Documents / FOIA release
This is a compilation of Department of State Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) briefing notes to the Director of INR, mostly dated June 12, 1968, with some from June 6, 1968. The notes cover world events, including student riots in Paris, East German passport and visa rules for West Germans, a UN resolution on South West Africa, a change of Komsomol leadership, Sino-Nepalese relations, and the Colombian presidential resignation crisis. Unrest in Senegal and Somalia is also covered. None of the notes discuss UFOs.
“Rio de Janeiro”1 page
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SOURCE(S) CLASS./CONTROL(S) Moscow Tel 4141 CONFIDENTIAL Our Embassy in Moscow reports on June 6 that for more than a week an almost total ban on all foreign diplomatic travel, including the military, has been in effect. Requests have been refused for travel to widely scattered areas: Central Asia, Southern and Western Ukraine, Moldavia, Kazan, Arkhangelsk, Ryazan, and even Dubna. The excuse usually given is that the region is closed for "temporary reasons" [The standard Soviet formulation, when they deign to give any excuse -- bz], and in an unusual departure from normal procedures a Soviet official has asserted the restricted travel period would last another 7-10 days. The Embassy speculates about possible reasons for the travel ban, but admits lack of evidence and certainty as to the cause. INR comment. We can add our profession of ignorance to that of the Embassy's, but with the following comments: 1. Military maneuvers are our best guess as to the reason. 2. We doubt that civil disturbances are the reason since a definite time limit appears to have been set for raising the travel ban, and civil disturbances are indefinite developments. Furthermore, it is unlikely the Soviet authorities would want foreigners travelling to an area even after a civil disturbance had been brought under control since there would be a good chance of the foreigner picking up information and gossip about it. 3. We agree with the Embassy that the reason for the closure may apply to one or selected areas, but the travel ban has been made near complete for purposes of deception. 4. As the Embassy suggests, Eastern European developments could be a reason for the ban. 5. The only blanket-type travel ban we recall in recent years was in the fall of 1965, when all military travel of the US, UK, and Canadian embassies
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 132 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.