{"id":103655,"date":"2020-10-26T09:52:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T16:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=103655"},"modified":"2026-04-25T16:41:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T23:41:28","slug":"dec-12-1979-%e2%80%a2-1243-%e2%80%a2-georgetown-state-%e2%80%a2-5443","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=103655","title":{"rendered":"Dec 12, 1979 \u2022 1243 \u2022 Georgetown-State \u2022 5443"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>[<strong>Editor\u2019s note<\/strong>: The text for this document was released in 2014 by <a href=\"https:\/\/wikileaks.org\/plusd\/cables\/1979GEORGE05443_e.html\">Wikileaks<\/a>. It is also available through the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260425234019\/https:\/\/wikileaks.org\/plusd\/cables\/1979GEORGE05443_e.html\">Internet Archive<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>LIMITED OFFICIAL USE<br \/>\nPAGE 01<br \/>\nGEORGE 05443 160256Z<br \/>\nACTION ARA-15<br \/>\nINFO OCT-01 ADS-00 CIAE-00 INR-10 NSAE-00 PM-05 NSC-05 SP-02 SS-15 \/053 W<br \/>\n&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;026716 160401Z \/75 <\/p>\n<p>R 121243Z DEC 79<br \/>\nFM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN<br \/>\nTO SECSTATE WASHDC 1114<br \/>\nLIMITED OFFICIAL USE GEORGETOWN 5443<br \/>\nPASS ARA\/CAR <\/p>\n<p>E.O. 12065: NA<br \/>\nTAGS: CGEN, GY (PEOPLES TEMPLE)<br \/>\nSUBJ: NEW BOOK CRITICAL OF DEPARTMENT\/EMBASSY PERFORMANCE WITH REGARD TO PEOPLES TEMPLE <\/p>\n<p>REF: 78 GEORGETOWN 3274 <\/p>\n<p>1. (LOU) &#8211; ENTIRE TEXT <\/p>\n<p>2. DCM HAS HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO BORROW BRIEFLY A SOON TO BE RELEASED BOOK BY AMERICAN ATTORNEY MARK LANE ON THE SUBJECT OF THE PEOPLES TEMPLE. IT IS ENTITLED &#8220;THE STRANGE POISON&#8221; AND IS PUBLISHED BY HAWTHORN BOOKS, A DIVISION OF ELSEVIER-DUTTON, NEW YORK, COPYRIGHT 1980. <\/p>\n<p>3. &#8220;THE STRANGE POISON&#8221; IS HIGHLY CRITICAL OF THE DEPARTMENT&#8217;S AND EMBASSY&#8217;S HANDLING OF THE PEOPLES TEMPLE TRAGEDLY. IT ATTRIBUTES, FOR EXAMPLE, THE DEATH OF CONGRESSMAN LEO RYAN TO THE DELIBERATE WITHHOLDING OF INFORMATION BY THE DEPARTMENT AND THE EMBASSY. MOST AMERICAN NEWS MEDIA ARE DIRECTLY OR IMPLICITLY SUGGESTED TO HAVE BEEN CO-CONSPIRATORS WITH <\/p>\n<p>LIMITED OFFICIAL USE<br \/>\nLIMITED OFFICIAL USE<br \/>\nPAGE 02 GEORGE 05443 160256Z <\/p>\n<p>US GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN A PLOT TO DESTROY THE PEOPLES TEMPLE. MENTION IS NOT MADE OF THE FULSOME PRAISE AWARDED THE TEMPLE BY AUTHOR MARK LANE FOLLOWING HIS SEPTEMBER 1978 VISIT TO JONESTOWN (REFTEL). <\/p>\n<p>4. THE BOOK APPARENTLY WILL BE RELEASED TO DISTRIBUTORS EARLY IN 1980. AS IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT THE BOOK WILL GENERATE MEDIA QUERIES, THE DEPARTMENT MAY WISH TO SEEK TO OBTAIN A PRERELEASE COPY. EMBASSY GEORGETOWN IS POUCHING SEVERAL EXCERPTS FROM IT TO ARA\/CAR. <\/p>\n<p>ROBERTS [U.S. Ambassador George B. Roberts]<\/p>\n<p>LIMITED OFFICIAL USE<br \/>\nNNN <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Editor\u2019s note: The text for this document was released in 2014 by Wikileaks. It is also available through the Internet Archive.] LIMITED OFFICIAL USE PAGE 01 GEORGE 05443 160256Z ACTION ARA-15 INFO OCT-01 ADS-00 CIAE-00 INR-10 NSAE-00 PM-05 NSC-05 SP-02 SS-15 \/053 W &#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;026716 160401Z \/75 R 121243Z DEC 79 FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN TO SECSTATE [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":102918,"menu_order":346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-103655","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103655"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137695,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103655\/revisions\/137695"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}