MEETING WITH J. BROMLEY SMITH

Created: 4/23/1965

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD SUBJECT: Meeting, with J. Bromley Smith

1. et Mr. Smith0 onpril at his office in tha White House to discuss with hin the inclusion of the Prlkhodko Lecture in THE PENKOVSKIY PAPERS. Ito Mr. Smith the importance wo ascribe to the lectureart of the book in that itnique documentary source for allegations of Sovietactivities in the United States. aid that it was notonvincing and impressive document but also one with several passages of considerable unconscious huuor for the American reader et least. Mr. Smith appeared to accept th* importance that we ascribe to the document without question.

2. hen informed him of the history of the document, explaining that Mr. Murphy had not taken it up with him earlier because at that time we had not received clearance on using it from thelearance we now have. hen stated that approximately two years ago the release of the document by thehought by the Department of Justice, was contemplated, and the question at that time had been referred to the White Houseecision. aid that Mr. Helms's recollection of the circumstances Mas that President Kennedy had decided against releasing the document after consultation with Llewellyn Thoapson, the basic reasonegative decision being that the negotiations for the Testreaty wore then underway with the Soviett was therefore considered inappropriate for the Goveent toocument of this sort. henut that we considered that the ciTCuustances of today ' are different in that negotiations of that type are not

APPROVED FOR RELEASE

3 IBS

underway with the Soviet Government at present and, most importantly, that wa now plan to incorporate the documentook which will appear under private auspices Tether than have it released by an official agency of the U. S. Government. urther sold that in order to preserve the cover of private preparation of the PENKOVSKIY PAPERS, the lecture would be translated anew so that Agencyin the preparation of the book could not be proved by comparison of the two English texts of theoted that the introduction to this chapter says that it can be presumed that Penkovskiy also gave the lecture to his Anglo/American Intelligence contects.

Mr. Smith appeared to be favorably disposed toward the proposal, but said in view of the incident3 he thought he ought to check with Mr. Bundy about it. He said that he would do so as soon as possible and let me know what the decision was by Saturday,pril.

I informed Mr. Smith that we were going to solicit Dean Acheson's support for the Penkovskiy Fund tomorrow morning. He askedall him to let him know how we made out. He said that he could not predict how Mr. Acheson might react.

[Prior to seeing Mr.hecked with amaml as to the advisability of raising the following itemOTgot to mention yesterday to the DDP. smmTJ urgedo take it up with Smith,id so.) old Mr. Smith that Cornelius Ryanersonal friend of mine and had recently telephoned me to say that he would be pleased to write or contributepeech for the President or some other high Government official on the anniversary of VE Day. Ryan's specific contribution wouldassage itemising the massive extent of U. S. lend-loase to the Soviet Union during World War II. Ryan suggested that the subject might be led Into by an observation concerning our current military aid to South Vietnam and the record of American military support to other countries fighting for their independence. Ryanomplete itemized list of all the materials sent to the Soviet Union under lend-lease snd believes that simply reeding off major items on that list of materials wouldery impressive rebuttal of the frequently repeated Soviet charge that lend-loase was of minimal importance to the Soviet

prosecution of the war. Mr. Smith said that he welcomed' the offer greatly and that Mr. David Cline of his office was at present workingraftpeech for that occasion. He said he would take the matter up with Cline and ask that Cline call we about Ryan's participation.

Jameson Chief, snpjM

Original document.

Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: