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^[[recd 21 Nov]]
^[[file]]
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^[[Nov 17, 1966]]

[[preprinted]] 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
WASHINGTON, D. C. 20560 
[[/preprinted]]

17 November 1966

% U. S. Embassy
Seoul, Korea

Dr. H. K. Buechner
Office of Ecology
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D. C. 20560

Dear Hal,

I have some good news, as well as news that is not so good. We got the two Toyotas ordered on 15 November, then yesterday, on the 16, November I sent the money off to the Company in Japan. The cars will be delivered, I was told, about the first of February or soon thereafter.

Col. Vern Tipton and Dr. Wibenga, U. S. Public Health Service, gave me the go ahead on working on the rats in the DMZ and adjacent areas at their expense. If all goes well, I will begin early next week. This week, perhaps on Thursday, we will go up there to find a few places that I think I will work. They are paying for 200 rat traps to be built here in Seoul. I already have a working model and will get the order in on Friday. In the meantime I will use the traps they already have. These are the good news items. Now for the bad news.

For a number of weeks I have been working with Commander Pace about the possibility of getting transportation from the Army. He told me that nothing could be done until after President Johnsons trip. Shortly after that we got a letter in through channels with the request. All was going well, and Pace said he thought they were going to find something. Then the lid blew off. Dr. Won (birds) was not satisfied with the slowness of channels so he took it upon himself to get into the picture. He went directly to General Davis and announced that he had come for a vehicle, stating that Tyson did not know how to get anything done so he was going to do it for me. Needless to say, he did not adequately state just who he was nor why he was there with a request for four vehicles. That night I got a call from Pace who said the General wanted me to come out there and explain just who this Dr. Won was and why he went out there. All I could do was explain who he was but I had no idea as to why he went out there. It was all news to me until Pace called. Now here is the results.

They wrote me a letter at the direction of General Davis stating that the contract on which they expected to cooperate was with the Smithsonian Institution, and that I was the only person whom they would deal with in the future. They further indicated that since the Korean scientist were not working for the Smithsonian, they could do nothing for them under the new Status of Forces Agreement that goes into effect soon. In person, they stated to me that any agreement that we had with the Seoul National University was a side