Jimmy Carter OK'd CIA's use of unwitting Americans to funnel books to Soviets

By Constance Bell · August 17, 2026

Kept Secret for decades, a July 1979 memorandum shows how US academics were manipulated into aiding a covert operation to funnel publications into the Soviet Bloc without their knowledge.

American academics were used as unwitting conduits for a covert intelligence operation, their personal relationships leveraged as delivery systems for Langley. They believed they were mailing books to friends in the Eastern Bloc, unaware they were providing the necessary camouflage for a CIA proprietary to infiltrate the Soviet sphere.

In the world of tradecraft, the most effective cover is the one the asset doesn't know they are providing. This particular operation, as detailed in a July 3, 1979, memorandum from the Chairman of the Intelligence Oversight Board (Farmer) to President Jimmy Carter, utilized a "covert system for distributing publications to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe." The beauty of the system—from a cold, operational standpoint—was its simplicity. The CIA set up a proprietary organization operating under commercial cover. This entity provided requested publications to United States persons, including academics, at no cost. These individuals then mailed or personally delivered the materials to "friends and acquaintances in the target countries."

"A Question of Propriety"

The Americans involved in this chain thought they were engaging in a simple act of intellectual generosity or kinship. They were not informed that the organization supplying the books was actually a CIA front. By using real people with real connections to the East, the agency bypassed the suspicion that usually greets official diplomatic pouches or known intelligence shipments. The publications traveled as personal gifts, carrying a legitimacy that no amount of official laundering could replicate.

However, this efficiency created a friction point within the government's own oversight mechanisms. The memorandum, marked with "(S)" for Secret, describes a "question of propriety" regarding this unwitting involvement. The Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) found itself uneasy with the fact that U.S. citizens were being used as instruments of covert action without their consent.

What is more telling is that this deception was not just hidden from the academics, but was initially hidden from the very people tasked with overseeing the operation. The record states that neither the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) nor the members of the Special Coordination Committee (SCC) knew of the unwitting use of U.S. persons when the action was reviewed and approved in June 1978. It was only after the IOB requested the information that the DCI and the SCC Chairman were brought into the loop.

July 13, 1979

The IOB argued that this was a material fact. Under section 1–302 of Executive Order 12036, the SCC was required to submit recommendations on covert actions to the President. The Board believed that the use of unwitting citizens was a detail "directly relevant" to that review and should have been disclosed when the proposal was first presented in 1978. They recommended that the matter be referred back to the SCC for "full consideration."

In the clandestine service, we often see this tension between the legalists and the operators. The legalists worry about the "propriety" of the method; the operators worry about the success of the mission. In this case, the operators won.

When the memorandum reached President Carter, his response was brief and directed. He wrote at the top of the page, "Zbig — Refer to SCC. J." He passed the problem to his National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and the committee tasked with the grit of covert management.

Zbig and the SCC

The SCC did not take long to deliberate. According to a covering memorandum from Brzezinski to Carter dated July 16, the matter was presented to the committee on July 13, 1979. The result was not a debate or a request for modification. The committee's view was "unanimous."

They concluded that "no change should be made in the manner in which this program is conducted." The utility of the unwitting academics—the ability to penetrate the Soviet Bloc using the genuine social networks of American intellectuals—outweighed the IOB's concerns about propriety. The agency had found a way to make the American academic class work for the national interest, and they did so by ensuring the academics remained in the dark.

President Carter did not question the unanimity of the SCC. He did not ask for a justification of why the deception was necessary or how many Americans had been used in this fashion. He simply wrote "OK. J" beneath the paragraph.