LETTER OF INFORMATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260018-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2013
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: June 30, 1966
• Content Type: MEMO

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy-Approved for Release 2013/08/21 : CIA-RDP83-00586R000300260018-4
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30 June 1966
MEMORANDUM FOR: Bureau Chiefs
SUBJECT: Letter of Information
GENERAL
1. African Bureau Difficulties: African Bureau operations were severely
hampered by a prolonged communications outage and the wave of violence which
swept Kaduna and other towns in Northern Nigeria in late May. The disorders,
sparked by the opposition of Northern Nigerians to the unitary government and
unification of the civil service proclaimed by the military government in
Lagos, were marked by uncontrolled mobs who stoned cars, burned buildings,
destroyed the native markets, and killed many ibos from the Eastern Region who
lived and worked in the North. Americans were not molested but several
African employees of the bureau had their cars damaged, fortunately without
injury to the occupants. After consultation by phone with American officials
in other parts of the Northern Region, the Consul at Kaduna imposed the Warning
Phase of the Emergency Plan. Bureau personnel operated as best they could
without communications, supplying the Consulate with significant monitored
items and providing strong support to the Consul in handling the many problems
arising from the disorders. The East Coast Bureau provided limited coverage
of West Africa until the African Bureau file returned to normal. (CCNFIDENTIAL)
2. Saigon Sitnationl Saigon Bureau operations were not affected by the
demonstrations and rioting in Saigon during most of May, but restrictions on
the activities of American personnel increased because of anti-American
Buddhist demonstrations and the burning of American vehicles. U.S. officials
imposed an 8:30 pen, to 6:30 a.m, curfew on military and civilian personnel
except for movements 'Connected With 'official business. Local consumer interest
in material from the "struggle" radios at Da Nang and Hue remained high though'.
reception of these stations was generally poor because of weak signals and
Vietnamese Government jamming. Outages on the allocated Vietnam-Washington
circuit were up 25 percent in May, reversing the favorable trend of April.
(CONFIDENTIAL).
,
3. Mediterranean Bureau IevelopMents: With the concurrence of Ambassador
Belcher, it was decided to return coverage of,the UAR to the'Mediterraneab
Bureau in September: Classified files evacuated to Headquarters in August 1964
have been returned to the hureau. The :local,situetion.was relatively quiet in
May, though a strong Turkish GoVernment pretest to Cyprus over the appointment
of two new Greek Cypriot ministers was followed by extensive sea and airborne
landing exercises in southenaTUrkey in Mid-May. Members of the Country Team
were asked to help gather idformation needed by FBIS to.. assess the poSsible
effect on the bureau's monitoring operation.ofthe proposed commercial radio
station in Cyprus. (CONFIDENTIAL)
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 30 June 1966
4. Research end Analysis Services: In connection with a briefing for
Secretary Rusk, INR State consulted with FBIS analysts on implications for
East-West relations and Vietnam of Kosygin's Supteme Soviet election speech.
Among other Vietnam services, Soviet leaders' characterizations of the degree
of Soviet supnort to the Vietnamese were culled for OCI, to place in
perspective Erezhnev's Suprcme Soviet election speech in which he mentioned
new steps"and'hew efforts" in "speeding up the Victory of the heroic
Vietnamese people." At the request of the DD/I's office, a collation of
Soviet comment on Soviet and U.S. space reconnaissance technology was prepared
for use in a project being coordinated by ORB. Soviet statements on spy
satellites and space reconnaissance were also provided to the .Foreign Missile
and Space Analysis Center.
Soviet references to aid in Mongolian military construction, Soviet-
Mongolian mutual assistance, and "sober-minded figures in the West" were
supplied to OCI, and Soviet statements over the past year calling for a
conference on European security to the State Department. Material researched
and supplied to other Agency components included Soviet military statements
on surprise attack; a 1964 Chou En-lai statement concerning en "occupied
nation's" right to recover its lost territories "by any means"; Chinese leaders'
references to Rumania; andbackground on the CPSU's May Day 1965 slogans for the
Arab countries. USIA requesters were supplied with Soviet reaction to the
Meredith shooting and to Senator Robert Kennedy's South African trip.
(CONFIDENTIAL)
5. Special Services: In addition to providing comprehensive coverage of
the Dominican electiona via the Daily Report and the Wire Service, FBIS from
25 May to 8 June directly relayed the entire Caribbean Bureau editorial file to
major Agency component charged with keeping the President informed of develop-
ments. At Headquarters request the Mediterranean Bureau supplied sample tapes
of 10 languages for use by the Defense Language Institute. Seven other bureaus
are participating in the project. The West Coast Bureau supplied tapes of
Peking in Mandarin broadcasts to the Douglas Advanced Research Laboratory,
Huntington, Calif., for use in a project entailing the physical analysis of
Mandarin and development of voiceprint characteristics of Chinese speakers.
London Bureau responded to a Headquarters request for full filing of material
on the new Finnish coalition government, for use by consumers concerned with
Secretary Rusk's visit to Finland in late May. (CONFIDENTIAL)
6. Lateral Services: The Saigon Bureau began limiting its daily Press
and Radio Highlights to About 20 -Inapt' to sneed distribution The bureau
recently began supplying with
significant items for use in a daily early-morning briefing. During May the
Tokyo Bureau transmitted 97 items totaling approximately 50,000 words to the
USIS Press Section via the new FBIS-USIS circuit. (COFFIDENTIAL)
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 30 June 1966
7. Use of EMS Materials: Consumers recently estimated that 86-90 percent
of the material they receive on the CPR leadership struggle and ideological
dispute is supplied by FBIS. To meet the continuing demand, page allocations
in the Far East Daily Report for such material have been sharply increased.
During the height of the conflict between the Buddhists and the South Vietnam
Government, the UCS. Embassy in Saigon made constant reference in cables to
FBIS material monitored from the Hue and Da Nang radios. The MACY Political
Warfare Section utilized Saigon Bureau files in preparing a report on Viet Cong
attitudes toward South Vietnamese elections. A cable from the U.S. Embassy in
Vientiane noted that the fate of an American pilot held by the Pathet Lao came
to light as a result of an FBIS-monitored item.
A State Department airgram to Moscow, Hong Kong, and diplomatic
missions in Latin America called their attention to FBIS' Radio Propaganda
Report on the impact of the Havana Tricontinental Conference, and requests
were received to release the report to Venezuelan President Leoni and to the
Uruguayan intelligence service.
Eighteen percent of the items appearing in the OCI Digest during May
were based wholly or in part on FBIS reporting. (SECRET)
8. Guantanamo Crisis: The Key West and East Coast Bureaus provided
round-the-clock coverage of Cuban broadcasts, including two strong statements
by Fidel Castro charging the United States with aggressive intentions, during
the crisis which followed the 21 May shooting incident at Guantanamo Naval
Base. Key West Bureau alerted the COMKWESTFOR, Admiral Christopher, within
minutes after Castro's statements on the evening of 27 May and continued to
keep the admiral's command center and other key offices fully informed through-
out the night. Admiral Christopher later personally congratulated FBIS for its
"very excellent work." (CONFIDENTIAL)
9. Czechoslovak Fartz_Congr,e_ss) At FBIS' suggestion, the BBC detailed
two Czech monitors to the Austrian Bureau to help cover the Czechoslovak
Communist Party Congress which began 31 May. The arrangement proved to be
worthwhile as many important speeches and developments of the congress were
either inaudible or poorly received in England, and the several days delay in
processing which mailing of recordings from Vienna would have entailed was
avoided. The Austrian Bureau rescheduled editorial and teletype shifts to
provide extended service during the congress. (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
10. fappl2ments and Reports: A 48-page Rabotnichesko Delo account of
Premier Todor Zhivkov's 26 April report to the Bulgarian Communist Party
Central Committee plenum on "Managing the National Economy" was published as a
Daily Report supplement 17 May. The text of First Secretary Antonin Novotny's
report to the 13th Congress of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, as printed in
the Bratislava Pravda, was also published as a Daily Report supplement 9 June.
(UNCLASSIFIED)
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 30 June 1966
11. Chinese Monitor Recruiting: Okinawa Bureau's operations officer
visited Taipei 16-20 May to test qualified applicants for three additional.
Chinese monitor slots recently authorized for the bureau. Two of six
applicants who met FBIS requirements will be offered immediate employment.
During May the Tokyo Bureau requested security clearances for three Mandarin
monitors to replace two monitors who are resigning and to fill an additional
authorized slot. (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
12. Reotganization Studies: Within the context of overall DDI planning
and programing, two studies affecting the future organization and functions
of FBIS are now being made by working groups consisting of representatives of
the various Agency components concerned. One of these groups, concerned with
the feasibility of incorporating propaganda analysis functions in the Office
of Current Intelligence, has completed its investigative work and is now
preparing its recommendations. The second group, concerned with the
feasibility of combining foreign radio and document exploitation in overseas
installations, is in the process of preparing individual position papers for
group study and coordination in a final working group recommendation. The
deadline for completion of the work of the first group is 1 September, and the
second group 1 December. are representing 50X1
FBIS in the propaganda analysts stuay and are 50X1
representing FBIS in the study on combining radio and document exploitation.
(SECRET)
13. Briefings and Visits: Mr. William Hutton, BBC Finnish-English
monitor, toured the East Coast Bureau and was briefed by Headquarters officers
during a recent private visit to Washington. Visitors to the Mediterranean
Bureau during May included Marine Corps Major Conroy, for the semiannual
inspection of the Marine guard detachment, and two officers from the Sixth
Fleet, who visited the bureau in connection with sea evacuation planning. Miss
Mary Franklin, newly assigned First Secretary (Information) at the British
Embassy, visited the Saigon Bureau in late May. (CONFIDENTIAL)
14. Training: The chief of the West Coast Bureau recently attended the
Senior Management Seminar on the Managerial Grid while on TDY in Washington,
and the chief of the East Coast Bureau completed an executive development
course the first week of May. (CONFIDENTIAL)
FIELD OPERATIONS AND ENGINEERING
15. Coverage Develaments: Reliable reception of a new Dominican Govern-
ment transmitter permitted the East Coast Bureau to assume coverage of the
Dominican domestic service on 22 June, making it unnecessary to assign
additional monitors on Thy to the Caribbean Bureau. On 26 May the Hokkaido
Bureau assumed responsibility for covering a TASS domestic press circuit after
reception of the transmission at the Austrian Bureau deteriorated. (FOR
OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 30 June 1966
16. Broadcastiaa Developments: The USSR expanded Russian-language broad-
casts on its international service by 73 hours a week during May, raising the
total hours of such broadcasts to 201 a week. Moscow's Second Program, "Mayak,"
now broadcasts continuously for more than 17 hours a day on a minimum of two
and a maximum of 26 international service transmitters. Moscow's Fifth Program,
specifically designed for Russian-speaking foreign audiences, now broadcasts 77
hours weekly. Full coverage is provided by the BBC. (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
17. Headeuerters AUTODIN: Western Union officials have advised that the
Fort Detrick DCA AUTODIN center will be activated during the latter part of
August 1966, thus making it possible for FBIS to enter the AUTODIN network.
Appropriate equipment will be installed in the FBIS Communications Section
prior to Detrick's AUTODIN activation. (FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY)
ADMINISTRATION
18. Emergency Addressees: Personnel are reminded that the emergency
addressee designated in Form 61, Current Residence and Dependency Report,
Section 4, must reside in the United States and not with the employee overseas.
(CONFIDENTIAL)
19. Savings Bond Authorization: Personnel preparing Form 2254, U.S.
Savings Bond Authorization for Purchase and Request for Change, should be sure
that zip code and social security numbers are entered in the appropriate blocks
of the form. Bonds cannot be issued unless both numbers are provided.
(UNCLASSIFIED)
20. Disposal of Equipment: When requesting authority to dispose of equip-
ment, bureaus should supply the following information:
a. Type of equipment
b. Number of units to be disposed of
c. Model and serial number of each unit (if not available,
so indicate)
d. Proposed method of disposal. (UNCLASSIFIED)
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SUBJECT: Letter of Information, 30 June 1966
EDITORIAL
1, LI?Emtive FYI's: To prevent possible misinterpretation by lateral
consumers, interpretive FYI's containing editors' or monitors' observations on
the program content and beaming of communist broadcasts should be filed to
Headquarters only, flagged "COPY TO RPD."
2. Marginal Materiak: Bureau editors are reminded that they can help
alleviate the Editorial Division's summertime problems of manpower, shortage
and publishing backlog through judicious selection and the discarding of
marginal material.
PERSONNEL
3. New E9loyees
Assignment
Clerk Typist, Caribbean Bureau
Editor, East Coast Bureau
Teletypist, Caribbean Bureau
Driver, Caribbean Bureau
50X1
4. Ins_s_La
From To
Teletype Supervisor Teletype Supervisor
50X1
Editorial Division Tokyo Bureau
Editor Editor, Wire Service Br.,
London Bureau Editorial Division
c
Separations
From
50X1
Info Control Clerk, Administrative Staff
Analyst, Radio Propaganda Division
6.
WY in Headquarters
Orientation and temporary Daily Report editor while
50X1
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en route from London
Bureau to West Coast Bureau
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Briefing and return to Caribbean Bureau
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Acting Director
Foreign" :adcast Information Service
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