John D. Marks (born 1943)[1] is the founder and former president of Search for Common Ground (SFCG), a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on international conflict management programming.[2] Marks now acts as a senior adviser to SFCG. He is also a former foreign service officer of the U.S. Department of State, and he co-authored the 1974 book The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence with Victor Marchetti.

Biography

Marks is a graduate of Phillips Academy and Cornell University. He worked for five years with the State Department, first in Vietnam and then as an analyst and staff assistant to the director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. After leaving the State Department, he became an executive assistant for foreign policy to US Senator Clifford Case (R-NJ), responsible within the senator's office for passage of the Case–Church Amendment, which eventually cut off funding for the Vietnam War.[3]

The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence

External audio
audio icon John D. Marks delivers remarks at the 1977 Libertarian Party National Convention (July 12–17, 1977), at the Sheraton-Palace Hotel in San Francisco

In 1973, Marks and Victor Marchetti completed writing The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence. CIA officials read the manuscript and told the authors that they had to remove 339 passages, nearly a fifth of the book. After long negotiations, the CIA yielded on 171 items, leaving 168 censored passages. The publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, decided to go ahead and publish the book with blanks for those passages, and with the sections that the CIA had originally cut then restored printed in boldface.

The publication of the book, which became a bestseller, raised concerns about the way the CIA was censoring information. It contributed to investigative reports by Seymour Hersh in The New York Times and the decision by Frank Church to establish the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, in 1975. The report, Foreign and Military Intelligence, was published in 1976.

Documents obtained from the CIA by Marks under Freedom of Information in 1976 showed that, in 1953, the agency considered purchasing ten kilograms of LSD, enough for 100 million doses. The proposed purchase aimed to stop other countries from controlling the supply. The documents showed that the CIA did obtain some quantity of the substance from Sandoz Laboratories, in Switzerland.[4]

Marks delivered a speech on the book at Turning Point 1977, the 1977 Libertarian Party National Convention held July 12–17, at the Sheraton-Palace Hotel, in San Francisco.[5]

The Search for the Manchurian Candidate

Marks' 1979 book, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate, describes a wide range of CIA activities during the Cold War, including unethical drug experiments as part of a mind-control and chemical interrogation research program known as Project MKUltra.[6] The book is based on 16,000 pages of CIA documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and many interviews, including those with retired members of the psychological division of the CIA, and the book describes some of the work of psychologists in this effort, with a whole chapter on the Personality Assessment System.

Marks later became a fellow of Harvard's Institute of Politics and a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School. In 1982, he founded the nonprofit conflict resolution organization Nuclear Network in Washington, D.C., which was soon renamed Search for Common Ground.[7] He served as its president until 2014.[8] He also founded and headed Common Ground Productions.[9] He wrote and produced The Shape of the Future,[10] a four-part TV documentary series that was simulcast on Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab satellite TV, and he is executive producer of the television and radio show The Team,[11] among others.[12]

Honors and accolades

John Marks is the recipient of numerous awards. These include:

  • Honorary doctorate from the UN University of Peace (2010, with his wife, Susan Collin Marks)
  • Marvin E. Johnson Diversity and Equity Award, from the Association for Conflict Resolution (2010, with Susan Collin Marks)[13][14]
  • Senior Ashoka Fellow (2009)
  • Social Entrepreneurship Award, from the Skoll Foundation (2006, with Susan Collin Marks)
  • Temple Awards for Creative Altruism, from the Institute of Noetic Sciences (2005, with Susan Collin Marks)[15]
  • Cultures of Peace Award, from Psychologists for Social Responsibility (2002)[16]
  • Wild School Award, from Upland Hills School (2001, with Susan Collin Marks)[17]

Works

Books

  • The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, with Victor Marchetti. New York: Alfred A. Knopf (1974). Full text.
  • The CIA File, edited with Robert Borosage. New York: Grossman Publishers (1976). ISBN 067022247X.[18]
"Proceedings and papers presented at a conference, The CIA and Covert Action, held in Washington, Sept. 1974, sponsored by the Center for National Security Studies."

Articles

References

  1. ↑ The CIA and the cult of intelligence. 1975.
  2. ↑ International Conflict Transformation, Resolution, Peacebuilding | Search for Common Ground (SFCG)
  3. ↑ "Mr. John D. Marks – Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress". Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
  4. ↑ "CIA considered big LSD purchase". The New York Times. August 5, 1976. Retrieved May 25, 2022.
  5. ↑ John D. Marks delivers a speech at the 1977 Libertarian Party National Convention (July 12–17, 1977), at the Sheraton-Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California.
  6. ↑ The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate": The CIA and Mind Control: The Secret History of the Behavioral Sciences: John D. Marks: 9780393307948: Amazon.com: Books
  7. ↑ Letter from the President | About SFCG | Search for Common Ground
  8. ↑
    "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 25, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ↑ Common Ground Productions | Programmes | Search for Common Ground
  10. ↑ The Shape of the Future | Common Ground Productions | Programmes | Search for Common Ground
  11. ↑ The Team | Common Ground Productions | Programmes | Search for Common Ground
  12. ↑ Soccer plays a critical role in African society – ESPN Soccernet Archived February 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ ACR | Marvin E. Johnson Diversity and Equity Award
  14. ↑ Association for Conflict Resolution
  15. ↑ Temple Award Winners | About | Institute of Noetic Sciences Archived November 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  16. ↑ PsySR: Psychologists for Social Responsibility
  17. ↑ Upland Hills School – A Michigan Independent School – Wild School Awards
  18. ↑ Smith, Gaddis. "Recent Books on International Relations." Review of The CIA File. Edited by Robert L. Borosage and John D. Marks. Foreign Affairs, vol. 54, no. 4 (Jul. 1976), pp. 834-835. doi:10.2307/20039618. JSTOR 20039618. Archived from the original.
    "Collected papers from a 1974 conference by some of the best-known writers on the subject of intelligence gathering and covert action: Marchetti, Wise, Ross, Halperin, Scoville, and others—with a response by William Colby. A useful compendium of what is known or suspected about the CIA."
  19. ↑ Pierre, Andrew J. "Recent Books on International Relations." Review of Common Ground on Terrorism: Soviet-American Cooperation Against the Politics of Terror, edited by John D. Marks and Igor Beliaev. Foreign Affairs, vol. 70, no. 4 (1991), pp. 167–168. JSTOR 20044952. Archived from the original.
    "Much has been written about international terrorism, but this pioneer work suggests ways in which the United States and the Soviet Union can cooperate. The nongovernmental task force that guided this study included former senior officials from both sides, which doubtless contributed to the useful specificity of the analysis and proposals."
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