LETTER TO NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER FROM W. E. COLBY RE FOLLOW-UP ON OUR CONVERSATION

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 01435030
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: August 7, 2017
• Case Number: F-2007-00094
• Publication Date: September 18, 1974

_ -
Approved for Release: 2017/01/18 C01435030
SECRE SITIVE
(b)(3)
18 September 1974
The Honorable Nelson A. Rockefeller
The Vice President-Designate
Washington, D. C.
Dear Governor:
Following up on our conversation, I forward herewith several items
that might be of value to your preparations for your hearings:
a. A copy of a letter to the President, with attachments, sum-
marizing our oversight arrangements with the Congress;
b. A memorandum. on the international law aspects.
With respect to Chile, the recent exposure occurred as the result
of the leak of a letter Congressman Harrington wrote to the Chairman
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Morgan. Congressman
Harrington had tried to get into our operations in Chile in a House
Foreign Affairs Subcommittee meeting at which I testified but where I
refused to talk about our operational matters. He then pressed Con-
gressman Nedzi to have a full hearing on it, and I provided all the details
to Congressman Nedzi in that testimony. Thereafter, Congressman
Harrington, under the House rules, requested and was granted access to
the transcript of that testimony under a pledge of secrecy. That trans-
cript has not been released elsewhere. One problem is that Mr. Har-
rington's letter, Tab E of the attached, states that I said that our program
was one of '.destabilizing H the Allende regime. I did not use that term in
my testimony, and it is not a fair representation of our program from
1971 on of sustaining democratic forces looking to an election in 1976.
We did not have anything to do with the military coup of 1973. At this
point, several issues are in the forefront:
a. Arrangements for Congressional oversight of CIA;
b. Whether CIA should or should not continue covert action;
SECRE
This document may be
downgraded to 1,Xy�cie,-ss
when enclosure is detached.
JIVE
pproved for Release: 2017/01/18 C01435030
Approved for Release: 2017/01/18 C01435030
Mkt I 'VC
-2-
c. The specifies of our program in Chile.
May 1 recall to your attention that you were present at a meeting
of the PF1AB on 3 and 4 December 1970,at which a considerable dis-
cussion took place on Chile. My records do not indicate the degree to
which this went into operational detail, but perhaps your memory will
recall this. I point this out so that you will be prepared against any
inadvertent statement that you had never been briefed on our activities
in this regard.
also attach for your possible information my prepared remarks
at the Conference on CIA and Covert Actions on 13 September, which
received a certain degree of publicity. Some of the questions above are
covered in these statements.
By the time of your testirriony, of course, President Ford .ay well
have made some arrangements with the Senate and House 1eadeinp as
to how to handle these matters. I will try to ensure that you arnformed
of any such decisions.
Res c
AfF.
pproved for Release: 2017/01/18 001435030