COMPILATION OF US GOVERNMENT OBLIGATIONS FOR FY-1967 FOR EXTERNAL RESEARCH IN FOREIGN AREA SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES .

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000200010059-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2000
• Sequence Number: 59
• Publication Date: February 16, 1968
• Content Type: MISC

Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000200010059-1
16 February 1968 File: Senate Foreign Relations
SUBJECT: Compilation of US Government obligations for FY-1967
for external research in foreign area social and behavioral
sciences.
Chief, DDI/SRS
Room 1H1122 Hqs.
ORIG. FILED: Sen. Government Operations Committee
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000200010059-1
 2001Q7[Z : CIA-RDp7060033$t~R00 000 W059-1
_pplt-gve or a easgd'_p ? ~'
uy rm.s roQ6CA
FllL8!6i1 QUERY'
ATTACKED BY RUSK
But Senator Rejects Charge:
That Atomic Arms Debate
Is Disservice to Nation
By JOHN W. FINNEY
Special to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 -
Secretary of State Dean Rusk
has suggested that Senator J.
W. Fulbright, chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Corn-
mu tee d41 it disservice to the
country by raising questions
about the possible use of nu-
clear weapons in Vietnam.
In a reply, Senator Fulbright
rejected "the implication that
the discussion of the subject
of use of nuclear weapons in
Vietnam is a disservice to the
nation."
"I believe it would be a
grave disservice to our coun-
try, in truth a disaster, if our
leadership should so expose
Dur troops in Vietnam as to
require nuclear weapons to
?revent their destruction," .the
Arkansas Democrat said in a
statement today.
The Secretary of State and
the Senate's chief foreign policy
spokesman became involved in,
the angry public exchange after
the State Department, without
the advance knowledge or ap-
proval of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, took the
initiative in making public a
letter Mr. Rusk wrote to the
Senator last Saturday.
The letter was in 'reply to
Continued on Page 2, Column 4
last Friday inquiring, on be-
half of the committee, whether
the Administration intended to
introduce nuclear weapons into
South Vietnam.
The' Fulbright letter noted
that the committee had re-
ceived a report from an anony-
mous source that Prof. Richard
L. Garwin of Columbia Uni-
versity and other physicists
who in the past had had some
connection with the develop-
ment of tactical nuclear weap-
ons had been sent urgently
to Vietnam.
As a result of the report,
the letter said, several com-
mittee members suggested that
the chairman ask Mr. Rusk
about the nalure of the Darwin
mission and "ascertain whether
tactical nuclear. weapons have
been or, would be deployed in
South Vietnam."
In a brusque, two-paragraph
reply, Mr. Rusk said Dr. Gar-
win, as a Defense Department
consultant, had gone to Viet-+
nam "to discuss technical
matters of a nonnuclear na-
ture." ' ' `
The Rusk letter, however, did
not directly answer the ques-
tion whether there were any
plans to deploy tactical nuclear
weapons in Vietnam. Instead,
by quoting a statement by the
White House press secretary,
George Christian, Mr. Rusk sug-
gested that the Senator was
being irresponsible and per-
forming a national disservice]
by. taising the question.
Simply `Sincerely'
The Rusk letter said:
"As George Christian said
yesterday _ in response to a
quest to use tactical nuclear
President had `received a re-
quest, to use ?tactial nuclear
weapons in Vietnam under cer-
tain circumstances: 'I think all
of you know that decisions of
this nature rest with the Presi-1
dent. The President has con-
sidered no decision of this na-
ture. I might add that irre-
sponsible discussion and specu-
lation are a disservice to the
country, and I don't intend to
say anything more about the
subject.' "
Mr. Rusk ended his letter
with a simple "Sincerely"-in
marked contrast to the normal
courtesies contained in a letter
to the Senate committee.
The brusqueness of the letter,
combined with its implied
charges against the committee
chairman, provoked consider-
able indignation among some
other members. of the commit-
tee.
Relations between Mr. Rusk
and the committee were already
strained, and it appeared that
the effect of the letter mighti
be to break off communications
between the Secretary and the
committee.
Senator George D. Aiken of
Vermont, a ranking Republican
on the committee, came to the
defense of Senator Fulbright
by saying the Rusk letter was
"about as irresponsible as Gen-
eral Wheeler's statement that
he wouldn't use nuclear wean-
ens unless we begin to get the
worst of it in the battle of
Khesanh."
Suggests 'New Faces'
Without specifically suggest-
ing that Mr. Rusk should re-
sign, Senator Aiken said; "May-
be we need some fresh new
faces downtown."
Gen. Earle G. Wheeler, chair-
man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
in a statement to reporters yes-
terday said he did "not think
nuclear weapons will be re-
quired to defend Khesanh" but
then 'refused to "speculate any
further" when asked whether
the use of nuclear weapons was
being excluded in the event the
marine outpost in northwest
South Vietnam was in danger
of being overrrun by North
Vietnamese forces.
Senator Fulbright, in his
statement after the Rusk letter
was made public, also referred
to the Wheeler statement, which
he said "leaves the impression
that, if needed to defend Khc-
sanh, they [nuclear weapons]
would be used."
"I believe that some other
'alternative for protecting our
)troops should be found," he
said.
Observing that he was "pro-
foundly opposed to having the,
United States destroy the
worldwide psychological bar-
rier against the use of nuclear
weapons which has thus far
existed since Hiroshima and,
Nagasaki," the Fulbright state-
ment said:
"Since we are the only na-
tion which has used nuclear
weapons in anger to destroy
the lives of Asian people, we
have a very special respon-
sibility not again to use these,
]weapons, not in effect to take
the first step toward a general
nuclear cdnflict in which in-
calculable : destruction would
result."
The tone of the Rusk letter
was interpreted on Capitol
hill as a nianifc:;lalion of the
irritable mood of high Admin-
istration officials, including Mr.
Rusk, over the adverse turn of
events in Vietnam.
Senator Aiken said: "Things
like that indicate that all is not
going well for the Administra-
tion; if things had been going)
well, they would have tossed
it (the Fulbright letter] off."
From the Administration side,
however, came the explanation
from State Department officials
that the letter reflected indig-
nation over the committee's ap-
parent role in promoting what,
the Administration considers!
unfounded speculation that nu-'
clear weapons might be used in
Vietnam.
Instead of making private
inquiries, department officials
pointed out, the committee let
out word last week that the
chairman had sent a letter in-
quiring about the deployment
of nuclear weapons to Vietnam,
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000200010059-1