CIA INFORMATION PROVIDED SENATOR BENTSEN ON SOVIET FUNDING OF PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R000100170003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2006
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: July 31, 1975
• Content Type: MF

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-"W 1
CE" FF,.L INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D,C. 20501
Executive R??ii,trr
31JUL1.975
MEMORANDUM FOR: The honorable Henry A. Kissinger
Assistant to the President for
National Security Affairs
SUBJECT: CIA Information Provided Senator
Bentsen on Soviet Funding of
Portuguese Communist Party
1. I am sending you the material below to set
the record straight on what this Agency stated to
Senator Bentsen on the subject of Soviet financial
support for the Portuguese, Communist Party, and on
what we have received and disseminated in official
classified reports and memoranda.
2. On 17 July a staff aide to Senator Lloyd
Bentsen of Texas called our Legislative Counsel to
inquire about press reports purporting to reveal
specific sums of money provided the Portuguese
Communist Party by the Soviet Union. She cited one
press story that claimed ten million dollars a month
was being given the Portuguese party by the Soviets.
3. On the basis of careful research by a knowledge..
able analyst, the aide was informed that this Agency has
no direct knowledge of sums actually furnished nor any
reliable data on which to base an estimate. We noted
that press reports we had seen cited sums as low as three
million dollars and as high as fourteen million dollars a
month going from Moscow to Lisbon at various times, but
we declined to speculate which, if any, of these figures
might be accurate. We specifically cautioned that the
Agency has neither reliable information nor firm etittlat
of its own.
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4. Senator Bentsen's aide nevertheless gave him
figures which she ascribed to the Agency and which led
him to state to the press that CIA had told him the
Soviets are providing ten million dollars a month to
the Portuguese communists. The Senator is deeply
chagrined and has expre!sed profound regret to us for what
he acknowledged to have been an error by his staff.
S. In our classified finished intelligence reporting
on developments in Portugal we have referred--in a long
analytical article published April 4, 1975--to the
Portuguese communists' having received "funds from the
Soviet Union--reportedly?as much as fifty million dollars,"
but we did not cite this article nor this figure in our
response to Bentsen's inquiry.
6. In my own reports to Congress under the Foreign
Assistance Act, I have responded to questions on this
subject with the statement that we have seen reports
indicating that the Soviets may have provided as much as
fifty million dollars in over-all funding to the Portuguese
party.
7. In a memorandum we sent to Secretary Schlesinger
.on May 13, we noted that "published estimates of the PCP
campaign chest range from fifteen million to fifty million
dollars."
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95R000100170003-3
9. You may have heard references to statements by
General Walters purporting to support Senator Bentsen's
figures. The facts are these:
--iwihen asked by newsmen about Soviet
funding, he responded that such payments
are made in cash and are therefore very
difficult to trace.
--When challenged to confirm or refute
Bentsen's statement to the press, he
replied, "Far be it from me to question
the word of a U.S. Senator."
10. I hope this information will be of help to
you in dealing with a most regrettable development and
put to rest any doubts about our role in it.
W. E. Colby
Director
Distribution:
0 - Addressee L } X ~~ ~/~ \) 1
1 - DCI
1 - DDCI
1 - DDI
1 - DDO
1 - OLC
-1 - Mr. Hepworth
SEC ET
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