LETTER TO LT. GEN. VERNON WALTERS FROM ELLIS EDWARDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79M00467A000200040104-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 7, 2002
• Sequence Number: 104
• Publication Date: January 7, 1975
• Content Type: LETTER

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R. J. EDWARDS, INC.
INVESTMENT SECURITIES
. ESTABLISHED 1892
2205 CITY NATIONAL BANK TOWER
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 73102
4.05/236-354I
Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters
Deputy Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C.
Dear General Walters:
/W)
January 7, 1975
I want you to know how much I appreciate your taking the time from your
busy schedule to come to Oklahoma City to talk to our Rotary Club. I only hope
that your message will wake some people up and give them the ammunition that they
need to inform their other fellow citizens about the dangers we face in today's
world. As you can see, the message that you gave must have struck a chord with
many of the people there and I just pray that it won't roll off their shoulders
and be forgotten but that rather it will get them to talking with their fellow
citizens, as this is a prominent group of leaders in the community and the nation
and many of them if they so chose could be very influential in getting your message
across.
I was greatly embarrassed that many of the people that I had invited to
the reception for you after your speech did not show up in time to visit with you.
This event was planned at the last minute as I did not know how long we would have
after your talk when I first invited you. However, I tried to invite a group of
prominent people in. influential areas who do speak up and talk about the things
they believe in, to come and visit with you, and I was greatly embarrassed and
distressed that more of them did not show up in time; I hope you will accept my
apologies on this matter.
Enclosed is an editorial that was written as a result of your talk with
John Couston Curry so you can be assured your message received a far broader
audience than rotary. Also none of the muckracking questions that were asked by
a TV representative were shown on TV but rather a picture of you saying "we have
the finest, most dedicated Intelligence Service in the World" etc. The coverage
was very favorable on TV.
If I can ever be of any further service to you or to the Agency, please
let me know as I am at your service. Once again I have heard many people remark
on what a fine and informative talk you made.
EE/me
Sincerely yours,
Ellis Edwards
Dr)
-
(
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THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN Wednesday, January 7, 1976 27
Not True, Says Director
Army Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters, mental purposes after some emigres .
deputy director of the Central Intellie from Communist countries were
e killed in Europe by strangers who
' gence Agency, asserted, In a speech
brushed against them in crowded
In Oklahoma City Tuesday that no places.. . .
one was ever assassinated by a CIA -, The agency believed it important
agent or as the result of cIA plans.? to , determine what kind of poisons.
Walters, speaking before the Ro- were used, how they were used and -
tary Club of Oiclalcana City, how Americans could be protected
charged that CIA critics have treat- from.. such death attempts. He said
ed revelations of past . discussions , .this occurred more than 20 years
about proposed assassinations as if -
.
, they were accepted CIA plan. ' ?' Walters explained the CIA's wiper-- , r
Attempts on. the lives- of foreign,' ' imentation with mind-altering, drugs
leaders were merely inning things As a reaction te, publicly televised
^ proposed to the CIA, but were never - confessions of such, prominent Corn-
' adopted, he said. , :st : erriunist resistors as Cardinal Min-
e Walters dismissed the alleged as. dszenty. 7
sa.ssination ideas as "ancients histoe z. He said. agency officials were con-
n ry" in terms of how much has hap- L.arinced that the resistors had been
pened on the international scene s ;subjected to some form of chemical
y since. ' ? . arebrainwashing because some of the
is Walters also defended the CIA's same individuals had endured se-
past experimentation in the area of vere Nazi torture without breaking.
,r chemical warfare. " .Walters said the recent criticism
t He said. the agency developed and has hurt the CIA but the agency has
? stockpiled lethal toxins .for expert-- r. managed to maintain its function.
FICTIONAL spies and sleuths
abound in the world of television
and paperback books, each with his
own distinctive device that sets him
apart from ordinary men and wom-
en as an evil genius. But there is al-
most no common ground between
these supersleuths and the intelli-
gence workers of the real world.
The impressive fact about our ixi-.
telligence agencies is not that they
invent arid use diabolical devices,
which they do not, but that they uti-
lize the most modern technology and
many long years of specialized study
to produce analyses of events and
capabilities , on' which nations base
their policies. Of the twosevhile tech-
nology is important, the long years
of study are the major factors in the
excellence of American intelligence
r work. .
Those were some of the facts be-
hind the presentation Lt. Gen. Ver-
non Walters made to the Oklahoma
City Rotary Club Tuesday, in which
he took the recent attacks on the
Central Intelligence Agency, one by
one, and answered each by putting
the criticism alongside the facts.
Walters cited the charges stem- -
ming from revelations that some 15
years ago some CIA personnel seri-
ously contemplated attempting the
assassination of Fidel Castro. He re-
minded his audience that at the time
Castro was shooting thousands of
Cubans in the stadium, on live tele-
vision, every day or so, andd, that
many Americans found this a dis-
turbing thing to have on our door-
step. But he made the telling point
that consideration did- not result in
action?no one was assassinated.
The infamous toxins, which the
CIA itself recently revealed to Con-
gress, were developed when the
agency wanted to learn how the Rus-
sians were killing emigres who be-
came bones hi the Communist throat
?that was more than 20 years ago
- now?and developed the reported
poisons to test their effectiveness,
and to learn if there "Was a way to
protect our own people from them.'..
The drugs which the CIA tested
were a part of a broad national ef-
fort to learn more about such mind-
bending agents, when they were new.
to Americans, including -the medical
professions. That came in the wake
of the Korean War experience, and
the degradations of such courageous- -
men as Cardinal Mindszenty. ?
These efforts to learn more about
our avowed adversaries in the world
and their person-to-person weapons
of war gre being used today to pith).
ry the entire intelligence establish-
ment. Yet they occurred almost a
generation ago, before the present
CIA leadership was even involved at
the agency.
In keeping up a drumroll of such
criticism, which paints the CIA as a
nest of terrifying threats to our
freedom, some of its critics seem to
hope it will become one of those TV.:
"self-destruct" mechanisms, a n d
disappear. But the CIA's service is
so vital that if It did not exist today,
we would have to invent it Its mis-
sion, after all, is to ensure that there
will be a 'United states in the future.
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