Rockefeller Commission

Swearing in the Rockefeller Commission in 1975

The Commission of the President of the United States to investigate CIA activities within the United States (English: US President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States ), better known as the Rockefeller Commission , was established in 1975 by President Gerald Ford used the Investigate activities of the CIA and other intelligence agencies within the US. The commission was chaired by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller , which gave the commission its nickname, the Rockefeller Commission .

The commission was created in response to an article that appeared in the New York Times in December 1974 . The article reported that the CIA engaged in illegal domestic activities in the 1960s, including experiments on US citizens. The commission published a single report in 1975 outlining some of the CIA's abuses, including illegally opening mail and monitoring domestic dissident groups. He also made MKULTRA , a secret research program of the CIA over possibilities of mind control , in public. The assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy was discussed in relation to the Zapruder film (which first appeared on television in 1975) and a possible presence of E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis in Dallas.

The Rockefeller Commission is widely seen today as an attempt by the US government to forestall a broader investigation by the US Congress and whitewash the CIA. The chairman of the commission, Nelson Rockefeller, was already informed about all covert operations of the CIA, including assassination attempts and MKULTRA, under President Eisenhower as chairman of the National Security Council , and had to approve the most critical and questionable operations. He was also involved in his position as Undersecretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare , as the CIA's mind control experiments were partially funded by this department.

With the Church Committee from January 27, 1975 a major investigation was set up by the Senate . On February 19, 1975, the Nedzi Committee was created by the House of Representatives . Due to disputes over the chairman, the Nedzi Committee was dissolved and the Pike Committee established .

Members of the Commission

• Nelson Rockefeller
• Lyman L. Lemnitzer
• Ronald Reagan
• Edgar F. Shannon, Jr.
• David W. Belin
• John T. Connor
• C. Douglas Dillon
• Erwin Griswold
• Lane Kirkland

See also

• COINTELPRO
• Credible deniability
• MKULTRA

literature

• Gerald K. Haines: The Pike Committee Investigations and the CIA . In: Central Intelligence Agency: Studies in Intelligence , Winter 98/99

Web links

• Rockefeller Commission Report

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} archive.org: President's Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States , accessed May 12, 2019
2. ↑ Gerard Colby, Charlotte Dennet Thy Will be Done. The Conquest of The Amazon: "Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil." HarperPerennial, (1996) pp. 735-738, ISBN 0-06-092723-2