SOVIET FORCED LABOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B00443R001500070028-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2007
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: May 16, 1984
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2007/08/29: CIA-RDP88B00443RO01500070028-8
MEMORANDUM FOR: Secretary of State
16 May 1984
SUBJECT: Soviet Forced Labor
DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL I LLIGENCE
The attached letter to the Secretary
of the Treasury is for your information.
Attachment
Approved For Release 2007/08/29: CIA-RDP88B00443RO01500070028-8
 Approved For Release 2007/08/29: CIA-RDP88B00443RO01500070028-8
0 The Director of Central Intelligence ?
16 May 1984
The Honorable Donald T. Regan
Secretary of the Treasury
Washington, D. C. 20220
This letter is written in connection with your statutory responsibilities
to prevent the entry into the United States of foreign goods which are produced
by convict, forced or indentured labor. We have a good deal of information
that the Soviet Union makes extensive use of such labor. We estimate that
there are approximately 2 million forced laborers in camps. An additional
2 million or so forced laborers are not confined and are mostly involved in
construction.
We have in the past at the request of the Commissioner of Customs
furnished information concerning the production of goods with forced labor
in the Soviet Union. Although there is convincing evidence that convict
and forced labor is used extensively in the Soviet Union, it is fragmentary
with respect to specific products. Our information does not enable us to
estimate the proportion of total Soviet production of individual products
which comes from forced labor. Nor is our information sufficiently precise
to allow us to determine whether and to what extent the products of forced
labor are exported to the United States.
I am also concerned that the need to make such evidence as we have publicly
available, as would almost certainly be necessary for you to carry out your
responsibilities, would endanger intelligence sources and methods.
Accordingly, I have to advise you that the Agency's information, while
convincing as to the policy and practices of the Soviet Union with respect
to forced labor, could not now be provided with sufficient precision to have
probative value in a legal proceeding with respect to a particular product.
You can be assured that we will continue our work in this area and will keep
your Department currently advised if we are able to develop more satisfactory
and precise evidence that might be helpful in preventing the entry into the
United States of goods produced by convict, forced labor, or indentured labor.
Yours,
Wil iam J. Casey
cc: Secretary of State
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Approved For Release 2007/08/29: CIA-RDP88B00443RO01500070028-8