LETTER (Sanitized)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R001000160002-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: July 14, 2005
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: January 16, 1975
• Content Type: LETTER

Q Z)h RhWeive 2005/07/20: CIA-
Last February,
01495RQW
asking about orientation trips. Knowing how our admin peop e
work, I'm not very surprised that we never got an answer.
Nevertheless, we would like to take trips--all our predecessors
did--and so we have to know how to go about applying.
Among the many questions we have area
"'Are trips for people already overseas still allowed?
-,How long can the trips be?
-' Do we have to send a detailed itinerary home?
-'What sort of justification is required? In the past these
have been simple orientation trips, Both
and I are capaile
STAT
STAT
of making up justifications at least as good as those of people
who have visited here.
;, How long in advance do we have to apply?
To whom do we apply'?
e.-What sort of funding is this to be charged to? (The finance people
here won't give us money until they know what numbers to put on
the forms.)
I'd appreciate anything you can do about this, at least a hint
to admin that it is customary to answer cables within three months.
STAT
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I just got here a few months ago, but as I understand the new system,
my successor is suppossed to be chosen a year in advance--by next June.
The attached paper may be of some use to everyone in making the selection.
If you use it, presumably you will want to change the
Ito English.
One point in the paper may have come through slightly stronger
than I intend it. I am not trying to support the mystery cult of
Far East expertise. I have been told many times how difficult it is
to understand the Oriental mind and the resulting politics. One big
argument of those initiated into the religion is that
politics
is so complex that it can be understood only after years of study
at the feet of a master. The truth is that
more complicated thali
politics is
politics but less complicated than
The prize for complicated politics, of course, is
no longer given, everyone having dropped out of the contest after
the Lebanese won 16 years in a row.
The point I was trying to make is that it is much easier to
brief on Cambodia if you know who Lon Nol is, how dihanouk got
thrown out, and where the Mekong river is. You don't need to
understand Khmer society in any great depth.
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