' u • 7 MEMORANDUM ' 6 C C R gT 1 3 E0 13526 3 3 b 1 25Yrs % ■ • THE W H ITB HOUSE jB fH ir 'T ‘ W ednesday - S eptem ber 6 1967 MEMORANDUM FO R W A L T ROSTOW SUBJECT C aptured D ocum ents in B olivia CIA has m ade a p re lim in a ry tech n ica l analysis o f g u e rrilla docum ents d is c o v e r e d by B olivian s e c u r ity fo r c e s in e a r ly August 1967 T ab A With r e s p e c t to the docum ents relatin g to C h e G uevara its findings a re two of the p a ssp o rts bearing d ifferen t nam es c a r r y the sam e photograph and fin g e rp rin ts the fin gerp rin ts a re id en tical to exam ples o f p rints o f G uevara furn ished to CIA in 1954 and in 1965 a CIA photo co m p a riso n analyst is o f the opinion that the ph otographs a re m o s t p rob a b ly photographs of G uevara in d isg u is e the p a ssp orts show that Guevara m o s t lik ely tra v elled le g a lly fr o m M adrid to Sao Paulo B ra zil at the end of O ctob er 1966 and fr o m there to La Pas on N ovem ber 3 although the d ocu m ents do not indicate a rr iv a l in La P a » ce rta in snapshots o f what looks like Guevara in the jungle give no eviden ce o f a m ontage The foregoin g leads to a strong presum ption that Guevara was in B oli a but it is still sh ort o f con clu siv e p ro o f The CIA rep ort avoids draw ing co n clu sio n s The B olivians want our analysis o f the docum ents to use in the R egis D ebray tr ia l to dem onstrate Cuban involvem ent in the g u e rrilla m o v e m ent As explained in C ovey O liv e r 's m em o to Foy K ohler Tab B this ra ise s questions about the w isdom of our furnishing the only analysis o f the docum ents My view is that the nature o f the docum ents and photos are such that they can be attacked as a CIA plant p a rticu la rly if we com e out as the only authenticating s o u r ce This would tend to d iscre d it the evidence SBCiinT SANITIZED E 0 13526 Sec 3 5 dLfa COPY LBJ LIBRARY NARA Date L stertST Pb c s S t 2 t and w eaken the B olivian c a s e against D ebray The r is k is redu ced by having the B olivian s announce that they have captured these docum ents and ask s e v e r a l govern m en ts o f cou n tries w here C h e '1 is known to have r e s id e d A rgentina P eru Guatem ala M ex ico o r who have s p e c ia l analysis ca p a b ilities B ra z il and U S to a s s e s s the docu m en ts In his m em o to K oh ler O liv e r outlines fiv e options fo r handling our re s p o n s e to th B o liv ia n s He recom m en d s the third option w hich co r r e s p o n d s toAc o u r s e o f a ction d e s cr ib e d in the p reced in g paragraph I understand that K ohler and H elm s en d orse the third-option I have not h eard N itze’ s view s yet I recom m en d - « su b ject to P eter Jessup con firm in g the co n cu rre n ce of the other 303 C om m ittee m em b ers - - that you approve the third option in the O liv e r m em orandum An in fo m em o to the P resid en t based on the assum ption o f 303 a p p rov a l is at Tab C u W GBowdler c c - P eter Jessup Attachm ents Tab A - A n alysis of docum ents Tab B - O liver m em o to Kohler Tab C - Info m em o to P resident JZ eKET SseREf Source Lyndon B Johnson Presidential Library National Security Files Intelligence Files Box 2 Folder Guerrilla Problems in Latin America This document is from the holdings of The 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 Read related article Che Guevara and the CIA in the Mountains of Bolivia 2020-10-09