immun- 1 - i We L'Lis tw ct Ata EMZY - WASHINGTON or 2030 n neoLAsslaso AUG- 16 20 05 - 110m 1355 Chigfjtieclas s Br Dir nee was MEMORANDUM FOR THE DIRECTOR OPERATIONS SUBJECT Concept Plan to Physically Test US Military Readiness Worldwide _i l DIA and NSA represantctives met this morning to coordinate operations necessary for'support of the subject plan The ensuing discussion leads us to request that Very serious consideration be given to cancellation of Exercise High Heels scheduled to begin 14 October 2 The National Security Agency has a standing contingency plan for the purpose of determining SovietwreactIOn regenegigic operations by US military forces This plan willgbelinplementediin support of the Subject- operation 'It was never contempletedg however thatfimplementation of the plan would be required Bering ace of the U S High Heels exercises 3 The Volume of High Heels traffic will cause a delay in movement of the critical non-exercise traffic containing the real intelligence we are looking for regarding Soviet reaction to our military readiness test This volume will we believe he detected'by the Soviets and we have no way of knowing how their will read or misread t c traffic levels The flow of exercise traffic conflicts with the aspect of limiting EMCON as certain Commands have been directed to no It is also well known in the history of exercises that one or more messages have been transmitted without the prescribed prefix or on the wrong circuit Such an incident involving a message containing threatening material along with Soviet observations of actual UQS movaments radio silence and standdown activities could cause a hazardous situation We believe the subject Concept Plan offers a more realistic test than the planned exercise that cancellation of the exerciSew particularly if publicly announced- would contribute to the objectives of the real operation whilezcontinuation introduce substantial hazarQs and tnat attainmehtio 37 rim ry intelligence objectivc-- detecting of the increased readiness - would be extremely dif iculfg if not impossible - 5 In View oflabove it is strongly recommended that exercise High Heels 3 - be cancelledsigned G 0 BROWN 1 DIAAP 1 Vl hv I vw crnor i-Ll 13 October 1969 QUCS Background Paper forthe Chairman Secretary of DefenseL3 - 1 Emeeting with the i- Readiness Posture 1 SUBJECT Impact dr sk rcis axes dh PEan for Increased I 1 BACKGROUND The intelligence community is concerned that the concurrent execution of Exercise HIGH HEELS 69'and the Plan for Increased Readiness Posture will have mutual influence and recom mends that Exercise HIGH HEELS 69 be cancelled immediately Exercise datesE 19-23 October 1969 Planning for Exercise HIGH HEELS is essentially completc Most Exercise funds have been expended field command posts have been activated and WSEG observers are in place worldwide Execution of Exercise HIGH HEELS results in a very high volume of communications traffic relocation of military head quarters worldwide to emergency locations and a shift of numerous personnel from their normal locations Exercise activityn isnotcompatiblel i r 7 K 5'achievenuaznt of purpose of the in Increased as exercise activities Cancellatiodvof the Exercise prior to its initiation or sometime during'the Exercise should add to effects of Increased Headinoss Plan actions - Possible Courses of Actiontji Conduct Exercise HIGH HEELS as scheduled- 4 OSD - Cancel HIGH HEELS 69 immediately Postpone HIGH HEELS to a later date as scheduled- Conduct Exercisetas a Joint_ taffiererqise without CINC participationf 11 luff-1 1 I K V- its Intelligence cannunity recommendation 'st'e'lmsf eifrom their difficulty in concurrently readihgithe-signals created from directed stand down and that produced Exercise HIGH HEELS activityi fIn addition the same arefrequired for both a Cancellationu'of HIGH HEELS 69 now would cre'ate a a'z month gap 5 between HIGH HEELS exercises c The HIGH HEELS Exercise is in January-February 1971 in conjunction with-NATO Exercise mm 11the Exercise were postponed to January much of the current 5 effort could be used to play the Exercise at that time However a significant portion of required funds authorized for FY 70 have already been expended Delay beyond January conflicts-with planning cycle for HEELS Tl wivfn 5mw QECEASSFIED AUG 1 6 2005 14 scar em Authority EO12%8 asamended onsetrsectass Br Dir - Cancellation of the Exercise subsequent to the initiation of HIGH HEELS play has the advantage of allowing the new administration to become acquainted with emergency decisionumaking processes However it knocks out the redirection and reconstitution phase which has not been played in depth for 2H months DIA considers that termination during the exercise would create a stronger signal than cancellation prior to the initiation of Exercise play however the Soviets probably already know that the Exercise is underway from the various preuexercise actions accomplished and some signal will be apparent even if the Exercise were terminated immediately 1Early cancellation will also pre clude any association betWeen Exercise actions and increased readiness posture 3 Valuable training has been gained by both the CINCs and the- Joint Staff in preparing for the Exercise Remainder of exercise tests existing procedures and acquaints higher authority with the emergency decisionmmaking process If at all possible execution of those phases 03 Exercise HIGH HEELS having to do with the emergency action conferences involving higher authorities should be accomplished 3 - Cancel CINC participation in Exercise HIGH HEELS and limit Joint Staff participation to that activity required to support the scheduled emergency action conferences during Phase I Alternatively if the above is not acceptable cancel Exercise HIGH HEELS ra er than po tpone it - DECLASSIFIED AUG 16 2006 Authority 12958 as amended Im- Chief PecIaSS Br Dir Rec WHS APPROVED BY I J- - Q w n Prepared by COL Gen Operations Div Oct 69 I 1 I -                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu