C.I.A. SAID TO HAVE KNOWN IN '50'S OF LOCKHEED BRIBES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100650002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 2, 1976
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100650002-9
11L'',11 ,UCLA L.L01C,0
Ey ANN CRITTE DEN 2 APRIL 1976)
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!`?lany of the details of the: never received the tungsten.
bribery of Japanese politicians ~ Mr. ),edema it it an kno- n:
by the Lick;.eed Aircraft Cor-{ C.I.A. Said to Have v*y-nm= that t' e s ip l:ad sunk, and +a-
t,oration i,i the late 1950'3, i;i; Iparently kept the ermmi~sien.:
9
'? connection with the sale of the One former agent noted that
F-104 fig. ter plane to Japan,! 0 ofLoc ~ 9 ' there were spine sentiment at
were reported at that time to It is also possible that false C.I.A. headqueraters in Wash-1
the headquarters of the Central statements unishable b Fed- ington that Mr. Kodama, who:
In,teili-ence Agency in Wash-i part in the payments himself eral law, were made to such alho had close ties to the Tokyo,
under orld? was untrustworthy)
.ington, actor ing to a former and has said that he was un- Government agencies as the and was usir.y the Americans)
aware that the officer was a Department of Defense, which
C.I.A. official and Japanese C.I.A. Cagent. { monitors foreign arms salts. and their financing for his own
sources. senior intelligence ends.
Former One Justice Department offi-
Although the C.I.A. wasi officials have confirmed that Icial( told of the allegations of In this man's opinion, Amer-t
aware of the bribery, public` the Embassy official was in- C.I.A. awareness of early Lock- ican alt, orities were spending!
disclosure deed a C.I.A. staff officer {heed payoffs. said that al- vast amounts of money sub-i
otc ingo extreme rightists ? assigned to the Tokyo station. though it might not have been sidiz tol
not come me until the last Feb. pa F4 did in ' One former official who was legally incumbent upon the fight a Communism never real-i
hearings of the Senate subcom- in a posi'ioa to see the repcrts i agency to report what it knew ly a serious threat in Japan.
mittee on multinational corpo- said than the C.LA. station in to the Justice Department, the ' Other experts disagree, arg-.
rations. Tokyo "was checking with agency's apparent failure to do ding that, particularly in the
The scandal has created -in. headquarters every stet~of thelso was "certainly a matter of data 19-10's, there was a real'
way when the Lock;~e?d thing concern from a policy point of possibility of a left-wing regime
way tensions and came up." view." in Japan.
invest,- "Every move made.was ap- Part in Payoffs Denied According to Ivan Morris,,
touched off worldwide
gations of the payments by proved by Washington," he informed of the alle- professor of Japanese at Co
, lumbia University and an auth
added, asserfing that details of When
Lockheed and other American gation, Mitchell Rogovin, the ority on the extreme right
companies to various parties in the Lockheed affair werekrowii ? b
in high levels within the agency. special counsel to the Director wing in pthe
Europe. Japan and the Middle The Central InteilitiencelOf Central Intelligence George ! ostwar Japan, ., ..
East to win lucrative multimil- Agency failed to ass this in- Bush, said that "the only thing 'ennrre s American financaili
pass can say is we-have no roc- support for conservative e!e-
lion-dollar sales contracts for formation on to the State Der ords of ari aQenc involve= moms ire the country ;vas cru-.
various products ranging from partment or to the Grumm6k hose `ent with yLokheed or ve- cial in 19?7 and 1948.
,aircraft to pharmaceuticals. Aircraft oration, whose In those y ears, Ja anese i
bribes." He denied that the P' Po
The Lockheed payoffs in F11F-1F Super Tiger jet fighter was first agency as an institution had ? ,tics coulc have turned in a dif-
Japan, involving S12.6 million selected for purchase" farent din?ction, Professor Mor
by the Japanese Government participated in the payoffs. his maintained. "A lot was done
in: 1953 and then in 1959 re- Mr. Rogovin said that he othat,' , he said, 'andI
over a . period .of , 20 years;
were made to fop officials o[i jetted in favor of the Lockheed could firming saor nothindenying either con- to prevent any agency : successfully."
the Government, primarily, plane knowledge. of the a meats to. 1.1, g other things, Ameri-`
Lockheed is estimated to have pa y can occupation authorities in
through Yoshio Kodama, as spent some 51.5 million to win Japanese officials, or any in the late 1940's and the 1950's
influential power broker in the Japanese jet fighter contract volvement in them by C.I.A. :used extreme right-wing for.
Japan who has already been Away from Grumman in the agents. men mill~.? officers to ro-
late 1950's I A spokesman for Lockheed ? ry p
,identified as the 'most im-, In all, Lockheedldenied that the company had vide information on and to die-~
iportant behind-the-scenes rep- paid.. fees, commissions and had any dealings with individu rapt Ief rmat groups.
be totaling $12.6 million to g In November 1951, for es-'
time. atire of Lockeed at that bribe s g ale in Japan that it knew to be
? sell Si00 million worth of air- i ample, one of these officers
r craft .to Japan between 1956 C.I.A. agents. l Col. Ta:;ushiro Hattori, fice' ' a for
Mr. Kodama :has not been and 1975. According to knowledgeable ;men -secretary of General Tajo,
identified as a C.I.A.. agent, but' Kodama' Earned $750,000 ful sources, ultrar `ightist Kodama, who a for years; power: allegedly rY t
h : provided American
he has had a long-standing re-{ Of that total, some S7 million exerted a significant behind-i authorities with information on
'lationship with American went to Mr. Kodama, who the-scenes influence on politi-I leftist novelist Kaji \Vataru,
,Embassy officials in-Japan. In earned an estimated $750,000 cians of Japan's ruling Liberal- who wad subsequently kid. ?
If the information concern ~:napped by' Occupation forces
additi3r, ,sir, Kodama was.ths Democratic Party, also had a
ing the Lockheed bribes was long-standing relationship with;; and held incommunicado byt
recipient of American funds passed on to_ the Justice De- American Embassy officials in C.I.A. agents for a year, ac- I
for covert projects on several partment, 'the Securities and Japan. ,cording to sources inside and
,occasions, according to former Exchange Commission or the, In the early 1950's, he is said outside of the Government.
C.I.A. officials. . Internal Revenue Service, no; to have received some $130,000.
to investigate c
bass
to
t k
i
h
i
y
can .em
on was aen from
e Amer
t
The C.I.A. headquarters in act
Washin ton was informed of the irregularities. smuggle a hoard of tungsten
Foreign bribes are not in out of mainland China on Na-I
-the Lockheed payoffs through themselves illegal under Feder- tionalist warships and deliver)
C.I.A. charnels from the em-I al law. However, the bribes are it to United Staten authorities{
bassy in Tokyo in the late not tax-deductible and the in Tokyo.
offs raise the
1950's. A Japanese citizen who) large foreio-i pay
Shi Said to Have Sunk
worked for Lockheed in 1953, possibility that Lockheed and P
{ other companies might have it-) According to a former C.I.A.
whim certain bribes were legally reduced their taxable official and to Robert H. Booth,,
known to have been made, Las( corporate income by deducting$an American said to have acted;
said he 'old an American Em- the bribe payments as business! as Mr. Kodama's agent in the
the Americans{
>ssy officer of these ens}-off,. expenses'. ,arrangement,
He has denied having taken!
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/30: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100650002-9