THE C.I.A. AFFAIR

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Although one can ignore the flippant tone of Gregory Craig's and Mary Belle Feltenstein's response (CRIMSON, Feb. 15th) to the disclosure of CIA funding of the NSA for nearly 15 years, there was something rather vital missing in their reaction. I should like to put a query to them:

Whatever happened to our sense of bitterness whenever such a precious thing as the right to innocence is infringed by events like I'affaire CIA-NSA?

And to the national leaders of NSA and their eloquent defender, James Reston of the New York Times (Feb. 15th), I ask:

Should our sense of outrage forever be sacrificed at the altar of money, necessity, and patriotism -- that "last refuge of the scoundrel," as Samuel Johnson put it?

What I have in mind has nothing to do with politics: I am not, that is, concerned with scoring points off the defenders of NSA but with something more fundamental and worthy: the essence of what we are . . . or are not.

As Americans we are led to believe, and I still believe, that one hallmark of democratic society is the privilege to behave in innocence for a part of one's life, especially while a student. No doubt this privilege entails risks of all sorts; behaving innocently means that our range of ignorance is greater than our range of knowledge, experience, and rationality.

But the presumption is, so we are told, that the risks are worth it: innocent behavior is, for the youth in democratic society, a way to knowledge and rationality.

Thus, it is the audacious denial of the right of innocence to a generation of American students by the CIA, abetted by NSA leaders, that hurts and makes me mad! Admittedly, we can't live like innocent students forever--we must all, alas, grow up: No society can be run by people who behave innocently; the world today is too tough a place for that.

But should not the youth (the student) be free to surmount innocence without the presumptuous guardianship of institutions like the CIA?

I once thought I knew the answer to this question; but after reading the fatuous rationalizations offered for I'affaire CIA-NSA, I'm not quite sure. Innocence, it seems, is strictly for the birds (of prey. . . .) Martin Kilson   Assistant Professor of Government