We once again hear problems with governmental agency overly using their power and taking away rights of citizens unjustly. With these problems comes societies weary eye over the government, should society trust them or fear them. With internal problems also come international problems. Oil runs the world and the United States cant have small oil producing countries have to much power over them. However if these countries wanted they could slow the world down and create huge problems. This is what happened in the nineteen seventies, when a few of the OPEC countries decided that they wanted more money.
This caused many problems in the United States and other countries; here in the US the auto industry had to change their thinking on car and engine size. With the CIA committing illegal acts against the public and OPEC raising the price for oil, the United States had many problems to face at this time. The government caused these to happen, they allowed the CIA to go on unchecked in their performance and activities. If the US had from the beginning given the OPEC nations the right of money they deserved the price of oil might not have shot up so severely. The US could have prevented this situation if they had done this.
The Rockefeller Papers were simply a report headed by Nelson A. Rockefeller to be done on the activities of the CIA. The president had ordered a special commission to review the CIA, at the time no one had any idea how unchecked the CIA had gone on with their administration. When the report was finished the media and the public were shocked at the numerous occasions when the CIA ignored the peoples civil rights. This report brought about charges to the CIA with crimes of Plainly Unlawful acts. The report charges the CIA with using humans as guinea pigs for LSD along with numerous other crimes (Democrat and Chronicle).
An example of this testing is when a civilian of the department of the Army was given LSD in a meeting with out his knowledge. He was told about the LSD 20 minutes later when he started having severe side affects. He goes on to New York for psychiatric help where he jumps from a 10-story building to his death (Washington Post). When the public herd about these accusations they became more suspicious of the government; the public still had vivid memories of Water Gate and the hatred or dislike for Nixon and his administration.
The people were tired of the government and their continuous lies over small guerrilla warfare with South East Asia. This Report was fundamental in the some of the final large operations of the CIA. The exact crimes of the CIA are numerous; many of them have to do with the gathering of information of US citizens and using it to violate peoples civil rights. The alleged crimes were that the CIA did not have department lawyers stressed that successful prosecution would depend on proving that the defendant was acting without proper authorization from high government officials.
Democrat and Chronicle, Report Charges CIA with Plainly Unlawful acts) The Rockefeller commission also gathered information on alleged assassination plots against foreign leaders, which could not be fully disclosed to the public, the commission needed more time to fully investigate. One positive piece of information in the report said it could find no credible evidence of CIA involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (Democrat and Chronicle) One particular top-secret project called Operation Chaos that involved spying on American dissident groups in response to White House pressures-were clearly improper.
The commission however backs the CIA record and stated that no fundamental changes were needed in the spy agencys basic legislative charter. Ironically the commission suggested to President Ford that the CIA be given more authority over national issues. One example of this is to allow the CIA to gather information on persons suspected of espionage or other illegal activities relating to foreign intelligence, provided that proper coordination with the FBI is accomplished.
Washington Post) Overall though the Rockefeller commission made 30 recommendations for change in internal controls and guidelines and adoption of CIAs long sought version of an official secrets act. When oil prices started to rise, the public was severely hurt by this. Leader of the OPEC countries (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) saw that they could get more money for their oil. He saw how the US and other nations were simply giving them the smallest amount of money for their oil. With this he raised the price of a barrel of oil quite drastically.
This forced the US and other nations to raise gas prices severely. Venezuelan Oil Minister Valentin Hernandez Acosta says that the reason for the price hike was to compensate for world-wide inflation. However there was no evidence that inflation has eroded oil revenues to the extent that some producers then wished to raise prices that had already quadrupled since 1973. President Fords response to the decision of OPECs decision to put off the price raise till fall was that any price increase should be limited to seven or eight percent and possibly the price should be reduced.
Democrat and Chronicle) In nineteen seventy four a price freeze on oil was enacted; some producers in the three day meeting in a West African capital have complained that they had a loss of thirty five percent of their purchasing power since the price freeze (Democrat and Chronicle). Some extreme members of OPEC like Iraq and Algeria have urged price increase to recover the whole of the claimed loss; this is unlike more moderate governments that were ready for a less increase to an almost lesser amount. The US hopes that the decision on the price increase is within limits.
These two events were very important in the United States; they had a large Impact on how companies ran their businesses and the power of government funded agencies. With these problems came societies unrest and a hate for the government. Society reacts quite severely when their civil rights are infringed upon or if they lose easy and unrestricted access to large automobiles. The American public has always had a love for large engines, gas-guzzling cars. When the price of oil shot up, the public was forced to economize and settle for more cost efficient cars.
Each one of these events shows society that they are losing their once closed country to problems outside and inside their home. The public did not like this situation where their civil rights were being broken and they were having to pay outrageous prices for gasoline. This did not have a positive affect on the public. This look at nineteen seventy-five brings together a lot of what we have discussed in class. We look at how the oil price has never been as low as before the price raise of the seventies and also how the CIA hasnt been in the media as much as that time.
If the US had never given the CIA so much power, if the US had provided some type of check and balance for the CIA we would have had less problems regarding their activities. The government has usually tried to provide the public with as much freedom as they could. They have just given too much power to their agencies. The public has continuously been losing their pride in the government of the United States; they will probably never have the same look at the US government as they once did.