LETTER OF INFORMATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260019-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2013
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: May 25, 1966
• Content Type: MEMO

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-Kb // P83-0u5o6R000300260019-3
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25 May 1966
MEMORANDUM FOR: Bureau Chiefs
SUBJECT: Letter of Information
GENERAL
1. Saloon Situation: The Saigon Bureau continued to be fully occupied
with npecial coverage of 'struggle force" broadcasts from Da Nang and Hue and
expanded coverage of Saigon radio. As the political turmoil in South Vietnam
continued the bureau's evening operations were complicated by early curfews,
with the U.S. Embassy unable for several weeks to obtain valid curfew passes
for local employees. Two monitors en route hone in an official Embassy car
were arrested by police and detained for an hour. Despite obstacles to its
operation, the bureau maintained its rapid and comprehensive reportage of
developments to Washington as well as to major U.S. components in Saigon.
(CONFIDRITIAL)
2. Mediterranean Bureau Developments: Scattered incidents continued
throughout Cyprus, including two explosions in Kyrenia 12 April which caused
minor property damage but no injuries. There were no new developments in the
question of the American radio stations' status.. The problem of encroachment
on the bureau by the Karavas bypass was alleviated by a 00C decision to post-
pone work on the new road due to lack of funds. In a further development,
Archbishop Makarios informed the Mayor of Kyrenia that the GOC had decided on
a course for the bypass that would not encroach upon the FBIS operation.
(CONFIDENTIAL)
A
3. Special Services: The White House Situation Room recently received
within hours requested information about a Cuban documentary entitled "LBJ,"
as well as biographic data on Santiago Alvarez, an official of the Cuban
Institute of Art and Motion Picture Industry. Senator Mansfield's office
requested and received a compilation of all broadcast references to the Senator's
proposals for a peace conference on Vietnam. Among the many special requests
for tape recordings was a Defense Language Institute requirement for hundreds
of hours of taped broadcast material to be used in expanding its language-
training program. In preparation for the 1 June Dominican elections, arrange-
ments were made to directly wirefile the Caribbean Bureau's product to one
Agency component and to provide others with advance distribution of all state-
ments by main candidates Juan Bosch and Joaquin Balaguer. In response to an
urgent request by the American Embassy, Tokyo, the Tokyo Bureau supplied texts
of all major Soviet leaders' speeches at the 23d CPSU Congress, some of which
were refiled from Headquarters. (CONFIDENTIAL)
GROUP I
Excluded from Automatic don-
grading and declassification
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, Nee
Subject: Letter of Information, 25 Mey 1966
4. Research and Analysis Services: Agency components recently were
supplied with information on Peking's use of photographic and other "evidence"
in past propaganda exploitation of US-CPR air incidents, as background for
more recent Chinese charges about the shooting dawn of a CPR plane by American
planes on 12 May; Chinese Communist references during 1966 to the banning of
nuclear weapons and pledges that the CPR will not be the first to use nuclear
weapons; background on Peking's treatment of its first nuclear tests; and
Soviet leaders' references to East-West trade over the past two years. USIA
was provided with information on Soviet treatment of De Gaulle 's letter to
President Johnson regarding NATO, and reaction to Vice President Humphrey's
March speeches on China. Special requests for research and analysis on the
Vietnam situation continued to be received almost daily. (CONFIDENTIAL)
5. Lateral Services: At the Liaison Staff's request, the West Coast ?
Bureau supplied tape recordings of Moscow Quechua and Peking Spanish broadcasts
for use by a consumer in Washington. Two military components in Thailand, the
USAF Office of Special Investigation and the J-2 section, U.S. Military
Assistance Command, have been added as recipients of Okinawa,-monitored
communist source material on U.S. military activities in Thailand and the Indo-
china theater of war. The Okinawa Bureau recently provided "Voice of the Thai
People" material for a study prepared by the 7th Psychological Operations
Group's Propaganda Branch; information on Mandarin broadcasts, for CSG, Okinawa;
and tape recordings of Indonesian leaders' speeches, requested by the IBIS
Liaison Staff. In April two new consumers were added to those receiving the
product of the Tokyo Bureau's TV film monitoring operation, bringing the total
number of recipients to six.
At Headquarters request, the London Bureau sent a special file of
materials from Cairo radio's "Enemies of God" program to the American Embassies
in Cairo, Beirut, and Taiz and to the Consulate General in Dhshrun, Upon ,
request, the Mediterranean Bureau supplied technical information on Peyk-e Iran
and National Voice of Iran broadcasts to the American Enbassy in Teheran,
presumably for use in its monitoring operation. Seventy-two percent of the 43
subscribers to the German Bureau's Weekly Report on the East German Press
responded to a recent survey, with 30 percent terming the report "of
considerable value," 54 percent "of value," and 13 percent "of slight value."
Two recipients canceled their subscriptions. (CONFIDENTIAL)
6. Use of FBIS Materials: The Department of State's Office of Inter-
American Security Affairs reported that tape recordings of Moscow broadcasts
in Portuguese supplied by London Bureau had been instrumental in the ouster of
a Soviet diplomat from Brazil. A Tokyo Bureau FYI on an Akahata report that a
Japanese Communist Party delegation had viewed the equipment of a downed U.S.
Navy pilot in North Vietnam triggered an intensive Navy investigation to
determine the status of the pilot, who had been listed as dead. The State
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Subject: Letter of Information, 25 May 196
Department seat to all Latin Inerican missions excerpts from Brezhnev's.speech
to the 23d CPSU Congress seeming to support the theme of Soviet, Uban, and
other Communist intervention in Latin American countries. Cables from the U.S.
Embassy in Teheran reported extensively on FBIS-monitored Radio Peyk-e Iran
retorts to questions raised about this radio in the Iranian parliament.
Material monitored by the Saigon Bureau from Da Nang and Hue "struggle force"
broadcasts was used extensively by the American Embassy in its daily cabled
roundup of the Vietnamese situation and by other U.S, components in Saigon..
Sizteen percent of the, items appearing in the CCI Digest during April
were based wholly or in part on FBIS reporting. (SECRET)
7. Snulemcnts and Reports: The Editorial Division recently issued for .
limited distribution a Special Memorandum containing radio and press references
to a recent New York Times series on the Agency. A 12 May supplement to the
USSR/East Europe Daily Report contains the Bucharest radio version of Rumanian
Communist Party Secretary Ceausescu's speech to a meeting masking the party's
45th anniversary. The speech, with its strong overtones of Hamanian
nationalism, evinced considerable interest in the intelligence ommtnity. A
2 May Fax East Daily Report supplement contains the VNA text of a report
delivered to the DRV National Assembly by Premier Pham Van Doug on 16 April.
Two recent Radio Propaganda Reports examine the impact of the Havana Tri-
continental Conference on the Latin American revolutionary left and on Cuban
tactics in Latin America. (CONFIDENTIAL)
8, Hokkaido Housisg: On 25 April the Hokkaido Bureau was advised by the
Far East District Engineers, Camp Zama, that instructions had been received to
start planning for the construction of 10 company grade officers quarters and
a bureau chief's house for FBIS at Chitose III. (FOR OFFICIAL US?: ONLY)
9, Panama Bureau Privileges: On 19 April the memorandum of understanding
between the Panama Bureau and the U.S. Army Forces Southern Command was renewed
and military base privileges for local employees formalized. (CONFIDENTIAL)
10. Briefings and A panel was constituted for the FBIS briefing
of OTR's Intelligence Review Course, which is designed primarily to bring
overseas returnees and long-service employees 1.113 to date. OM also arranged
for a group of Career Trainees to visit FBIS Headquarters. Individual brief-
ings were given to officers from 5th Air Force, Fuchu, Japan, and PACAF. In
coordination with the German Bureau, arrangements were made for a West German
delegation to visit the Caribbean Bureau and be briefed on the Wire Grid Lens
antenna. (CONFIDENTIAL)
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Subject: Letter of Information, 25 May 1966
11. Field Iamction TKia: The Director, FBIS, and the Chief, Engineering
Staff, visite?. the Mediterranean, Austrian, German, and London Bureaus during a
field. inspection. trip 21 April to 13 May. The Chief, Engineering Staff, also
visited the African Bureau 15-21 April. (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
12, Training; The Chief, Editorial Division, attended a one-day
introductory seminar on automatic data processing (ADP) and the use of
computers at IBM's Washington Education Center on 13 May. The Deputy Chief,
Editorial Division, attended a one-week course on the Managcrial Grid. System
during the first week of May. (CONFIDENTIAL)
FIELD OPERATIONS AND ENGINEERING
13. African Bureau Communications: The State Department agreed to an
FBIS proposal that the African Bureau and the American Embassy share a 12-hour,
half-speed circuit between Lagos and London. (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
14. Cruisingz22ations Messages: The experimental removal of certain
operational and broadcast information from administrative communications
control is designed to lighten staff processing and communications center work-
loads. The change applies only to broadcast information formerly sent in .
administrative message format. Broadcast information which traditionally has
been filed editorially (e.g. "MOS ONLY" or "COPY TO MOS") should continue to be
so filed. This distinction is necessary to insure correct distribution in
Headquarters. Care should be taken to address cruising reports to BBC rather
than LD unless London Bureau has a clear interest, in which case both addresses
would normally be used. (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
15. Exotic Languerge Monitoriga: After approximately a year of monitoring
Quechua and Creole at the Panama Bureau on a part-time contract basis, two
additional non-Staff positions permitting full-ttwrmonitoring of these
languages were. recently approved. Efforts to recruit a Lingala monitor for
African Bureau have been unsuccessful so far. (CONFIDENTIAL)
16, IBM Equipment: The BBC Monitoring Service is now using IBM recording
and transcribing equipment compatible with the new IBM equipment presently
arriving at FBIS overseas field bureaus. After bureaus have their new equip-
ment installed, recordings forwarded to the London Bureau for processing
should be recorded on the new IBM equipment. The East Coast, West Coast, and
Key West Bureaus will not be using IBM equipment for a number of years, until
their Dictaphone magnetic belt recording equipment becomes obsolete.
(UNCLASSIFIED)
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Nam"
S-E-C-R-E-T
Subject: Letter of Information, 25 May 1966
ADMINISTRATION
50X1
18. Service Anniversary Letters: The Director, FBIS,will continue the
10-year service letters without special, requests from the bureaus. Twenty-year
anniversary letters will also be written by the Director, but in this case the
responsibility for informing Headquarters of the completion of 20 years'
aggregate FBIS service rests with the bureaus. Headquarters does not routinely
write commendatory letters to local and foreign national employees completing
15 years' service with FBIS. OFFICIAL USE ONLY
19. Regale/a Issuances: The following regulatory issuances have been
disseminatedIUNCLASSIFIEU
50X1
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"Tr
Subject: Letter of Information) 25 May 1966
EDITORIAL
1. Sp2iling_Gt.iidance: The GPO Style Manual and Webster's New Inter?
national Dictionary are accepted authorities for the preferred spelling of
words.
PERSONNEL
2. New Emol2yee
3. Reassignments
4., Separation
5. TM in Headquarters
(West Coast Bureau) train
Assignment
Teletypist, East Coast Bureau
From
Adm Officer
Administrative Staff
Editor
Editorial Division
Editor
Austrian Bureau
Editor
Editorial Division
Editor
Editorial Division
From
Editor, Editorial Division
To
Adm Officer
Okinawa Bureau
Editor
London Bureau
50X1
50X1
Editor, Wire Service
Branch', Editorial Div.
Editor
East Coast Bureau
Editor
Iondon Bureau
course.
ROGER G. SEELY
Director
Foreign Broadcast Information Service
50X1
50X1
50X1
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