243. Memorandum From Secretary of State Vance to President Carter1

1. YAR President al-Ghashmi Assassinated. YAR President Ghashmi was assassinated this morning. According to our Embassy, Ghashmi was killed by a bomb while he was receiving a man purporting to be a South Yemen representative. The visitor, who also died, has tentatively been identified as the bomber. Sana is quiet although the military headquarters where the incident occurred is sealed off from the rest of the city by tanks and troops. Our Embassy notes that suspicion is focused at the moment entirely on South Yemen and that Ghashmi’s successor is likely to be chosen from his immediate entourage.2

[Omitted here is material unrelated to Yemen.]

  1. Source: Carter Library, Plains File, Subject File, Box 38, State Department Evening Reports, 6/78. Secret. Carter initialed the upper right-hand corner of the first page of the memorandum, indicating that he saw it.
  2. In telegrams 3054, 3055, and 3057, all from Sana, June 24, the Embassy reported the details of the assassination and its immediate aftermath. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D780263–0904, D780263–1003, and D780263–1039)