AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILTY OF THE INTELLIGENCE STAFF AND THE BRANCHES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67-00059A000200120042-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 18, 2000
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: April 17, 1947
• Content Type: MF

-A'-Approved For Release 2000/05/04: CIA-RDP67-00059AO00200120042-0
17 April 1947
MEMORANDUM FOR THE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, R & E
Subject: Authority and Responsibility of the Intelligence Staff
and the Branches
1. There has been some confusion with respect to the subject
ever since the Chief, Intelligence Staff, ceased to be also Acting
Assistant Director or Acting Deputy Assistant Director. In my
opinion, various attempts to clarify the subject in discussion have
failed because of a too-glib user of the terms "editorial" and
"substantive" with insufficient consideration of their meaning and
application in the context -- i.e., without definition of terms.
I believe that a candid discussion of the subject, with proper
definition of terms, would reveal:
A& That the attempt to distinguish between "editorial"
and "substantive" functions is illusory and misleading.
.b. That both editorial and substantive functions are
inherent in the responsibilities of both the Staff and the
Branches; consequently, that the terms are useless in attempt
ing to distinguish between their responsibilities.
g. That the responsibilities of the Staff and the
Branches, respectively, can be agreeably defined in other
terms; consequently, that no real policy difference exists
among us,
2. Consider the argument that the authority of the Staff should
be "editorial" only, that of the Branches only "substantive." This
proposition appears, on superficial consideration, to have the beauty
of clarity and simplicity. Actually it is a shallow and misleading
over-simplication.
Does it mean that the Branches, while exercising exclusive
"substantive" authority, have no responsibility to produce intelligible
copy? How are the Branches to express "substantive" judgment without
the intelligible use of language? If they consider their "substantive"
responsibility discharged in producing drafts so obscure that ex-
tensive "editorial" revision is necessary, they run grave risk of
"substantive" alteration of their copy in the course of the "editorial"
process. Obviously it behooves the Branches to produce copy as clear,
concise, and meaningful as they are able to make it, from an "editorial
as well as a "substantive" point of view.
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Does it mean that the Intelligence Staff, while exercising
exclusive "editorial" authority, has no responsibility with respect
to meaning? What purpose has "editorial" review unrelated to
meaning? -- and the meaning of the words is the "substantive" of the
report. Does "editorial" review include consideration of such
matters as pertinence, logic in presentation, completeness of cover-
age, coherence, and intelligibility? Judgment on these matters is
"substantive" judgment in my understanding of the term. It is also
an exercise of "editorial" judgment, in the broader sense of that
term.
Given'that we are normally working against a deadline in our
current publications and past it with respect to others, prompt
decisions are required. Who will decide whether a particular
alteration is "editorial" or "substantive"?
Manifestly the preposition under consideration would establish
anarchy in the name of order. To state it is to present the re,duetia
g& ab-sur?
3. The Intelligence Staff not only recognized, but must insist
upon, both editorial and substantive responsibility in the Branches.
It has no use for incoherent copy, however important its conjectural
substance. It must rely upon the Branches to be better informed
than it with respect to particular situations, inasmuch as (a) Branch
personnel are selected as specialists in their particular fields,
and (b) their responsibilities are limited to those fields and they
can obviously cover them much more closely than can personnel having
generalized responsibilities.
4. The Branches must recognize equally that the personnel of
the Intelligence Staff were selected for a different, but definite,
sort of competence not limited to the transposition of phrases or
the insertion of commas. It is expressly a competence, based on
experience, to exercise judgment as to pertinence, logic in presenta-
tion, completeness of coverage, coherence, and intelligibility,,
summed up in responsibility for decision whether and what to publish.
This responsibility, and the authority which must accompany it, are
distinguishable from the authority and responsibility of a specialist
in a particular subject, but not in terms of a distinction between
"editorial" and "substantive" functions.
5. The functional chart attempts to make this distinction by
charging the Branches with the preparation of reports ancstimates
and charging the Staff with coordination and supervision of that
activity. Manifestly, the effective accomplishment of the ORE
mission depends upon close collaboraten between the Staff and
Branches. The Staff could accomplish nothing of itself in a vacuum.
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The Branches also, however, comptent in their respective fields?
are necessarily limited to those fields in their view and not in
a position to take responsibility for decisions requiring an over-
all view. This distinction between particular and overall
responsibility (and corresponding authority) is the proper approach
to a distinction between the.,-functions of the Staff and the Branches.
The matter can be surrnned up in our understanding that the Intelligence
Staff is the agent or deputy of the Assistant Director (is the
Assistant Director) for the limited purpose indicated and subject.
to reference to the Assistant Director of any disagreement requiring
a command decision.
6. I request that this matter be considered at your meeting
with the Branch Chiefs and others on Friday, 25 April.
Chief, Intelligence Staff, ORE
8c Chief, Planning Staff
Branch Chiefs
Intelligence Staff
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REMARKS:
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