439. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between Secretary of State Rusk and Director of Central Intelligence Helms1
TELEPHONE CALL TO MR. RICHARD HELMS
H. returned the call. Sec. asked if H. had been getting any reporting out of Yemen in the last few days. H. said yes—quite a bit. Sec. said the Yemeni have just put out a long statement expelling our AID Mission, etc. Sec. asked if H. knew anything about any of this, and if there was any possibility that any of our people are mixed up in this in any way. H. said these accusations have been going on for 48 hours—they have been interrogating these fellows with American witnesses. H’s fellows are predicting a collapse of the Mission as they are making quite a case against them. H. said there was no espionage and nothing sinister going on—[1 line of source text not declassified]. They sacked the Embassy yesterday. H. said they feel it is quite clearly a political move against the United States. Sec. thanked him.
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Rusk Files: Lot 72 D 192, Rusk Telephone Conversations, Box 928. No classification marking. Transcribed by Jane M. Rothe.↩