FACING REALITY: From World Federalism to the CIA

by Cord Meyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 29, 1980

To some, Cord Meyer's shift from World Federalism to the CIA has always looked like apostasy--selling out; he calls it ""facing reality""--and, indeed, no change of heart or mind is evident in this account of his career from Yale to the South Pacific in World War II, where he lost an eye, to the US mission at the founding of the UN, to the presidency of the United World Federalists, and on to the CIA. Well-placed--married by Reinhold Niebuhr, Meyer went to Walter Lippmann for advice about the CIA job offered by Allen Dulles--Meyer wound up with desk jobs in covert operations, the Agency's elite. Most of these memoirs are given over to justification of CIA actions taken during Meyer's tenure, starting with the uproar over CIA funding of the National Student Association, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty, and moving on to covert operations in Chile, and Watergate. Meyer emphasizes that the propaganda operations were aimed at bolstering a non-Communist left, not ultra-rightists, and this is justified in his view by the Soviet strategy of ""infiltrating"" and co-opting other leftist groups; these actions are supposed to be defensive. As for Chile, Meyer goes down the familiar line; the Agency only did what it was told, and if they made any moves toward an anti-Allende coup, it was only because President Nixon told them to--they knew all along such a plan was hopeless. What Meyer thinks was justified was the policy of funding the Christian Democrats both before and after Allende's election; citing Allende's evil thoughts, Meyer virtually ignores the fact that he was legally elected (it was ""only"" a plurality) and appears not to see CIA activities as in any way subversive of the freedoms he claims Allende wanted to destroy. On Watergate, the line is simple: we didn't do it. Meyer gives the usual pep talk against ""undue"" restraint of the Agency by the Congress, and paints dark pictures of Soviet global subversion to support the CIA's continued relevance. Thomas Powers' biography of the Agency (and its tight-lipped automaton, Richard Helms) was there first with more. And those with a residual interest in Meyer himself will find this sketchy on his personal life and bland overall.

Pub Date: Oct. 29, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION