The Rising Clamor PDF Download

This dissertation examines the development of relationships between the U.S. press and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Cold War, from shortly before the official creation of the CIA in 1947 to the major congressional investigations of the CIA in 1975-76. This dissertation seeks to answer four related questions. First, what was the nature and origin of the relationships that developed between the press and the CIA? Second, to what use did the CIA attempt to put such relationships? Third, what was the actual impact of press/CIA relationships on reporting? Finally, how did the CIA's relations with the press affect the development of the agency? The efforts to answer these questions involved two main methods. The first method was an extensive examination of the product of domestic newspapers and journals from 1945 to 1976 that examined the activities of the CIA and the development of the U.S. intelligence system. The second method was archival research in private and institutional collections. I conclude that there was no single relationship formed between the CIA and the press. The CIA did have a program of operationally using reporters, though details remain difficult to determine. More important than paid relationships, though, were personal connections that ranged from casual contact to collaboration with the CIA to achieve CIA goals. These positive relationships depended heavily upon a shared ideological worldview. The CIA sought to use these relationships both to conceal information and also, at times, to promote itself and secure a strong position within the hierarchy of the U.S. governmental bureaucracy. While early reporting on the CIA was often positive, and the CIA was successful in keeping its activities out of the press when desired, the positive press environment of the late 1940s and 1950s was more the result of the Cold War consensus environment than the result of deliberate CIA action. Even at their most positive, relationships between the press and the CIA did not succeed in preventing entirely criticism of the CIA, or the publication of some details of CIA activities. As U.S. society and views on the Cold War changed, the press atmosphere became more challenging for the CIA. Ultimately, the press played an important role in the development of the CIA, both in the agency's early years as the press was more helpful and in later years as the agency struggled to adapt to a changing political environment.