Office of the Historian

135. Memorandum From the Assistant Director, West Europe, United States Information Agency (Hemsing) to the Director (Shakespeare)1

Washington, May 24, 1971

SUBJECT

  • Worldwide “Placement” of Inspired Stories

As we heard again in the most recent Anglo-American talks, the British make a good thing out of their Information Research Department. While we can’t hope to duplicate their efforts, it does strike me that we could be doing more in the direction of inspiring articles by carefully calculated placement of certain “sanitized” classified documents with selected journalists around the world.

The dangers, of course, are obvious. Articles inspired by such operations would have to be completely unattributable. The choice of documents to be sanitized and “placed” is a matter requiring the most delicate and sensitive political judgment. The interests of other agencies would have to be protected carefully, but hopefully by something less than a full clearance procedure which leads to perfect safety—and perfect dullness!

Nevertheless, we do have a precedent for successful operations of this sort. For many years the Vienna Special Projects Office, with the concurrence of the Department and of Ambassadors concerned, carried on a similar operation with telegrams and airgrams received from missions in Eastern Europe and the USSR. Although it lasted for about ten years, I am told there was never any instance of embarrassment to the USG or our missions in Eastern Europe and the USSR.

I believe a centralized operation in our Agency carried on by 1–2 officers with a global purview could perform similar useful and profitable work for us.

  1. Source: National Archives, RG 306, Director’s Subject Files, 1968–1972, Entry A1–42, Box 22, FPD—General 1971. Confidential. A copy was sent to Loomis. On the carbon copy of the memorandum sent to Loomis, Loomis wrote: “HD Pls discuss with other areas & IOP, IOR Then brief me. HL.” An unknown hand wrote “5/27” next to Loomis’s note. (Ibid.) In the bottom margin of the carbon copy, Loomis also wrote “Gammon prepare for Area Dirs Mtg Wed June 2, 1200 Rm 1750.” Dunlap’s response, to which Hemsing’s memorandum is attached, is printed as Document 138.↩