George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography --- by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin
Chapter -XV- CIA DIRECTOR
In late 1975, as a result in particular of his role in Watergate, Bush's confirmation as CIA Director
was not automatic. And though the debate at his confirmation was superificial, some senators,including in particular the late Frank Church of Idaho, made some observations about the dangers (^)
inherent in the Bush nomination that have turned out in retrospect to be useful.
The political scene on the homefront from which Bush had been so anxious to be absent during
1975 was the so-called "Year of Intelligence," in that it had been a year of intense scrutiny of theillegal activities and abuses of the intelligence community, including CIA domestic and covert
operations. On December 22, 1974 the New York Times published the first of a series of articles by
Seymour M. Hersh which relied on leaked reports of CIA activities assembled by Director James
Rodney Schlesinger to expose alleged misdeeds by the agency.
It was widely recognized at the time that the Hersh articles were a self-exposure by the CIA that
was designed to set the agenda for the Ford-appointed Rockefeller Commission, which was set up a
few days later, on January 4, 1975. The Rockefeller Commission members included John T.
Connor, C. Douglas Dillon, Erwin N. Griswold, Lane Kirkland, Lyman Lemnitzer, Ronald Reagan,
and Edgar F. Shannon, Jr. The Rockefeller Commission was supposed to examine the malfeasanceof the intelligence agencies and make recommendations about how they could be reorganized and
reformed. In reality, the Rockefeller Commission proposals would reflect the transition from the
structures of the cold war towards the growing totalitarian tendencies of the 1980's.
While the Rockefeller Commission was a tightly controlled vehicle of the Eastern Anglophileliberal establishment, Congressional investigating committees were empaneled during 1975 w (^) hose
proceedings were somewhat less rigidly controlled. These included the Senate Intelligence
Committee, known as the Church Committee, and the corresponding House committee, first chaired
by Rep. Lucien Nedzi (who had previously chaired one of the principal Watergate-era probes) and
then (after July) by Reof Congress citation against Henry Kissinger for his refusal to provide documentation of covertp. Otis Pike. One example was the Pike Committee's issuance of a contempt
operations in November, 1975. Another was Church's role in leading the opposition to the Bush
nomination.
The Church Committee launched an investigation of the use of covert operations for the purpose ofassassinating foreign leaders. By the nature of things, this probe was lead to grapple with the
problem of whether covert operations sanctioned to eliminate foreign leaders had been re-targetted
against domestic political figures. The obvious case was the Kennedy assassination.
Church was especially diligent in attacking CIA covert operations, which Bush would be anxious todefend. The CIA's covert branch, Church thought, was a "self-serving apparatus." "It's a
bureaucracy which feeds on itself, and those involved are constantly sitting around thinking up
schemes for [foreign] intervention which will win them promotions and justify further additions to
the staff...It self-generates interventions that otherwise never would be thought of, let alone
authorized." [fn 1]
It will be seen that at the beginning of Bush's tenure at the CIA, the Congressional committees were
on the offensive against the intelligence agencies. By the time that Bush departed Langley, the
tables were turned, and it was the Congress which was the focus of scandals, including Koreagate.
Soon thereafter, the Congress would undergo the assault of Abscam.