132 



Work on structuring the research design began ; that part which was 

 completed apparently was acceptable to the Department of State 

 as not being detrimental to U.S. foreign policy. In December of 1964, 

 a document describing Camelot was mailed to a select list of social 

 science scholars around the world to solicit their participation in the 

 project. The document clearly identified DOD as a sponsor. ^^ It con- 

 tained a preliminary list of countries which v^ould be studied ; Chile 

 was not listed.^- 



Prof. Hugo Nutini, a Chilean by birth and a naturalized American 

 who taught sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, was engaged by 

 SORO to survey the suitability of Chile as a possible case study, and 

 to enlist the participation of Chilean social scientists. On his second 

 trip to Chile, in April 1965, Nutini called upon Eaul Urzua, a sociolo- 

 gist with the Chilean Catholic University, who had worked with 

 Nutini at UCLxAl.^^ According to the report of Ercilla, a Chilean news 

 magazine, Nutini erased from the working papers he brought with 

 him all references to DOD sponsorship and represented the project 

 as being funded by the National Science Foundation. He was also 

 reported to have made excessive claims as to the extent of participation 

 in the project by U.S. leaders of the academic social science com- 

 munity." He subsequently wrote to Alvaro Bunster, Secretary General 

 of the University of Chile, repeating these assertions. Bunster ex- 

 pressed doubt regarding the objectivity and sponsorship of the project 

 to Ricardo Logos Escobar, of the School of Law, who told Bunster he 

 had received a copy of a memorandum about the project from Johan 

 Galtung, a distinguished Scandinavian sociologist teacliing at 

 UNESCO's Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences. Galtung had 

 received the memorandum from Rex Hopper, who asked him to partic- 

 ipate in the project and to attend an advisory meeting to be held at 

 The American LTniversity in the summer of 1965.^^ 



George Lowe, who has studied the Camelot episode, said that Bunster 

 became convinced that the project was "political in nature," and 

 "constituted a grave threat against our sovereignty." Meeting with 

 Nutini, the Chileans showed him the memorandum from Hopper; 

 Nutini denied knowing anything about the military connections of 

 the project.^® The Chileans then wrote a note of protest to the Latin 

 American Review of Sociology. 



Chilean leftists promptly seized the issue and denounced the "Pen- 

 tagon plot" against constitutional governments in Latin America.''' 

 It was then announced that a select committee of the Chilean Chamber 



"The document stated: "The U.S. Army has an important mission in the positive and 

 constructive aspects of nation-building- in less developed countries as well as a respon- 

 sibility to assist friendly governments in dealing with active insurgency problems." (Ibid., 

 p. 4.) 



^ Countries selected were : Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, 

 Brazil, Korea, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican 

 Kepublic, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Greece, and Nigeria. (Ibid., p. 4.) 



" Silvert, op. cit., p. 5. 



" He was reported to have said, without foundation, that Seymour Lipset and Robt^rt K. 

 Merton (two outstanding U.S. social scientists) were project members. (Silvert, op. cit.. 

 p. o. citing El Mercurio. Santiago de Chile. July 2. 1965, p. 2.3.) 



JB Irving Louis Horowitz. "The Rise and Fall of Project Camelot." In Irving Louis Horo- 

 witz, ed. "The Rise and Fall of Project Camelot : Studies In the Relationship Between 

 Social Science and Practical Politics." (Cambridge, the MIT Press, 1967), p. 12. 



10 Lowe, op. cit., p. 45. 



" Henry Raymont. "United States Is Due To Drop Study of Latin Insurgency." New York 

 Times (July 8, 1965). 



