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MORI Doc¢ID: 1451843
yo : BN Ce
| I Ta 4 - . -( 3
H HN v s “
i a kK “5317 Briley Place
| - . Washington, D. C. 20016
| : . . 10 January 1972
"Mr, Lloyd Shearer ’ . - ’ ‘
Editor at Large .
Parade Magazine . : :
733 Third Avenue ct -
| New York, New York 10017 .
. Dear Mr, Shearex: i co R
i In your issue of January 9th, one of Walter Scott's Personality .
| Parade responses stated that CIA "uscs political assassination as a .
1 weapon" and that Operation Phoenix “run by the CIA established a new
| high for U. S. political assassinations in Vietnam." Since I have held - )
responsible positions in GIA for many years and was also (during de-
k tached service from CIA) responsible for U. S. support to Operation
1 Phoenix, I believe I am uniquely qualified to testify {as I have in public -
‘session under oath to Senate and House Committees) that:
Ol . : a. CIA does not and has not used political assassination as
a weapon.
b. Operation Phoenix was run not by the CIA but by the oC
5 Government of Vietnam with the support of the CORDS element
. of the U. S. Military Assistance Command. : .
cr Operation Phoenix is not a program of assassination. \
Members of the Viet Cong apparatus were killed in the course
: of military operations or resisting police arrest. There is a
. vast differcnce in kind, not merely degree, between these {even
including occasional -~ and few -- abuses) 2nd the Viet Cong's
Rk conscious campaign of texrorism referred to by Mr. Scott. R
- A
In order to clarify-this important question to the millions of con-
. cerned Americans who might be misled by Mr. Scott's column, I should
appreciate your publishing this letter. - -
. ) ) ’ ’ i Sincerely,
. oo .
: ’ . W. E. Colby - .
Co 00673
1 . .
i .