A Critique of the Pike and Church Committees and Intelligence Oversight in the United States
...ided it is undeniable that all discussion of American interference in the internal affairs of Chile is the basic question of why the United States initially mounted such an extensive covert action program in Chile and why it continued, and even expanded, in the early 1970s. Covert action has been a key element of U.S. foreign policy toward Chile. The link between covert action and foreign policy was obvious throughout the decade between 1964 and 1974. In 1964, the United States commitment to democratic reform via the Alliance for Progress and overt foreign aid was buttressed via covert support for the election of the candidate of the Christian Democratic Party, a candidate and a party for which the Alliance seemed tailor made. During 1970 the U.S. Government tried, covertly, to prevent Allende from becoming President of Chile. When that failed, covert support to his opposition formed one of a triad of official actions: covert aid to opposition forces, "cool but correct" diplomatic posture, and economic pressure. From support of what the United States considered to be democratic and progressive forces in Chile we had moved finally to advocating and encouraging the overthrow of a democratically elected government. In the hands of Congress rests the responsibility for insuring that the Executive Branch is held to full political accountability for covert activities. The record on Chile is mixed and muted by its incompleteness. The Pike committee on the other hand was a follower of the Church committee. Created for the same purposes of investigating the activities of the CIA, the Pike committee has its roots in the Church committee. The investigations of the Pike Committee, headed by Democratic Representative Otis Pike of New York, paralleled those of the Church Committee. While the Church Committee centered its attention on the more sensational charges of illegal activities by the CIA and other components of the Intelligence Community, the Pike Committee set about examining the CIA's effectiveness and its costs to taxpayers. Unfortunately, Representative Pike, the committee, and its staff never developed a cooperative working relationship with the Agency or the Ford administration. The committee soon was at odds with the CIA and the White House over questions of access to documents and information and the declassification of materials. Relations between the Agency and the Pike Committee became confrontational. CIA officials came to detest the committee and its efforts at investigation. Many observers maintained moreover, that Representative Pike was seeking to use the committee hearings to enhance his senatorial ambitions, and the committee staff, almost entirely young and anti-establishment, clashed with Agency and White House officials. The Pike committee undertook a number of investigations such as the Intelligence Community budget and the review of covert operations. Largely the committee was a failure plagued by disorganization and unfriendly white house relations. A final report on their findings was due by 31 January 1976. The first version of the report was rejected by Pike; the submitted report was met with a lot of skepticism as the report had been leaked to The New York Times. Congress voted to oust the report and Pike was bitter over the vote. He announced to the House, "The House just voted not to release a document it had not read. Our committee voted to release a document it had read." Pike was so upset that he threatened not to file a report at all with the House because "a report on the CIA in which the CIA would do the final rewrite would be a lie." Later, Pike reflected that "They, the White House, wanted to pre censor our final report. This was unacceptable." Despite its failures, the Pike Committee inquiry was a new and dramatic break with the past. It was the first significant House investigation of the IC since the creation of the CIA in 1947. In the final analysis, both the CIA and the committee were caught up in the gre...