ASSASSINATIONS
Agency: BUCHEN/DAN
Originator: CIA
From: COLBY, WILLIAM
Document date: 06/16/1975
Document type: PAPER-TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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178-10003-10377

JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

8/27/201

AGENCY :

RECORD NUMBER :

BUCHEN/DAN

178-10003-10377

RECORD SERIES :

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

AGENCY FILE NUMBER: CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

Document Information

ORIGINATOR :

FROM:

TO:

TITLE:

CIA

COLBY, WILLIAM

ASSASSINATIONS

DATE :

PAGES:

SUBJECTS :

06/16/1975

5

ANTI-CASTRO ACTIVITIES

COLBY, WILLIAM

CLANDESTINE OPERATIONS

CIA

ASSASSINATIONS, FOREIGN LEADERS

DOCUMENT TYPE: REPORT

CLASSIFICATION : Unclassified

. RESTRICTIONS: Consulted

CURRENT STATUS : Redact

DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 09/01/1995

OPENING CRITERIA :

• COMMENTS :

Includes handwritten note by Buchen.

v9.l

NW 50955

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178-10003-10377

22

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

Colby's own-summory

of assass i nations,

furnished to Wit

Counsels on 6/14/75

T. W. I.

pin red fill

He hed

PHO

COPY FROM THE GERALD R. FORD LIBPARY

HIH

50953

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SIGNE A SENSINE

ASSASSINATIONS

We bave been

unable to

find any evidence to suggest that

the Agency has ever been directly involved in the assassination

of any foreign leader.

We do know, however, that the Agency did

consider a number of assassination

schemes against Castro and did

provide weapons to Dominican dissidents who were responsible for

the assassination of Trujillo.

With respect to other foreign

leaders whom the press

has identified as assassination targets

of the Agency, we have heard that

some thought was given in the

Agency to the

possibility of assassinating Lumumba and we know

an assassination plot against Diem was mentioned in a cable

rom the saigon Station:

All we know about Lumumba is

that' one

Agency officer is said

to have declined an assignment to partici

in an assassination plot against him and thát Lumumba was

killed by Congolese acting independently. In the case of Diem,

the DCI cabled the field that such a course of action could not

be condoned by the Agency:

There follows.a

summary of all information pertaining to

the question of assassinations that we have been able

to uncover

•IIon a revlew of nunerous Agency files.

We have tried to be as

inclusive as possible, and accordingly have even listed incidents

that could be characterized as preposterous, as in the case of

DeGaulle.

Fidel Castro

During

the period. beginning about March 1960 and extending

through June 1965, the Agency engaged in a series of schemes to

bring about the death or incapacitation of

Fidel Castro.

The

early

schemes

were aimed only at discrediting Castro personally

by influencing his behavior or by altering his appearance,

whereas the later schemes were developed in response to White

House urgings to do something about Castro.

Schemes considered prior to August 1960 included the

contamination of the air of the radio station, where Castro

bioadcast his speeches, with an aerosol spray of a chemical that

produces

reactions similar. to those of LSD, and dusting Castro's

shoes with thallium salts.

One proposal provided for the impreg-

nation with botulinum of

a full

box of Castro's favorite brand of

cigars.

GERALD R. FORD LIBPARY

August 1960, the Agency, through a cleared contact,

approached US criminal elements that controlled

the gambling

casinos in Cuba in an attempt to assassinate Castro by putting

botulinun in his food or drink. The administration of botulinum

again considered by the criminal elements in April 1962 in

dealings with a Cuban exile leader.

SECRET

CHET SENSIVE

-... IMPDET CL OY.....

018186

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SECRET/SENSINVE

In. early 1963, at about the time of the Donovan-Castro

negotiations for the release

of the Bayoof Rigs prisoners, a

Plan was devised to have Donovan present a contaminated skin

diving suit to Castio as a gift.

There was also a

scheme for

doing away with Castro by means

of an explosives-rigged sea

shell. None of the above-mentioned schemes advanced very far

beyond the planning

stage.

In March 1961 the Agency first met a leader of an anti-

Batista group who had entered into an alliance with Castro and

subsequently became disillusioned with him. The subject of poat-

Castro governments was discussed with him in meetings over the

next 18 months.

This eventually led to his

request for assass.

pation. devices.

An Agency officer gave him a ball-point pen rigged

to serve

as a hypodermic syringe in Paris on 22 November 1963. Since he

did not

think much of the

pen device, the Agency arranged to have

a Cuban exile give him a silenced

pistol and

a silenced rifle.

The Agency also put down

two caches in Cuba

for him, one with

rifles and one without.

He was arrested in 1965 and tried

publicly.

Charles DeGaulle

On 25 May 1967, a French citizen, who had had contact with

the Agency since 1955 and was recruited in Africa in 1958,

signaled his case officer by means of an accommodation telephone

In Germany for an emergency meeting.

He was met the same night

in Rome by his case officer,

The French citizen

had long

been

distressed with DeGaulle's

foreign policy in Africa and offered

to take advantage of his invitation to

reception for

DeGaulle

on 30 May 1967 in Italy. to shake DeGaulle's hand, wearing a

poison ring if

we cared

to provide one for the purpose.

The cave

officer Immediately treated

the proposal not only

as not meriting

serious consideration but also stating that he did not engage lu

such activities. In a dispatch dated 8 June 1967, Headquartera

replied that the case officer's "response

to (thel proposal

related in (the cable] and his handling of the situation was

correct and

fitting."

Ngo Dinh Diem

The successful

coup against the Diem regine in South

Vietnam, which

resulted in the deaths of Ngo Dinh Diem and his

brother, Nhu, began

on 1 November 1963. Three senior Agency

officers who were most Intimately involved with Vietnamese

affairs throughout 1963 have testified that they knew of no CIA

assassination schemes against Diem -- other than the role played

by CIA in maintaining contacts, by direction,

generals.

with the Vietnamese

SECRET/SENSITIVE

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SECHET/SENSINVE

A review of relevant Agency files revealed

only one

mention of

an

assassination plot.

On 5 October 1963, an Agency

officer

cabled fion

Saigon that

he recommended to senior

Embassy officers that "we do not set ourselves irrevocably

against the

assassination plot, since the other two alternatives

mean either a bloodbath in Saigon of a protracted struggle which

could rip the army and the country asunder."

The Agency reaction

to this recommendation

appeared in a cable of 6 October 1963 that

forcefully stated that

"McCone directs

that you withdraw recom

mendation to Ambassador (concerning assassination planl under

McCone instructions,

as we cannot be in position actively con-

doning such course of action and thereby engaging our responsi

bility therefor."

PHOTOCOPY

Francois Duvalier

There is no record or reference that the Agency ever con

templated

any action in Haiti that would involve the assassination

of President Duvalier, although there were plans to overthrow his

regime.

23 May 1963, National Security Memorandum No. 246

Instructed' the CIA to

develop an exile force to

challenge the

Duvalier regime in Haiti and

suggested that the Dominican Republic#

try

offered the most feasible staging area.

In response, the Agency

proposed to develop a

covert relationship with President Bosch

of the Dominican Republic for the purpose of

creating .a

Haitian

exile military force in the Dominican Republic to overthrow

GERALD

Duvalier.

Upon approval of this

proposal

on

20 June,

CIA repre-

sentatives discussed the matter with President Bosch, who declined?

for various reasons.

On 18 July the CIA

presented another pro-

posal to Special Group 5412 recommending that

the CIA discontinue

development of a Haitian exile force in the Dominican Republic,

but that it implement

a program of

coordinated political

action,

intelligence collection and

paramilitary operations

from other

bases

Instead:

This

plan was

approved by the Special Group on

15 July and by President Kennedy on 19 July 1963.

Following three abortive Agency sponsored incursions in

August and

September 1963, U.

policy was changed and called

for limited accommodation with. the Haitian Government while still

permitting the training of a small cadre of exiles in the United

states:

Impatient for

action, around June

1963, members of the

Haitian Youth Movement (MJH), without Agency knowledge, made

with Father Jean Georges, a former Minister of

Education

a large student following.

Later, the same. month,

Pather Georges dispatched an invasion force by sea.

Although 1e

failed, the invasion galvanized the Haitian exile community,

especially the young people. Between 14 and 30 July 1964, MJH

members left New York singly.or in pairs for Jamaica, with

plans;

to travel on

to Haiti to engage

in guerrilla action against

Duvalier. Of the 13 men who made up the invasion team, eight

3

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SECRET/SENSINVE

had received Agency training; the remaining five were simply

MJH

members.

There was no Agency sponsorship of this invasion,

nor was the

Agency aware that it was being planned.

During

the summer of 1964, the major project set up. to encompass

policy guidance and

funding authority for integrated political,

intelligence, and paramilitary training activity against che

regime was

terminated.jalthough the official termination

date was

not until 30 June 1965. During the first half of 1965,

Headquarters case

officers were in touch with certain

asset's

formerly

included in this project, but gradually the efforts

these assets were redirected and those who had a continuing

value

to the Agency were absorbed into other projects.

On May 20, 1968

there was another unsuccessful invasion of

Haiti by Haitian exiles from the Bahamas.

While some members

pate in the invasion or in its planning.

Duvalier died of a massive heart attack and arteriosclerosis

on 21 April 1971.

He was 64.

Patrice Lumumba.

According to statements made to the Inspector General in

1967 by a senior CIA officer, consideration had been given in

clandestine asset in Europe to assassinate Lumumba

In che Congo. He further stated that the proposed operation was

never carried out because the designated CIA case officer declined

the assignment.

According to available records, there is no

mention of any

assassination plot against Lumumba, and it seems

quite clear that the clandestine asset in question

was prinarily

Involved in finding safecrackers who would steal foreign ciphers

and codes.

50)

Although the exact circumstances of Lumumba's death

a mystery,

it is cleat that he expired in of around Elizabethvilla

1n. early 1961 while under detention by congo authorities.

The

clandestine asset

had left the Congo in December 1960.

General Rene Schneider

General Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean

Army, was killed in late October 1970 as the result of

a kidnap

attempt carried out by a band of anti-Marxists under the direction

of retired General Roberto Viaux, General Viaux was in contact

with a larger military-civilian

group that was trying to prevent

the accession to power of Marxist Salvador Allende.

General

Schneider was a major obstacle to their plans, since he firmly

PHOTOCOP

FROM THE GERALD

4

SEORDT/SENSIT62

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SLUNCH SENDING

opposed any effort to interfere with the constitutional process.

The conspirators hoped to kidnap and detain Schneider long

to permit anti-Marxist forces to take over power in

Chile.

The 22 October kidnap attempt, which resulted In

Schneider's

death, was badly executed; General Schneider drew his pistol and

Is turn was shot and fatally wounded by the kidnappers.

Following the 4 September 1970 presidential election, In

which none of the three candidates received

a majority of the

popular vote, the Agency was instructed to try to determine

whether sufficient organized strength could be mobilized in

Chile to prevent Allende from assuming office as President on

4 November 1970.

In carrying out this mandate, the Agency did

make contact with

the military-civilian group which was actively

plotting a

coup d'etat.

As the first step in their coup attempt,

this group had planned

to abduct Schneider on the evening of

19 October. This plan aborted. The Agency was also in contact

with representatives

of General Viaux (the latter subsequently

admitted

"intellectual authorship" of the 22 October kidnap

efforts), but had withdrawn

frow contact after determining that

the Viaux group lacked the

organization necessary

for any

effective course of action.

It is not known whether any leaders

of the military-civilian group authorized the 22 October

attempt,

although

HI

available evidence makes it appear likely that Vlaux

on his own initiative in a last-ditch effort to provoke

military intervention.

The Agency provided the military

civilian group with three weapons and six gas masks and

cannisters

were never used; the

weapons were subsequently returned.

GERALD

No military haidware was provided to Viaux. The death of

Schneider, which was

totally unplanned and unforeseen, resulted

in the, collapse of all efforts to prevent Allende from assuming

the Presidency.

Rafael Trujillo

Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican dictator, was assassinated

by Dominican dissidents on the night of 30 May 1961.

Although ther

agency was involved in supporting those planning the overthror of

Trujillo, as a part of authorized, government policy, the actual

assassination was a local affaii..

Of the weapons taken to the

scene of the assassination, it is probable that at least one of

the carbines

had been furnished by CIA, but. there is no

evidence

that it was actually used in the shooting..

The assassins who

were apprehended and interrogated spoke only of the firing of a

revolvers, and pistols,

Those who were

s overthrow were divided into two groups: the

"political group" which was in

frequent and close contact with

the American Embassy, and the "action group" with which the CIA

station was in contact primarily through an American business.

Dan in Ciudad Trujillo.

SECRET /SENSITIVE

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