THE PENKOVSKY PAPERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600250043-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2000
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: November 14, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Release 2001/07/2i6I"iA-F2bP75t-00149R000600250043-5
NOV ? 4: 1965
The Penkovsky Papers
On Monday, The Washington Post will print, ' as
scheduled?the concluding installment of syndicated
excerpts from the book The Penkovsky Papers.
They have aroused a great deal of discussion among
'American and British experts on Soviet affairs
with competent opinion divided as to the form in
which the papers were released and as to the
extent to which They were wholly in the words
of Penkovsky. No one has challenged the essential
point that Penkovsky was for a time a spectacu-
larly successful intelligence source of the West.
It would not be conceivable that responsible
newspapers In this country would suppress notice
of a book of this significance in history or of such
consequence in foreign affairs. The Washington
Post, as one of the newspapers which have pub-
lished excerpts from the papers. has unsuccessfully
solicited criticism and comment on them from the
Soviet Embassy and will publish Monday a critique
by Victor Zorza of the Manchester Guardian, who
doubts that the papers originated in the. form in
which they are presented in the book and who
suspects the intrusion of material hot originating
with Penkovsky. No doubt this will long remain
an interesting subject of conjecture and specula-
tion, and The Washington Post will try to present
opposing views as they appear.
The readers of this newspaper should know that
The Washington Post's Moscow correspondent was
summoned to the Soviet Foreign Ministry at 5
o'clock on Saturday afternoon and told that "we
expect that measures will be taken so that no
articles and materials of such kind will be pub-
lished in The Washington Post in the future." He
was further told that "if publication continues we
reserve the right for ourselves to take necessary
measures."
What those measures are we cannot know. They
will not cause The Washington Post to alter its
intent regarding this series of articles or any subse-
quent publication. We refuse to accept the inad-
missible suggestion that this newspaper must not
print material which the Soviet government may
find inacceptable.
It will fulfill its responsibilities as it sees them,
whatever "necessary measures" of intimidation and
censorship Moscow undertakes to prevent it. News-
papers in the United States, the Soviet government
, .hould know by this time, are. not to be told by
`overnments, either foreign or domestic, what they
"!oust" print or "must not" print.
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600250043-5