LETTER TO MR. RICHARD HELMS, DIRECTOR FROM LES ASPIN MEMBER OF CONGRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000400050011-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 10, 2005
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: June 27, 1972
• Content Type: LETTER

LES AsP,,Approved For Release 2005/06/22 CIA-RDP74B00415R000400Q 1j1
IIOME OFFICES:
603 MAIN STREET
RACINE, WISCONSIN 53403
414-632-3194
210 DOGE STREET
JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN 53545
608-752-9074
June 27, 1972
Mr. Richard Helms, Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Helms:
SERVICES COMMITTEE
SURCOMMITTEE:
ARMED SERVICES SUBCOMMITTEE #4
WASHINGTON OFFICE:
515 CANNON HOUSE OFFICE
UUILOING
202-225-3031
I am publicly releasing today substantial new evidence
that indicates that U.S. pilots flying CIA-operated helicopters
have been smuggling opium inside Laos. These allegations
are contained in a letter and additional information that
I have received from Mr. Alfred McCoy, author of a forth-
coming book on heroin traffic in Southeast Asia. If these
allegations are true, then the CIA is implicated in fostering
the drug traffic that ruins the lives of tens of thousands
of Americans.
I am writing to you today to request that you thoroughly
investigate Mr. McCoy's allegations. Since Mr. McCoy obtained
his information last summer, it is imperative to determine
whether this kind of drug trafficking is still going on. A
principal unanswered question which the CIA must resolve is:
"At what level in the CIA were officials aware of this illicit
:I hope that you will report tome in full he results
of your investigation.
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Jttne 27, 1972 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - HOUSE
though the first Congress of the United
States met in New York in 1789, in 1790
it chose Philadelphia as the temporary
seat of the new Government when Wash-
ington was President.
As students of history know, the Con-
stitution was not a suddenly devised
framework of government but the cul-
mination of experience dating back to
the Magna Carta of 1215 when 25 bar-
ons of England united to force King
John to sign and observe it.
The Baronial Order of Magna Carta,
composed of men who are lineal de-
scendants of these 25 barons of England,
and of which William Hannis Perot of
Philadelphia is Marshal, customarily
commemorates the signing of the Magna
Carta on the Sunday nearest June 15
of each year at historic Christ Church in
Philadelphia, the church attended by
Washington. Most of the members of the
order live in the Philadelphia region;
some in the Washington, D.C. area. This
order through the years has been a
highly effective patriotic group in keep-
ing alive the memories of the Magna
Carta as a vital landmark in the de-
velopment of constitutional liberty.
On June 11, 1972, at this church, the
Barons celebrated the 757th anniversary
of the ensealing of the Magna Carta
in an impressive program led by the rec-
tor, the Reverend Ernest A. Harding,
D.D., in which a member of the order,
the Honorable Maurice H. Thatcher, dis-
tinguished former Member of the Con-
gress from Kentucky, and the sole sur-
viving member of the Isthmian Canal
Commission that. supervised the con-
struction of the Panama Canal, made
the address for the occasion and received
the Annual Award of the Order, which
reads as follows:
The Baronial Order of Magna Carta pre-
sents its Magna Carta Day Award to Gov-
ernor Maurice Hudson Thatcher in recogni-
tion of his service to humanity:
Particularly is this made for his champion-
ing the Freedom of the Individual, further-
ing the significant tradition begun in 1215
by the Barons of England.
(Panama Canal Seal.)
(Kentucky Seal.)
(Picture-ship in Panama Canal.)
Christ Church in Philadelphia.
Magna Carta Sunday, June 11, 1972.
WILLIAM HAATNIS PEROT,
Marshal.
HENRY PICHow KROGSTAD,
Keeper of the Signet.
(NOTE.-Framed with White House Tim-
ber. )
During the program, Governor
Thatcher, together with Marshal Perot,
former Marshal Charles Edgar Hires,
Capt. Miles P. DuVal, Jr., also a member
of the order, and Gilbert H. Dehnel of
Washington, D.C., sat in the George
Washington pew.
So that the indicated address may be
suitably recorded in the annals of the
Congress for the benefit of present and
future readers, I include herewith the
indicated address as part of my remarks:
ADDRESS OF MAVRICE H. THATCHER
To the Members of the Baronial Order of
Magna Carta and their families; friends
and neighbors from Washington, D.C., Phil-
adelphia, and other points; Rev. Doctor
Harding and the membership of this historic
Church, I must extend my deepest thanks
and most grateful appreciation for their
presence on this occasion.
I also wish to thank with like appreciation,
Baron and Mrs. Ross Porter Skillern for the
gracious courtesies accorded myself and my
traveling companion, Mr. Gilbert Dehnel of
Washington, D.C. as guests in their charming
home. Also, my thanks to others.
Then, I wish to give assurance of my most
grateful acknowledgement for the outstand-
Ing honor that was voted to me by the Baro-
nial Order last fall, and now awarded.
When I recall that men of such eminence
as Generals MacArthur and Bradley; Chief
Justice Bell, and certain outstanding mem-
bers of the Baronial Order have been recipi-
ents of this Award, I am indeed, humbly
grateful that I am now thus honored.
I know of no region more historic than
that of Philadelphia, and its environs. In-
dependence Hall and the Liberty Bell have
their significance and memories.
Great appreciation is due the Welsh and
Swedes, as well as the English, Scotch and
others. William Penn and his Quakers struc-
tured a lasting monument. Here Benjamin
Franklin grew into the vast proportions of
a practical idealist, statesman, scientist, and
successful civic and Revolutionary leader.
This Commonwealth itself is a beautiful
domain. Its great rivers, its mountains and
valleys-together with its farming areas-
present an unexcelled panorama of beauty.
Valley Forge and Gettysburg-and the Get-
tysburg Address-speak for themselves.
Its historic worth is beyond all measure-
ment.
Besides the Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania there are three other Commonwealths
in our American Union, namely, Massachu-
setts, Virginia and Kentucky.
My own Commonwealth of Kentucky-
with the aid of Daniel Boone, himself a na-
tive of Pennsylvania, led the effort for the
early settlement of Kentucky; and in time's
course, there were born in Kentucky, the
respective leaders of the North and South in
the Civil War era, Lincoln and Davis.
During my service in the Congress as Rep-
resentative of the Louisville and Jefferson
County, Kentucky District (1923-33), I had
pleasant relationships, on both sides of the
aisle, with Pennsylvania members of the
House. I make special reference to Doctor
Henry W. Temple of the Washington Dis-
trict, J. Banks Kurtz, of the Altoona District,
and Thomas Butler of West Chester.
Dr. Temple, as a member of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, and on special
National Park assignments, occupied posts
where he was able to serve my efforts-and
did serve them-to obtain enactment of
Bills I sponsored. They were important meas-
ures, and became laws-such as the Acts
creating the National Cave Mammoth Park in
Kentucky, and the Gorgas Memorial Labora-
tory in the City of Panama, an institution
dedicated to research touching the cause
and prevention of tropical diseases, both
human and veterinary.
The Laboratory, starting with an annual
authorization of $50,000, now has an annual
budget of a million dollars; and Congress
also has authorized and appropriated sev-
eral millions for expansion of the Laboratory
activities, made necessary by the great func-
tions it has been called upon to serve.
Indeed, its achievements have been of
such character as to make of it the out-
standing institution of its kind in all the
world. Panama is an ideal spot for such
activity.
For more than 40 years, I served as the
Vice President and General Counsel of the
parent institute; and am yet filling the post
of General Counsel; and am now the Hon-
orary Life President of the Institute. All
these services, I may say, have been rendered
without compensation.
Some of you will recall that I was a Mem-
ber of the Isthmian Canal Commission
H 6191
under appointment of President Taft, in
April 1910. I served until August 1913-all
during the construction era.
My identification with the great enter-
prise throughout my tenure was also that
of Civil Governor of the Canal Zone.. Colonel
William C. Gorgas of Yellow Fever fame, was
also a Member of the Commission; and we
had our official headquarters in the same
building.
I was charged with certain duties which
supported him in his important health and
sanitary work; and it has given me great
pleasure, in and out of Congress, in the
years that followed, to have the opportunity
to further provide for expansion of tropical
research:
The Republic of Panama ceded to our In-
stItute, for the purposes of a laboratory, im-
portant lands and buildings in the City of
Panama, and we have erected additional
structures with Congressional funds.
On an occasion of this character, it Is ex-
pected, I believe, that the Awardee should
submit some remarks dealing with mat-
ters of current concern.
This is the Age of Violence. Never in hu-
man history has there been such brutal con-
duct by people In the world, as is now tak-
ing place.
Under science the miracle of today be-
comes the commonplace of tomorrow.
The great achievements of science have
been, in large measure, utilized by evilminded
individuals for the most wicked deeds which
mankind has ever conceived.
Conununism-the deadliest of evils, is busy
as never before. We must wisely deal with
these conditions, else they will destroy us.
For this reason I speak of them.
Assassinations, murders, thefts, robberies,
holding for ransom, hi-jacking, guerrilla
monstrosities; slaying by wholesale of the
innocent and defenseless, and degeneracies,
have become, the order of the day. No de-
praved or cruel act is missing.
The news media, in every category, In
large measure, are being prostituted; and
the old Commandments, containing the es-
sence of life experience; and the noble in-
structions of the Sermon on the Mount, are
being discarded in the world-at-large, and
held in contempt.
We canonize our criminals. They get the
publicity, the sympathy, and the eulogies,
and the acquittals. Our virtues are kept un-
der the bushel, and fail in inspirational
value. The red-carpet treatment has all too
often been accorded by naive courts, juries,
and others charged with the responsibilities
affecting the social structure. Shrewd, bold,
conscienceless members of my own profes-
sion, often go beyond all decent bounds, and
defy the courts, and enable the worst crimi-
nals to escape the whips of justice, and re-
peat their offenses.
The TV and radio, and other media with
certain exceptions, which so often have in-
structed and inspired, and with so much
potential for good, have all too oft become
sewers of filth and degeneracy. In 'large
measure, the children are neglected, and left
to establish their own associations and con-
siderations-with the inevitable results.
No further enumeration is required. How-
ever, we cannot ignore what is so patent;
such things bring disaster. I am a firm be-
liever in the divine mission of Man; but I
can have, of course, no conception as to the
time he must live and struggle before he
scales the peaks of lasting good. He has come
far, but yet has far to go. Meantime, we must
may seem to be.
Also, it is fortunate that most of our hu-
mankind are optimists, rather than pessi-
mists. They are moved by the consideration
that the glass is half-full, rather than half
empty. Only virtue makes for lasting peace
and happiness. War is monstrous, yet, It has
always obtained. Thus, the race muddles on.
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -HOUSE June 27; 1972
In our own country, we stand in greater thor of a forthcoming book on heroin
need of what we call conscience. Order is traffic in Southeast Asia, which details
Heaven's first law; the Universe, with the the allegation of United States and CIA
infinity of celestial bodies, is regulated by complicity in drug traffic. If these allega-
law and maintained in order. The human bons are true, then the CIA is Implicated
creature on our own planet-as well as those
which may inhabit any like orbs-is en- in fostering the drug traffic that ruins the
dowed with the faculty of reason; with faith, lives of tens of thousands of Americans.
that is to say, reasoned hope; with the belief According to the information Mr.
of the purein heart that the soul shall have McCoy has given me, a Laotian district
immortal being. chief and other officials have told him
"H ts oif to the past and coats off to the fj
f
-
t
o
ers ew co
that American helicop
future." must yet be the homely slogan. fifers into Laotian villages where they
I believe that mirth and music are mate- Member r of Congress.
m was also
i
i
Th
e op
um.
u
rial gifts from Heaven to Man, in compensa- purchased op
tion for the tragedies of life. Good thought transported out by American pilots and
and conduct constitute good morals. Evil is planes to Long Tieng, the CIA headquar-
the exact opposite. If we transgress, we are ters in Northern Laos where it was al.
punished, in one way or another. legedly refined into morphine and even-
All the qualities of humanity that are pos- tually heroin.
sessed of hope, faith, courage, diligence, rea-
son, love of home and country, vision and colleagues know, had been recruited by
noble ideals, must be exercised as indispen-
sable labors in humanity's forward march. the CIA and form a mercenary army
Apropos, the spirit of reverence and the which fights the Pathet Lao Communist
Church must perform their necessary roles. guerrillas. For the Meo, opium is consid-
These observations are indeed trite. The erect an important cash crop.
multiplication table is trite, but reliance on Mr. Speaker, I have asked CIA Director
the mathematics of Newton took the Astro-
nauts Richard Helms to thoroughly investigate
space. to the moon, and thru the voids of Mr. McCoy's allegations. Since Mr. Me-
Our Baronial order-whose members are Coy obtained his information late last
decendants of sureties of A.D. 1215, has great summer it is imperative to determine
opportunity for noble and patriotic service. whether this kind of drug trafficking is
It has also great responsibility, and, I be- still going on. A principal, unanswered
lieve, is meeting its obligations with fine question which the CIA must resolve is
dispatch. "At what level in the CIA were officials
The Magna Charts is a lengthy instru-
ment aware of this illicit drug traffic?"
aof to 61 hold in articles.
restraint, June a cruel, 12, 1215, It ddespotic was It is also becoming increasingly clear,
adopted dop
King John of England. Twenty-five sureties Mr. Speaker, that the Nixon administra-
were named from the roster of Barons, to tion is covering up and contradicting
require the arbitrary King to pay allegiance itself about the importance of heroin
to the Great Charter, which relates to bene- traffic in Southeast Asia. After Mr. Me-
fits and property and other rights to the Coy testified before a Senate committee
Barons, as well as the people in general. last month the State Department termed
Charta, Under the England, and benefits the cou a course conferred of f civil and Magna his charges about the involvement of
d
religious liberty made lasting progress. Government officials in Southeast Asia
The next great document of liberty was as "unsubstantiated." However, the U.S.
the Mayflower Compact, adopted in Novem- Army Provost Marshal reported in 1971
her 1620 by the Pilgrims in Cape Cod Harbor. that high ranking members of the South
It was brief, but of essential character. It Vietnamese Government were in the top
provided, in simple words, a comprehensive, "zone" of the four-tiered heroin traffic
organic and formal insrtument enabling the
establishment of Plimoth Plantation-on the pyramid.
midMcCoy, . quite rightly, also disputes
Plymouth Rock site, binding equally on all:
and assuring total equality, and to make all the State Department's claim that
needed laws. Under it, the Pilgrims lived and "Southeast Asia is not a major source of
prospered, with complete civil and religious heroin on our market." This statement
liberty. by the State Department directly con-
This modest compact proved to be the tradicts a General Accounting Office re-
of which rooted and grew to the great oak port which states that:
of our Constitutional government, which we
must uphold and sustain. The Far East is the second principal source
In conclusion, let me say, as did Tiny Tim of heroin entering the U.S.
in the immortal Christmas Story of Dickens, Mr. Speaker, it is imperative to deter
mine bless us all, each and everyone!" mine whether the CIA is still involved In
CIA SMUGGLES OPIUM the alleged Involvement of the CIA with
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a
My letter to Mr. . Helms follows:
previous order of the House, the gentle- HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
man from Wisconsin (Mr. ASPIN) is M- 'Washington, D.C., June 27, 1972.
ognized for 5 minutes. Mr. RICHARD HELMS,
Mr. ASPIN. Mr. Speaker, I am releas- Director, Central Intelligence Agency,
ing today substantial new evidence that Washington, D.C.
indicates U.S. Pilots flying CIA operated. DEAR MR. HELMS: I am publicly releasing
helicopters have been smuggling opium today substantial new evidence that indi-
inside Laos. cotes that U.S. pilots flying CIA-operated
What this new evidence indicates Is helicopters have been smuggling opium in-
that U.S. pilots using U.S.-owned planes side Laos. These allegations are contained in
are illegally smuggling opium in Laos, a letter and additional information that I
have received from Mr. Alfred McCoy, author
some of which has almost certainly been of a forthcoming book on heroin traffic in
sold to U.S. GI's in Southeast Asia and Southeast Asia. If these allegations are true,
some of which has almost certainly been then the CIA is implicated in fostering the
smuggled into illicit U.S. drug markets. drug traffic that ruins the lives of tens of
I am releasing today a letter which I thousands of Americans.
have received from Alfred McCoy, au- I am writing to you today to request that
you thoroughly investigate Mr. McCoy's alle-
gations. Since Mr. McCoy obtained his in-
formation last summer, it is imperative to
determine whether this kind of drug traffick-
ing is still going on. A principal unanswered
question whichthe CIA must resolve is: "At
what level In the CIA were officials aware of
this illicit drug traffic?".
I hope that you will report to me
the results of your investigation.
Thank you for your cooperation.
ROONEY REQUESTS HALF BILLION
FOR RELIEF OF FLOOD RAVAGED
STATES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a
previous order of the.House, the gentle-
man from Pennsylvania (Mr. ROONEY) Is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. ROONEY of Pennsylvania. Mr.
Speaker, in the wake of probably the
most destructive flood in America's his-
tory I have today announced that I will
request an additional half billion dollars
in Federal funds for relief in the five
States which have been declared disaster
areas by President Nixon.
The $92.5 million now available to the
States in the President's disaster relief
fund will not begin to compensate the
losses suffered by the five States. If
Pennsylvania were to receive the entire
$92.5 million it would cover only about 10
percent of the cost of putting the State
back together.
I have introduced legislation to provide
relief funds in the amount of one-half
billion dollars to the States which have
been declared disaster areas by the Presi-
dent. This money would be disbursed by
the Office of Emergency Preparedness
whose primary function is the adminis-
tration of the President's disaster relief
fund. In past crises involving disaster
areas in several States OEP has appor-
tioned financial aid to the States accord-
ing to the amount of damage sustained
in the respective States. This is the only
fair and realistic method of tackling the
massive cleanup job ahead.
Pennsylvania, hardest hit by the flood-
ing by a wide margin, would receive the
lion's share of the supplemental appro-
priation, and Florida, having the least
amount of damage of the five States,
would receive the smallest portion. The
remaining money would be distributed by
OEP to Virginia, Maryland, and New
York.
Other Members and I of the Pennsyl-
vania delegation will meet with Governor
Shapp today to discuss the crippling ef-
fects of the flood.
I hope to explore all avenues of Federal
assistance with the Governor and arrive
at some concrete goals with regard to
the needs of the stricken Pennsylvania
communities.
BEEF PRODUCERS. GET SHORT END
OF STICK
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a
previous order of the House, the gentle-
man from Kansas (Mr. SKUBITZ) is rec-
ognized for 10 minutes.
Mr. SKUBITZ. Mr. Speaker, in my
opinion the action the President took on
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