confidant of one director after another, Houston related to newsmen how he had told Robert F. Kennedy about plans for Mafia hoodlums to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castro (TIME, June 30). Houston said Bobby Kennedy "didn't seem very perturbed" about the plotting against Castro, criticizing only the CIA's use of the Mafia. Nonetheless, the former CIA lawyer did not link assassination plots to either of the Kennedy brothers.

CHILE. Just what the CIA did in Chile to oppose the Marxist government of President Salvador Allende after his election in 1970 is now one of the prime subjects before Senator Frank Church's special investigations committee. The Senators have information that former President Richard Nixon made it perfectly clear to the CIA that he wanted Allende out of power. Nixon is said to have authorized an initial expenditure of $10 million for the task and to have told the agency to "come up with some ideas."

In an interview last week with the New York Times, President Ford seemed to suggest that Nixon was ultimately responsible for what happened in Chile. Recommendations on Chile from the 40 Committee of elite intelligence officers, said Ford, "were submitted to the then President and of course were in the final analysis decided by him." The rough stuff that the agency got involved in included a scheme to kidnap General Rene Schneider Chereau, commander in chief of the Chilean army. A group of Chilean officers, originally supported by the CIA, believed the abduction of the general would give the military an excuse for staging a coup by arguing that law and order had broken down. The CIA later tried to stop the plan, fearing that it would not work, but the hired kidnapers went ahead anyway. In the struggle, General Schneider was killed, apparently inadvertently. After several CIA attempts to stop Allende by subsidizing his opponents, the Chilean President was overthrown and killed by a military coup in 1973.

PROSECUTION. The CIA's actions in Chile also interest the Department of Justice, which is considering bringing perjury charges against none other than Richard Helms, the director of the CIA during the Allende years and now Ambassador to Iran. During his Senate confirmation hearings in 1973, Helms minimized the CIA's efforts in Chile, saying that there had been no attempt to overthrow Allende and that indeed no money had ever been given to the President's opponents.

There were persistent reports, un-denied by any of the interested parties, that the man who had authoritatively pointed out Helms' misstatement to the Justice Department last Dec. 19 was none other than William Colby, the present director of the CIA. Intelligence sources suggest two possible background factors for such a step. First, Colby was already under considerable pressure to reform the CIA and knew the Times was about to break the story of the agency's domestic spying. Second, Dec. 19 was the date on which Justice abrogated its 20-year-old gentlemen's agreement with the CIA by which the CIA could decide whether any of its employees should be prosecuted for any illegal acts (none ever were). Now that Justice is responsible for any and all CIA illegalities, it is also weighing the assorted questions of law that would be involved in prosecuting CIA officials for the break-ins and opening of mail in the U.S., which were reported by the Rockefeller Commission.

Senator Church's committee has heard a lot of testimony that Presidents routinely used the CIA to perform dirty tricks abroad, but so far, it has found no definite proof of any complicity in assassination plots. On this key issue, the Senator has even suggested that his committee might portray the agency as a "rogue elephant rampaging out of control." If so, that judgment would even further damage the morale and effectiveness of the CIA, whose top officials believe that either implicitly or explicitly, it was the White House that ordered the controversial operations for which the agency is now being denounced.

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