Office of the Historian

289. Memorandum From Director of Central Intelligence Colby to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)1

Washington, June 4, 1975.

SUBJECT

  • Termination of the Kurdish Assistance Program

1. This is to confirm that the Agency has terminated its Kurdish assistance program [2½ lines not declassified]. As you will recall, the Kurdish assistance operation was initiated at the request of the Shah of Iran, and all our aid to the Kurds was channeled through the Iranians. The Shah, however, ceased all financial and military aid to the Kurds in Iraq after his agreement with the Iraqis in Algiers on 6 March 1975. As a result the Kurdish resistance movement in Iraq collapsed and the Kurdish leaders fled to Iran. Consequently the Agency had no option but to terminate its own program of assistance to the Kurds.

2. This program has not been handled in the usual 40 Committee channels.

W.E. Colby2
  1. Source: National Security Council, Ford Intelligence Files, Subject Files A–L, IO 11, Box 12, GRF, Iraq/Kurds, 4 June 1975–26 September 1975. Secret; [handling restriction not declassified].↩
  2. Colby signed “Bill” above this typed signature.↩