DEAD LETTERS IN SAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100010064-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 2, 1998
• Sequence Number: 64
• Publication Date: January 28, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

THE LoLTDOT. DAILY =GRAPH MAGAZINE
CPYRGHT Approved For Release 2000/0~/232$G` f*lk6fRg-00001R0001006 6336
When Britain pulled out of. Rhodesia after the 1965 Unila
the CIA worked. to' ferret out details of the sanction-bull
In the popular. traditions of spying, secret documents disa
were used to convey messages in invisible ink. It was a shock
one of the informers was a prominent lawyer. But it was. not
_the CIA had expanded.into an area where the British were una
active in Egypt, Iran and Syria. E. H. COOKRIDGE ends his
and looks at the Director, Richard Helms
men Allen Dulles had
recruited to CIA from
law offices and univer-
sities had gained their
spurs in London, where they were sent
to glean some of the methods of the
British Secret Intelligence Service.
Dulles enjoyed making wisecracks
about the Victorian and Indian Army
traditions still surviving in the Britis
secret service, but he had a healthy
that CIA could learn a lot from th
British about operations in the Middl
'East and Africa, where its stations
were rapidly expanding.
After Archibald Roosevelt, one of
CIA's foremost "Arabists", had re-
stored cordial relations with SIS when
station head in London, a plan of co-
pperation was devised for Africa, where
most of the former British colonies had
gained independence, and were be-
coming subject to strong Soviet and
Chinese pressure. Roosevelt was still
in London when, in 1965, Rhodesia
made her momentous "Unilateral
Declaration of Independence" (UDI),
which -led to the conflict with the
British Government.
There is no better instance of the
strengthening of CIA-SIS collabora-
tion than the hitherto undisclosed
story of the services CIA rendered
the British authorities in Rhodesia,
particularly since about.1968.
Indeed, in assisting the British SI
in its thankless task of implementing
the policy of economic sanction
against the Smith regime, CIA put it
relations with the Portuguese i
,.jeopardy. It has an enduring under-
standing with the Portuguese Government and its PIDE secret service o
many aspects: NATO security, anti
communist operations, the use of radi
stations in Portugal and her colonies
and p bases rcc s~ftoA pg~ n
and Special For i 1 ,
bique and Macao. However thin th
a: -
tier
ritish sanction policy became, British
nsular offices and SIS men were were Cal
upposed to watch the steady flow of former A
odesian pig-ir. n, tobacco, and other Francis l
roducts through the Portuguese ports who had
f Lorenco Marques and Beira in East cloak-anc
rica to Europe and the Far East. Cuba and
erchants and shippers there had Wigant,
ade fortunes out of the traffic which Congo di
he Portuguese were bound, by United and sever
ations resolutions and agreements the most
with Britain, to regard as illegal. Edward
n Salisbury all ? information about
Rhodesian exports dried up at source.
At this juncture CIA stepped in to
ssist the British. It was not merely a
labour of love. American tobacco
n Virginia Georgia
syndicates i '
from 1959 he headed the East and
South African section and, at the time
of his new appointment, was Station
Dead in Pretoria. Among his various
exploits he was reputed to have
initiated the first contacts between the
orth and South Carolina, Ten- South African government and Dr
essee and Kentucky greatly in- . Banda of Malawi.
reased their production and sales to The CIA agent's were perpetually
urope when Rhodesian tobacco . journeying between Salisbury and the
rowers lost most of their trade
hrough sanctions. Traditionally,
hodesian tobacco was used for cigar
nd cigarette manufacture in Belgium,
olland, Germany and Switzerland.
hen these supplies dried lip, Euro-
n manufacturers turned to Ameri-
n growers. But by and by Rhodesian
xports began to flow again, by the
se of false certificates of origin and
muggling through the Portuguese
orts and through Durban in South
Africa, much'to the displeasure of the
Americans.
Thus, obliging the British and help-
ng American business, CIA ordered
its agents to ferret out the secrets of the
anction-busting schemes devised by
Mr Ian Smith's regime. Soon the CIA
station in Salisbury was bustling with
activity. Since 1962 it had been headed
by Richard La Macchia, a senior CIA
official, who had joined it in 1952 from
temporarily posted to Lusaka to main-
tain . personal contact with British
officials resident in Zambia. Mr Ian
Smith and his cabinet colleague, Mr
J. H. Howman, who looks after foreign
affairs as well as security and the
secret service of.the Rhodesian regime,
were not unaware of the unwelcome
operations of the Americans. They
suffered them for the sake of avoiding
an open clash with Washington. Their
patience, however, became frayed
when it was discovered that secret
documents had disappeared from the
headquarters of the ruling Rhodesian
National Front Party. Subsequently,
~~.~OQeLaII~5-~D01 R0001 00010064-6
to Africa in the guise o an o icia o
the U.S. Development Aid Agency.
Fontinued
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