JOURNAL - OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000100110004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 19, 2006
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: July 27, 1972
• Content Type: NOTES

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Journal - Office of Legislative Counsel Page 3
Thursday - 27 July 1972
10. I I Accompanied Mr. Paul Walsh, ADDI,
to a briefing o Sena ors u right and Aiken and Messrs. Marcy, Moose
and Lowenstein, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on the
subject of alleged bombing of the dikes in North Vietnam. Mr. Walsh
gave an excellent short briefing in which he pointed out the magnitude of the
dike system and then showed a series of photographs showing bomb damage
to some of the dikes. The meeting was quite cordial and seemed to
completely satisfy the Senators and staff although Senator Fulbright did
comment that there was obviously damage done to the dikes whether it was
intentional or not. Senator Symington put in an appearance but left without
asking any questions or making any comment.
11. I I SA/DDS, advised that David
Martin, on cne st i tnsena e internal Security Subcommittee, has called
Clyde Carter, of the Air America office, to get some information from him
on the drug situation and Carter is to meet with Martin on Monday.
12. I In response to his request yesterday,
referred Jay Sourwine, Chief Counsel, Senate Internal Security Subcommittee,
to the Department of State for statistics on the immigration influx into Hong
Kong from Mainland China and told him that we do not have any information
which would substantiate his characterization of the unpublished Paul Scott
column on this subject. I also referred Mr. Sourwine to the article by Lee
Lescaze in today's Washington Post as being a reasonably accurate story.
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3 71"
ERET
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0,Ac 2 O ' 7
3 August 1972
SUBJECT: Questions Raised by Lowenstein at the
Briefing of Senator Fulbright
George --
In the event that Lowenstein inquires about the things he
asked at my briefing of Senator Fulbright on Thursday, 27 July,
you may wish to talk from the following comments:
uestion: Do we have an unclassified map of the dikes?
Answer: No. The maps Lowenstein and I were looking
at at the table are the best that we can do.
We do have a set scaled at I to 50, 000, but
working with this would require working from
about 12 maps, and would be extremely arduous.
Question: Can we confirm damage to a dike or dam at a
place called Minh Chanh?
Answer: We are unable to locate such a place. This
is not uncommon since the North Vietnamese
frequently refer to locations by local names
which are not in our gazetteer. This was
true, for example, in their reporting of the
damage at Nam Sach.
Question: Is there any other post-strike reconnaissance
effort?
Answer: Yes. Under thel rogram. These
are missions flown by both Air Force and Navy
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SICRII
as regular reconnaissance missions along with
the combat strikes. The photography comes
back to us in pretty good time. We don't make
much use of it for several reasons--the volume
is much too great, and it is very fragmentary.
Thus, we find it much easier to work with
I land drone photography which
give us much better coverage. We do like
hotography if the initial readout
from the field reports something that seems to
be significant.
Question: Mr. Lowenstein asked me to try to determine the
earliest dates on which the craters shown in
our 12 boards were detectable.
Answer: With the exception of one board, all of the craters
were results of combat actions between 11 June
and 10 July. The exception is board No. 4 where
the craters shown on the dike were a result of
strikes flown on 10 May. These were the missions
that resulted in the interdiction of the Hai Duong rail
and highway bridge, a major transportation target.
The PI readout in reporting this damage reported
the destruction of the bridge and the existence of
craters along the approaches to the bridge. The
approaches mentioned in the readout were the road
and rail connections to the bridge and were on top
of the dike. I am not able from this distance to
confirm at what point and time the Air Force in
Saigon had access to this photography.
Paul V. Walsh
ADDI
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G .rivet a S
Journal - Office of Legislative Counsel Page 2
Wednesday - 26 July 1972
5. Talked to Dick Cook, who handles the House
side of the Congress for the White House, and told him about our concern
over the Laos ceiling. Cook seemed to be entirely uninformed about the situation.
When I said I understood some thought was being given to solving the problem
-by changes in language, but we believed the complete deletion of the ceiling
would be preferable, Cook agreed. -
6. I Ralph Preston, Staff Assistant, House
Appropriations Committee, called to say Chairman Mahon would like the
Director to appear before the Special Group on Wednesday, 2 August at
10:00 a. m. for a world roundup briefing.
7. ~ I Jim Lowenstein, Senate Foreign Relations
Committee staff, called to confirm our briefing of Chairman Fulbright
tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 regarding the bombing of dikes question. He said
Chairman Fulbright would like Senator Aiken to attend and wanted to be sure
we would bring photographic material.
8. 1 1 Called Ed Braswell, Chief Counsel, Senate
Armed Services Committee, and said the Agency had. no interest in the
Nelson amendment which would cut off funds for any activities designed to
modify weather conditions for military purposes.
9.1 I During the Director's appearance on the
Hill, I receive a ca Irom ivir. Ralph Preston, House Appropriations
Committee staff, who told me the Chairman has scheduled Wednesday morning,
2 August, at 10:00 for briefing of the Special Group. He has decided against a
briefing of the Defense Subcommittee. In a second conversation he said that
since the Director is on the Hill, the Chairman would appreciate it if Mr. Helms
could stop by his office in the Capitol, Room H 218, after he finishes his
session with the Armed Services Committee. The Director was advised.
10. Talked to Mr. Jack Sullivan and Miss Helen
Mattas, House Foreign Affairs Committee staff, and confirmed the final
arrangements for the Director's briefing of the full Foreign Affairs Committee
tomorrow, 27 July, at 10:00 a. m.
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I)II
,ADDENDUM TO JOURNAL
OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL
Tuesday - 25 July 1972
2. Received a call from Mr. Frank Slatinshek,
Chief Counsel, House Armed Services Committee, who told me that Senator
Jackson (D. , Wash.) had posed a number of questions to Secretary Laird in
his appearance before Senate Armed Services yesterday. The same questions
may well be asked of the. Director in his appearance tomorrow before House
Armed Services. Mr. Slatinshek will make a copy of them available for him
early in the morning.
A sistant Legislative Counsel
cc:
O /DDC:T
Mr. Houston
Mr. Thuermer
I
DDI
DDS
DDS&T
EA/DDP
OPPB
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Journal - Office of Legislative Counsel
Tuesday - 25 July 1972
Page 2
4. I I Jim Lowenstein, Senate Foreign Relations ,
Committee staff, called and said Chairman Fulbright would like him, Carl
Marcy and Richard Moose to attend the Chairman's briefing by an Agency
representative on the bombing of dikes in North Vietnam. They proposed
3:30 Thursday, 27 July, in room S-116 in the Capitol. Paul Walsh, Acting DDI
who will do the briefing has been notified.
5. I I Talked to Marshall Wright, Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for Congressional Relations, and explained that we would
prefer that Mr. Abshire not attend our breakfast meeting with Senator Henry
Bellmon and his group of junior Republican senators.
Mr. Wright spoke of the shambles resulting from yesterday's Senate
action on the foreign aid bill and said the Administration now had three options--
a new bill in the Senate, a House bill (which the Senate would probably mutilate)
or submit the entire old foreign aid bill as an amendment to the military
authorization. He predicted that the second alternative, the House bill, would
be the most likely prospect.
I raised the question of the Laos ceiling, remarking that we would hope
to see this entire provision struck out in conference. Wright said he was not
up-to-date on this but he did understand that Defense was trying to work out
a deal with Chairman Hebert, House Armed Services Committee, to insert
some "artful language" in the bill that would limit the effect of the ceiling.
I said it seemed to us that having the ceiling struck out entirely would be
far preferable since the "artful language" approach was likely to get us in
trouble and cost us our credibility.
6.1 I Met with Nancy Bearg, Research Assistant,
Senate Armed Services Committee, who briefed me on the highlights of
Secretary Laird's testimony before the Committee yesterday on SALT.
7. I I In the absence of Frank Slatinshek, Chief
Counsel, House Armed Services Committee, I left a message with his secretary,
Miss Kalinowski, reemphasizing what I had told him yesterday.of our serious
concern about the Laos ceiling, and our belief that every possible effort should be
made in conference to strike out this provision entirely, rather than modifying
it with technical changes in the language. Miss Kalinowski was aware of the
problem and said that she didn't think the matter would come up for several weeks.
CO
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CONFIDENTIAL
24 July 1972
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Director's Conversation with Secretary of Defense Laird
Re Chairman Fulbright's Query on Dike Bombing
The Director told me today of his conversation on the 21st of
July with Secretary Laird during which he had asked Laird's wishes
about handling Chairman Fulbright's letter to the Director asking for
a briefing on the bombing of dikes in North Vietnam. Mr. Laird said
he would be glad if the Director would handle this matter since the
Agency had good credibility on the Hill and could probably satisfy
Fulbright that no dikes had been hit intentionally in the course of
U. S. bombing missions.
JOHN M. MAURY
Legislative Counsel
Distribution:
Original - Subject (Sen. For. Rel. )
1 - Chrono
CONFIDENTIAL
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