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[NSC Meeting April 16, 1969]
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266848716
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[NSC Meeting April 16, 1969]
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WITHDRAWAL SHEET (PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES)
FORM OF
DOCUMENT
CORRESPONDENTS OR TITLE
DATE
RESTRICTION
/
NSC neeting
SPP.
4/16/69
A
Memo
PER RAC REVIEW
SANITIZED
1/13/2005
FILE LOCATION
N:C H- Files Box H-E 121 Folder 2
RESTRICTION CODES
(A Closed by applicable Executive order governing access to national security information.
(B) Closed by statute or by the agency which originated the document.
(C) Closed in accordance with restrictions contained in the donor's deed of gift.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
NA 14029 (1-98)
No Objection To Declassification 2009/01/13 : NLN-H-121-2-1-5
6
TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
offlago
5/2
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING
ON KOREAN SHOOTDOWN INCIDENT
APRIL 16, 1969
Following is a list of attendees at subject meeting:
The President
The Vice President
The Secretary of State
The Secretary of Defense
Director, Office of Emergency Preparedness
The Under Secretary of State
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Director of Central Intelligence
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Ambassador Winthrop Brown (Deputy Asst. Secretary of State)
Brigadier General Ralph D. Steakley (JCS)
Colonel Alexander Haig
Mr. Richard Sneider
The meeting was initiated with an intelligence briefing by the
Director of Central Intelligence on the situation in North Korea. He
made the following points:
1.
The North Koreans have never made a specific claim
as to the extent of their air space.
2.
There has been only limited North Korean military
alerting concurrent with the shootdown incident. This includes:
25X1
3.
Director estimated that The there have been few incidents
in the long series of North Korean provocations which have surpassed
NSC review(s)
JCS review(s)
completed.
TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
completed.
No Objection To Declassification 2009/01/13 : NLN-H-121-2-1-5
No Objection To Declassification 2009/01/13 : NLN-H-121-2-1-5
TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
-2-
this one in significance, with the possible exception of the Pueblo
seizure.
4. for Director summarized recent provocations, starting with
the seizure of the Pueblo, the attempted assassination attempt on the
Korean President, coastal infiltration-and DMZ incidents, all
suggesting a gradually intensifying pattern.
The Director turned next to the recent intelligence on
rescue operation; pointing out that there were two Soviet ships in the
immediate area which who had been conducting search patterns throughout
the night and had been directed to debris specied by U.S. aircraft. The
Soviets permitted a low overflight pass by one of our aircraft which
photographed debris on the deck of the Soviet destroyer including one
of the wheels of the aireraft Her
The Director stated there was no indication that there were
survivors. summarized the North Korean naval order
Mr. the Direchir Helms then
of battle, emphasizing that their most potent naval weapons were ten
high-speed Comar patrol boats 5
Helms estimated that North Korea and South Korea ground
forces were roughly comparable, although the South Koreans had a
preponderance in numbers. The North Koreans, pointed
400
air
had Ve a decided superiority in modern aircraft but this with U.S/ support
TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
No Objection To Declassification 2009/01/13 : NLN-H-121-2-1-5
No Objection To Declassification 2009/01/13 : NLN-H-121-2-1-5
TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
-3-
respective capabilities should balance out.
The President then asked about the 1965 U.S. reconnaissance
plane incident in the same area and asked whether or not after we had
repeated the missions with fighter cover rif there had been any additional
provocations.
Director ofttto
General Steakley/confirmed that there had been none and stated
in response to another question from the President that the air cover
for these missions had been continued for a period of approximately
six months but that the tactics of these missions had been modified to
concentrate primarily on night missions where fighter cover was not
the
considered to be required. Then, at the end of/six month period, the
fighter escorts were discontinued.
The President asked General Steakley to provide him with a
history on the incidents that had occurred in this area, especially
during the period following the Korean Armistice - 1953 through 1955.
The briefing was then turned over to Brigadier General Steakley,
Director of the Joint Reconnaissance Center, JCS, who utilized a map
EC121
to review the 1 reconnaissance mission. He pointed out that there was
an inconsistency in the northern leg of the approved track in that the
TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
No Objection To Declassification 2009/01/13 : NLN-H-121-2-1-5
No Objection To Declassification 2009/01/13 : NLN-H-121-2-1-5
TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
-4-
U.S. reconnaissance aircraft orbited at the northern point of the approved
track. He emphasized that this orbiting might have indicated that they
were exploiting an electronic pickup and that this exploitation brought
them to a point within 38 nautical miles of the North Korean coast
He then described how the incident occurred fter making
two orbits, U.S. tracking facilities picked up one North Korean aircraft
and transmitted a condition 3 alert to the U.S. reconnaissance aircraft.
A Condition 3 alert signifies "fighters airborne, heads up". Three
minutes later, the U.S. trackers picked up a second fighter on an
intercept course towards our reconnaissance aircraft.
No Objection To Declassification 2009/01/13 : NLN-H-121-2-1-5
No Objection To Declassification 2009/01/13 : NLN-H-121-2-1-5
INVITEES FOR NSC MEETING WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 1969
The Vice President
William Rogers, the Secretary of State
Melvin Laird, Secretary of Defense
George A. Lincoln, Director, Office of Emergency Preparedness
Under Secretary of State Elliot Richardson
Earle G. Wheeler, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Richard Helms, Director of Central Intelligence
Henry A. Kissinger, Assistant to the President for National
Security Affairs
Winthrop Brown, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Col. Alexander Haig
Richard Sneider
Brig. Gen. Douglas Steakley
No Objection To Declassification 2009/01/13 : NLN-H-121-2-1-5