JOURNAL - OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL TUESDAY - 29 JULY 1969

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP71B00364R000200010022-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 11, 2006
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: July 29, 1969
• Content Type: NOTES

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S .C E
Journal - Office of Legislative Counsel Page 2
Tuesday - 29 July 1969
4. (Secret - JGO) Met with Representative Edward Hebert (D., La.
who advised that he has received some questions from other members of
the Louisiana delegation concerning the closeout of the air field at New
Iberia, Louisiana. I advised Representative Hebert that it was my under-
standing that GSA would be turning over the air field to the parish early
this fall on schedule but that I would check the details and be back in touch
with him.
5. (Confidential - JGO) Met with Mrs. Mary McLaughlin, Senate
Foreign Relations Committee staff, who advised the Committee does still
need the transcripts of the Director's briefing of23 June on a daily basis.
I also received from her a copy of the Committee's hearing schedule for
this week.
6. (Confidential - JGO) Conversations with various Committee
personnel after the Director's briefing of the House Armed Services
Committee today indicated that the briefing was not only well received
but considered by some as one of the most interesting and capable pre-
sentations that has been given to the Committee.
7. (Secret - JMM) Accompanied the Director and Messrs. Duckett,
Bruce Clark, Carver and to a briefing of the full House Armed
Services Committee on the subject of Soviet and ChiCom military forces.
See Memo for the Record and transcript.
8. (Secret - JMM) Briefed Robert Michaels, House Appropriations
Committee staff, on the status of a long-standing defector case. Mr. Michaels
showed no particular concern or curiosity.
Briefed Mr. Michaels on recent developments regarding Sino-Soviet
relations and the Soviet naval visit to Cuba.
Mr. Michaels said he had in mind the Director's request for a date
with Chairman Mahon but had been unable to confirm a time with the Chairman.
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Journal - Office of Legislative Counsel
Tuesday - 29 July 1969
Page 3
25X1A
9. (Secret - JMM) Met with Senator J. W. Fulbright regarding
his 17 July query to Secretary Laird concerning
I reminded the Senator that Carl Duckett had briefed him
on this on 7 May. He recalled the briefing and said he understood the
sensitivity of the matter and would deal with it accordingly, but he could
not remember what had spurred his inquiry or even the fact that he had
signed the letter to Secretary Laird in this connection. He suggested I
take the matter up with Carl Marcy, Chief of Staff of the_5en. te Foreign
,Relations Committee.
I met with Carl Marcy and told him in very general terms of the
nature and sensitivity of the project and asked his cooperation in protecting
its security. He too was vague on the background of the Senator's query
to Laird, but said he recalled that Fulbright had "gotten some inquiries
25X1A from somebody Marcy also
recalled "having heard something about this" from Joe Wolf in the State
Department. Marcy said he would look into it further and assured me
that he would cooperate in maintaining the necessary security.
Legislative Counsel
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Mr. Houston
Mr. Goodwin
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 HUMAN EVENTS
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On a subject as important ?h 1
a
By JOHN LOFTON
s w et ier The fact that there really were no dif- might also be usable as a door stop,
or not this country should or should ferences between the two was noted in
not build a missile defense system, it is but because it might be doesn't in any
sad to see opponents of the ro osed the New York Times, but one had to be way negate its capability as a first-
Safcguard ABM haninn: the prop a pretty persistent reader t
r:_A ?. ., :,. .-.
o
i
h
n t
--
e uebate.
The two chief obfuscators are
Senators J. William Fulbright and
Albert Gore. Unable to find any
significant chinks in the armor of
Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird's
arguments for the ABM, the
senator from Arkansas and the
senator from Tennessee have be-
gun to play words-semantics-pick
nits.
e 20tn paragraph of their fro
So h
t
i
n
-
, page st av
ng been shot down on these
the ory, the Times reported: "While two points, it's back to the drawing'
e Intelligence Board may have not board for Senators Fulbright and Gore,
made any findings supporting the Laird And when they return with new charges,
conclusions, committee members, when- as they most certainly will, it is to be
pressed by reporters, acknowledged that hoped that they will eschew pettifoggery
the board had not made any findings' on the ABM issue, because to indulge
contradicting the Laird first-strike in such tactics on so crucial a subject.
assessment."
The Boston .Globe quoted Sen. Ful-
bright himself admitting the same thin
:
g
"My own feeling is that the conclusions
The idea, you see, has been twofold: of the secretary are not based on the
first, to spread the word that there are conclusions of the United States Intel
major differences between Secretary ligence Board." Which is exactly the
Laird's estimates of a Soviet first-strike point: The fact that Secretary Laird's
capability and that of the top-level, evaluations of Soviet first-strike capabili-
inter-agency body that coordinates Intel- ties are not based on the evaluations of
ligence estimates, the United States In- ? the U.S. Intelligence Board is attribut-
telligence Board; and, secondly, to try able not to a disagreement on in-
and make appear as a major shift telligence information or interpretation
Laird's recent statements that in addi- of that information, but rather to the
tion to having a first-strike capability, fact that the U.S. Intelligence Board has
the Soviet SS-9 missile could also have simply made no such evaluation! And
a second-strike capability, to try and conclude from the board's
% silence on the subject, two things being established, it Fuibrghthave done, ct~ as Gore and
that there is a
would then be a short hop, skip and a basic- disagreement, with,, Laird Is"assessu
jump to a total discrediting of every- ment, is a mischievous non sequitur.
thing Laird said in the past and -the
case for the ABM would have been On the subject of the second-
dealt the coup de grace. strike as well as the first-strike cap-
Only a funny thing happened to Sen
ators Gore and Fulbright on their way
to discredit Secretary Laird: During the
five-hour, closed-door grilling of Laird,
accompanied by CIA Director Richard
Helms, the anti-ABM forces were un-
able to show any differences at all be-
tween the secretary of defense and the
U.S. Intelligence Board.
A source inside the Foreign R l~-
tionsCommittee says that cs~ite
ri nfous ,_C.CQ,SS.~..g2S.1A7.tAahLgA_,._.~.,~._~b
Curd-.and Hclts,,,_.ncit.her.Fulbright _W
Gyre were able to. .establish any
iscrepancics whatsoever between. _.tbe
_LXQL
(One senator who saw the press,
stories the next day reporting on such
differences, chuckled, and remarked to
an assistant, "I wonder where the
papers get this kind of stuff. It simply
isn't true.")
abilities of the Soviet super missile,
the SS-9, Senators Gore and Ful-
bright again muddy the water.
Accusing Secretary Laird of com-
pletely changing the meaning of first-
strike capability because of his noting
the additional capabilities of the SS-9,
they seem unable to grasp the fact that
one day a person can say a machine
gun may be used to initiate a fusillade
of bullets, and the next day that same
person can say that that same gun may
also be used to fire back after being
fired on, and that there is no contradic-
tion in the two statements. The SS-9
debate but to- endanger the~security ~ of
this nation as well.
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