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2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

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30 September 1974

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 1l5 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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manuscript would be in his interest as well as ours. 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

that an Agency press release would be in his interest. I would note

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.

Attachments

cc: Acting DDO

SAB/DDO

DC/CI Staff

O/Security

Asst. to DCI

Mr. Walter Pforzheimel

C/CCS

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