NOTE FOR THE DIRECTOR FROM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R001300120022-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 12, 2005
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: May 2, 1974
• Content Type: NOTES

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OFFICE OF THE DD/I
2 May 1974
NOTE FOR: The Director
I talked to Bill Hyland about your
proposal as outlined in the attached draft.
Bill had three reactions:
1. That the evaluation of reporting from the
Embassies as reflected in your draft was
generally correct;
2. That even if we were to go through the
joint study, formulated ways of improving
State reporting and issued instructions
to the Embassy, there would really be no
perceptual difference in the way the
Embassies actually performed.
25X1
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MEMORANDUM FOR: MessrS~.re a sh
Colby wants to increase the flow of
Foreign Service reporting available to the
Agency and wants a rep from DDI and one from
INR to study the problem and come up with
recommendations. Do you want comments from
OCI before contacting Hyland?
29 Apr 74
(DATE)
FORM NO.
1 AUG 54
REPLACES FORM 10.101
101 WHICH MAY BE USED.
MEMORANDUM FOR:
File Sri
Mr. Proctor's answer to Mr.
Colby's draft on increasing the flow
of Foreign Service reporting available
to the Agency, etc.
Mr. Walsh has read.
(DATE)
FORM NO. I WHICH FORM U 10-!01
1 AUG 54
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DRAFT
W:EC: j lp (26 April 1974)
Dear Ken:
Following up on our conversation at the most pleasant
lunch you provided recently, I have reflected further on
our discussion of ways to improve the flow of information
from the Foreign Service into our finished intelligence
reports and assessments. I suggest that this be the subject
of a special study group set up between the Department
and CIA.
As I noted, I have the highest respect for the talents
and access of the Foreign Service , Officers and their potential
to provide much of the political and economic information necessary
to---ake our intelligence assessments. I am concerned, however,
that some practical and some institutional barriers may be reducing
the degree of their involvement in this process. On the practical
side, there is a natural concern in the Department as to the
sheer volume of reporting, which imposes a tremendous burden on
the leadership. This is one of the reasons I am sure for the
Secretary's recent direction to our Embassies to lay greater
stress on analytical as distinct from purely factual reporting.
While I concur fully with the utility and desirability of such
analytical reporting, I note that a fall-off in factual reporting
can remove the basis for the independent assessment of foreign
developments which is essential to the intelligence process.
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Another practical matter is the growing use of the
telephone for spot reporting and even informal discussion.
As technical capabilities improve this use is apt to grow.
Again I welcome this contribution to easier reporting but
express some concern that the information may stop with the
individual who hears it in the geographic bureau, or at best be
highly summarized and generalized in dissemmination further.
The Department has long had an extremely effective tool for
th transmissio-26information , flavor and opinion through
"official-informal" letters exchanged between Washington desks
and officers in Embassies. Unfortunately, again, this material
frequently does not find its way into the intelligence process,
perhaps because of its "informal" character.
As institutional concerns I would note the understandable
and laudable tendency of the geographic bureaus not to impose
reporting requirements on Embassies except for the most
significant reasons. There is also a natural attenuation of
contact between the intelligence analyst and the desk and field
officers by reason of our necessary bureaucratic lhannels here
in CIA and in INR. My appointment of National Intelligence Officers
was an attempt to bridge this gap to some extent and to provide
a vehicle for informal contact between experts wherever located in
the bureaucratic firmament. I am pleased to say that they have been
well received in the Department but I do not believe'they have
entirely solved the basic problem to date.
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Thus I propose a joint study by someone from your INR
(perhaps supported by one or more representatives from a
geographic bureau) and our DDI might identify someimprovements
4n?t.hj ways in which intelligence needs are identified and
information flows to meet them. The Foreign Service obviously
has many other policy, operational and representational functions,
but we look on it as a unique contribution to national intelligence
and would like to see its potential fully utilized. I believe
this: particularly appropriate in view of the growing importance
of economic intelligence to which the Foreign Service has
traditionally made -a major contribution. There is also increasing
pressure on our clandestine intelligence activity to focus on a few
targets of major national importance and turn away from local
tAA
coverage. If-we-could appoint two `
;officer,s to examine the problem
we might og tker the degree to which difficulties exist and `4?_b.gI
cotes-ec{.uexx~ lry- she-deg e~~ta whdch e-: o. t.s should be a4e to resolve
Sincerely,
W. E. Colby
Director
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