Office of the Historian

575. Memorandum From the Chief of the Africa Division, Directorate of Plans, Central Intelligence Agency (Roosevelt) to the Assistant Deputy Director for Plans (Karamessines)1

Washington, May 1968.

SUBJECT

  • Request for Termination of Project [cryptonym not declassified]

1. On 8 March 1967 the 303 Committee directed that Project [cryptonym not declassified] be liquidated as soon as possible “with minimum sacrifice to efficiency and order”. On 10 May 1967 the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a contract with [cryptonym not declassified], the maintenance facility set up under Project [cryptonym not declassified] to retain it as the maintenance facility for the Congolese Air Force.

2. Before Project [cryptonym not declassified] was in fact liquidated, a mutiny of white mercenaries and Katangan gendarmes broke out in the Congo on 5 July 1967. Congolese forces were unable to control the mutiny and in response to a request from the Congolese Government that the United States provide pilots for the Congolese Air Force, the 303 [Page 833] Committee directed that Project [cryptonym not declassified] be extended for the period 1 July 1967 to 31 December 1967.

3. The pilots provided under the Project left the Congo before the end of the extension period. The air operations officers connected with the Project departed in February 1968 after the final inventories of equipment were made and the departure of a plane supplied for Project use was arranged.

4. All Project contract personnel have been amicably terminated and have signed quitclaims; there are no residual problems relating to personnel.

5. A considerable amount of material supplied by the Project is presently in the Congo under the control of [cryptonym not declassified]; the appropriate offices of CIA are presently negotiating with [cryptonym not declassified] to arrange its final disposition as per the attached memorandum.2 (The disposition of this material is not considered an impediment to the termination of the Project.)

6. It is therefore requested that approval be given for the termination of Project [cryptonym not declassified].

Archibald B. Roosevelt, Jr.3
Chief, Africa Division
  1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency Files, Job 89–00639R, DO/AF Files, Box 1, Folder 18, Removals & Termination, Apr. 63–May 68, [folder name not declassified]. Secret. Sent through MPS/BG. The month and year are handwritten on the original.↩
  2. Not printed.↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩