CONVERSATION WITH MR. ED BRASWELL RE SENATOR STENNIS' LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000200020111-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 111
• Content Type: MEMORANDUM

Approved For Release 2006/07/21 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000200020111-1
SECRET
MEMOPAI DUM FOR THE RECORD
9 September 1971
SUBJECT: Conversation with Mr. Ed Braswell re Senator Stennis'
Letter to the President
1. Called Ed Braswell, Chief Counsel and Staff Director,. Senate
Armed Services Committee, to say we had officially received from the
White House a copy of Senator Stennis' letter to the President urging that
the Agency be relieved of the responsibility for the future funding of our
operations in Laos. I told Mr. Braswell that I knew he had played a
major part in drafting the letter and I thought it made a very important
contribution to the problem that had been troubling us for some time.
2. I asked Mr. Braswell if he thought Senator Stennis would have
any objection to our discussing the problems raised in his letter with the
Office of Management and Budget and Defense Department, providing this
was agreeable with the White House. Mr. Braswell said it was entirely
up to the White House as to how the President disseminated the letter.
3. I said I would also like to know whether Senator Stennis was
urging only that the CIA discontinue funding any part of the Laos operation,
or was urgning that we get out of the Laos operation entirely. Mr. Braswell
said this was a key point in the letter--that the letter had deliberately left
this question open. He said that frankly the Senator had not been specific
on this, but Braswell had the impression that if the funding problem could
be solved, the question of continued Agency involvement in other aspects of
the program would be "negotiable. "
SECRET
MORI/CDF
Approved For Release 2006/07/21 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000200020111-1
 Approved For Release 2006/07/21 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000200020111-1
SECRET
4. I said I was glad to hear this because I felt that we would
need some flexibility working out a solution consistent with the
Chairman's wishes and acceptable within the Executive agencies.
I noted that we would be under considerable pressure from these
other agencies to carry on.
JOHN M. MAURY
Legislative Counsel
Distribution:
Original - Subject
1 - Senator Stennis
1 - Laos File
f'1 - Chrono
SECRET
Approved For Release 2006/07/21 : CIA-RDP74B00415R000200020111-1