REPORT ALLEGES KY SMUGGLED OPIUM

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 13

REPORT ALLEGES KY SMUGGLED OPIUM

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, April 19. A United States Senate sub-committee is investigating a report that the Central Intelligence Agency once removed VicePresident Nguyen Cao Ky, of South Vietnam, as commanding officer of a secret sabotage operation because he used it as a front for opium smuggling.

The report was made available to the Associated Press by the Senate sub-committee on Foreign Aid Expenditures, headed by a Democrat, Senator Ernest Gruening, of Alaska. Joseph Lippman, the staff director of the sub-committee, said the report was considered highly reliable, but refused permission to name or in any way identify its source. The 1963-64 sabotage operation, called “Operation Haylift,” was flying Vietnamese agents into North Vietnam for sabotage such as blowing up railroads and bridges, the report said. “When the programme began, the C.I.A. engaged Vietnamese air crews, and their commanding officer was Colonel Nguyen Ky, who is now Vice-President of South Vietnam. “To make a long story short. Colonel Ky took advantage of this situation to fly opium from Laos to Saigon. Of course, the C.I.A. removed him and his flight crew and they were replaced by Chinese Air Force pilots from Formosa. Also, the Vietnamese

ground crew was replaced by Chinese mechanics.” The missions were flown from the Saigon air base of Tan Son Nhut, the report said. At least one of the aircraft used, a C 123, belonged to the United States Air Force, it said. Another plane used was a C 54 but the report did not sa; whether it belonged to the Air Force. “In the latter part of 1963, the C 54 which had been used for “Operation Haylift,” crashed some 90 miles south of Hanoi while returning from one of its missions,” the report said. “All Chinese crew members on board were killed. “After the C 54 crashed, the C.I.A. used C 123 aircraft on these missions with the United States Air Force markings painted out. The serial number of the C 54 was XVNUF.” The author of the report said he was sent to Vietnam in March, 1962, by an American aviation company as an inspector and adviser on the maintenance crews. His report was made available by Senator Gruening’s sub-com-mittee with the stipulation that the name of the company not be used. “Fictitious Company” The company, the report said, “of course was a fictitious company set up by the C.I.A. and (an airline) operating from the Saigon airfield as a blind for a programme called ‘Operation Haylift.’” Mr Lippman said his investigators had confirmed that the airline named in the report was flying out of Tan Son Nhut at the time “Operation Haylift” was alleged to have been in progress. “The C.I.A. men connected with this programme were as follows: William Colby, who . . was later replaced by a John Richardson and also a Hank Shore. Air Force officers involved were Colonel Albert Blizzard, Major Heck and a Captain Baines. All of these men worked out of the United States Embassy.” State Employee The report said that Colby was now connected with the State Department’s South-East Asia desk. Sources at the State Department confirmed that a William Colby worked for the South Vietnam desk, and said he was on duty in that country. Vice-President Ky, aged 37, was named by the Ngo Dinh Diem Government in 1956 as commander of Saigon Airport. A month after President Diem was overthrown and killed in 1963, Ky was named • commander of the rapidlygrowing Vietnamese Air Force.

The United States Embassy in Saigon said there was no truth in the story that Mr Ky was removed from any position by any element of the United States Government for opium smuggling or for any other reason. Asked if the Embassy had any information connecting Ky with opium smuggling, a spokesman said: “There is no truth to the allegation.”