104-10067-10080 we. wa mar 1 March 1968 ME MORANDUM SUBSE ECT: a - Garrison and the Kennedy Assassination: “ss. Interview of Garrison on Dutch TV by “. .. William L. Oltmans (201-155221) REFERENCES: “A. Joint State-USIA cable, HCM 553, Se HAGUE - 3981, 24 February 1968 -B. Qhe Hague)3870, IN 59064, - :27 February 1968 SUMMARY _ Garrison 1 appeared - on Dutch TV on 22 ‘February 1968. He continued ~- in fact, escalated -~ his attack upon CIA in a persuasive performance. - “There is a possibility of a follow-up program in _ Holland and replays elsewhere in Europe. Garrison's interviewer, William L.- ‘Oltmans, is-a Dutch pro-Communist, although he pretends not to. be, and a homosexual who seems to be or to have been intimate | , with’ ex- -President Sukarno’ of Indonesia. Consideration is. being given to forwarding to tthe Station at.) ‘The Hague/overt derogatory information about Garrison from the U.S. press and TV/radio interviews for release to CA assets there. ; "DETAILS l. ‘References state that on 22 February 1968 Garrison appeared on Dutch TV (Dutch Television Foundation, NTS) during ‘prime time for one hour (time not stated). Neither reference explains | whether Garrison travelled to The Hague or whether the show was taped in the U.S. and sent on tape to Holland. _The Dutch desk believes that the latter is true. obo
14-00000 Crane Wha boa Be “The following were Garrison's charges: Be Kennedy was murdered because he favored a detente, detrimental to the interests of the “military - “dnsustrial complex". re be “Kennedy was the victim ‘of a CIA plot. CIA me has made common cause with the military~industrial | establishment because of a vested interest in maintaining 7 the: cold s War. . . eer Se. (CIA. is committed to the land war in Asia, _ wheréas one of President Kennedy's last orders directed — a reduction. of troops there. ees de A vu. S. president who brings the U. S. to the. a brink of peace will suffer Kennedy’ s fate. SR * Asked why the program had been designed for | va European audience, Garrison said that the growing “influence of CLA on U.S. media had made it impossible for him & to, be heard in his own country. 3. Reference A says Garrison, calm and composed, - was, sufficiently’ ‘credible to élicit rather favorable reviews from generally - well informed Dutch newspapers. ‘Several Dutch viewers also commented on the credibility Ie of c/ his person and presentation. Likely that the NTS will try to sell this program to other European stations," co 40° ‘Reference B says that the Dutch press was generally favorable and that many comments noted he seemed logical and in control of his facts. The majority opinion among Embassy, USIS, and cat-fne “Haga is that he seemed credible to a large proportion of the Dutch viewers. (SYMPATHIZER 17 feels that the program created an all-time low in the U.S. image in the Netherlands. Dutch TV alluded _to a third part of the interview, still to come. ‘5. Garrison: was interviewed by William L. Oltmans. A Synopsis regarding Oltmans follows:
14-00000 Re et we ae DPOB 10 June 1925 Huizen, The Netherlands. » ob. ” Studied at Yale 1950 but expelled for unstated misbehavior. c. “Thereafter worked briefly as correspondent | tor U. P, and for Dutch paper De Telegraat but dismissed - by b both for unstated cause. de “An FBL report of 1960 states that he calls ‘himself’ anti- Communist but expresses the views "of a P areat admirer of communism", ; An I&NS report of 1961 lists his address for - 1986-1961 as 118-09 83rd Ave., Kew Gardens, Long Island, : ‘New. York. 7 ge A CIA report of 1961 lists him as a UN cotresporident then planning an unsponsored trip to East zo Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. Dutch correspondents said that they had yet to see a story written ' by him. . When he applied for membership in the UN 7 correspondents association, he was unable to produce a _ Single clipping in support of the application. He travels extensively. He has excellent contacts in all Communist . countrie: s = including Cuba. ge “The ‘Haague Post of 15 5 April 1951, witha nationwide readership, “characterized Oltmans as an _intimate friend of the then President of Indonesia, Sukarno, 7 and as having tried for five years to arrange contacts for Sukarno in Holland. h, An FBI report of 24 November 1961 restates oe “the above and adds that he had been separated or divorced from his American wife 18 months earlier because "he is ‘not a man". ' He was living with a male at the time of the te - report.’ mo oe SO | 4, An FBI report of 1 February 1962 includes an interview with the ex-wife Frieda Bieling (she had remarried).
14-00000 corean ; : ( She said that her ex-husband and President Sukarno _ were close friends and that he wrote to Sukarno at © . / least once a week throughout their marriage. Around “1957: she and Oltmans lived at the Paramount Hotel, New York, for a time. The Indonesian government paid their bill, which was more than $300. She met a Sukarno through her husband in May 1959 in Copenhagen. a At the. time of the introduction Sukarno cleared the room ‘of all advisors and bodyguards, then said to her, "$0 you are Frieda. Well, 1am Sukie." He toldher _ -: "that he looked forward to receiving his weekly messages from her husband and that he always read them just _ - before ‘he. went to sleep while he was in bed." She said coe that: ‘ten minutes after her wedding ceremony with — - Oltmans v was over, she was alone. Her father, she fe ‘said,- ‘learned that Oltmans had a police record for _- molesting young boys in Amsterdam. She obtained a | '. Mexican divorce in 1960. She said that Oltmans is at . least intellectually a Communist and believes Communism . ‘to, be the « economic system of the future. — 7 : oie je. ~1365, 24 October 1966, says Oltmans- wrote. pro~Lumumba articles in 1960, visited Cuba in 1962 and perhaps 1963, developed friendly relations with . .. Ghicoms at The Hague and may have visited China in 1964. a in + August 1966 he 2 applied for a Chicom visa at The © Hague. “es. “An FBI report of 12 May 1967 says that Oltmans claimed. to have written for Ramparts an article about CIA |. in ‘Indonesia. No such article has been found. © 6. “Reference. B requested background information about | Garrison's mental health and performance as a public official. A summary of derogatory information from overt U.S. media for the past year (March 1967 to March 1968) has been compiled in response. . A decision will soon. be made as to whether part or all of this material may be sent scoRT
14-00000 ve ‘ * . wat . a tae abet Distribution: - Orig - DCI. _ 1 -DDP, ADDP . > 1-8 A/DCI.: dis - Eur /Netherlands ile - Office ‘of General Counsel lw Office of Security . 1 = . €/Ci, DC/CL .l- - R&A chrono - 1. ~. DP Feports file