Dear General Lincoln:

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79B00972A000100610006-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 1998
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: May 21, 1969
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2000108129: CIA-RDP79B009722A 00100610006-8
The Honorable George A. Lincoln
Director, Office of Emergency -
Preparedness
Room 202 Executive Office Building
Washington, D. C. 20504
Dear General Lincoln:
Mr. Helms has asked that I respond to your
letter of l May, in which you inquired about Soviet
planning for wartime emergencies. Attached is a
CIA Intelligence Report on Soviet civil defense
that is just now off the press. It addresses some
of your questions, including the one on the as-
sumptions underlying Soviet civil defense planning.
A joint CJA/DIA study is also planned for publi-
cation in late summer to examine in greater detail
the effectiveness of Soviet civil defense, its
costs, and the feasibility of urban evacuation
in the USSR.
We have little hard information on Soviet
preparations for assuring, continuity of government
in wartime. As far as emergency facilities go,
the leadership probably would retire in wartime
to hardened national air defense or strategic
rocket forces command centers. These may be lo-
cated relatively close to Moscow. Hardened of-
fices are also reported to be beneath the Kremlin.
Below the national level, emergency government
offices may be collocated with the dispersed al-
ternate civil defense headquarters which have
been set up for major industrial and administrative
centers.
Sortie of the USSR's East European allies have
established relocation facilities for government
agencies and have held drills to test government
command and control systems, Pow details are
known about the facilities and exercises. Civil
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Approved For Release 2000108129: CIA-RDP79B00972A000100610006-8
defense in the East European Communist countries
has some similiaritics to Soviet civil defense.
As in the USSR, public training in those countries
is compulsory and workers are organized into rescue
and recovery units. There are differences, however,
in organizational concepts.
East Germany and Czechoslovakia apparently
are creating territorial defense systems that would
place their civil defense, rear area military,
paramilitary, and security forces under a single
command. Poland has had an organization of this
type for several years and has held exercises to
test the ability of these various forces to co-
ordinate operations in wartime. The USSR has no
similar organisation.
In China, the construction of the Peking sub-
way may be related to planning for continuity of
government control in wartime. The subway apparently
is designed to terminate inside a mountain range
fifteen railos northwest of the capital. A number
of reports have suggested that a large tunnel com-
plex is being excavated inside these mountains for
an emergency national command and control center.
The subway would permit quick and inconspicuous
access to the center.
There is no evidence that the Chinese plan a
large-scale shelter construction program for the
general population. Shelter preparations appear
to havo been limited mainly to marking large build-
ings as shelter areas, building some solid bunkers
or tunnels for special personnel, and digging air
raid trenches on the outskirts of some cities.
The Chinese have mounted campaigns in recent
years to disperse industrial facilities and to
reduce the population of large cities. To the
extent that this is done, some reduction in vul-
nerability would occur. Although these campaigns
ostensibly serve such civil defense objectives as
reducing the vulnerability of the population and
economy, they appear to be motivated primarily by
social, economic, and political considerations.
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 We cannot tell you much about civil defense
and emergency preparedness planning among our allies,
such as Great Britain, since we do not devote re-
search efforts to this subject in free world countries.
It is worth noting, though, that psychological at-
titudes toward civil defense seem to be most favorable
in the Scandanavian countries, where laws require
various municipalities and owners of industries,
public buildings, and housing to provide shelters
and duty personnel for civil defense at their own
expense. 25X1A9a
25X1A est that your staff contact
1a
su Chief of the Strategic Evaluation Branch,
1 Chief
information is desired. He can be reached
on code 143, ext. 6233.
Bruce C. Clarke, Jr.
Director
Strategic Research
Distribution:
Orig. & 1 -- Addressee (w/att.) 1 -- DCI (w/att.)
2 -- OD/OSR (w/o att.) 1 -- DDI (w/att.)
2 -- SR/PA (w/o att.)
1 D/ONE (w/att.) _
25X1A9a
OSR/PA:=I.m/x6233 (21 May 69)
Approvf d For Release 2000108129: CIA-RDP79B00972A000100610006-8