Wippl in BU Today on Russia, the U.S. and Election Meddling

Joseph Wippl, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was recently interviewed on the potential impact of Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election. He also discussed the Wippl1history of nations meddling in foreign elections. 

Wippl, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer who spent a 30 year career as an operations officer in the National Clandestine Service (NCS), was interviewed for a May 3, 2017 article in BU Today entitled “Election Meddling, by Russia and by US, Is an Old Game.

From the text of the article, on whether or not he thinks there is a smoking gun proving whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials:

Almost certainly not. There’s no smoking gun. Collusion is pretty subjective. If the Russians handed Trump a bag of money and said, “Here’s something for your campaign,” that would be what I would consider collusion. I’m very skeptical that there was anything beyond words of support.

On whether there is a precedent for potential Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election:

The first covert action that the CIA engaged in was to support the Christian Democrats in the Italian elections of 1948. The National Security Act of 1947 says something to the effect that the CIA will engage in such other activities as the president and the National Security Council shall direct. When President Truman was informed that the Soviet Union was supporting the Communist Party of Italy, he basically told his director of central intelligence, Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter, ”I want you to do something,” and $10 million was given to the Christian Democrats, who then came to dominate Italian politics for the next four years.

We gave support to the non-communist left in Europe after the war—magazines, labor unions, radio, media placements.

On whether Russia has ever attempted to interfere with U.S. elections in the past:

No, but they did what they could about not getting Ronald Reagan reelected to a second term [by reaching out to other candidates and claiming Reagan was warmongering]. It didn’t get very far.

I think the difference last year was to use an instrument like WikiLeaks. I think the end result of an investigation is going to be the obvious one: the Russians had a successful influence operation, trying to beat one candidate and having another candidate win.

Wippl is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. He spent a 30 year career as an operations officer in the National Clandestine Service (NCS). Wippl has served overseas as an operations officer and operations manager in Bonn, West Germany; Guatemala City; Luxembourg; Madrid, Spain; Mexico City; Vienna, Austria; and Berlin, Germany.