# Before the 1975 Year of Intelligence **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2024, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-1975-year-of-intelligence/1007734 "2024-09-26T03:10:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SpicyDuckBillyHunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@SpicyDuckBillyHunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpicyDuckBillyHunt)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-1975-year-of-intelligence/1007734/1 "2024-09-26T03:10:35Z")
In 1975 the US Government had the Church Committee and the Rockefeller Commission. They investigated CIA and others dodgy activity. Before 1974 there was some media attention, was there any knowledge about these activities ? Was anyone who published anything pre 1974 considered a kooky conspiracy theorist? > **[Church Committee](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee)** > > The Church Committee (formally the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) was a US Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Chaired by Idaho Senator Frank Church (D-ID), the committee was part of a series of investigations into intelligence abuses in 1975... > **[Pike Committee](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_Committee)** > > The Pike Committee is the common name for the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence during the period when it was chaired by Democratic Representative Otis G. Pike of New York. Under Pike's chairmanship, the committee investigated illegal activities by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Security Agency (NSA). The Committee conducted much of its investigation, while the U.S. Senate Select Committee to Th... > **[United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within the United States](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_President%27s_Commission_on_CIA_Activities_within_the_United_States)** > > The United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within the United States was ordained by President Gerald Ford in 1975 to investigate the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies within the United States. The Presidential Commission was led by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, from whom it gained the nickname the Rockefeller Commission. > The commission was created in response to a December 1974 report in The New York Times that the CIA had conducte... ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2024, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-the-1975-year-of-intelligence/1007734/2 "2024-09-26T05:33:07Z")
It’s a good question, though I don’t have a solid answer. I can say that the release of the [Pentagon Papers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers) in 1971 primed the US public to accept that some of the US government’s secret activities were dubious or worse. A boatload of illegal domestic spying was exposed by Seymour M. Hersh, working for the New York Times on Dec 22, 1974. Lead paragraph: > The Central Intelligence Agency, directly violating its charter, conducted a massive, illegal domestic intelligence operation during the Nixon Administration against the antiwar movement and other dissident groups in the United States, according to well‐placed Government sources. Reference to counter-cultural press (at the time): > Two months ago, Rolling Stone magazine published a lengthy list of more than a dozen unsolved break‐ins and burglaries and suggested that they might be linked to as yet undisclosed C.I.A. or F.B.I. activities. Interesting take: > Another official with access to details of C.I.A. operations said that the alleged illegal activities uncovered by Mr. Schlesinger last year included break‐ins and electronic surveillances that had been undertaken during the fifties and sixties. > “During the fifties, this was routine stuff,” the official said. “The agency did things that would amaze both of us, but some of this also went on in the late sixties, when the country and atmosphere had changed.” As for MKUltra, the CIA gave LSD to Ginsberg and Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest) as part of their experimentation, who turned around and popularized it. So there was some earlier knowledge.