The Cold Six Thousand (38 page)

The standard procedure is to refine the poppy sap into a morphine-base that can be further refined into heroin. My goal would be to accomplish that at the farm(s) and ship the base to your chemist’s lab in Saigon. We could fly it or move it by PT boat, which would require a pilot-navigator familiar with Vietnamese waterways. The standard way to move morphine-base out of Vietnam is via freighter to Europe and China. That’s counterproductive in our case. We need your chemist to refine it in-country, in order to reduce the bulk size and render it easier to ship to Las Vegas. Please think of a way we can courier the finished product stateside, and limit our exposure on both ends.

Some closing thoughts.

Remember, I’m in this with six other agents, and we’re Stage-1 Covert, with no Agency sanction. You’ll meet the other men on a need-to-know basis. You’re the operations boss and I’m the personnel runner. I know you’re anxious to start funneling money to the Cause, but we’re going to accrue large operating expenses in-country and out, and I want to make sure we’re cash fluid first. The Agency has a front-company in Australia that will trade Vietnamese piastres for U.S. dollars, and we may be able to utilize a Swiss bank-account system for the laundering of our ultimate profits.

Let me stress this now. No morphine-base or fully refined merchandise should be allowed to slip into the hands of the U.S. military—for accountability’s sake—or into the hands of ARVN personnel. Most ARVNs are highly corruptible and cannot be trusted around saleable narcotics.

I think you’ll like my end of the cadre. I’ve co-opted an Army 1st Lt. named Preston Chaffee. He’s a language whiz, Airborne-certified and an all-around good scout. He’s my projected liaison to the ARVNs, the Saigon politicos and Premier Khanh.

I need to assess your projected plans and vet your chosen personnel. Can you pouch me, Vegas to Arlington?

For the Cause,

J.S.

DOCUMENT INSERT
: 10/27/64. Pouch communiqué. To: John Stanton. From: Pete Bondurant. Marked: “Hand Pouch Deliver Only”/ “Destroy Upon Reading.”

J.S.,

I read your summary. Vietnam sounds like my kind of place.

Here’s my personnel:

1 - Wayne Tedrow Jr. U.S. Army, ’54–’58 (82nd Airborne Division). Former Las Vegas policeman. Chemistry degree/Brigham Young University/’59.

Tedrow’s solid. He’s proficient with small arms & larger weaponry. He’ll do a solid job on the chemical side. He told me he studied “opiate balances” & “narcotic component theory” in college. His plan is to find human “test pilots” or “guinea pigs” to test maximum dosage levels on, such as junkies or opium addicts with opiate tolerances. That way he can take the refining process to the final level in Saigon & ship street-ready merchandise back to Vegas.

Tedrow’s father is a big wheel in Nevada. Tedrow’s
very
estranged from him, but the old man has connections at Nellis AFB that we may be able to use. More on this later.

2, 3 - Laurent Guery & Flash Elorde.

You know them from our Miami days. They’ve been merc’ing out of Mexico City since late ’63 & they’re anxious to find a permanent duty station. They’re devoted to the Cause & will fit in on the cultivation, enforcement & distribution ends. Both men have ties to gulf coast-based exiles that we’ll be able to utilize.

4 - Jean Philippe Mesplede.

You sent me his dossier, so I won’t repeat his stats. I met him in Mexico City & liked him. He’s French-English fluent & knows some Vietnamese dialect from his ’53–’54 tour. He’s got in-country narcotics experience, along with some exile ties & is solidly committed to the Cause.

5 - Chuck Rogers.

Another old Tiger ops grad. You know his stats: pilot, wet-arts, shortwave radio skills. Deep exile ties & connections on the southern gun circuit. A valuable all-around guy. He wants to distribute hate leaflets and broadcast short-wave tirades in-country, & I’ll humor him on that until it gets out of hand.

6 - Bob Relyea.

I don’t know him & I’m hiring him off Rogers’ recommendation. (They’ve been shortwave buddies for years. Rogers vouches for him & he’s already in-country.)

Relyea’s a Staff Sgt. with the MP Brigade in Saigon. He was formerly a prison guard in Missouri & has strong right-wing ties in the south. He’s allegedly a great sharpshooter & all-around weapons man.

Per my plan:

I want to get into Laos quick & have Tran Lao Dinh negotiate with the “warlords” for their poppy farms. I want to bribe the right ARVN men & other Saigon officials to procure us the right level of protection. Then I’ll have Rogers fix up a small 2-engine aircraft & fly circuits from Laos to Saigon. He’ll conduit the morphine-base to Tedrow’s lab & double as an enforcer at the slave farm(s).

Per the stateside conduit:

I’d like to ship via Agency-courier flights to Nellis. I’ve got a well-placed lawyer friend who may be able to pull strings & get us clearance there. Then we’ll distribute out of Tiger Kab, to (expendable) Negro pushers who’ll push exclusively in West Vegas. Rogers, Guery & Elorde will funnel the final profits to exile groups on the gulf.

The team is solid. I’m confident that they’ll work well together. Let’s stay focused on the Cuban end of things.

Viva la Causa!

P.B.

DOCUMENT INSERT
: 10/29/64. Pouch communiqué. To: Pete Bondurant. From: John Stanton. Marked: “Hand Pouch Deliver Only”/ “Destroy Upon Reading.”

DOCUMENT INSERT
: 10/31/64. Pouch communiqué. To: John Stanton. From: Pete Bondurant. Marked: “Hand Pouch Deliver Only”/ “Destroy Upon Reading.”

J.S.,

Per your last pouch:

Howard Hughes (my old boss & my lawyer friend’s current boss) wants to curry favor with politicians & military personnel in Nevada & already has Hughes Aircraft-Tool Co charter clearance at Nellis. My lawyer friend will try to convince H.H. to purchase ARVN-surplus ordnance to donate to the Nevada National Guard, as a PR ploy. This will expand his ground clearance & allow us to hide our merchandise in with the ordnance & fly it straight to Nellis & Vegas.

What do you think?

P.B.

DOCUMENT INSERT
: 11/1/64. Pouch communiqué. To: Pete Bondurant. From: John Stanton. Marked: “Hand Pouch Deliver Only”/ “Destroy Upon Reading.”

P.B.,

Contact your lawyer friend and try to implement ASAP. I approve your selected personnel, and I’ll have Lt. Chaffee approach and detach Sgt. Relyea from his regular duties. See you in Saigon: 11/3/64.

J.S.

DOCUMENT INSERT
: 11/2/64. Verbatim FBI telephone call transcript. Marked: “Recorded at the Director’s Request”/“Classified Confidential 1-A: Director’s Eyes Only.” Speaking: Director Hoover, Ward J. Littell.

JEH: Good morning, Mr. Littell.

WJL: Good morning, Sir.

JEH: The election bodes. Prince Bobby’s probable victory must hearten you.

WJL: It does, Sir.

JEH: The Dark Prince has plundered New York State with great verve. I liken it to the Visigoths storming Rome.

WJL: It’s a vivid comparison, Sir.

JEH: Lyndon Johnson was Bobby’s reluctant henchman. He told me, quote, Edgar, I hate that little rabbit-faced cocksucker, and it galls me to hustle him votes.

WJL: President Johnson has verve of his own.

JEH: Yes, and much of it is directed toward the passage of dubious
legislation. I view the words “Great Society” as fresh lyrics to “The Internationale.”

WJL: It’s a deft analogy, Sir.

JEH: Lyndon Johnson will deplete his prestige on the home-front and recoup it in Vietnam. History will judge him as a tall man with big ears who needed wretched people to love him.

WJL: Said with verve, Sir.

JEH: Lyndon Johnson appreciates the verve of one Martin Lucifer King. I’ve been sending him motel-room tapes. Lucifer performs with equal verve in bed and at barricades.

WJL: Dr. King wears many hats, Sir.

JEH: Yes, and he also wears garishly patterned Fruit-of-the-Loom briefs.

WJL: You’re maintaining a close surveillance, Sir.

JEH: Yes, and I have Lyle Holly to direct me to Lucifer’s favored tryst-spots. I talk to Lyle on a near-daily basis, and he tells me that Bayard Rustin is very much taken with you and your allegedly pilfered organized-crime donations.

WJL: Mr. Rustin finds me sincere, Sir.

JEH: Because you are.

WJL: I work at verve, Sir.

JEH: You succeed.

WJL: Thank you, Sir.

JEH: I detect a shift in tone. Do you wish to ask a question?

WJL: Yes, Sir.

JEH: Ask, Mr. Littell. You know I find preambles taxing.

WJL: Do you know when you’ll leak word of my donations?

JEH: When I sense that my missives on Lucifer’s Communist ties and sex life have reached their cumulative peak.

WJL: That’s a sound strategy, Sir.

JEH: It’s an inspired strategy. It’s inimical to your recent gambit with Wayne Senior.

WJL: Is he peeved at me, Sir?

JEH: Yes, but he won’t tell me why.

WJL: I set up a deal for him. He facilitated some charter flights out of Nellis and wanted a higher percentage. His Mormons have cut him out of his existing one.

JEH: Percentage of what?

WJL: The casino skim his Mormons were moving.

JEH: I am as delighted by that bit of data as Wayne Senior is vexed.

WJL: I’m always pleased to amuse you, Sir.

JEH: Wayne Senior has been in a thoroughly vexed state lately. He’s rebuffed all my inquiries about his son.

WJL: I’m going to raise his percentage, Sir. That should improve his mood.

JEH: Why? What do you need from him?

WJL: I need to expand my Nellis clearance.

JEH: To include?

WJL: Flights from Vietnam.

JEH: Data coheres in odd fashions. You’re my second postcard from Vietnam this morning.

WJL: Sir?

JEH: Dwight Holly called. He told me that Wayne Tedrow Junior and Pete Bondurant were recently granted Vietnamese travel visas.

WJL: That is odd, Sir.

JEH: Yes, and you are being oddly and blithely disingenuous, so I’ll change the subject. How are Count Dracula’s colonization plans proceeding?

WJL: Very well, Sir. Pete Bondurant has purchased a taxi stand and is using it to accrue intelligence for Mr. Hughes. The drivers have picked up dirt on several Nevada state legislators.

JEH: It’s ingenious. Cab drivers are night-riding denizens of the first order. They view wretched foibles from a gutter perspective.

WJL: I thought you’d appreciate it, Sir. And while we’re on the topic of—

JEH: Don’t lead me. Ask your favor while I’m still pixilated and bemused.

WJL: I’d like to initiate a standing-bug operation in Vegas. I want to bug the hotel rooms the legislators stay in most frequently. I’ll bring in Fred Turentine to help me with the installation, and I’d like local agents to do the retrievals and forward copies to me.

JEH: Do it. I’ll assign two agents from the Las Vegas Office.

WJL: Thank you, Sir.

JEH: Thank yourself. You charmed me out of a bad mood.

WJL: I’m glad, Sir.

JEH: What would Tedrow Junior and Le Grand Pierre be doing in Vietnam?

WJL: I couldn’t begin to guess.

JEH: Good day, Mr. Littell.

WJL: Good day, Sir.