In 1960, a CIA agent was caught trying to buy information from a Singapore intelligence officer. The CIA offered to pay then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew USD$3.3 million to cover up the matter.
February 1, 2017The U.S. tried to deny the incident in the past.
Recently, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made its repository of declassified documents available to the masses online. The documents can be browsed via the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST).
Our searches on Singapore through CREST yielded Singapore’s most well-known brush with the CIA.
Our searches on Singapore through CREST yielded Singapore’s most well-known brush with the CIA.
Botched bribery attempt
In 1960, a CIA agent was caught trying to buy information from a Singapore intelligence officer. The CIA offered to pay then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew USD$3.3 million to cover up the matter.
Lee rejected the offer, and asked the U.S. to provide formal economic aid to Singapore instead.
Dean Rusk, the then U.S. Secretary of State, also formally acknowledged the incident and apologised to Lee in a letter.
In 1965, Lee revealed the incident in a televised interview with foreign correspondents.
This led the U.S. ambassador to Malaysia and the State Department to both deny the incident, which prompted a furious Lee to furnish Rusk’s formal letter of apology as proof of the incident.
Lee also warned that he would disclose further details of the incident, “which may sound like James Bond and Goldfinger, only not as good but putrid and grotesque enough”.
Quite unequivocally, Lee also stated:
“The Americans should know the character of the men they are dealing with in Singapore and not get themselves further dragged into calumny…..They are not dealing with Ngo Dinh Diem or Syngman Rhee. You do not buy and sell this Government.”
Stern stuff.
You can read the congressional report which details the incident here. The rest of the Singapore archive and other interesting topics are available for viewing here.
Top photo from CIA.gov and NYT.
http://mothership.sg/2017/02/cias-failed-attempt-to-bribe-lee-kuan-yew-among-newly-released-documents/
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REMEMBERING LEE KUAN YEW
Many homes in the region, known as Thanjavur delta, share an emotional bond with Singapore's founding father Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Several parents from the villages of Kooppachikottai, Ullikottai and Paravakottai have sent their sons to earn a livelihood in Singapore.
Many homes in the region, known as Thanjavur delta, share an emotional bond with Singapore's founding father Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Several parents from the villages of Kooppachikottai, Ullikottai and Paravakottai have sent their sons to earn a livelihood in Singapore.
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CIA monitored S’pore pioneers Aw Boon Haw & Tan Kah Kee over suspected communist links
January 31, 2017
They were well-known Chinese businessmen who had contributed to the building of Singapore.
Recently, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made its repository of declassified documents available to the masses online. The documents can be browsed via the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST).
Our searches on Singapore through CREST yielded interesting takes on some notable people of Singapore’s past.
Keeping an eye on Singapore’s 20th century influencers
During the Cold War, U.S. intelligence actively monitored the spread of communism, especially in Southeast Asia.
According to the declassified CIA reports, some of Singapore’s Chinese community leaders, such as Aw Boon Haw and Tan Kah Kee, were sympathetic to the communist cause in the 1950s and 1960s.
Aw Boon Haw – the Tiger Balm King
Famed businessman Aw Boon Haw, together with his brother Aw Boon Par, owned the successful Tiger Balm business in Singapore. Aw also operated a newspaper empire that stretched from Singapore to Amoy, which made him very influential.
The CIA compiled a dossier of Aw’s affiliated newspapers in reports that you can read here, and here.
Aw’s papers in Singapore included the Singapore Tiger Standard and Sin Chew Jit Poh.
According to CIA reports, Aw was detained by local authorities for his alleged involvement with the Communist Democratic Youth League in 1949.
A short while later, another CIA report alleged that Aw tried to get build guan xi (relationships) with the Chinese Communist government.
However, his efforts were futile, which led a spurned Aw to direct his newspapers to adopt a critical editorial stance against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Tan Kah Kee – the social activist
Tan Kah Kee was a prominent Hokkien businessman in Singapore. His business empire stretched from pineapple canning and rubber milling, to running the newspaper Nanyang Siang Pau (Nanyang Business Daily).
He was also an early social activist who championed the welfare of the Chinese. He contributed a lot of money to build schools, and to the relief funds supporting China’s fight against the Japanese during the Second World War.
According to the CIA, Tan Kah Kee was suspected of building rubber mills in Canton (present day Guangzhou) and building rubber plantations on Hainan island to supply rubber to the communist USSR (present day Russia) in 1950.
Unfortunately for Tan, the British also denied him entry back into Singapore in 1950 because of his support for the CCP after World War Two.
Tan’s activism continued, after he settled in Amoy. According to a CIA report, Tan personally interceded with the Chinese Communist government to release a woman from jail.
The rest of the Singapore archive and other interesting topics are available for viewing here.
Top photo by from CIA.gov and Wikipedia.