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In the 1980s, CIA propaganda experts and military psy-war specialists oversaw the creation of special programs aimed at managing public perceptions in targeted foreign countries as well as inside the United States, according to declassified documents at Ronald Reagan's Presidential Library.
These recently discovered documents buttress previously disclosed evidence that Reagan's CIA Director William J. Casey played a key behind-the-scenes role in pushing this political action initiative, which recruited well-heeled private-sector conservatives to subsidize the secretive government operations.
The documents show that Casey used a senior CIA propaganda and disinformation specialist named Walter Raymond Jr., who was placed inside the National Security Council in 1982, to oversee the project and to circumvent legal prohibitions against the CIA engaging in propaganda that might influence U.S. public opinion or politics.
Though Raymond formally quit the CIA after going to the NSC, documents from Raymond's personal NSC files reveal that he often passed on recommendations regarding the propaganda initiative after meetings at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, or after conversations with Casey himself.
In one Nov. 4, 1982, "secret" memo, Raymond described Casey reaching out to right-wing mogul Richard Mellon Scaife, who was already working with other conservative foundation executives to fund right-wing publications, think tanks and activist groups seeking to shift U.S. politics to the Right.
Raymond told then NSC advisor William P. Clark that "Bill Casey asked me to pass on the following thought concerning your [scheduled] meeting with Dick Scaife, Dave Abshire [then a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board], and Co.
"Casey had lunch with them today and discussed the need to get moving in the general area of supporting our friends around the world."
Besides a desire to "invigorate international media programs," Casey wanted to help U.S.-based organizations, such as Freedom House, that could influence American attitudes about foreign challenges, Raymond said.
"The DCI [Director of Central Intelligence] is also concerned about strengthening public information organizations in the United States such as Freedom House," Raymond told Clark. "To do this we have identified three overt tracks:
"--enhanced federal funding;
"--the Democracy Project study (although publicly funded this will be independently managed);
"--private funds."
"A critical piece of the puzzle is a serious effort to raise private funds to generate momentum. Casey's talk with Scaife and Co. suggests they would be very willing to cooperate."
(In the following years, Freedom House emerged as a major critic of Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government, which Reagan and Casey were seeking to overthrow by covertly supporting contra rebels.)
Returning from Langley
A Dec. 2 note addressed to "Bud," apparently senior NSC official Robert "Bud" McFarlane, described a request from Raymond for a brief meeting. "When he [Raymond] returned from Langley, he had a proposed draft letter " re $100 M democ[racy] proj[ect]," the note said.
While Raymond passed on Casey's instructions, the CIA director told White House officials to play down or conceal the CIA's role.
