This continues our short series of translations relating to the Intrepid Four and their handling for propaganda purposes by the Soviet Union. For further information, please refer to our first report in the series here.
Document 4: A paper (from G.V. Shumeyko, head of the International Department of the CPSU Central Committee, November 22, 1967): “On the exchange of opinions in the department (November 21, 1967) on the implementation of measures in interviews with correspondents from the magazines Novoye Vremya, Sovetskiy Soyuz, Paris Match, and the newspaper Moscow News, for the meeting with Moscow State University students and Vietnamese correspondents (with the consent of the sailors), organizing material assistance, and transferring them to the West”
On the 21st of November of this year, an exchange of views took place in the International Department sector on the implementation of measures determined by the well-known decision in connection with the presence in the Soviet Union of four American sailors from the aircraft carrier Intrepid.
The preliminary opinion expressed (that it is desirable to limit the length of the American stay in the USSR to 5-7 days) is based on the operational considerations of our agencies. A significant extension of this period is, for these reasons, undesirable (opinion of Comrade S.A. Kondratyev).
Based on this timeframe, it is possible to carry out the following activities:
– On November 22 at 5:00 PM, hold a meeting between the American sailors with university students (Soviet only) at the Moscow State University club. Appearing at the Americans’ meeting will be the USSR Youth Organizations Committee (Comrade Yarovoy) and the Soviet Committee for the Support of Vietnam.
– Set up interviews with correspondents from the newspaper Moscow News and the magazines Novoye Vremya and Sovetskiy Soyuz.
– Prepare an interview for the influential French bourgeois magazine “Paris Match,” in accordance with a request sent by the magazine through the APN.
– The USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Deputy Head of the US Department, Comrade Zinchuk) should prepare and send encrypted telegrams to the Soviet embassies in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia, instructing them to communicate their views on the main issues concerning the deployment of four American naval personnel to Western European countries and their active use by progressive forces there. After receiving the relevant information and opinions from the Soviet embassies, the Soviet Committee for Support of Vietnam and the Soviet Peace Committee could send clerical telegrams to the appropriate public organizations in one of the countries requesting assistance.
This means that certain progressive (anti-war) circles in the United States are also interested in the safety of the four American sailors, and they may take on some of the responsibilities of providing for these sailors while simultaneously monitoring their activities in Western European countries.
– Considering the need to provide financial support for the four Americans during their initial stay in a Western European country, the Soviet Committee for Vietnam Support and the Soviet Peace Committee will prepare proposals on the amount (approximately $1,000 each) and acceptable forms of delivery.
– In connection with the request of the DRV [Democratic Republic of Vietnam] Embassy and a correspondent of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) for Americans to visit the DRV Embassy and hand over tapes of their speeches in the USSR to the Russell Tribunal, sitting in Copenhagen, inform our Vietnamese comrades, citing American sailors, that this is difficult for them. Keep in mind, however, that the sailors have a specific position, developed in Japan with the assistance of American pacifists, and they must take this into account.
– Invite a VIA [Vietnam Information Agency] correspondent and the Osvobozhdeniye (Liberation) agency to a meeting with Soviet students at Moscow State University, where they would be given the opportunity to speak with the Americans, with their consent, and taking into account that these sailors, currently being tried in absentia by a military tribunal in the United States, would then have to rebut the prosecutor’s accusations that they not only deserted but also voluntarily collaborated directly with the Vietnamese. It can be assumed that direct contact with the Vietnamese is not currently in the plans of either these sailors or the pacifist circles in the United States who are organizing their legal defense in their absentia trial.
G. Shumeyko
Document 5: Memorandum from KGB Chairman Yu.V. Andropov to the CPSU Central Committee, November 25, 1967: “On measures against American aggression in Vietnam”
TOP SECRET
COMMITTEE FOR STATE SECURITY under the COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE USSR
25 November 1967
No. 2874A
Moscow
To the CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU
Reports from abroad indicate the profound impact of the courageous act of the four American sailors on public opinion in many countries.
In order to further develop the campaign against American aggression in Vietnam, we consider it advisable to implement the following measures:
1. Publish a leaflet in the name of the four American sailors, with their photographs and signatures, calling on American servicemen in Japan, both permanently stationed and visiting on leave, to protest the war of aggression in Vietnam. Distribute this leaflet in Japan among American servicemen through the Japanese organization Beheiren (Vietnam Peace Committee).
2. Publish an appeal leaflet from the four sailors, intended for American servicemen stationed in South Vietnam, calling on them to refuse to participate in the Pentagon’s war of aggression and to advocate for giving the people of Vietnam the right to decide their own fate.
Propose to our Vietnamese friends that they distribute the leaflets throughout South Vietnam using their own resources.
3. Organize an appeal by the four sailors to the youth of the world calling for a persistent struggle for peace, for an end to American aggression in Vietnam, and for the unification of anti-war efforts by the world’s youth.
4. Organize an appeal by the four American sailors to American youth calling for the continuation and intensification of the struggle to end the Vietnam War and the withdrawal of US military forces. Disseminate the appeal through radio, print media, leaflets, television commercials, and other means, timed to coincide with Anti-War Week in the United States, beginning on December 4th.
Your concurrence is kindly requested.
KGB CHAIRMAN ANDROPOV
VOTES:
In favor – Comrades Brezhnev, Voronov, Kirilenko, Kosygin, Mazurov, Pelše, Podgornyy, Suslov
Absent – Polyanskiy, Shelepin
No vote recorded – Shelest
27 November 1967
Translation © 2025 by Michael Estes and TranslatingHistory.org
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