TRYING TO BUY OFF THE ANTI-COMMUNISTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400020010-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 26, 1999
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: September 14, 1965
• Content Type: OPEN

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-'Trying To Buy `Off the Anti-Communists' After the State Department denial, Lea'
mado public a letter of apology he received
in 1061 from Secretary of State Rusk, do-
EXTENSION OF REMARKS ploring "Improper activities." The Depart-
oF meat then made a turnabout and admitted
HON. BOB WILSON Rusk had sent the apology.
In the seamy world of Intelligence, bribes
OF CALIFORNIA go with, spying and dirty work. There is ?,
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES nothing exceptional about that. But why
Tuesday, September 14, 1965 do we have to go around bribing anti-Com- . ?i
munists to lay. off. Communists?.
Mr. BOB WILSON. Mr. Speaker, un-
der leave to extend my remarks in the.
RECORD, I include the following article
from the Chicago Tribune dated Septem-
ber 8, 1965:
TRYING To BUY OFF THE ANTI-COMMUNISTS
Two anti-Communist Dominican Republic
generals have told our Latin America cor-
respondent, Jules Dubois, that American
agents tried to bribe them to clear out of
the country. There could hardly be better
evidence that the United States is aware of
the Communist character of the rebel hold-
outs in Santo Domingo and of Washington's
desire to appease these Red elements.
The officers approached by the cloak-and-
dagger crew are Brig. Con. Elias Wessin y ? f
Wessin, known as the army's most resolute
foo of the Communists, and Brig. Gen. Juan
de Los Santos-Cespedes, chief of staff of
the Air Force.
Wessin was paid a visit at midnight Sun-
day by Lt. Col. Joe Wyrick, Army attache at
the American Embassy, and David Phillips,
an operative of the Central Intelligence
i' Agency. He was offered a trip to all military
installations in the United States and also
to the Panama Canal Zone. In addition,
the American agents offered to buy his home
agent in 1080. The agent had offered a? -
Singapore intelligence operative money in
-Saf'ftff2 %CC ' b",,For.Rele.ase : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400020010-1
and other piece of property for $50,000. Ho
was told that the Communists refused to
surrender their weapons In the rebel sector
of the capital unless he departed the coun-
try. An agreement under which a provi-
sional government has been established.
called for surrender of the arms.
Gen. do Los Santos told Dubois flatly, "I
was offered the sum of $300,000 and anything
J else I wanted if I would leave the country
immediately." He said three agents made
the offer.
Both generals indignantly rejected the at-
tempt to buy them out. Gen. do Los Santos
told the Americans he intended to remain in
his post to insure that the Communists
would not seize power, and that no money
could buy his patriotism. General Wessin
pointedly asked Dubois: "What is the United
States fighting for? Is it fighting for do-
mocracy or for communism in the world?"
President Johnson in late April sent 21,000
marines and soldiers into the Dominican no-
public with a declaration that he was acting
to forestall a Communist coup d'etat. But
once this force was on the scene, it took no
action against the rebels, who wero per-.
mitted to hold n square Milo of the business
and financial district of Santo Domingo, a
They are still installed there, and they are
still armed, . '
As is to be expected, American officials
are not talking. The Embassy in Santo Do-
mingo says it knows nothing about ap-
proaches to the generals. The State Do-
partment asp is officially ignorant. The CIA
will not discuss the attempted bribe or con-
cede the existence of an agent named Phil-
lips. The Defense Department also has no
comment.
Yet it is established that bribes are part
of the CIA's stock-in-trade. Last week the
State Department first tried to deny the
truth of a charge by Prime Minister Lee
Kuan Yew ?of Singapore that the American
Government offered him $3,300,000 to hush..
up the arrest of an American intelligence