"If you rally give a damn about what goes on in the world, you are ready to influence everything that goes to make up a particular country." Richard M. Bissell, former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency said last night.

Bissell, chief developer of the U-2 program, defended the CIA's often criticized role in world affairs, claiming the only alternative to non-intervention is isolation.

He said that intervention poses U.S. policy markers a dual problem. Its short-term objective is to preserve a country's internal power balance but the long run goal must be the all-important institution of a stable middle class.

The essence of intervention, Bissell said, is to find allies within other countries and strengthen them. He warned against choosing the "doomed" and "hopelessly incompetent" as allies.

"I deny that the incompetent necessarily means the liberals of any nation," Bissell said, "but quite often the only effective and realistic groups are the army, secret police, and strong men in a country."