COLORADO TO KOKO NOR THE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF THE CIA'S SECRET WAR AGAINST RED CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100010061-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 2, 1998
• Sequence Number: 61
• Publication Date: February 6, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

THE DEFER POST EMPIRE MAGAZINE
Approved For Release 2000/05123 :V'AWli'5-00001 R0001
of the CIA
against Red China
By L. FLETCHER PROUTY
CPYRGHT-
t obscured the
mountains when the Air
Force cargo plane finally
approached the Pikes Peak
-country from the west. Wearily,
it seemed, the aircraft crossed
the south shoulder of the peak,
turned left, dropped flaps and
began the long, gradual descent
to Peterson Field which serves
both-as an Air. Force base and
'the municipal airport of Colora-
do Springs.
The landing was uneventful.
But from that point some strange
things happened.
The aircraft, a heavy-bodied
.C130 powered by four turbo-
prop engines, taxied to a remote
end of the field rather than to the
regular ramp. A military bus
quickly pulled up alongside.
If any outsider had been there
to witness some 20 men. disem-
bark, he would have been told
they, were soldiers from India
scheduled for training at nearby
Ft. Carson under a military aid
program.
But the troops weren't Indians
and they never got to Ft. Carson.
The loaded bus headed west-
ward out of Colorado Springs,
-up the Ute Pass highway, and
disappeared into the night.
During the months that fol-
lowed, other men like those in
the first contingent arrived peri-
? The author, L. Fletcher Prouty, is
secret yr a retired Air Force colonel who is
now with the Center of Political Re-
search in. Washington, D.C.
FO.IAb3b
a
the same mysterious manner
and vanished into the mountains.
The identity of these men and
the nature of their mission
makes a fascinating story- and,
in some respects, a frightening
one - with vast international
implications. Recent develop-
ments in relations between the
United States and Communist
China, which portend so much
for an era of peace, give that
story a special timeliness. The
details of this operation are
reported here for the first time.
To understand what this hush-
hush operation was all about, it
is necessary to set the time,
which was August 1959, and to
recall the ominous twilight zone
- neither peace-nor war - into
which relations between East
and West had drifted in that
period. With an eye toward the February of 1959 it became evi-
successful culmination of his dent the Chinese intended to
two-term administration, Pres- seize him to gain undisputed
ident Eisenhower announced a control over that country.
series of international events Forewarned, the Dalai Lama
leading to a super-Summit Con- and about 80 of his followers fled
ference in Paris during May Lhasa, the capital city on March
1960. , , 17, 1959, heading for the safety of
The Korean War had settled India. The Chinese were not
into an uneasy truce six years aware of the Dalai Lama's
earlier, in 1953. The Berlin Wall departure for several days. They
was still two years in the future, had been lulled by the fact that
1.961. At the moment the point of there were only two good route'
East-West friction was at a most out of Lhasa, both under Chinese
odically ingV1wsu'
an v-
~ d o~ ~i a3f g o!~*~JL aavve had to
w o connected it vaguely wi h a
Ronald Coleman movie about
Shangri-la.
There is nothing mythical,
about Tibet. It is an ancient
country with an area four times
that of Colorado, separated from
India to, the. south by the Him a-
layan Range, many of whose
peaks are twice as tall as Colora-
do's highest mountains. The
country's average elevation is
about 15,000 feet. Soon after the
Communist- government took
over control of China in 1949,
Peking announced its intentions
of "liberating" Tibet. In October
1950 Chinese_ Communist troops
invaded it.
Tibet's spiritual and temporal
leader, the Dalai Lama, then only
15 years old, urged his people not
to resist. The Chinese in turn left
the Dalai Lama alone. But by
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