LETTER TO DEAR FRIEND FROM DAN ELLSBERG

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100520030-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: January 1, 2000
• Content Type: LETTER

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/04/27: CIA-RDP88-01314R000100520030-5
Indochina Peace Campaign
181 Pier Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90405
STAT
Patricia and I think of you often, with gratitude -- all of the friends we've
never met, many of whom supported us during the Pentagon Papers trial.
It was your support that kept our defense effort going long enough for it to
evoke a stream of revelations about the "plumbers," the wiretaps, the CIA,
and the Nixon White House.
These revelations, along with others, led to the unraveling of the Watergate
cover-up, and the termination of the Nixon Administration and the Congres-
sional funding support for our bombing of Cambodia. We thank you for that
and for the many forms of support that you gave us that allowed all of this
to happen.
I am writing you now in connection with what is really the same cause: the
continued cover-up of our war in Indochina, and a way you can help again
to combat It. The very acts of Administration law-breaking revealed through
our trial were part of an effort to cover up the greater crimes of the Adminis-
tration in Indochina.
The domestic law-breaking eventually came. to light and was stopped. Yet
ever since Richard Nixon finally agreed to the signing of the Paris Agreements
in January, 1973 -- with a more informed public being a key factor forcing his
hand -- a new campaign has lulled the public with a theme borrowed from
Orwell, "War Is Peace. "
"At least Nixon ended the war, " we hear from all sides; even Nixon's critics
are asked to concede thatl But that lie describes a "peace" that has in fact
been among the bloodiest chapters of the war: more than 350,000 Vietnamese
soldiers on both sides killed or wounded since we signed the "peace accords;"
more than 85,000 civilians killed or wounded; more than one million more
Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians turned into homeless refugees.
"But at least American involvement is over, "we are told. Another lie that hides
direct American responsibility. Last year American taxpayers provided 90% of
the budget of General Thieu's corrupt dictatorship in Saigon. The fiscal 1975
U.S. budget proposes more U.S. military and economic aid for the tottering
Thieu and Lon Nol regimes (or their successors, If our policy outlasts them)
than it does for the entire rest of the world put together.
The only factor that will force an end to this savagery will be an informed
public. It is still essential to counter Administration efforts and reveal
the realities of an ongoing American war in Indochina. I know of no group
so determined or effective in doing that as the INDOCHINA PEACE CAMPAIGN.
That Is why I'm writing to you now, to ask that you support their work.
In the past year, as other organizations have turned to other problems, the
INDOCHINA PEACE CAMPAIGN has been invaluable in countering Government
and media misinformation. It continues to bring the news to the American
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/04/27: CIA-RDP88-01314R000100520030-5