DIRECTOR'S MEETING WITH SENATOR J.W. FULBRIGHT, 9 JUNE 1969

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00337R000100130025-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 11, 2006
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: June 10, 1969
• Content Type: MFR

Approved For Release 2007/02/07 : C& I0337R4U0100130025-7
10 June 1969
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Director' a Meeting with Senator J. W. Fulbright. 9 June 1969
1. On 9 June the Director called on Senator J. W. Fulbright to
explain the difficulties of attempting to answer in writing the Senator' a
questions contained in his letter to the Director of 2 June. The Senator
seemed to accept this, but explained to the Director his difficulties in
trying to keep the Administration and the Defense Department "honest"
in connection with the Safeguard debate and the various claims and leaks
as to the Soviet SS-9, etc.
2. The Senator called attention to a number of newspaper
clippings to illustrate his point that a great mass of classified information
was already being made public by the Defense Department. Conspicuously
not included among these clippings however was the recent New York Times
story on the subject by John Finney.
3. The Senator then gave the Director a draft speech entitled
ItPrejudice, Intelligence and the ABM' (copy attached) with the request
that it be reviewed from a security standpoint.
4. This morning the Director called a meeting of R. Jack Smith,
Carl Duckett and me to discuss the general problem raised by Senator
Fulbright' a request. Mr. Duckett suggested the possibility of getting
Fuibright and Russell together in an effort to hammer out an agreed
version of the facts which might be properly made public. The Director
spoke of the possibility of taking the problem to the White House. Smith
and I opposed this on the grounds that the White House was a party in
interest and that the Agency's problem was to preserve its independence,
integrity and credibility by not getting involved with any of the contending
factions, but sticking strictly to its responsibilities for preserving intel-
ligence sources and methods and discouraging the selective or escalating
leakage of intelligence information and estimates.
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5. It was concluded that as a first step the Director would
call on Senator Russell and review the problem with him.
6. At the Director's request we have reviewed the draft
speech given him by Senator Fuibright and find it is virtually identical
to an earlier version which Carl Marcy asked us to clear.
MA UR
Legislative Counsel
Distribution:
Original - Subject
V- Chrono
OLC/J!%AM:jmd:gs (11 June 1969)
Approved For Release 2007/02/07 : CIA-RDP72-00337R000100130025-7
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