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by the
Interhemispheric Resource Center, Box 2178, Silver City, NM 88062
Background:
The International
Rescue Committee, Inc. (IRC) was founded in 1933 in response to a request
from Albert Einstein "to assist anti-Nazi opponents of Hitler." IRC works
with refugees fleeing from "persecution and violence in totalitarian
countries, as well as uprooted victims of civil conflict."(13) IRC focuses
its programs primarily on refugees from communist and socialist countries
but is quite adamant that it does not tow the U.S. foreign policy line.
Robert DeVecchi, executive director, said: "It is... inaccurate to
characterize IRC's operation as having `historically reflected the
interests and directions of foreign policy. ' IRC establishes and follows
its own policy directions which may or may not coincide with U.S. foreign
policy objectives. It is immaterial to us whether they do or not."(2)
Despite such
disavowals, the IRC has consistently followed policies which have indeed
coincided with U.S. foreign policy interests. It has operated in such
geopolitical hotspots as Southeast Asia, Central America, Afghanistan, and
Eastern Europe, conducting programs which have bolstered Washington's
anticommunist activities. Descriptions of such programs are given below.
The group provides
resettlement, medical, agriculture, education, and social welfare
services. (14)
Many of IRC's
members have ties to the intelligence community, and at least one author
calls the IRC "a long-time ally of the Central Intelligence Agency."(33)
Funding:
IRC is a tax-exempt organization under IRS code 501(c)(3). (13) More than
90 percent of IRC's income goes to support its programs. The group claims
that "The work of the IRC is supported by individual Americans and people
abroad, the business community, unions, foundations, schools, church and
civic groups," but its literature fails to mention the support it receives
from the U.S. government. (4) In 1987, it received approximately 72
percent of its funding from U.S. government contracts and grants. (5)
In l985, IRC's budget listed support and revenues of $16,490,702 drawn
from the following sources:
U.S. Government Grants--$7,328,000; Other Governments & Intl
Organizations-$1,542,000; Donated Services--$120,779; Private
Contributions-$6,750,685; Private Revenue--$749,238. (10)
The following is a selected list of grants that IRC received from
foundations in 1985: $50,000 from the Public Welfare Foundation, Inc.
for a medical program for displaced refugees in El Salvador; $10,000 from
the AT&T Foundation for operating expenses; $25,000 from the Mobil
Foundation; $10,000 from the John M. Olin Foundation, Inc., for resettling
refugees in the U.S.; two grants totaling $30,000 from the Smith
Richardson Foundation for the Friends of Afghanistan Project; $10,000 from
the Proctor and Gamble Fund; and $50,000 from the Shell Corporation
Foundation. (29) A selected list for 1986: $10,000 from the John M. Olin
Foundation for refugee resettlement in the U.S.; and $45,000 from the
Smith Richardson Foundation. A selected list for 1987: $50,000 from the
Public Welfare Foundation, Inc. for health and sanitation services for
displaced persons in El Salvador; and $25,000 from the International
Foundation for work with Afghan refugees. (30)
In 1987, IRC listed
total support and revenue amounting to $25,763,717 received from the
following sources:
U.S. Government
Grants--$5,294,324; U.S. Government Contracts--$9,831,536; Other
Government and International Organizations--$3,505,829; Private
Contributions--$6,478,501; Private Revenue--$653,527. (12)
In 1987, IRC
received a $1 million grant from the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED), which was appropriated by the U.S. Congress through the Agency for
International Development (AID), to "assist the independent Polish trade
union Solidarity in maintaining a social fund established to provide
medical assistance and related services to workers and their
families."(25)
Activities:
IRC's activities
include child care, medical and educational assistance, job placement,
self-help and training programs, family counseling and help for those
seeking asylum. Its beneficiaries are refugees and the displaced victims
of war. (10) Recently, IRC's major focus has been on the Afghan refugees,
although the domestic resettlement of refugees is the group's largest
program, on a financial basis. (2,6)
Costa Rica: Most of
the organization's Central American operation has been moved to Costa
Rica. IRC was asked by the Costa Rican government to run a Nicaraguan
refugee camp at Achiote. IRC works mainly in the areas of health,
nutrition, and sanitation. In 1986 they began some technical aid and
training programs, including farm projects, animal breeding, and
carpentry. (7)
El Salvador: IRC has been working in El Salvador since 1984 and operates
medical and public health programs in 43 communities of displaced
families. It focuses on the eastern half of La Paz and the eastern and
southern parts of San Vicente. In the country it has a staff of 36, two of
whom are U.S. citizens. The IRC's programs in El Salvador include
preventive health care, emergency relief, maternal and child health
programs, supplementary feeding, environmental sanitation, and
agricultural projects. It trains promoters for its own programs as well as
for PVOs such as Foster Parents Plan, the Catholic Church, UNICEF, and the
Boy Scouts. (6) IRC also works closely with CESAD (Salvadoran Evangelical
Committee for Assistance and Development), an evangelical organization
that believes in integrating spiritual and material gifts in its
development work; World Relief; CONADES (National Commission for Aid to
the Displaced), a government agency involved in war related pacification
programs; and Doctors Without Borders. (It is also a member of CIPHES
(Coordinating Council of Private Human Development Institutions), a PVO
umbrella organization. (6)
IRC receives AID/ES funds for a program to assist returning displaced
families. (6) The group spends approximately $750,000 on its El Salvador
programs. Almost two-thirds of the amount comes from AID. (2)
Honduras: IRC worked in Honduras from 1984 through 1987. It focused its
work in the controversial La Mosquitia area, with an emphasis on
environmental sanitation, education, and emergency relief projects. In
1984, it signed a contract with AID to establish an educational radio
station in La Mosquitia as part of AID's $7.5 million project to aid
Nicaraguan Miskitos living in Honduras. The project was turned over to
AVANCE. IRC's educational work in La Mosquitia was linked to its
management of an emergency supplementary food distribution program for
Honduran families whose children were suffering from malnutrition. (9)
Afghanistan: As stated earlier, Afghan refugees are the current primary
focus of IRC. It conducts its programs in Pakistan for the refugees who
have escaped the violence of the Soviet-Afghan war. It operates seven
mobile medical units, 11 clinics, maternal & child centers, and a hospital
for women not well enough to be treated in the camps. (1)The mobile
medical units consist of one male and one female doctor, three nurses and
a pharmacist, all of whom are Afghan or Pakistani. IRC also trains
refugees to help with the medical campaigns. According to the group, its
medical and child care teams treat close to 40,000 Afghans each month.
(13)
IRC has published 10 books for the National Endowment for Democracy-funded
American Friends of Afghanistan (AFA). The books are for the Afghan Basic
Education Project carried out by AFA. The project intends to educate
children and rebel forces. One of the four goals of the education project
is "To provide literacy programs for the freedom fighters, many of whom
are men who are idle much of the time waiting for military action and who
could spend some of the time learning to read and write."(16)
Refugee
Resettlement: In 1986, the group resettled 6,739 refugees admitted to the
U.S. Almost two-thirds of those refugees were from the Southeast Asian
countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. (13)
Government
Connections:
Leo Cherne has a
long history of intelligence connections. He served as a member of the
President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from 1973-1976, the
chairman from 1976-1979, and most recently, served as the vice-chair on
former President Ronald Reagan's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. (3)
In 1946, Cherne served as a special advisor to General Douglas MacArthur.
In 1954 Cherne sent a cable to a U.S. government official about the
situation in Vietnam, "If free elections were held today all agree
privately communists would win ... Situation not hopeless ... future
depends on organizing all resources to resettle refugees, sustain now
bankrupt government, give something for people to fight for, and unite
them to resist communism ... West can't afford to lose from now on."(3)
During the Reagan Administration, Cherne was involved in private
fundraising efforts coordinated by the National Security Council aimed at
disseminating propaganda supporting U.S. foreign policy. (1)
William Casey
(former IRC president) was one of the members of an IRC commission that
visited Indochinese refugee camps in 1978 and advocated "a virtual
open-door policy" for letting the refugees into the U.S. (17) Under
Reagan, Casey was head of the CIA until his death in 1987. (3)
Angier Biddle Duke
(former IRC president) served as a U.S. Ambassador to Argentina (1949),
Spain (1951, 1965), El Salvador (1952), Denmark (1968), and Morocco
(1979-81). Duke also served in the State Department from 1961-1965. (3)
Cecil Lyon served as a U.S. Ambassador in 11 posts from 1931 to 1967. He
also served with the State Department from 1942 to 1955. (3)
Claiborne Pell served as a U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1946 to
1948 and to Italy in 1949. He served in the State Department from 1945 to
1946 and 1950 to 1952. (3) As of 1987 he was the Chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. (13) He is the Democratic Senator from Rhode
Island. (34)
John Richardson (former IRC president) was the Assistant Secretary of
State for Cultural Affairs from 1969-1977. (3) He served as the head of
the U.S. Information Agency's (USIA) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from
1961-1968. During those years, it was closely linked to the CIA. (19)
Henry Kissinger served in the Counter Intelligence Corps from 1943 to
1946. He was the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
from 1969-1973, and served as Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977. (3) He
headed the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America from
1983-1984. (36) The Commission proposed to set the foreign policy agenda
for Central America. (19)
William Vanden Huevel (former IRC president) was the U.S. Ambassador to
Thailand in 1953. He worked for the State Department from 1977-1979. (3)
Private Connections:
Leo Cherne is the founder and executive director of the Research Institute
of America (RIA). (Casey was a board member of RIA.) According to one
author, the purpose of RIA was to unify the international investment
efforts of thousands of anti-communist lawyers, industrialists,
politicians, and OSS alumni. (3) Cherne also is the honorary chair of
Freedom House, a conservative human rights organization that examines the
"democratic" credentials of countries around the world. It focuses its
criticisms primarily on Marxist governments and has been part of NED's
"democracy-building" network. Recently, Freedom House has written
supportively of El Salvador's "more moderate" ARENA party, long known for
its intimate ties to the country's death squads. (20,21) Cherne is on the
advisory board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS),
a rightwing think tank focusing on national security and "advancing the
global interests" of the U.S. (22)
Angier Biddle Duke was the chair of Friends of the Democratic Center in
Central America (PRODEMCA). (23) PRODEMCA was an anti-Sandinista group
which received grants from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) for
opposition groups inside Nicaragua. PRODEMCA was removed as the NED grant
administrator for the newspaper La Prensa after placing ads in U.S. papers
advocating renewed military support for the contras. PRODEMCA closed down
in late 1988 and merged with Freedom House. (24)
Carl Gershman is a former board member of IRC. He is now the president of
NED, a quasi-governmental organization which promotes "democracy" abroad.
NED was founded in 1983 and almost all of its funds come from Congress
through the U.S. Information Agency and the Agency for International
Development. (19)
John Richardson was
the president of NED from 1984 to 1989. Still on NED's board, he currently
serves as the president of the government-created U.S. Institute of Peace,
and the chair of the USIA-associated Consortium for International Citizen
Exchange. He is the former executive director of the Center for Strategic
and International Studies. (19)
Albert Shanker is
the treasurer of the League for Industrial Democracy (LID) a
neo-conservative social democratic organization associated with labor. LID
became involved with the CIA during the 1950s in an effort to combat
communism. (19, 26) He is on the advisory council of Social Democrats USA
(SD/USA), another neo-conservative group associated with the AFL-CIO. (35)
Shanker was one of the founders of the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD).
(27) Shanker also serves on the boards of a slew of other neoconservative,
anticommunist groups including: Freedom House, the A. Philip Randolph
Institute, Coalition for a Democratic Majority, American Institute for
Free Labor Development, NED, American Federation of Teachers (president),
and the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF). (19) CANF is an
anti-Castro lobby group which has received funding from NED. (19, 2 He
serves on the boards of the following AFL-CIO international affiliates:
Free Trade Union Institute, African American Labor Center, and the Asian
American Free Labor Institute. (19)
Tom Kahn is the executive director of the International Affairs Department
of the AFL-CIO. Kahn is also on the board of SD/USA, and Free Trade Union
Institute and is the chair of LID. (19)
Henry Kissinger is a board member of CSIS and is its counselor in
residence. (37) He was a board member of NED in 1988 and on the board of
directors of the Atlantic Council. (19)
Elie Weisel served on the PRODEMCA national council. He is a well-known
author and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. (13,23)
Edwin J. Wesely, board member of IRC, is President of CARE, perhaps the
largest relief and development organization in the world. CARE is the
major distributor of U.S. government PL480 Title II food (Food for Peace)
worldwide. (38,39)
Misc:
The IRC's 1962 annual report states: "When Vietnam was divided in 1954,
880,000 refugees voted with their feet by migrating to free South Vietnam.
IRC established a large scale program that helped to resettle these
refugees."(3) A review of the refugees' backgrounds shows that they were
overwhelmingly Catholic and had fought with the colonial French against
the Viet Minh. South Vietnam's Ngo Dinh Diem was Catholic as well. After
entering South Vietnam, the refugees became a privileged minority. (15)
The IRC was heavily involved in supporting the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in
Vietnam. In fact, the executive committee for the pro-Diem lobby, the
American Friends of Vietnam, was virtually identical to that of the IRC.
The strongest supporter of Diem in the group was former IRC official
Joseph Buttinger. Buttinger praised Diem as the democratic alternative in
Southeast Asia. After a two-week visit with Diem by Leo Cherne (at the
time he was the president of IRC), Buttinger was sent to set up IRC
operations in the country. While there, Buttinger was introduced to the
head of CIA operations in Vietnam, General Edward Lansdale. According to
one author, "Lansdale took Buttinger under his wing and introduced him to
the top security people in Diem's government and the Vietnamese Army."(15)
At a 1957 dinner sponsored by the IRC and American Friends of Vietnam,
Diem was presented the Admiral Richard E. Byrd Award for "inspired
leadership in the cause of the free world." Many of the speeches Diem gave
in the U.S. were written by Buttinger. Finally, writing in 1965, author
Robert Scheer stated that the IRC "helped to shape the Cold War as we live
it today."(15)
According to an article in the April 18, 1981 edition of The Nation, the
Smith Richardson Foundation not only has CIA agents reviewing grants, but
also provides management training to the CIA and the Department of Defense
through an affiliate organization. (31)
A 1984 press conference cosponsored by Angier Biddle Duke featured contra
leader Arturo Cruz. Acknowledging that rightwing oligarchs were a threat
to democracy in Central America, Duke, speaking for PRODEMCA, stated that
"even more dangerous [is] the threat from the local totalitarian left in
Central America which, with Soviet and Cuban support, is now tightening
its hold on Nicaragua, carrying out guerrilla and terrorist attacks in
other countries of the region, and building unprecedented military
forces."(32)
Reportedly, IRC has the power to affect Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) and governmental decisions about who should be classified a
bonafide refugee. (3)
Comments:
U.S. Address: 386 Park Avenue South, New York, New York, 10016.
Principals:
Leo Cherne, chair; Ralph M. Baruch, vice chair; James T. Sherwin, chair,
Exec Committee; Richard M. Hammer, chair Finance Committee/tres; Mrs.
Donald M. Blinken, vice pres; Cecil B. Lyon, vice pres; Lionel Olmer, vice
pres; Thomas L. Rhodes, vice pres; Mrs. Lawrence Copely Thaw, vice pres;
Liv Ullman, vice pres-intl; Elie Wiesel, vice pres-intl; Anne Whitehead
Crawford, gen counsel; Peter W. Weiss, asst tres; Charles Sternberg, sec;
Robert P. DeVecchi, exec dir; Alton Kastner, dep dir; H. Roy Williams, dep
dir-operations. Board of Directors: Garret G. Ackerson, Jr. , Rose Becker,
J. Jeffery Campbell, Angier Biddle Duke, Anthony D. Duke, H. William
Fittleson, Mrs. Andrew Goodman, Herbert G. Graetz, Morton I. Hamburg,
Richard C. Holbrooke, George F. Hritz, Tom Kahn, Henry A. Kissinger,
Ronald S. Lauder, Margery Levenstein, Jay Mazur, Robin McMillin, Warren C.
Meeker, Allen Moore, Peter A. Nathan, M. D. , Catherine O'Neill, Claiborne
Pell, Ralph A. Pfeiffer, Jr. , Dith Pran, John Richardson, John P. Roche,
Felix Rohatyn, Oren Root, Donald Rumsfeld, Isadore M. Scott, Albert
Shanker, Jacob Sheinkman, Adam M. Shub, Delores C. Smithies, Stephen J.
Solarz, Nancy Starr, H. Peter Stern, James C. Strickler, M. D. , Charles
J. Tanenbaum, Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, Georgia Gosnell Travers, William J.
Vanden Heuvel, Daniel Weiner, M. D. , Edwin J. Wesely, Louis A. Wiesner,
John Ellis K. Wisner. (2)
Former members include the late William Casey, Carl Gershman, James
Michener, and Clare Booth Luce. (3,11)
Sources:
1. International Rescue Committee, flyer on Afganistan, no date.
2. Letter from Robert P. DeVecchi, exec dir IRC, Dec 6, 1988. 3. Dorienne
Truskoff Miner,"The Covert Use of Refugees," Aug 25, 1987.
4. International Rescue Committee, Fact Sheet, July 1987.
5. International Rescue Committee, Annual Financial Report, Dec 31, 1987.
6. Private Organizations with U.S. Connections in El Salvador
(Albuquerque, NM: The Resource Center, July 1988).
7. Letter to Dorienne Miner from Robert P. DeVecchi, Indochina Program
Director, March 22, 1983.
8. Interview with Robyn Ziebert, IRC, Sep 14, 1987.
9. Private Organizations With U.S. Connections in Honduras (Albuquerque,
NM: The Resource Center, July 1988).
l0. Bureau for Food for Peace and Voluntary Assistance, Report of American
Voluntary Agencies Engaged in Overseas Relief and Development Registered
with the Agency for International Development, Voluntary Foreign Aid
Programs, l985 (Washington DC : Agency for International Development,
l986).
11. International Rescue Committee, Annual Report, 1985.
12. Bureau for Food for Peace and Voluntary Assistance, Report of American
Voluntary Agencies Engaged in Overseas Relief and Development Registered
with the Agency for International Development, Voluntary Foreign Aid
Programs, 1986-1987 (Washington DC : Agency for International Development,
1988).
13. International Rescue Committee, Annual Report, 1986.
14. InterAction, InterAction Member Profiles (New York, NY: InterAction,
May 1987).
15. Robert Scheer and Warren Hinckle,"The `Vietnam Lobby'," Ramparts, July
1965.
16. Letter from American Friends of Afghanistan to the National Endowment
for Democracy, Jan 30, 1986.
17. George McArthur, "Open Door Urged on Indochina Refugees," Los Angeles
Times, Feb 19, 1978.
18. Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra
Affair, Appendix B: Volume 12 (Washington, DC : U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1988).
19. The Resource Center, "The Democracy Offensive," Fall 1989.
20. Freedom Monitor, Vol 5, #4, Aug 1988.
21. Freedom at Issue, Jan/Feb 1989.
22. Alison Muscatine, "Georgetown's Media Profs," Washington Post, May 11,
1986.
23. PRODEMCA Summary of Activities, 1986.
24. Phone conversation with PRODEMCA employee, Jan 26, 1989.
25. National Endowment for Democracy, Annual Report, 1987.
26. Ellen Ray, William Schaap, Karl Van Meter, and Louis Wolf, Dirty Work:
The CIA in Africa (Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, Inc. , 1979).
27. Jerry Sanders, Peddlers of Crisis: The Committee on the Present Danger
(Boston, MA: South End Press, 1983).
28. John Spicer Nichols, "The Power of the Anti-Fidel Lobby," The Nation,
Oct 24, 1988.
29. Foundation Grants Index, 16th edition, 1987.
30. Foundation Grants Index, 17th edition, 1988.
31."Culture War," The Nation, Apr 18, 1981.
32. Tom Barry and Debra Preusch, The Soft War (New York, NY: Grove Press,
1988).
33. Judy Carnoy and Louise Levison, "The Humanitarians," The Trojan Horse,
A Radical Look at Foreign Aid, Steve Weissman (ed) (San Francisco, CA:
Ramparts Press, 1974).
34. Listing of U.S. Senators, distributed by Rodale Institute, 1989.
35. Michael Massing, "Trotsky's Orphans: From Bolshevism to Reaganism,"
The New Republic, June 22, 1987.
36. Who's Who in America, 1989-1990.
37. CSIS, 1987-1988 Programs and Activities, 1987.
38. CARE, Annual Report, 1988.
39. Rachel Garst and Tom Barry, Feeding the Crisis: Food Aid and Farm
Policy in Central America, forthcoming in 1990 from the University of
Nebraska Press.
The underlying cites for this profile are now kept at Political Research
Associates, (617) 666-5300. www.publiceye.org.
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