Memorandum for General Persons

July 5, 1960 MEMORANDUM FOR b General Persons The following information, supplied by State, adds little to what you heard this morning: The political opposition to MERCURY in Zanzibar is by an Arab nationalist group which is a minority group. They have been stirred up by Communist propaganda linking the U-2 with these tracking stations (this propaganda has done a good job of confus- ing the issue of what the stations would be used for). State thinks there will be a demonstration against MURCURY on July 10th, and that it will be fairly serious. It may lead the D. British to ask us not to establish the station there because the demonstration and general opposition may require the British to use force to allow us to establish the station. THE State has sent out instructions to the post to try to convince the local government as well as the British that the station is civilian and purely scientific in character. We would not want the British to use force to establish the track- ing station. We hope that by persuasion we could convince the population and also local political leaders, as well as the British government, that this represents no danger and that we are not using it for intelligence purposes (in the sense that the U-2 was used over Russia). It has already been decided not to put the COURIER project in Zanzibar (for communications satellites). CIA plans to send a memorandum, with the approval of Allen Dulles, later this week on the subject of the disposition of the U-2. As an interim measure, they are sending me this afternoon a memorandum giving the CIA position informally. DECLASSIFIED Authority RAC review John s. D. Eisenhower By Ho NLE 12/28/2000 Date