[104-10217-10221.pdf — page 117]
# CONTINUATION OF DISPATCHCLASSIFICATCAPRIORITYSECRETDISPATCH SIMBOL AND NOOFLA-42,750his material; to the London Station, however, it appears to be not onlyrather massive but detailed as well. He do not doubt that he will becaught out from time to time on facts, and perhaps interpretations as well.But the totality of his information and the whole performance was withoutnotes is astonishing.5. Several points should be noted. First of all, a conscious effort   was made to show GIBSON that his comments on the American scene were not   being made a matter of record. (I took notes during our talk, and always   stopped making notes when such a topic came up.) This is, as KULPA noted in   OFLW 1903 of 12 February 1965, an area of sensitivity with GIBSON. The only   times that GIBSON really became emotional were when he talked about the   American soene, his involvement, and the involvement of his close associates.   And he kept reverting to the topic, and his involvement in it, throughout   our conversations. We did not share CULPA's impression that GIBSON'S   dissatisfaction with the state of racial relations in America makes him   generally anti-American. He does say that he would not like to be living   in America for the coming year; but in the context of one who does not wish   to be caught up in a period of growing violence, which GIBSON appears not to   believe to be the solution to the problem. He states: "I can understand   how they feel that way, I can recognize the problems, but I sure don't know   what the solution to the problem is." His judgments on Negroes in the front   of the racial struggle (Walter Bowe, Kalcolm X, etc.) reflect not only ar   intimacy with the problem and a genuine concern, but also a generally   reasonable and real understanding of many of the forces at work. GIBSON   tends to condemn individuals - he spares no sympathy for the FBI, under   standably but he does not appear to condemn the United States as a whole,   nor even the United States Government as a whole. At the same time, he   makes no phoney protestations, either.6. Regarding Cuba, GIBSON showed a similar emotional involvement (he   acknowledges "my pro-Castro bias") but, withal, manages to give a more   balances portrayal of the situation than many rabidly anti-Castro   commentators. (Cuba, and Cuban matters, were also similarly low-keyed by   me during our talks.)talkea7. Where GIBSON really comes into his own, and really astonishes with   the breadth of his personal information and understanding, (and largely, it   appears, without the same personal involvement and bias) is in African   affairs (especially in left-wing fields, European Trotskyists and   Communists and their general milieu, and Chinese-oriented international   front organizations. Similarly he appears to be informed on certain ChiCom   efforts at subversion and propaganda in Latin America.8. Rather as if reading our thoughts, GIBSON offered to recruit him-   self. He didn't get too specific, and neither did we. e. But he did make it   quite clear that he would be willing to collect information for us, knowing   only that we were ODYCKE, probably suspecting that we were KUBARK, and   probably equally doubting (because he knows the difference (that we were   ODANVY. His motivations can be compiled from his own words. He has for   some time been unable to find a suitable job here in London, He has есоnоmіc   pressures working on him - now exacerbated by the fact that his wife has   caused her brother to withdraw some of the support that he had been   providing. Venal? Opportunistic? Or someone who has a wife and two kids   to support, and no job for the past eight months? GIBSON acknowledges that   he has become somewhat bored with the "rpro-biology" of chasing petty   ideological differences, the kind that make factions of six members or less.   At the same time, he acknowledges that he has to have a job, and that his   access to and knowledge of these persons and groups are marketable   commodities. His preference, he says, would be to have a nice quiet   journalistic or public relations job here, but his efforts to find such a   job have been fruitless. How, obvicusly, can one of his background and   talents better employ than then as a celiector and reporter of information?   He says that he would like rublic relations or irass work for the Wi, perhaps,   or an ODYCKE agency, but he is certain that he could never get the requisite   security clearance. Still, obviously, he suspects that an "irregular" arm   of ODYOKE, such as we, might be able to work something out.