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---
created: 2026-05-17
updated: 2026-10-09
updated: 2026-10-14
title: Frank Church
aliases:
- Frank Church
- Frank Forrester Church III
- Frank F. Church III
- Senator Frank Church
category: "Political Figure"
tags:
- Person
@ -12,40 +14,200 @@ tags:
- ChurchCommittee
- CIA
- FBI
- NSA
- CongressionalInvestigation
- ColdWar
- Vietnam
- CooperChurchAmendment
- ITT
- Chile
- Cuba
- Lockheed
- NCPAC
- 1970s
- 1980s
summary: "Democratic senator from Idaho who chaired the 1975-1976 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, which documented COINTELPRO, Operation CHAOS, assassination plots against foreign leaders and illegal domestic surveillance by the CIA, FBI and NSA."
born: 1924-07-25
died: 1984-04-07
location: "Boise, Idaho"
relations:
- type: member_of
with: "[[United States Senate]]"
role: "senator from Idaho"
start: 1957
end: 1981
fn: 5
- type: member_of
with: "[[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]]"
role: "member"
start: 1959
fn: 6
- type: head_of
with: "[[Church Committee]]"
role: "chairman, Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities"
start: 1975-01-27
end: 1976-04-26
fn: 1
- type: head_of
with: "[[Church Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations]]"
role: "chairman"
start: 1973
fn: 14
- type: head_of
with: "[[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]]"
role: "chairman"
start: 1979
end: 1981
fn: 2
- type: investigated
with: "[[ITT Corporation]]"
role: "subcommittee hearings on ITT and Chile"
start: 1973-03-20
end: 1973-03-22
fn: 15
- type: investigated
with: "[[Central Intelligence Agency]]"
role: "select committee investigation of intelligence abuses"
start: 1975-01-27
end: 1976-04-26
fn: 1
- type: investigated
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
role: "select committee investigation of COINTELPRO and domestic intelligence"
start: 1975-01-27
end: 1976-04-26
fn: 31
- type: investigated
with: "[[NSA]]"
role: "select committee hearings on SHAMROCK, MINARET and the watch-list program"
start: 1975-10-29
end: 1975-11-06
fn: 32
- type: investigated
with: "[[Lockheed Aircraft Company]]"
role: "subcommittee hearings on overseas payments"
start: 1976-02-04
fn: 17
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]"
role: "voted yes in the Senate"
start: 1964-08-07
fn: 8
- type: partner_of
with: "[[John Sherman Cooper]]"
role: "co-sponsor of the Cooper-Church Amendment"
start: 1969
fn: 11
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Whitman and Ransom]]"
role: "international law practice, Washington, D.C."
start: 1981
fn: 47
---
Frank Forrester Church III (July 25, 1924 - April 7, 1984) was a Democratic senator from Idaho who served from 1957 to 1981. He is primarily known for chairing the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (the [[Church Committee]]) in 1975-1976, the most comprehensive congressional investigation of U.S. intelligence abuses ever conducted.[^1]
Frank Forrester Church III (born July 25, 1924, in [[Boise, Idaho]]; died April 7, 1984, in [[Bethesda, Maryland]]) was a Democratic senator from [[Idaho]] who served from 1957 to 1981. He is primarily known for chairing the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (the [[Church Committee]]) in 1975 and 1976, the most comprehensive congressional investigation of U.S. intelligence abuses ever conducted.[^1] Earlier he chaired the [[Church Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations]], and from 1979 to 1981 he chaired the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]].[^2]
### Early Career
Church was born in Boise, Idaho. He served in U.S. Army Military Intelligence during World War II, rising to the rank of Captain. He received his law degree from Stanford in 1950 and was elected to the U.S. Senate from Idaho in 1956 at age 32, one of the youngest senators in history at that time. He became known as a foreign policy critic, opposing the [[Vietnam War]] from an early period and chairing the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] from 1979 to 1981.[^1]
Church was a third-generation Idahoan. As a junior at Boise High School he won the 1941 [[American Legion]] National Oratorical Contest, whose prize paid for four years at the college of the winner's choice. He enrolled at [[Stanford University]] in 1942.[^3] He enlisted in the [[United States Army]] in 1943 and served as a military intelligence officer in the China-Burma-India theater until his discharge in 1946, rising to the rank of Captain.[^4] He received his law degree from [[Stanford Law School]] in 1950 and practiced law in Boise.[^3]
### The Church Committee
In 1956 Church won the Democratic primary and then defeated the Republican incumbent [[Herman Welker]] for the Senate. At 32 he became the fifth youngest member ever to sit in the Senate.[^5] At his own request he was assigned to the [[Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs]]. In 1958 he was appointed to the [[McClellan Committee]] and received national television exposure. In 1959 [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] appointed him to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and in 1960 he gave the keynote address at the [[Democratic National Convention]].[^6] He was re-elected in 1962 and 1968.[^7]
In January 1975, the Senate created the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities in the aftermath of Seymour Hersh's December 1974 New York Times reporting on [[Operation CHAOS]]. Church was appointed chairman. The committee ran through April 1976 and produced an interim report on assassination plots (S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975), a six-book final report (S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976, Books I to VI) and seven volumes of hearings, documenting:[^2]
### Vietnam, the Gulf of Tonkin and Cooper-Church
- Operation CHAOS: the CIA's domestic surveillance program targeting antiwar organizations, found to be unlawful
- [[COINTELPRO]]: the FBI's systematic campaign against political organizations, including programs resulting in the death of activists such as [[Fred Hampton]]
- Assassination plots against foreign leaders including Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, and others
- NSA programs monitoring American citizens' international communications
- IRS harassment of political opponents
- Illegal mail opening programs
On August 7, 1964, Church voted for the [[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]] (H.J.Res. 1145), which the Senate passed 88 to 2. [[Wayne Morse]] and [[Ernest Gruening]] cast the two dissenting votes.[^8][^9] Church later became a critic of the war. In a 1965 Senate floor speech he expressed concern about continued U.S. involvement in the [[Vietnam War]]. His finding aid says that his stance was to the right of his Idaho constituency and carried political risk, and that afterward he was actively engaged in efforts to force the end of the war.[^10]
Church's most quoted statement from the investigation was his warning that the NSA's surveillance technology, if turned inward against the domestic population, could create "a capacity for tyranny." The observation preceded by decades the documents eventually revealed by Edward Snowden about the NSA's domestic surveillance programs.[^1]
In 1969 Church joined [[John Sherman Cooper]], a Republican from Kentucky, to sponsor an amendment prohibiting the use of ground troops in Laos and Thailand.[^11] On June 30, 1970, the Senate adopted the [[Cooper-Church Amendment]] by a 58 to 37 roll call, a measure that restricted further U.S. military operations in Cambodia.[^12] Section 7 of the Special Foreign Assistance Act of 1971 (Public Law 91-652, signed January 5, 1971) provided that none of the funds authorized or appropriated under that or any other Act could be used to finance the introduction of United States ground combat troops into Cambodia or to provide United States advisers to or for Cambodian military forces in Cambodia.[^13] The finding aid describes the 1970 amendment as limiting presidential power in wartime.[^11]
### Presidential Campaign and Later Career
### The Multinational Corporations Subcommittee
Church ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, entering the primaries late and winning several states, but ultimately lost the nomination to Jimmy Carter. He was defeated for Senate reelection in 1980 by Republican Steve Symms in what was partly characterized as a backlash against his intelligence committee work. He died of pancreatic cancer on April 7, 1984, in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 59.[^1]
In 1973 Church was appointed chairman of the Church Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations, which he regarded as possibly his most important assignment.[^14] The subcommittee held hearings on [[ITT Corporation]] and [[Chile]] on March 20, 21 and 22, 1973. A CIA memorandum of March 26, 1973 to the Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division reviewed the transcripts. It listed William Merriam, who was in charge of ITT's Washington offices, and [[Edward Gerrity]] as the most evasive witnesses and [[John McCone]] as receiving the most deferential treatment from the subcommittee. The subcommittee dwelt on the approval [[William Broe]] gave to Merriam of recommendations from ITT's Latin America public relations staff, on what the memorandum called "the Broe plan" put to Gerrity for creating economic problems in Chile, and on Broe's discussion with [[Harold Geneen]]. McCone testified that ideas had been generated at CIA staff level that Director [[Richard Helms]] never approved, and said of Broe, "I think he was exploring." The memorandum recorded that the subcommittee staff was using Broe's written responses of March 20 to formulate questions for witnesses, including whether Geneen had discussed with Broe an offer of election funds to be channeled through the CIA.[^15]
### Footnotes
The Select Committee's staff report on covert action in Chile, *Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973*, was published in 1975. It stated that the CIA spent three million dollars in an effort to influence the 1964 Chilean presidential election, and eight million dollars covertly in the three years between 1970 and the September 1973 military coup, with over three million of it in fiscal year 1972.[^16]
[^1]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976. Olmsted, Kathryn S. *Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI*. University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
[^2]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report*, Book I, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976, title page; *Hearings*, vols. 1 to 7, "Senate Resolution 21." https://archive.org/details/ChurchCommittee
Hearings on [[Lockheed Aircraft Company]] before the subcommittee opened on February 4, 1976 (Part 14 of *Multinational Corporations and United States Foreign Policy*, covering February 4 and 6 and May 4, 1976).[^17] The New York Times reported that Lockheed payoffs in Japan, involving $12.6 million over twenty years and made to top officials of the government primarily through [[Yoshio Kodama]], were first disclosed publicly at the subcommittee's February 4 hearings. Its reporter Ann Crittenden, citing a former CIA official and other sources, wrote that details of the bribery in connection with the sale of the F-104 to Japan in the late 1950s were reported to CIA headquarters from the Tokyo embassy; that Kodama had not been identified as a CIA agent but had a long-standing relationship with American embassy officials and, according to former CIA officials, received American funds for covert projects on several occasions; and that Mitchell Rogovin, special counsel to Director [[George H. W. Bush]], said the agency had no records of any involvement with Lockheed.[^18] [[Jack Anderson]] and Les Whitten wrote on March 23, 1976 that CIA officials questioned behind closed doors by Church's subcommittee denied knowledge of the foreign payoffs, although the agency gave the subcommittee a biography of Kodama, and that, according to their sources, Lockheed representatives had taken part in CIA briefings at American embassies.[^19] [[Tad Szulc]] wrote in *The New Republic* that sources close to the investigation said the CIA may have orchestrated much of Lockheed's financial operations in Japan, and that most of Lockheed's payments from 1969 to 1975 were transmitted through a New York firm of currency dealers the CIA had reportedly often used, Deak and Company, which was founded after the Second World War by the [[Office of Strategic Services]] officer [[Nicholas Deak]] and which, according to Szulc's intelligence sources, kept close ties with senior CIA personnel.[^20]
### The Select Committee, 1975 to 1976
The Senate adopted Senate Resolution 21 on January 27, 1975, creating the Select Committee and naming Church its chairman.[^1] Its members were Church, [[John G. Tower]] as vice chairman, [[Phil Hart]], [[Walter Mondale]], [[Walter Huddleston]], [[Robert Morgan]], [[Gary Hart]], [[Howard Baker]], [[Barry Goldwater]], [[Charles Mathias]] and [[Richard Schweiker]], with [[Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr.]] as chief counsel.[^21] On December 22, 1974, [[Seymour Hersh]] had reported on the front page of the [[New York Times]] that the Times investigation had established that intelligence files on at least 10,000 American citizens were maintained by a special unit of the CIA reporting directly to Richard Helms, in what became known as [[Operation CHAOS]]; the committee was formed in the aftermath of that reporting.[^22] The committee ran through April 1976 and produced an interim report on assassination plots (S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975), a six-book final report (S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976, Books I to VI) and seven volumes of hearings.[^23][^21]
The interim report, [[Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders]], documented plots against [[Fidel Castro]] and [[Patrice Lumumba]] and discussed the [[Operation MONGOOSE]] program against [[Cuba]].[^23] It stated that the command and control structure "failed to provide a specific written order which, according to one CIA employee, would have ensured the destruction of certain toxins."[^24]
On September 16, 1975, the committee opened three days of hearings on the unauthorized storage of toxic agents, and took testimony from [[Nathan Gordon]], a former chief of the chemistry branch of the Army's Technical Services.[^25] The hearing examined a quantity of [[shellfish toxin]] (paralytic shellfish poison) that the CIA kept after President [[Richard Nixon]]'s November 25, 1969, statement on chemical and biological warfare, and two sheets of paper dated February 18, 1970, found with the toxin.[^25] Gordon testified that he had not received an order from the Director of Central Intelligence to search out and destroy the CIA's stock of biological agents. Counsel read back his earlier answer to the question of whether he would have searched the south laboratory had there been such an order: "Very likely, very likely. Yes; I would have been a darned fool if I did not."[^26] Gordon said that he, his project officer and a technical consultant regarded the shellfish toxin as a chemical substance, "not a biological agent, not a biological toxin," when the offer to store the Agency stockpile of five grams was made to them in the latter part of February 1970. He also described a dart tranquilizer device for dogs that had been developed before he joined the branch, and the hearing took up a dart device for clandestine inoculation, which the staff called a "microbioinoculator."[^27]
The final report's second book, which covers the rights of Americans, reported that separate files were created on approximately 7,200 Americans and over 100 domestic groups during Operation CHAOS (1967-1973), and that about 300,000 individuals were indexed in a CIA computer system.[^28] The report stated that CIA officials recognized that the CIA's examination of domestic groups violated the Agency's mandate, and that the CIA and the NSA illegally instituted programs for the interception of international communications to and from American citizens, primarily first class mail and cable traffic.[^29] Operation CHAOS, the CIA's domestic surveillance program targeting antiwar organizations, was found to be unlawful.[^30] The [[COINTELPRO]] program, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]'s campaign against political organizations, included programs resulting in the death of activists such as [[Fred Hampton]].[^31]
The committee found that the [[NSA|National Security Agency]] obtained millions of private telegrams sent from, to or through the United States from 1947 to 1975 under a secret arrangement with three telegraph companies.[^28] On October 29, 1975, the committee opened public hearings on the NSA; Tower began by saying that from the beginning he had opposed public hearings on NSA activities.[^32] On November 3 the committee had voted seven to three to make one NSA operation public, subject to confirmation by the Senate Parliamentarian. At the November 6 session Church read the statement into the record: SHAMROCK was the cover name for a program in which the government persuaded three international telegraph companies, RCA Global, ITT World Communications and Western Union International, to make certain of their international telegraph traffic available; for almost thirty years copies of most international telegrams originating in or forwarded through the United States were turned over to the National Security Agency and its predecessor agencies. Church said the program appeared to violate section 605 of the Communications Act of 1934 and the Fourth Amendment, and that it had been terminated.[^33] [[MINARET]] was a watch-list program governed by a charter dated July 1, 1969.[^34]
The committee also documented [[HTLINGUAL]], the CIA program that opened mail to and from the Soviet Union, intercepting letters of Americans unrelated to foreign intelligence or counterintelligence.[^35] The committee's hearings on Internal Revenue Service activity and on mail opening were published as separate volumes.[^36][^37] The committee documented harassment of political opponents by the [[Internal Revenue Service]].[^36]
[[Edward Korry]], the former ambassador to Chile, began his public testimony before the committee: "I requested the CIA program in Chile. I planned much of the covert action in 1970."[^38]
### Meet the Press and the Additional Views
On August 17, 1975, Church appeared on NBC's [[Meet the Press]] and said of the investigation: "Now, why is this investigation important? I'll tell you why: because I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."[^39]
In the Final Report, Book I, Church filed Additional Views on covert action. He wrote that the covert action capability of the intelligence community ought to be circumscribed more sharply than a majority of the committee was willing to recommend; that the CIA "filled its bag with dirty tricks, ranging from bribery and false propaganda to schemes to 'alter the health' of unfriendly foreign leaders and undermine their regimes"; and that "all covert activity unrelated to the gathering of essential intelligence should be severed entirely from the CIA," with any future secret operation in a foreign land done under the direct aegis of the State Department.[^40]
### Presidential Campaign and Cuba
In the spring of 1976 Church sought the Democratic presidential nomination. He entered the primaries late and won in Nebraska, Idaho, Oregon and Montana, then withdrew in favor of [[Jimmy Carter]], who was nominated.[^41]
Church became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1979, a post he had long sought. He guided the ratification of the [[Panama Canal Treaty]] through the Senate.[^2] His chairmanship coincided with the dispute over a Soviet combat brigade in Cuba. On September 5, 1979, as Senator Baker spoke on the Senate floor about the brigade and the [[SALT II]] treaty, Senator [[Robert Byrd]] said that the Foreign Relations Committee was at that moment holding an executive session at which Admiral [[Stansfield Turner]], the Director of Central Intelligence, was making a presentation.[^42] Before Carter's televised address on the brigade in early October 1979, Church met the president for a half-hour briefing and said that he thought the SALT II treaty could be salvaged and that he was looking for a way to do it.[^43]
### Defeat and Death
Church's support for the treaties was used by his political opponents. In 1980 he lost his bid for a fifth term to Republican [[Steve Symms]] by 4,262 votes, less than 1 percent of the turnout.[^44] The defeat was partly characterized as a backlash against his intelligence committee work.[^30] The [[National Conservative Political Action Committee]] (NCPAC), led by [[Terry Dolan]], spent heavily against him. Federal Election Commission Schedule E records for candidate S4ID00026 in the 1980 two-year period list 842 independent expenditure line items. Of these, 798 were filed by NCPAC (committee C00024687) as independent expenditures against Church, dated from May 30, 1979 to May 1981, with line amounts summing to $305,228 ($95,299 dated 1979, $209,221 dated 1980 and $708 dated 1981). The other filers on the same candidate were Americans for Life, Positive Action Today, the Committee for Positive Change and the Idaho Pro-Life PAC (all against) and the Idaho Voters Association and Idaho Families for Church (for).[^45] A review of Jim Heffernan's book on the 1980 Senate races states that NCPAC's ads focused on the SALT II and Panama Canal treaties.[^46]
After leaving the Senate, Church practiced international law with the Washington, D.C., firm of Whitman and Ransom, specializing in Asian issues.[^47] His papers are held by [[Boise State University]].[^48]
In 1984 Church was hospitalized for a pancreatic tumor. He died of pancreatic cancer at home in Bethesda, Maryland, on April 7, 1984, at the age of 59.[^49]
[^1]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report*, Book II, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976, letter of transmittal, citing Senate Resolution 21, January 27, 1975. https://archive.org/details/finalreportofsel02unit
[^2]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Boise State University Special Collections, Biographical Note (1973 subcommittee chairmanship, 1979 Foreign Relations chairmanship, Panama Canal Treaties). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^3]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (1941 American Legion oratorical contest, enrollment at Stanford in 1942, Stanford Law School degree in 1950). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^4]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (1943 enlistment, military intelligence officer in the China-Burma-India theater, discharge in 1946). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^5]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (1956 Senate primary and defeat of Herman Welker, "fifth youngest member ever to sit in the U.S. Senate"). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^6]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (Interior and Insular Affairs assignment, 1958 McClellan Committee appointment, 1959 appointment to the Foreign Relations Committee by Lyndon B. Johnson, 1960 keynote address). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^7]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (1962 and 1968 re-elections). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^8]: *Congressional Record*, Senate, August 7, 1964, pp. 18470-71, roll call on H.J.Res. 1145 ("The result was announced, yeas 88, nays 2"; Church among the yeas; Gruening and Morse the nays). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1964-pt14/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1964-pt14-4-1.pdf
[^9]: H.J.Res. 1145, 88th Congress, Public Law 88-408, approved August 10, 1964. https://www.congress.gov/bill/88th-congress/house-joint-resolution/1145/text
[^10]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (1965 Senate floor speech on Vietnam, constituency and political risk, later efforts to force an end to the war). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^11]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (1969 amendment with John Sherman Cooper barring ground troops in Laos and Thailand, 1970 second Cooper-Church Amendment limiting presidential power in wartime). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^12]: "Cooper-Church rider wins Senate approval," *State News* (Michigan State University), July 1, 1970, reporting the Associated Press roll call of 58 to 37 on the Cooper-Church amendment. https://sanweb.lib.msu.edu/DMC/state_news/1970/state_news_19700701.pdf
[^13]: Special Foreign Assistance Act of 1971, Public Law 91-652, 84 Stat. 1942 (approved January 5, 1971), sec. 7(a) and (b). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-84/pdf/STATUTE-84-Pg1942.pdf
[^14]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (1973 appointment as chairman of the Subcommittee on Multi-National Corporations, which Church felt "may have been his single most important assignment"). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^15]: CIA, Memorandum for Chief, Western Hemisphere Division, "Text of Senate ITT Hearings: 20, 21 and 22 March 1973," March 26, 1973, CIA Reading Room document 0005492976. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0005492976
[^16]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973*, Staff Report, 1975, Part I, A. Overview. https://archive.org/details/Covert-Action-In-Chile-1963-1973
[^17]: U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations, *Multinational Corporations and United States Foreign Policy*, Hearings, 94th Congress, 2d Session, on Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Part 14, February 4 and 6 and May 4, 1976 (Government Printing Office, 1976), catalog entry. https://search.law.villanova.edu/Record/234018
[^18]: Ann Crittenden, "C.I.A. Said to Have Known in '50's of Lockheed Bribes," *New York Times*, April 1976, stating that public disclosure of the payoffs "did not come until last Feb. 4 in hearings of the Senate subcommittee on multinational corporations" (CIA Reading Room copy, CIA-RDP88-01315R000300470055-1). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000300470055-1
[^19]: Jack Anderson and Les Whitten, "The Washington Merry-Go-Round," March 23, 1976 (CIA Reading Room copy, "CIA Knew of Multinationals' Payoffs," CIA-RDP88-01315R000300450031-9). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000300450031-9
[^20]: William Shawcross, "Did CIA back Lockheed bribes to Japanese?," *The Observer*, April 1976, summarizing Tad Szulc in *The New Republic* (CIA Reading Room copy, CIA-RDP88-01315R000300470050-6). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp88-01315r000300470050-6
[^21]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Final Report*, Book I, *Foreign and Military Intelligence*, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976, title page and membership list. https://archive.org/details/finalreportofsel01unit
[^22]: Seymour M. Hersh, "Huge C.I.A. Operation Reported in U.S. Against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents in Nixon Years," *New York Times*, December 22, 1974, p. 1, https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/22/archives/huge-cia-operation-reported-in-u-s-against-antiwar-forces-other.html ; quoted and summarized in *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976*, vol. XXXVIII, part 2, Document 17, Editorial Note. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v38p2/d17
[^23]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders*, Interim Report, S. Rept. 94-465, November 20, 1975, including Part VI on the MONGOOSE program. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^24]: Interim Report, S. Rept. 94-465, p. 334, n. 1, citing "Gordon, 9/16/75, pp. 166-67." In the printed hearing volume (*Unauthorized Storage of Toxic Agents*, Vol. 1) Gordon's September 16 testimony runs from p. 51 to p. 63 and the no-order exchange is at pp. 56-57; pp. 166-67 carry the September 18 testimony of Senseney. https://archive.org/details/allegedassassina00unit
[^25]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, *Unauthorized Storage of Toxic Agents*, Hearings, Vol. 1, September 16, 17 and 18, 1975, Tuesday, September 16, 1975 session, opening statements and exhibit list (exhibit No. 3, p. 198, and exhibit No. 4, p. 200). https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume1-Toxic-Agents
[^26]: *Unauthorized Storage of Toxic Agents*, Hearings, Vol. 1, testimony of Nathan Gordon, pp. 56-58 (exchange on an order to search out and destroy the CIA's stocks of biological agents and the answer read back from the afternoon session, p. 56; statement on the shellfish toxin as a chemical substance, p. 58). https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume1-Toxic-Agents
[^27]: *Unauthorized Storage of Toxic Agents*, Hearings, Vol. 1, testimony of Nathan Gordon, p. 63 (dart tranquilizer for dogs), and staff statement on the microbioinoculator, "a dart device for clandestine and imperceptible inoculation." https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume1-Toxic-Agents
[^28]: Final Report, Book II, S. Rept. 94-755, Summary (pp. 4-7, statistics on CHAOS and the NSA telegram program) and the Operation CHAOS section (p. 99 ff.; p. 102: 13,000 files, more than 7,200 on American citizens, names of more than 300,000 persons and groups). https://archive.org/details/finalreportofsel02unit
[^29]: Final Report, Book II, S. Rept. 94-755, p. 101 (CIA officials recognized that examination of domestic groups "violated the Agency's mandate") and p. 40 ("The CIA and the National Security Agency illegally instituted programs for the interception of international communications to and from American citizens"). https://archive.org/details/finalreportofsel02unit
[^30]: Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, S. Rept. 94-755, April 26, 1976. Olmsted, Kathryn S. *Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI*. University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
[^31]: Final Report, Book III, S. Rept. 94-755, COINTELPRO chapters, including the Chicago "Black Nationalist" section that discusses Fred Hampton. https://archive.org/details/finalreportofsel03unit
[^32]: *Electronic Surveillance Within the United States for Foreign Intelligence Purposes*, Hearings, Vol. 5, *The National Security Agency and Fourth Amendment Rights*, October 29 and November 6, 1975, October 29 session, opening statements of Church and Tower. https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume5-National-Security-Agency
[^33]: Hearings, Vol. 5, Thursday, November 6, 1975, chairman's opening remarks and the SHAMROCK statement, pp. 57-58. https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume5-National-Security-Agency
[^34]: Final Report, Book II, S. Rept. 94-755, p. 105 n. (NSA MINARET Charter, 7/1/69). https://archive.org/details/finalreportofsel02unit
[^35]: Final Report, Book II, S. Rept. 94-755, p. 59 (the CIA "opened mail to and from the Soviet Union largely at random, intercepting letters of Americans unrelated to foreign intelligence or counterintelligence"). https://archive.org/details/finalreportofsel02unit
[^36]: *Internal Revenue Service*, Church Committee Hearings, Vol. 3, 1975. https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume3-IRS
[^37]: *Mail Opening*, Church Committee Hearings, Vol. 4, 1975. https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume4-Mail-Opening
[^38]: Senate Select Committee, *Covert Action*, Hearings, Vol. 7, testimony of Edward M. Korry, former U.S. Ambassador to Chile (opening statement). https://archive.org/details/Church-Committee-Hearings-Volume7-Covert-Action
[^39]: Frank Church, NBC *Meet the Press*, August 17, 1975, as quoted in "Frank Church and the Church Committee," Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy, Wayne State University Law School (Wayback copy), https://web.archive.org/web/2023/https://www.carllevincenter.org/frank-church-and-the-church-committee/ ; the sentence beginning "I know the capacity" is also quoted from the broadcast in Tim Weiner, Times-News, reprinted by the Boise State University Frank Church Institute, March 30, 2015. https://boisestate.edu/sps-frankchurchinstitute/?p=6542; Associated Press, "Church: Technology Could Perpetuate Tyranny, Total U.S. Control Said Possible," *Post-Bulletin* (Rochester, Minn.), August 18, 1975, p. 21 (Church "said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press'"), https://www.newspapers.com/image/1132361475/
[^40]: Final Report, Book I, S. Rept. 94-755, "Additional Views of Senator Frank Church Concerning Covert Action," pp. 563-565. https://archive.org/details/finalreportofsel01unit
[^41]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (spring 1976 candidacy, primaries in Nebraska, Idaho, Oregon and Montana, withdrawal in favor of Carter) and the Campaign 1976 (President) subseries. https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^42]: *Congressional Record*, Senate, September 5, 1979, remarks of Senators Baker and Robert C. Byrd on the Soviet brigade in Cuba and SALT II. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1979-pt18/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1979-pt18-1-1.pdf
[^43]: "Church said he thought SALT II could be salvaged," *State News* (Michigan State University), October 2, 1979, news report on Church's briefing with Carter before the president's address on the Soviet brigade in Cuba. https://sanweb.lib.msu.edu/DMC/state_news/1979/state_news_19791002.pdf
[^44]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (1980 defeat by Steve Symms by 4,262 votes, less than 1 percent of turnout) and the Campaign 1980 (Senate) subseries. https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^45]: Federal Election Commission, OpenFEC API, Schedule E independent expenditures, candidate_id S4ID00026 (CHURCH, FRANK, Senate, Idaho), two_year_transaction_period 1980, queried October 14, 2026 with the API's keyset pagination (842 line items; committee C00024687 accounts for 798, each filed on an amended F3X report; amounts summed by expenditure_date year). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_e/?candidate_id=S4ID00026&two_year_transaction_period=1980
[^46]: Jim Heffernan, *Tuesday Night Massacre: Four Senate Elections and the Radicalization of the Republican Party*, account of NCPAC's 1980 campaign against Church, reviewed at https://tillamookcountypioneer.net/book-review-tuesday-night-massacre-four-senate-elections-and-the-radicalization-of-the-republican-party
[^47]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (post-Senate practice with Whitman and Ransom, Washington, D.C., specializing in Asian issues). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^48]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Boise State University Special Collections, Content Description and Administrative Information (papers relating chiefly to Church's Senate career, 1956-1980). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912
[^49]: Frank Church Papers, MSS 056, Biographical Note (1984 hospitalization for a pancreatic tumor, death at home in Bethesda, Maryland, April 7, 1984, age 59). https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv50912

12
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Harold Abramson.md
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@ -8,7 +8,14 @@ tags:
- FrankOlson
- ArmyChemicalCorps
- JosiahMacyJrFoundation
summary: "Columbia University allergist and CIA contractor who ran three MKULTRA LSD subprojects totaling $85,000, coordinated the academic LSD research network through Macy Foundation conferences, and was chosen by Gottlieb to manage Frank Olson's deteriorating mental state after the 1953 Deep Creek Lodge dosing."
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Johns Hopkins University]]"
start: 1928
end: 1929
role: "instructor in medicine"
fn: 2
summary: "Columbia University allergist and CIA contractor who ran three MKULTRA LSD subprojects totaling $85,000, convened the Macy Foundation LSD conferences, and managed Frank Olson after the 1953 Deep Creek Lodge dosing."
born: 1899-11-27
died: 1980-09-29
location: New York, New York
@ -21,6 +28,8 @@ Harold Abramson was a New York allergist and immunologist affiliated with [[Mt.
In a 1953 document, [[Sidney Gottlieb]] listed subjects he expected Abramson to investigate with the $85,000 the Agency was furnishing him across three subprojects. Gottlieb wanted "operationally pertinent materials along the following lines: a. Disturbance of Memory; b. Discrediting by Aberrant Behavior; c. Alteration of Sex Patterns; d. Eliciting of Information; e. Suggestibility; f. Creation of Dependence." The gap between the innocent-sounding published research and the operational questions posed by the CIA characterized the entire MKULTRA program. Most of the CIA's academic researchers published articles in professional journals, but those long, scholarly reports often gave an incomplete picture. In effect, the scientists would write openly about how LSD affects a patient's pulse rate, but they would tell only the CIA how the drug could be used to ruin that patient's marriage or memory.[^1]
A CIA memorandum of December 2, 1953, addressed to Colonel Edwards by the chief of the SSD, describes Abramson as a physician educated at Columbia University who was later chief of the allergy clinic at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. It records that he was an instructor in medicine at [[Johns Hopkins University]] from 1928 to 1929, and it states: "Subject is a physician but not known as a psychiatrist."[^2]
### Intelligence Gathering and the Macy Conferences
Abramson talked regularly to virtually everyone interested in LSD, including the few early researchers not funded by the Agency or the military, and he reported his findings to [[TSS]]. He served as recording secretary of two conference series sponsored by the [[Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation]], the Agency's sometime conduit, as well as the first international LSD therapy conference in 1959, which [[Paul Hoch]] chaired. The two Macy series each lasted over five-year periods in the 1950s; one dealt with "Problems of Consciousness" and the other with "Neuropharmacology." Held once a year at the Princeton Inn, the conferences brought together TSS's leading contractors as part of a group of roughly 25 with multidisciplinary backgrounds, including such luminaries as [[Margaret Mead]] and [[Jean Piaget]]. The topics discussed usually mirrored TSS's interests at the time, and the conferences served as a spawning ground for ideas that allowed researchers to engage in cross-fertilization.[^1]
@ -40,3 +49,4 @@ After Olson fell from a tenth-floor window at the [[Statler Hotel]] on November
### Footnotes
[^1]: John D. Marks, *The Search for the Manchurian Candidate*. Times Books, 1979. Chapters 4 and 5.
[^2]: Central Intelligence Agency, memorandum, December 2, 1953, "ABRAMSON, Harold A.," from the Chief, SSD to Colonel Edwards, MKULTRA document 0000144974, CIA reading room. https://archive.org/details/DOC_0000144974

2
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/John Foster Dulles.md
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@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ A declassified CIA dispatch from the PBSUCCESS operations center in Florida, dat
A telephone conversation memorandum (FRUS 1952-54 Guatemala, Document 252), dated June 28, 1954, records John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles coordinating directly on the coup's operational status. John Foster Dulles stated that "our side must use more air power" and that CIA air operations were "excellent and effective." Regarding the accidental sinking of a British vessel by CIA-supported forces, John Foster Dulles said "No authority was given for this. However, we can't say it," documenting both operational awareness and deliberate deniability.[^pb2]
A second telephone memorandum (FRUS 1952-54 Guatemala, Document 189), dated June 16, 1954, records Dulles telling Allen Dulles that Standard Oil of [[New Jersey]] executives had met with Allen about "the small country down south," and that John Foster wanted to "possibly slow things up without formalized action," referencing a Senate sanctions bill he had drafted but found unsatisfactory.[^pb3]
A second telephone memorandum (FRUS 1952-54 Guatemala, Document 189), dated June 16, 1954, records Allen Dulles telling John Foster Dulles that he was seeing "men from Standard of NJ" that morning, who would "lay before him their position with regard to the small country down south," and that besides finding out their position he would "possibly slow things up without formalized action"; the Secretary asked whether [[Bourke B. Hickenlooper]] might introduce a sanctions bill in the Senate.[^pb3]
After Arbenz's resignation and the installation of a new government, Dulles delivered a national radio address in June 1954 framing the coup as a spontaneous Guatemalan rejection of Soviet infiltration. He asserted that communists had "dominated the social security organization and ran the agrarian land reform program," and praised the restoration of "peace and freedom to that sister Republic." The address made no reference to U.S. covert involvement. The full text was published in the *Department of State Bulletin*.[^pb4]

9
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Thomas F. Ellis.md
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@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ tags:
- NationalCongressionalClub
- FairnessInMedia
- NewRight
summary: "Raleigh lawyer who ran Jesse Helms's political organization, sat on the Pioneer Fund board, took its money for his television foundation, organized a bid for CBS, and lost a Reagan nomination over his record on race."
summary: "Raleigh lawyer who ran Jesse Helms's political organization, sat on the Pioneer Fund board, organized a bid for CBS, and lost a Reagan nomination over his record on race."
location: "Raleigh, North Carolina"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Ellis joined the board of the [[Pioneer Fund]] in 1973, with the Kinston lawyer
### The 1983 Nomination
Reagan nominated Ellis on February 8, 1983, to the [[Board for International Broadcasting]], which supervised [[Radio Free Europe]] and [[Radio Liberty]]. Forbes was nominated to the same board. At the hearing of the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] on July 26, where his chief critics were Senators [[Paul Tsongas]] and [[Joe Biden|Joseph Biden]], he was challenged on his service on the board of "a group financing studies into theories that whites are genetically superior to blacks," his membership in an all-white country club, a letter circulated in 1976 claiming that President [[Gerald Ford|Ford]] was seeking a black running mate, and a visit to [[South Africa]] paid for by its government. He told the committee: "I do not believe in my heart that I'm a racist." A majority of the committee asked the president to withdraw the name. On July 28 Ellis asked to be withdrawn, in a letter on his firm's stationery distributed by a Helms aide, calling the criticism "an obvious partisan political effort to drive a wedge between you and the black community using me as the instrumentality." He hoped the board would continue to "broadcast the tenets of Christian belief" without "interference from some of those in public office who do not recognize the threat of communist world domination." Reagan replied that he had "acted in a manner consistent with the reputation for honor that you have always possessed." The nomination lapsed on August 4.[^5][^6]
Reagan nominated Ellis on February 8, 1983, to the [[Board for International Broadcasting]], which supervised [[Radio Free Europe]] and [[Radio Liberty]]. Forbes was nominated to the same board; the White House announced the nomination of Malcolm Forbes, Jr. (Steve Forbes) on May 16, 1983, in a slate with Clair W. Burgener, [[Lane Kirkland]], Arch L. Madsen and [[James A. Michener]].[^5] At the hearing of the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] on July 26, where his chief critics were Senators [[Paul Tsongas]] and [[Joe Biden|Joseph Biden]], he was challenged on his service on the board of "a group financing studies into theories that whites are genetically superior to blacks," his membership in an all-white country club, a letter circulated in 1976 claiming that President [[Gerald Ford|Ford]] was seeking a black running mate, and a visit to [[South Africa]] paid for by its government. He told the committee: "I do not believe in my heart that I'm a racist." A majority of the committee asked the president to withdraw the name. On July 28 Ellis asked to be withdrawn, in a letter on his firm's stationery distributed by a Helms aide, calling the criticism "an obvious partisan political effort to drive a wedge between you and the black community using me as the instrumentality." He hoped the board would continue to "broadcast the tenets of Christian belief" without "interference from some of those in public office who do not recognize the threat of communist world domination." Reagan replied that he had "acted in a manner consistent with the reputation for honor that you have always possessed." The nomination lapsed on August 4.[^6][^7]
Asked by [[New York Times|The New York Times]] in 2001 whether one race was genetically superior to another, Ellis said: "I have no idea."[^3]
@ -39,5 +39,6 @@ Asked by [[New York Times|The New York Times]] in 2001 whether one race was gene
[^2]: Edsall, Thomas B., and David A. Vise. "CBS Fight a Litmus Test for Conservatives," *The Washington Post,* March 31, 1985, p. 1.
[^3]: Southern Poverty Law Center, "From eugenics to voter ID laws: Thomas Farr's connections to the Pioneer Fund," *Hatewatch,* December 4, 2017.
[^4]: Mehler, Barry, comp. "Pioneer Fund Grants, 1971-1996," Institute for the Study of Academic Racism, compiled from Internal Revenue Service Forms 990; Mahler, Jonathan. "Forbes Waffles on Ellis; Brooks Blasts Buchanan," *The Forward,* February 1996.
[^5]: United Press International, dispatch on the withdrawal of Thomas Ellis, Washington, July 28, 1983.
[^6]: United States Senate, nomination PN59-1, Thomas F. Ellis, Board for International Broadcasting, 98th Congress. https://www.congress.gov/nomination/98th-congress/59/1
[^5]: Ronald Reagan, "Nomination of Five Members of the Board for International Broadcasting," May 16, 1983, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/262151
[^6]: United Press International, dispatch on the withdrawal of Thomas Ellis, Washington, July 28, 1983.
[^7]: United States Senate, nomination PN59-1, Thomas F. Ellis, Board for International Broadcasting, 98th Congress. https://www.congress.gov/nomination/98th-congress/59/1

2
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Broe.md
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@ -31,6 +31,8 @@ Under oath before Senator [[Frank Church]] in 1973, Broe said he had called on G
The subcommittee summarized his evidence in four points. On July 16, 1970, at the [[Sheraton-Carlton Hotel]], Geneen "offered to assemble a substantial election fund" for [[Jorge Alessandri]], "controlled and channeled through the C.I.A.," which Broe refused. The contacts "derived from an initiative taken by Mr. McCone with Mr. Helms." Broe proposed to Gerrity "a plan of action designed to create or accelerate economic instability in Chile." And throughout he "was acting with the knowledge and in accordance with instructions given him by his superiors at the C.I.A., specifically including Mr. Helms." [[John McCone]], a director of ITT and still a consultant to the agency, testified that such ideas were "never approved by Mr. Helms" and that Broe "was exploring."[^2]
A CIA memorandum of March 26, 1973 for the Chief, Western Hemisphere Division, reviewing the transcripts of the subcommittee's ITT hearings of March 20, 21 and 22, 1973, recorded that the subcommittee staff was using Broe's written responses of March 20 to formulate questions for witnesses, including whether Harold Geneen had discussed with Broe an offer of election funds to be channeled through the CIA.[^2]
### Schneider
Broe and Phillips asked Hecksher whether there was "anything we or Station can do to effect the removal of Schneider," the army commander, and on October 18 approved the station's request for three submachine guns. They ordered Hecksher "not, repeat not," to tell Ambassador [[Edward Korry]] of the "impending coup" and, "should it occur," to "appear surprised and stonewall any and all queries." General [[Rene Schneider|René Schneider]] was shot on October 22. After briefing Director Richard Helms they cabled: "The Station has done excellent job of guiding Chileans to point today where a military solution is at least an option for them." If any "points of compromise" reached the press, "absolute denial will be the order of the day even with Ambassador and other embassy colleagues," and the agency's "position will be stonewall all the way." On November 5 Broe cabled his concern that the American "hardware could ultimately be discovered."[^1]

5
10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/William Colby.md
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@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ On April 27, 1996, Colby disappeared from his weekend home in Rock Point, Maryla
William E. Colby served as the Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] from 1973 to 1976. He shared the assumption that [[Israel]] had a few nuclear weapons and that if there was a collapse during the 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], there was a possibility that Israel would use them. Colby believed that nuclear weapons would be used "only in an extreme situation."[^6]
### Katharine Graham's 1973 inquiry
In November 1973 [[Katharine Graham]], publisher of the [[Washington Post]], telephoned Colby to ask whether any Post stringers or staff members were associated with the CIA. Colby assured her that no staff members were employed by the Agency, but he refused to discuss the question of stringers.[^7]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Powers, Thomas. *The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA*. Knopf, 1979. Hersh, Seymour M. "Huge C.I.A. Operation Reported in U.S. Against Antiwar Forces." New York Times, December 22, 1974.
@ -60,3 +64,4 @@ William E. Colby served as the Director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA
[^4]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17.
[^5]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion*. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Ch. 9.
[^6]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 17.
[^7]: Bernstein, Carl. "The CIA and the Media," *Rolling Stone*, October 20, 1977, section on the Washington Post Company. https://web.archive.org/web/2012/http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php