July 19, 1981 (Sunday)
- At the summit of Western leaders in Ottawa, French President François Mitterrand revealed to U.S. President Ronald Reagan the existence of the Farewell Dossier, 4,000 pages of Soviet documents that had been supplied to France by former KGB Colonel Vladimir Vetrov, codenamed "Farewell". The material showed that the Soviets had, after years of infiltration, been stealing American technological research and development. While other advisers to the National Security Council were looking for ways to stop the leaks, Gus Weiss proposed the idea of creating defective technology and allowing it to be stolen. The first trial was for computer programs which, months after being applied to operate the Siberian gas pipeline, began to fail. The existence of the Farewell Dossier remained a secret until 1997.
Read more about this topic: July 1981
Famous quotes containing the word july:
“...there was the annual Fourth of July picketing at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. ...I thought it was ridiculous to have to go there in a skirt. But I did it anyway because it was something that might possibly have an effect. I remember walking around in my little white blouse and skirt and tourists standing there eating their ice cream cones and watching us like the zoo had opened.”
—Martha Shelley, U.S. author and social activist. As quoted in Making History, part 3, by Eric Marcus (1992)