Office of the Historian

15. Memorandum to the File1

Washington, February 14, 1986

SUBJECT

  • Visit of Bill Long and Hal Weeks to CIA, re. AIDS

Bill Long and Hal Weeks (OES/ENR) visited CIA headquarters on Thursday, 13 Feb., to discuss the Dept. of State’s AIDS program and policy paper.2 The exchange was originally proposed by [name not declassified], Office of Global Issues, CIA, who chaired the meeting. He was joined by other CIA officials (attendance list below)3. The meeting lasted slightly over an hour; discussion centered on three topics:

1. A description of State Dept. efforts to date by Bill Long. Three copies of the current draft of the policy paper were given to CIA officials. The proposed NAS/IOM short term AIDS project4 was also mentioned; three copies of the letter from Bill Long to Dr. Jeffrey Stryker with issues of interest to State were left with CIA.5

2. CIA interest in the AIDS epidemic is presently informal and unfocused. The Office of Global Issues and the Office of Science and Weapons Research seemed to be the principal foci of interest.

3. CIA does not know what it might contribute to a USG AIDS effort, or what level of resources they might have available to devote to an initiative on this topic. They are clearly concerned about the lack of a good data base. Various ideas under consideration for possible CIA action include:

[Page 42]

—collection of AIDS-related data [less than 1 line not declassified]. This would supplement6 State Dept. post reports on AIDS.

—preparation of a report on AIDS worldwide, which may include an annotated map of incidence and/or a model of the estimated impact of the disease7—given information on the spread of the disease and loss of productivity of those afflicted.

—informational ‘features’ by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).

  1. Source: Department of State, AIDS, 1984–1987, Lot 89D137, AIDS: Cables, Meetings + Misc. Limited Official Use. Drafted by Weeks.↩
  2. See Document 18.↩
  3. Not printed.↩
  4. In telegram 339428 to all diplomatic and consular posts, October 30, the Department outlined the results of an NAS/IOM report on AIDS. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D860826–0082)↩
  5. Not found.↩
  6. An unknown hand underlined the phrase “collection of AIDS-related data” and the word “supplement.”↩
  7. An unknown hand underlined the phrases “an annotated map of incidence” and “a model of the estimated impact of the disease” and wrote “interesting idea” in the left-hand margin.↩