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A.R.Yngve
PARRY'S PROTOCOL
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Chapter 34
Parry was feeding his pets when Abram came in. The patient seemed attentive, almost relaxed, and did not show his teeth.
"Good evening, Doc. Did anyone follow you here?"
Abram sank heavily onto his stool and raised a palm: "No, no. Well, I wasn't looking anyway. I'm a bit tired after the trip to Washington, so let's make this quick. Yes, I know -- the vent."
He stood up with a faint groan, went up to the wall, sealed the vent, went back and sat down.
"So: Before I write out Part Three of my CIA report -- the one that'll deal with internal security in the organization -- I wish to discuss the questions you asked earlier..."
"And?"
"I've consulted a few old acquaintances who know CIA history better than I do..."
Abram hesitated, frowning.
"...and they've all rejected the idea that the CIA is a questionable construction?" Parry added grimly.
"Not quite. They tend to speak in riddles, either because they can't recall old details or they don't want to... But they've awakened my curiosity. Let's assume, for simplicity's sake, that there's some substance to your suspicions..."
Parry started digging frenetically in the pile of books at his feet. He pulled up a thick volume and pressed an opened page against the glass wall.
"Here! The CIA, as you know, was formed from the remains of the wartime organization O.S.S. -- the Office of Strategic Services. But President Roosevelt's clandestine chief of intelligence, John Franklin Carter, was against the idea.
"In a memo to the President, dated October 1944, he suggested instead that they should revive the OSS as a dummy, to fool the British!"
He swayed impatiently, staring at Abram: Abram tugged at his short beard.
"Parry," he said with a sigh, "that's yesterday's news. Every now and then, the Pentagon brass and their Congressmen mutter that the CIA shouldn't try to do the military's work. The usefulness of the Company was questioned from the very start."
"And that's where everyone stops thinking, Doc! You're afraid to draw the conclusion from obvious facts."
"Namely, what?"
"That the CIA is a functioning decoy, spawned by the Roosevelt administration."
Parry was beginning to grow irritated again.
"But why?"
"Come on, Doc! The old wartime intelligence network had strong connections to its British counterpart, MI5. And already then they must have feared Communist infiltration -- Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt were revealed as Russian 'moles' many years later. The Russians virtually knew everything the MI5 was up to!"
Parry slammed the book shut and held it before him. Abram attempted to rise, but sank back. He made a sour face and looked into Parry's angular face.
"Wait a minute. You mean that the CIA, as a 'dummy', would also draw attention from the Pentagon's intelligence network?"
"That too! But of course the President and his people didn't want to be completely in the hands of the Pentagon, Roosevelt was too smart, too ambitious to lose the initiative. He must have laid the groundwork for his own, Presidential intelligence -- probably founded on his man John Franklin Carter's wartime organization."
Abram rested his elbows on his knees and propped up his head.
"I don't want to abandon this theory yet, Parry. But both Roosevelt and John Franklin Carter have been dead for a long time. A lot of the secret wartime records have been opened now. How come such a plot hasn't been revealed yet?"
If there was sarcasm in Abram's question, Parry let it go unnoticed.
"That's the problem which has kept me occupied while you've been away."
Parry took a backward step. The cat in its basket meowed and the bird in the cage chirped, but he gestured at them to be silent.
"I've been trying to make comparisons to other Presidents, who tried to build informal networks -- independent of Congress, the Supreme Court, or the Pentagon."
"You're referring to the Iran-Contras arms deal and such affairs..."
"Precisely! Just like the CIA, Oliver North, William Casey, and the rest failed pro primo: to overthrow Communist regimes in Latin America, and pro secundo: to keep it away from the media.
"But the thing is, they weren't the first ones. Kennedy barely managed to save face after CIA's attempt to overthrow Castro sank in the Bay of Pigs -- an operation covertly approved by the President. You see the pattern, Doc? Everyone who involves the CIA, fails. The Company simply isn't supposed to be working."
"Why would Roosevelt, old and dying, succeed where people like Kennedy and Bush failed? Why should his administration be so much better at keeping a secret?"
"The answer's right in front of you, Doc, and you won't see it. After Roosevelt, television came around."
Parry crouched in front of the TV set and turned it on: a loud commercial made the little cat start and run behind his legs, wailing.
He pointed indignantly at the garish screen images, looking at Abram with a furious face: "That thing has been selling Presidents since the Korean War! Millions of Americans have been duped to vote for fantasy presidents which only existed on TV, while egotripping rich kids allowed the nation to fall apart!"
Abram was stunned.
"Roosevelt," Parry went on slowly, "was, next to Lincoln, the sharpest leader we ever had. He managed to lead an alliance of headstrong, discordant, and power-hungry men against Germany and Japan -- and won the World War on two fronts. Does any other President have such merits?"
"I'm not quite following you. How... Are we able to guess how Roosevelt's secret postwar organization was meant to work?"
"Not 'meant' to work, Doc. How it is working! With his experience, he was able to design a system which, contrary to others, would go safe from discovery."
"How?" Abram almost whispered.
Just then, a cartoon dog on the TV screen shouted: "You stoopid eediot!!"
"Infiltration," answered Parry. "Tie together a handful of reliable men in key positions, at least one in each institution: the White House, the Pentagon, the Supreme Court, the CIA -- that is, the equivalent of the CIA at that time. But it has to be positions that they can keep for life! The Presidential seat, any publically elected office, is too uncertain.
"With promises of influence, and threats of death for those who betray the others, the loyalty of the conspirators can be certified."
Abram sat upright, unblinking, as if in a trance.
"Would Roosevelt circumvent the Constitution in the same way as later Presidents?"
"As most Presidents, only better. But even if the first purpose of his network was to serve the President..."
Parry stopped and studied the pets in the corner. The bird sat silent, the cat was wailing. He shut off the TV and wiped his brow.
"Get us some air, Doc."