MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD FROM L. K. WHITE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01284A001800110076-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 27, 2005
• Sequence Number: 76
• Publication Date: July 24, 1969
• Content Type: MFR

Approve
:
1/23
24 July 1969
Morning Meeting of 24 July 1969
DD/I reported that he had in hand the production schedule in
support of the Director's scheduled appearance before the House Armed
Services Committee and that a draft of his testimony will be made
available to the Director on Monday.
Godfrey pointed to
Czech belief that the Soviets may be planning to incorporate Czecho-
slovakia into the Soviet Union.
25X1
*D/ONE briefed on difficulties encountered in preparing the
Estimate on the likelihood of a Sino/Soviet clash. He described the
usual indicators of hostilities, and after some discussion by the DD/S&T
and the DD/I, the Director asked the DD/I to look into what adjustments
can be made in the current CORONA mission.
Maury reported that he briefed Frank Slatinshek on the Pueblo
matter and expressed the opinion that it will provide an adequate basis
for Congressman Pike's questions.
Maury reported that he was in touch with Jay Sourwine on the
25X1 scheduled appearance executive session of the
Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security.
Approved For
sItTe,
: CIA-RDP80R0l284A001800110076-3
 Maury related that he was in touch with the Director of Security
concerning Senator Bayh's inquiry regarding our security procedures.
The Director asked that the CI Staff also be consulted on this matter.
DD/S&T reported that there has been agreement on the terms of
reference on the verification problem and that our input to this action
following the 23 July NSC meeting is due on 1 August.
*DD/S&T briefed on indicators which may suggest that the SS-11
is being modified to give it a multiple re-entry capability. He noted
that developments to date parallel what happened to the SS-9. After
some discussion the Director asked that he be consulted on publication
of these developments.
The Director called Carver's attention to the item in today's
Wall Street Journal attributing unusual wounds in Vietnam to the AK-47.
Executive Director noted that he will be attending a meeting
this morning at the Bureau of the Budget.
 WwALL STREET JOURNAL
Approver Release 2005/11'/23k:4C1 U4e0F84AO01800110076-3
.Vietn'ain Toll
jof U.S. Wounded
Have Worse Injuries
Than in Earlier, Wars'
New ~ Rifles, Rockets Cause
A dark speck appears in the Western sky,. Washington. The Vietnam rifles are. - causing; Faster Than at Home
'Ablaze with the hot afternoon sun. Within ai ,massive destruction" of flesh, bone and; Because of the helicopters, says one mill'-.
'minute, the speck becomes a big, Lockheed nerves when they hit, says Dr. Rich. 1 tary medical officer, "an 4merican wounded in
Starlifter jet gently landing on the airstrip, its, , One soldier-call him Tommy-provides an the remote jungles or rice paddies of Vietnams
wings drooping like a tired seagull. .
The Starlifter has just completed a 7;000 example: A few months ago the 24-year-old sol- has a better chance for quick, definitive sure;-,
dier was in Vietnam. A North Vietnamese rifle...cal care by top specialists than were he hit on'
mile flight from Japan to Kelly Air Force Base; man caught Tommy in his sights and fired one a highway near his hometown in the U.S."
;in Texas, bringing badly wounded servicemeu chnt- Tn an 'instant the bullet went through In the case of a vouna soldier named War!
who treated scores of rifle wounds when he re-' and they cut the time between injury and medi-,
tizes one positive aspect of the war: Thanks to
speedy evacuation and excellent medical. care,
many of the wounded who never would have
made it back alive from earlier wars, are rev
turning alive from Vietnam.
? But the plane's mercy flight also under-
scores a grim fact about the Vietnamese war:.
In many cases, the men are coming back.with
wounds far worse than, those suffered by sur-
vivors of earlier wars. .
On the Starlifter, for example, are young
}soldiers burned over as much as 70% of.their
bodles. With months of, care and plastic sur?
gery, some can return to a semblance of nor-
`mal living. But for many the price of survival
;will be to go through the rest of their lives
By WILLIAM M. CARLEY tenth served in Vietnam and who now Is a sur-' cal treatment from hours or even days to min-
s .y basket on a line .to load the patients a lot of badly wounded men, many wounds are Army's burn unit, which is at nearby Brooke t'~....,,.
1slmplymor.e, severe to ' Army,Hospital in San Antonio .,One patient, now Continued
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rifles. cause Ttullets"'in the burn unit is Peter, a 20-year-old A
-
fires from he uuip r'.... ,...__
against U.S. troops in the Korean war traveled was in a Sheridan tank, working as, a loader for
at about 1,600 feet per second, but bullets firedl the main gun. '
from the AK-47, rifles being used against U.S.' "We were moving through a rubber plantar
forces in Vietnam travel at about 2,400 feet per; tion one afternoon when we were attacked by
second. Because a bullet's speed is Important;mortars, rocket propelled grenades and ma-.1
in determining its wounding power, this in- -chine guns," he says. "Our, tank began firing,,
crease often makes the difference between HHand' the main gun jammed. Then a rocket-pro=
minor wound and a devastating Injury, experts pelled gernade hit us, and there was a big,
say. fire."
AK-47 Deadly at Distance Peter tried to claw his way out of the in
"At 100 yards, you can almost catch the' tense heat of the tank, fires "but the hatch was
burp gun shell with a pitcher's mitt, but at the, so hard to open." he says. By the time he got
same range an AK-47 can kill a bull moose," out, all of Peter's fingers had been burned off.'
says . Dr. William Demuth, a University of. He also suffered severe burns on his arms,`
Pennsylvania professor who has studied the .face, chest and neck.
wounding power of rifles. Helicopters get much of the credit for help-,
"The rifles being used in Vietnam have iin- Ing the wounded come hack alive. Tried in a
pressively greater wounding power than those: few cases in Korea, helicopters are used in al
used in earlier wars " says Dr. Norman Rich,' most every medical evacuation in Vietnam, i.
came to rest at the nacx of nls sxuit.
'The bullet destroyed most of his brain,
says 'Dr. Ludwig Kempe, a neurosurgeon who
treated Tommy at Walter Reed. "He breathes;
but he is and will remain totally unconscious--
lanky 22-year-old Marine sergeant, Warren was,
a member of a platoon moving through a rice
paddy near Hue when it ran into 'enemy fire.
"Charlie (the Vietcong) was In a concrete;;
he will never even know he's here."
o
Bl r Than Bazookas '
grens.de launcher, and they opened fire with al
eg
Bigger rockets also cause worse wounds. In ?60-caliber machine.gun. The first machine gun's
Korea, bazookas were used against U.S. troops? round grazed my face, but the second hit myl
but in ' Vietnam ' much larger 122mm.. and' right, cheek."
240mm: rockets are being used. . " Warren only remembers being helicopteredf
Comparing' the bazooka' with the larger out of the rice paddy, and nothing after that
weapons is like comparing a firecracker with until he woke up 24 days later in a U.S. milt
a stick of dynamite," says an Army officer, tary hospital. But his doctor, Dr. G. W. Anas
One soldier recently, hit by a rocket blast tasi, a plastic surgeon at the Chelsea Navall
had his lower right arm blown off, was hit "by, Hospital near Boston, says Warren' would have
.'RR fr~ampnta to >,;fl nthpr urm t? Hta ,spat , ,,rt. died had it not been for the helicopter evacua-
' "We're saving them, but 1 ,don't know far abdomen and in both legs, and was burned; tion. ll
what," says one Army medical" officer. over 60% of his body. "He either would have bled to death or died;
',81% Survive Wounds ' ' That men' can survive such wounds, of of infection," Dr. Anastasi says.'
T The increase in the, percentage of soldiers; course, is due to the high' quality of medical But again, the survivor must live with a ter
.,,,who. survive their wounds is impressive. :The:care almost immediately available to them. rible wound. The bullet, as it emerged from they.
Arny, which accounts for more casualties than Modepn drugs also save many soldiers. left side of Warren's head, blasted away most;
any other service, reports that. more than 81%; of the left side bf his face. 'He came here so;
tof its wounded men are surviving In Vietnam, Men burned over large portions of their bod?' mutilated you have no idea what he originally'
in World War II. for example, usually didn't survive in pre-; looked like," says Dr. Anastasi. Despite nu-:
compared with 74^/o.in the Korean war and 71% ies,
vious wars. They would die not from the burn merous ' operations, Warren will have practi
Itself but because deadly pseudomonas' bac?
'P .Thus far, about 237,000 men in all the U.S. tally no vision in his left eye and will be badiya
Uarmed services in Vietnam have been- wounded teria would invade the burned tissue and then 'disfigured for life. '
";and have survived: As In any war, many of the f spread throughout the rest of the body.
wounds are slight. About half the 237,000 had In the past few years, however, new drugs Helicopter Casualties
-injuries so minor they didn't even require hos? such as Sulfamylon have been developed to Unfortunately, things that save lives some-}
?pitalization. I fight the pseudomonas 'bacteria. Dr. Basil times also produce casualties themselves. The'
,L In the case of the more severe wounds the Pruitt, chief of the burn unit of the' Army Insti- vastly increased use of the helicopter irr Viet.
`Army Surgeon General's office says that it's tute for Surgical Research, says the new drugs nam is itself leading to severe wounds because
,too early to make a "definitive" assessment of have cut the fatality rate in half for burned of crashes.
`the long-term effects. But interviews with doc- men. For example, of patients with burns coy- On May 13,' for example, a helicopter flew..
tors and patients at several military hospitals ewing almost. half of their bodleb, nearly 60%a into a jungle valley to pick up wounded from;
In .the U.S., where some of the wounded are died previously, but now fewer than 30% die. the fight on Hamburger Hill. "We saw a smoke:
?brought.as early as three days after being hit But the drugs cannot reverse the mutilation signal," says Jim, the 24-year-old lieutenant
.in Vietnam, show there's no doubt about the se? of men who survive extensive burn wounds. who commanded the craft. "We couldn't land
!"Irerity of the patients' wounds. Besides the 'After being flown to Kelly AirForce Base by .--the jungle was too thick-so we hovered over..
18 'medical attention in Vietnam that saves Starlifter jets, burned men are 'taken to the;, the trees'about 100 feet up, and dropped a., litter`
More Damage; Mutilation
Often' Can't Be Repaired
 Approveor Release 2005/11/23: CIA-RDP80F84A001800110076-3 '
r- Then, he relates, a rocket-propelled enemy But the fire badly burned his face, burned
i%l grenade shot into the helicopter's open cargo off most of his hair, and burned off most of his
door and exploded. "I felt, 'Oh, no, it couldn't ears, and doctors say that even with' the best
be us,' but the helicopter began turning over medical techniques, "he will never, look the
and falling towards the ground." 1 same.
The helicopter turned upside down and) . "I have to tell them that I can't restoreI
crashed. Jim escaped from the cockpit only l their original looks," says Dr. Anastasi, the,
seconds before the aircraft exploded and burst; plastic surgeon at Chelsea Naval. Hospital. "I
into flames. In the crash, however, Jim's left say, 'Son, I'm only 'a' surgeon, and wheril I d0
leg was sliced off. scar revisionp, I only trade.. one -,.scar for,
wounds. In Korea and World War II, much of
the fighting was done from the protection of,
trenches and bunkers. But in Vietnam soldiers,
are often fully exposed while on patrols or
search and destroy missions. Thus, a mortar on
rocket shell exploding near a soldier in Koreal
might have injured only one limb-but in Viet,
nam it may spray fragments into several areas,I
of his body.
A Sharp Increase
The Army says the category of "many mul.
tiple wounds in which there was no single pre-;j
dominant location" includes 20% of patients in',
Vietnam compared with only,2% in, Korea and
3% in World War II.
Dr. Peter Biron, a surgeon at the Chelsea
'Naval Hospital near Boston, says that when pa-j
tients have multiple severe injuries, "treating:
Ahern is very difficult." He adds that "there
Fare no books that have been written on how to;
-handle these complex cases. Doctors have to
learn as they go along."
In some cases, medical advances have at
least partially offset the effects of the more se-
Ivere wounds. If a high-velocity rifle bullet hits`
,,a soldier in the arm, for example, damage to
'blood vessels and interruption of the blood flow'.
;,could cause gangrene. and necessitate amputa
tion. But in recent years doctors have learned,
,how to repair the, blood vessels and thus save;
many limbs. The Army Surgeon General's of
fice says that in World War U and Korea, 2%k
to 2.5% of those hospitalized were amputation
cases. But in the Vietnam war the 649 Army
men who have lost limbs thus far comprises
Ebonly about 1% of the hospitalized casualties.
Even so, a soldier who keeps a wounded`
limb may face a difficult future. A high-pow.?
ered-rifle bullet may destroy nerves as well as;
blood vessels, and doctors say it's far more dif-
, ficult and often impossible to restore full func-
tion of certain nerves. The result is' that a sol-{
dier may retain his wounded arm, but it.nay;
dangle uselessly at his' side for the rest of his,,
life.
Advances have been made in plastic sur-j
gery. In the past when a patient was burned'
rover large parts of his body, for example, does
jtors sometimes had trouble getting enough skin`
from the patient's unburned areas to cover the,
huge burns.
In recent years, however, surgeons have tri':
pled the area a piece of skin can cover l y cut-,
ting a series of incisions in the skin and then'
stretching it into a mesh-like web before apply-!
ing it. After the'skin is applied over the wound,
it eventually grows together,. filling in the mesh,
.holes.
But in many cases such. advances still don't
restore a bun victim to anything like his origi-,
nal appearance. One 34-year old Air Force pilot
was burned when his pleine crashed on takeoff
:;from a Vietnamese airfield. He has since gone
uah.17 vlasticrsurgery ;ogerationa.~
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