STREAMLINING THE NIS PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79S01057A000100040019-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2006
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: September 23, 1962
• Content Type: MF

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N~ID~NiIAL
28 August 1962
M ORANIXIM FOR: Deputy Director/Intelligence
I. The purpose of this paper is to examine the NIS program
in terms of format, requirements, and production capabilities, and
to determine where we should go from here for optimum results.
The enclosure provides a general background of NIS developments
from the inception of the program in 19+8 to the present.
2. The format of the NU was developed along traditional
lines and in conformity with veil-established and understood basic
intelligence practices and terminology. Since a major purpose of
the NIS is to support the national security in war, an exhaustive
examination was made of the principal US wartime program, the Joint
Army and Navy Intelligence Study (JANIS). All departments, agencies
and military commands were questioned regarding the strengths and
weaknesses of JANIS.
3. The US programs have been modified in the
light of postwar developments but retain their fundamental character.
The NIS Committee, the Departments of State and Defense, the Joint
Staff, and the Services have queried in detail their principal users
respecting the structure of the NIS program. Although NIS users have
criticized constructively and otherwise various aspects of the program,
none has ever commented except favorably on the NIS format.
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on-hand basic intelligence in event of war anywhere. Concurrently,.,
it was decided to direct field collection worldwide on gaps and
deficiencies revealed by this basic research and analysis, so that
the necessary information would be available in the producing
agencies files to quickly update any NIS units.
9. Today the NIS prvgrambas essentially completed worldwide
detailed coverage and has revised about one-third of it. Continuing
worldwide collection has provided much later information in the files
of the producing agencies as a basis for a comprehensive maintenance
program. However, with initial world coverage completed it Is most
feasible to concentrate existing production capabilities on priority
topics and areas while continuing field collection worldwide so that
the files on all areas may be maintained in emergency readiness. An
important and necessary aspect is the greatly accelerated production
and maintenance of the general Summary chapters on all priority
areas to provide the focus for selective detailed maintenance.
10. The essential problem of the NIS program throughout its
fourteen years of operations has been to bridge the gap between
requirements and capabilities. Both the producing agencies and the
users have confirmed the validity of the US requirements for policy
formulation, for planning, and for operations. A major deterrent
to the development of an efficient production organization has been
the ungainly and dispersed staffing complex of the Community. Some
40 different components have been involved in NIS production, directed
through a variety of echelons and control poitts. Consistent diversion
of these staffs to more immediate requirements than basic Intelligence
was the normal pattern. With the centralized control by CIA and DIA
of the new integrated staffs the way is clear at long last to efficient
and proper production performance,.
What needs to be done now
U. In order to determine what changes are needed in the NIS
program for optimum results, it is necessary to analyze its present
shortcomings. The overriding one., based on experience and detailed
replies over the past eight years from NIS users, is that the rate
of NIS production is inadequate. The most recent survey of NI8
users in the military establishment and overseas commnands, conducted
last year by the Joint Staff,, puts it in these terms:
"Although the survey indicates that there is general
satisfaction with the scope, font, and basic concept
of the HIS and that the program should be continued,
comments on the inadequacies of the NIS pointed almost
exclusively to lack of initial coverage and need for
more timely maintenance."
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12. By dint of certain favorable circumstances it is now
feasible for the first time to meet this problem head on. These
circumstances are: 1) the essential completion of initial MIS
coverage worldwide; 2) the realignments of CIA's and DIA' a NIS
staffs to permit integrated control and production; and 3) development
of procedures to provide for accelerated maintenance. These should
provide a 25% increase in MIS production at present budgetary and
manpower levels. Concurrently, and backstopped by initial
worldwide, detailed NIS coverage can now be concentrated inp priority
topics and areas, thereby reducing production requirements by sere
30%. These steps will provide for adequate maintenance on the
long range basis.
13. Axaother problem that is being looked into is the time
differential among related NIB units on political intelligence.
The Research Division, OBI has already taken steps to produce
consolidated BIB units, comprising all political intelligence
requirements for an area under the same date line. The publicatio
of a consolidated EIS unit not only retires a sizeable number of
disparate NIS units but also provides a more manageable and effici
unit for subsequent revision-
14. Modification of this system may be suitable for producti
of sociological and economic intelligence, although the number of
separate staffs involved and is topical relationships do not rea
lend tb lves so well to this method. Certain ooneolidat ens ark
being explored in the Military GeoSMW and Treneeportat, porti
of the NIS. The Scientific and Armed Fe-rces units are already alr
produced in this manner.
15. It does not appear to be either necessary or prudent to
go beyond the present measu s at this time. The format and requi
have been and will continue U be modified as necessary. To
the nomenclature of the NIS would seem to little purpose } ch
the present system is well underste sad has been tested by more
than 14 years' use. The steps being taken will provide, with the
present manpower input, the production of essential basic intell
on all areas of the world to the depth of detail germane to the
subject and required by the majority of users, and with a hip degree
of timeliness. To reach this gml will take time. More then that,
however, it will take constant support and direction of effort, and
a freedom from unproductive diversions.
t--
Assistant rec or
Basic Intelligence
Enclosure: Background on as Po nta i948..62
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23 August 1952
Back-ground on NIS developments, 193-1962
1. In li} years, over 6,000 NIS units have been published and
initial worldwide coverage has in large part been achieved. From
Its start in 1913, the NIS Program has constructively met the
challenges posed by changing user requirements and growing
experience in the complex field of basic intelligence production.
The recent e?:ergence of centralized production direction under CIA.
and DIA. provides new opportunity for more comprehensive developments
in the NIS pL o, ;ram. leading toward more current coverage worldwide.
2. The mission of the NIS program is to prepare through
systematic interagency effort, the fundamental intelligence of the
world required by the U.S. Government, its civilian agencies as
well as its military departments. World events have strongly
substantiated the objectives of the 11Th mission. Chief among
these objectives is the on-hand availability of published NIS at the
time that a crisis erupts. This is well exemplified by the 1950
Lebanon 1andinLs, when COMSIXTHYLT cited the NIS as the most
important primary source of intelligence available and used by
the U.S. forces suddenly ordered into the area.
3. In structure, the NIS consists of Chapter I, which ;:gives
an integrated overview and selective summary of tie intelligence
aspects of a country, and the supporting Chapters which cover the
traditional subjects of strategic intelligence: a country's
physical environment, its transportation and teleconmranications,
the people, the government, its resources and the economy, its
scientific potential and developments, and its military forces.
This information is prepared, as appropriate, on each country of
the world.
4. To meet the different needs of the broad range of NIS
users, NIS units are prepared in three levels of basic intelligence
detail. As noted above, Chapter I is the most general. The other
Chapters supply more detailed information. This is normally
prepared in separately published parts called Sections, ions, each of
which treats a major subdivision of the field covered by the Chapter.
For exam.lple, the Transportation and Telecommunications Chapter
includes a Section on His ways in which the details of a country's
roads are given. For some users, even more detail is required on
certain subjects. For this reason, the Supplement has been
developed. At present, there are two active Supplements covering
Ports and Naval Facilities, and Coasts and Landing Beaches.
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5. Sipco the inception of the program, there have been several
major NIS developments, resulting largely from increased specialized
user requirements on the one hand and limitations on producer effort
on the other. These developments, for the most part evolutionary
in nature, have led to changes in NIS content and new measures to
e