A Question for Consenting Adults
Baldwin, Fred D.
Fred D. Baldwin A Question for Consenting Adults Is tatlking to a CIA agent worse than having a homosexual affair with him? In 1958 Stringfellow Barr wrote a satirical novel, o , _9 u r e l J A c...
...1 asked two acquaintances...
...Thatcher was deeply convinced that Workington presaged the mandate she will ultimately receive from the country as a whole for her brand of Tory radicalism...
...After a four-hour closed meeting, they concluded that Selzer's actions were grounds for dismissal although they recommended a milder punishment, such as temporary suspension...
...If his colleagues regard his conduct as reprehensible, they are perfectly entitled to criticize or shun him as individuals, but unless they can demonstrate that an ethical violation was committed, they have no basis for recommending that he be suspended for failing to inform them of his conversations...
...But it applies as well t ~ college faculties...
...Powell has become so extravagant in his criticisms that the accusations of disappointed self-seeking which have been made against him now carry conviction...
...the triumphs many...
...The Platonic vision of an ideal state was one whose guardians would be men specially trained in the arts and theory of political science, a description which fits Selzer's critics...
...Finally, it might be maintained that members of certain institut i o n s - e . g . , universities and the press--should be so far above suspicion of "clandestine" associations that the circumstances under which they may have off-duty talks with intelligence agencies should be determined for them...
...What makes the Brooklyn College episode tragic instead of comic is that it suggests that providing information to one's own government, in a perfectly legal context, is perceived as unethical...
...Second, if one wants clear thinking on how to restore sensitivity to individual rights, the last place to go should be the political science departments at American universities...
...Thatcher...
...Some of these wounds are arguably self-inflicted because of the agencies' insensitivity to American citizens' rights to privacy...
...In 1958 Stringfellow Barr wrote a satirical novel, o , _9 u r e l J A c a d e ~ , t i c , whose hero was an otherwise undistinguished history professor erroneously believed by his colleagues to be giving some kind of information to the Central Intelligence Agency...
...His best move would be to pretend to having had a homosexual affair with the CIA agent after that meeting in the Manhattan-bar...
...The agent asked Seizer to report any information he might come across while traveling abroad that he thought interesting...
...The meeting took place in a Manhattan bar...
...The committee also cited a recent resolution by the American Political Science Association that urged noncooperation in intelligence activities "unless the sponsorship is fiJlly disclosed" to colleagues, students, and the individuals affected...
...Would she not, like Mr...
...The question being asked, publicly and privately, within and without the Tory party, is whether, confronted with all the manifold problems of government, she could get away with it...
...To these tactical questions others are adaed...
...That ,q government agency may be incompetent or misuse information given it, even if true, is hardly a serious argument...
...That is probably true, not because the two points have the slightest logical connection, but because the existence of a "clandestine relationship" of a sexual kind would have forced Selzer's critics to make sharper distinctions about the rights of a group to protect its image and the right of an individual to keep certain matters private...
...The result would almost certainly have improved Selzer's chances to escape censure because college faculties are more tolerant of the exercise of freedom in sexual than in political matters...
...It is hard to see how that is anything other than his own business...
...At the party's Brighton conference last year Mr...
...Powell's point--would she want to get away with it...
...Will she soon have her chance ? At least one thing in British politics is now clear: Mrs...
...Both replied that if he had only had the affair, there would be no grounds for censure...
...Edward Heath confronted her...
...Enoch Powell denounced her with increased stridency, and even more vigorously than he had done her predecessor...
...Rules could be devised to treat professors and journalists in the same way that the law treats minors and the mentally retarded--i.e., as legally and morally incompetent to make certain decisions for themselves...
...According to Seizer, whose version of events was not publicly disputed prior to his department's decision, he contacted the CIA in hopes of securing information on his academic specialty, the psychology of political extremists...
...Patrick Cosgrave Mrs...
...His subsequent criticisms of the new leadership have been scorned...
...Indeed--and this is Mr...
...On January 12, 1977, members of the political science faculty of Brooklyn College concluded that their colleague, Professor Michael Seizer, had violated standards of academic integrity by agreeing to talk to a membe~ of the CIA upon his return from a trip to Israel...
...There was quite a shock throughout still collectivist Britain when at the end of 1976 a new set of Shadow Cabinet appointments moved up the men of the right, and moved out the men of the left...
...The number voting was as high as during general elections-something unprecedented in British by-elections...
...His request was denied, but several months later a CIA agent asked him for a meeting...
...Whether or not the president's statement was intended to be as sweeping as it sounded, it and the department's resolution cenFred D. Ba/dwoa is a man of letter.r from Cortland, New York...
...Although it is fascinating reading, it is less a cloak-and-dagger thriller than a serious study of intelligence policies...
...From the right--though he was formally outside the party--Mr...
...Asked to assume that he had both had the affair and provided information, both individuals felt the existence of the affair would make the case "harder to decide...
...Is a professor of psychology obliged to report his sexual preferences (or his "clandestine relationships") or a professor of economics to disclose his personal investments ? Selzer's case involves only the right of an individual to talk to a representative of his own government, on his own time and with no money involved...
...And, in a series of speeches at home and abroad, Mrs...
...Moreover, Mrs...
...Heath finally bent the knee, albeit grudgingly...
...Thatcher had so freely and definitely expressed seemed to have sanction from a most remarkable by-election result in a predominantly Labour constituency--that of Workington...
...That history makes clear that for a nation wishing to understand how foreign leaders, businessmen, and intellectuals think about things, there is no substitute for talking to them and to people who talk with them regularly...
...suring Selzer may be taken as representative of current academic opinion on clandestine relationships, at least with intelligence agencies...
...There was a huge switch of Labour voters to Tory--again something virtually unknown in Britain, where very small numbers of voters change from one party to another, and where discontent with sitting governments is normally expressed at by-elections by abstention...
...Seizer was not asked to try to find out anything in particular, nor was any money involved...
...It ia easier to pronounce pieties than to draw up equitable guidelines on such matters: One of my professors in graduate school, a distinguished medieval historian, was generally believed to share with the CIA his extensive knowledge of the geography and institutions of France...
...Heath: the gravamen against him was not that he had done wrong, or betrayed his election pledges, or caused a gigantic inflation--all of which she asserted--but that he had lost three out of four elections fought as Leader...
...And she herself often seemed to feel that she had been chosen less for herself than because the party wanted to get rid of Mr...
...This particular kind of intelligence, which is as necessary for peace missions as for war, cannot be gleaned by spy satellites or monitoring radio broadcasts...
...The Brooklyn College committee cited a 1976 resolution of the American Association of University Professors that contact with intelligence agencies '~has risked undermining the credibility of published research and risked compromising the position of academics...
...So far he appears to have made a tactical mistake in sticking to the issues and appealing to reason...
...he question never arose whether his supposed activities were right or wrong, but his academic fbrtunes took an abrupt turn for the better because he was surmised to have prestigious contacts and perhaps even access to grant money...
...of course a very different matter from running a country, especially a country in such serious straits as Britain is at present...
...Things are no easier if the test is presumed to be the relationship of private activities to a scholar's own field...
...From the left of the party the discontent and bitterness of Mr...
...He was in Jerusalem when his departmental colleagues voted to censure him...
...He would almost certainly thus stand a better chance of being exonerated by his colleagues...
...Anyone wishing to think seriously about the desirability and difficulty of getting accurate foreign intelligence would be well advised to read Anthony Cave's Bodyguard of Lies (Harper and Row, 1976), a history of British intelligence and deception activities before and during World War II...
...Certainly, Mrs...
...The question has become a cliche in discussing the CIA...
...It was not always possible to predict such a consummation with certainty...
...Nor can it be collected through the open literature, for businessmen and civil servants normally write few articles, and m many The Alternative: An American Spectator April 1977 17 countries academics and writers cannot publish their opinions freely...
...Thatcher's Next Move Margaret Thatcher thinks she can save Britain...
...Tempting as this line of reasoning may be, the AAUP would probably agree that it goes slightly too far...
...First, it is a measure of how grave are the wounds suffered by our intelligence agencies in recent years...
...Thatcher has established her own individual and dominating personality...
...A great many people within and 18 The Ahernative: An American Spectator April 1977...
...Selzer also said that he later asked an unidentified Brooklyn College official about the propriety of cooperating with the CtA and was told that the institution had no policy one way or the other...
...John W. Kneller, Brooklyn College president, later said that a decision to enter into "an open relationship" with an intelligence agency should be left to an individual but that he felt that "there is no place in the academic community for clandestine relationships of any kind...
...My suggestion is not pure fantasy...
...Those who think such generalizations apply to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare do not usually censure their colleagues for consulting with ttEW, even for pay...
...But the views that Mrs...
...Running--even completely dominating--a party in opposition is Patmck Cosgrave, political columnist for the London Spectator, is wr#ing a biography of Mrs...
...Heath, bend principle to convenience for the sake of holding onto office...
...Margaret Thatcher is completely in control of the Conservative party...
...But who will guard against the guardians...
...The fac~s in this particular instance, as reported by the New York Times and the Associated Press, are as follows...
...Thatcher's commitment to a radical policy-Friedmanite in economics, libertarian on other matters--has become more rather than less emphatic as time has gone by...
...No one supposed that his silence about whether or not these contacts indeed took place affected his lectures on the laws of vassalage...
...For most of the first year of her leadership, her .authority seemed tenuous...
...The case prompts two observations...
...But, within the party at least, things have become very much brighter...
...Professor Seizer has said that he will fight any attempt to discipline him, and the university has said that he will have all the benefits of due process...
...The classical comment on Plato's Republic was, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes...
...both political liberals with Ph.D.'s to suppose that Seizer had had an affair with the CIA agent...
...The hiccups have been few...
...Some things have changed in academia and some have not...
Vol. 10 • April 1977 • No. 7
