Documents / FOIA release
This CIA Information Review and Release newsletter covers the week of 23 to 27 June 2003. It lists upcoming meetings of the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel and notes the 31 December 2006 automatic declassification date. It describes a FOIA request from a New Jersey eighth grader researching UFOs, who was referred to 2,748 pages of released UFO material and sent the Studies in Intelligence article on CIA's role in studying UFOs. It also covers archival items, including a 1975 memo that warned Laos could fall and letters to DCI Hillenkoetter.
../ Approved for Release: 2019/03/27 CO5578152 UNCLASSIFIED (IJ7'77fl‘U9) An Intelligence Alert Memorandum of 7 May 1975 to then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger -- that was recently reviewed at the CIA Declassification Center -- wamed of the possible rapid unravelling of the coalition government of Laos, with a resultant consolidation of political and military power by the Communist Pathet Lao. CIA analysts noted the recent Communist victories in South Vietnam and Cambodia had a devastating emotional and psychological impact on the non-Communist political leadership in Vientiane, reinforcing the non-Communists’ belief that a Pathet Lao victory was inevitable and that further resistance was futile. Compounding their growing desperation, the non-Communists were described as firmly convinced they could not depend upon the US to preserve the ruling coalition's stability and Lao neutrality. As proof, the memo continued, Prime Minister Souvanna Phourna and his ministers cited the refusal of the American Congress to provide emergency assistance to the Saigon and Phnom Perth regimes in their moment of greatest need. Carefully covering their hind quarters, Agency analysts concluded that "Laos being Laos, the fall_of the Vientiane coalition might not happen for several weeks, or even months, but it could happen within the next few days . . . . " O Shortly afier the Intelligence Alert Memorandum was disseminated, the Phouma government fell and the Pathet Lao communists took over the government. (U//KTUU) From the Archives: DCI's Shipmate Asks for Transfer (U//HBO) The CIA Declassification Center is reviewing the voluminous correspondence files of the DCIs. Frequently the files contain personal letters as illustrated by several exchanged between Juan N., a sailor in the US Navy, and RADM Roscoe Hillenkoetter in 1947. Juan N. wrote to congratulate RADM Hillenkoetter on being named Director of the Central Intelligence Group, and reminded him of their service together on the USS Concord. The DCI responded with a nice thank you note, ending with “I do hope you like your station at Kwajalein," referring to the miniscule atoll in the Pacific on which Juan N. was stationed. Juan N. replied, freely expressing his feelings: " Thanks for asking me how I like this station. Frankly speaking I never did like it at_ all. My three months on this rock seems like three years to me. Staying on this base reminds me of the baa’ times I spent on the rock of Corregidor and at concentration camp in Northern Luzon. Admiral, is there any means where you could help me getting [ofl] this r0ck...to finish this time back in the Philippines?" Kwajalein Island (US Military photo) This is a recojrd. ‘ UNCLASSIFIED Approved for Release: 2019/03/27 CO5578152 (b)(3) (b)(3 (b)(3
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 3 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.