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2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992
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OGC 74-1755
30 September 1974
RETURIEN
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Meeting with E. Howard Hunt Re His Memoirs, "Undercover"
1. On 28 September 1974 Ray Rocca, Deputy Chief/CI Staff,
and I met in the DCD Washington Field Office with E. Howard Hunt,
his attorney William A. Snyder, Jr., and Snyder's associate
Thomas W. Coons. As the meeting began, Hunt asked if it was
being tape-recorded; I assured him that it was not. He said he did
not care; but that, if it were to be recorded, he would like to know.
We then embarked upon the review according to the plan under which
we would demand the deletion of three items as classified and then
proceed to the remaining 29 items, only if Hunt was cooperative on
the first three. He and his lawyers appeared very cooperative, and
accordingly, the meeting continued to cover all 32 items.
2. Changes were agreed to in the items set forth in paragraphs
12, 14, and 25 of the CI Staff memorandum of 19 September 1974.
These appear at pages 73, 80-83, and 115 of the galley proof and
concern the fabrication of the Shanghai post for a Mexican operation,
the entry into the Guatemalan Embassy in Mexico City, and the joint
CIA-Uruguayan telephone monitoring operation. The wording of the
agreed changes is as shown on the attached copies of the pertinent
pages of the galley proof. Essentially, these changes disguise the
identity of the fabricated newspaper and remove a reference to
journalists as agents; delete the word "Guatemalan" to make the
entered embassy non-specific; and delete the reference to listening
posts and telephone monitoring to make that paragraph refer in more
general terms to our ability to cover targets without referring to the
use of electronic surveillance.
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3. We then proceeded to the 29 items which we would like to
see modified but which we could not consider classified. We made
this clear to Hunt and went through them one by one, discussing our
concern with each. Hunt contended that most of these items should
not be considered sensitive since they had been publicized extensively;
in some cases confirmed in testimony; and, in the case of other
items, the principals involved were dead. However, he agreed to
changes in the items referred to in paragraphs 1, 3, 17, and 32 of
the CI Staff memorandum of 19 September. These involve the deletions
of the names of Henry Pleasants and Frank Holcomb, both now
retired under cover; a direct reference to joint operations with the
British in Hong Kong against China; and the wording of his reference
to CIA alias documentation used by the Watergate burglars. The
language of this last item will be changed so that it no longer leaves
the impression that the documentation was prepared by the Agency
for this operation.
4. When we had finished, Hunt and his lawyers emphasized
as they had mentioned earlier in the meeting that it might be very
difficult to get the publisher to agree to changes in the unclassified
items. Mr. Snyder offered to present all of the items to the publisher
for change without distinguishing between the classified and unclassi-
fied items. He said he would do this without implying they were all
classified. I felt it necessary to turn down his offer because of the
risk of the publisher being unwilling to accept that many changes
with the result that we would have to go back to him on the three
classified items, thus presenting a situation similar to our retraction
of previously demanded deletions in the Marchetti book. I think
there would be some danger of the publisher using this in his adver-
tising and through reviewers for publicity purposes.
5. As we were leaving, Hunt showed me what was described
as a "comfort letter." This was a letter written by him to the
publishers on 17 May 1974 at the publisher's request which said
that in his opinion nothing in the manuscript violated any agreement
between himself and the CIA, nor would subject him to prosecution
under the espionage laws. As the meeting was ending, Hunt expressed
his hope that no publicity would be given to it and that the Agency
would not issue any kind of a press release. In view of the Director's
decision that we shall issue a press release, I took pains to persuade
Hunt that public acknowledgment of the fact that we had reviewed his
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He had referred
more than once during the meeting to the need to avoid the appearance
of "a bear hug"; in other words, collusion or cooperation between him
and the Agency, leaving an inference that the book was designed to be
a whitewash of CIA. In view of this, it was easy to convince Hunt
I would note
that an Agency press release would be in his interest.
manuscript would be in his interest as well as ours.
here, however, that both Mr. Rocca and I felt that Hunt and his
lawyers were genuinely cooperative and that a press release which
is too harsh or denigrates the book or Hunt's motives might be unfair
and considered by him to be in bad faith. Hunt appears to retain
admiration and respect for the Agency and seems convinced that
nothing in his book will harm our operations or personnel.
༼k.&waa.གྲ་ཧྥ་ཐུ•༥ ༽,
JOHN D. MORRISON, JR.
Acting General Counsel
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Attachments
cc: Acting DDO
SAB/DDO
DC/CI Staff
O/Security
Asst. to DCI
Mr. Walter Pforzheimer
C/CCS
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Original - OGC Subj: PUBLICATIONS
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