Office of the Historian

323. Letter From Secretary of Defense McNamara to the Under Secretary of State (Katzenbach)1

Washington, January 13, 1967.

Dear Nick:

Your letter of November 2, 1966 requested that we look into the prospects for stabilization or reduction of personnel at Kagnew Station in Asmara.2

We have now completed the review I mentioned in my interim reply of November 14, 1966. Unfortunately, it does not appear that we can make substantial reductions at Kagnew over the near future unless we are prepared to sacrifice some significant capabilities and products which the Kagnew complex now provides. The geographical location at Asmara is uniquely suited for the Kagnew operations. For some of the most important missions, including the bulk of the security agency missions, we do not have feasible alternative sites. The relocation of certain Kagnew activities is technically possible. However, these moves are [Page 556] unattractive because they could not be accomplished without incurring operational and other costs, and they are not sufficient to make Kagnew Station much less conspicuous. We also cannot foresee any early developments which would permit us to carry out any significant portion of the Kagnew operation by other than land-based techniques.

We do not presently anticipate, however, any major new growth at Kagnew beyond the additional antenna and facilities acreage we recently asked the State Department to obtain. With regard to manning, it does not appear that the personnel level should increase by more than 300 (including dependents) over the next 5 years.

In evaluating the need for Kagnew, we have kept in mind that its operations are by no means confined to serving the interests of the Department of Defense. On the contrary, a major function of the station is to collect and report intelligence which meets national requirements and which is thus important to the State Department [less than 1 line of source text not declassified]. You may wish to go into this facet of the Kagnew operations in greater detail. I have instructed my staff to make arrangements for any briefings on this aspect which you or other key officers of the State Department may desire.

Sincerely,

Bob
  1. Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OSD Files: FRC 72 A 2468, 091.3 MAAG Ethiopia. Top Secret.↩
  2. Document 322.↩