Q201 Summary

Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.

To read the Tape Transcript, click here. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1, Pt. 2).
To return to the Tape Index, click here.

FBI Catalogue: Jones Speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: Labeled in part “Aug 9, 1978”

Date cues on tape: Tape contents consistent with identification label

People named:

Bible verses cited: None

Summary:

Jim Jones reads the news for August 9, 1978.

Jones opens with an urgent message for Jonestown residents to clean up the community. With the approaching nuclear war, he says, many more people will want to come to Jonestown, and he wishes to give socialism a good name. Both of the themes – the need to keep the community clean, and the approaching nuclear war – are raised several times.

The reading is significantly more animated – sometimes playful, sometimes sardonic, sometimes presented as a performance – than other addresses from this period. At one point, for example, when discussing Carter’s invitation to Mideast leaders for talks, he adds, “I think we’ve been given that before. They’ll be meeting at the lovely estate outside of Washington, Camp David, where there’s been more sellouts than I’ve got fingers and toes and sperm in my testicles.”

Similarly, in dissecting an interview which Voice of America conducted with Alabama governor George Wallace, Jones effects a fake Southern drawl to mimic the man he considers a racist and a fascist.

There are a couple of pieces of news that directly affect the Jonestown community. In one, Jones reports that the Guyana government has granted him the right to travel – including the right to return to Jonestown – so that he may go someplace for an unspecified “operation.” That trip never took place.

Jones also announces that the Jonestown school will not have to take anyone from the outside. “That was a breakthrough,” he says. They do bring Guyanese people in, he adds, but they can’t take any more “until we got our [own] people to freedom.”

In addition to the profile on Wallace, Jones reads several other articles of some length, including:

• A conference of non-aligned nations resists attempts to interject imperialist politics, and rebuffs efforts to attack or criticize Cuba;
• China builds communes to house and care for its senior citizens.

Shorter stories include:

• A peace treaty between Japan and China will not include an anti-hegemony clause;
• Chinese leaders on world tour seek to implement Doctrine of Three Worlds;
• Border riots break out between Vietnam and China;
• Pope Paul VI will be buried within several days;
• Work slowdown at Paris airports impact US vacationers;
• Joshua Nkomo says only force of guns will wipe out racism in Africa;
• Zimbabweans are accused of enslaving youth into terrorist armies;
• Rhodesian judge imposes light sentence on black men for refusing military service;
• South African police decline to enforce some apartheid laws;
• South Africa opposes UN resolution on Namibia;
• Zaire and Angola plan to reopen the Benguela Railway between the two countries;
• Guinea vows to reduce dependency on foreign governments;
• Guadaloupe citizens bristle under second-class status.

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription: 7/25/79

In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S. Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.

On May 26, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B69-27. This tape was found to contain the following:

Announcements by JIM JONES re miscellaneous items and news about topics such as:

1. China – Great Britain Coal Mine Treaty
2. Egypt/Israel Relations
3. Japan/China Friendship Treaty
4. Japan/USA Exchange Rate
5. Viet Nam/China Border Conflict
6. Pope Paul VI
7. Governor WALLACE
8. Rhodesia
9. Voice of America
10. Guinea
11. OPEC
12. China – Libya Treaty
13. South Africa
14. Radio Moscow

In additiona [addition], JONES also talks about GUINEA, Human Rights, and Chinese Peasants.

Differences with FBI Summary:

The summary is accurate and meets the FBI’s purposes.

Tape originally posted June 2019.