FUTURE HOUSING OF CIA UNITS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R000100160037-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 6, 2003
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: April 17, 1963
• Content Type: MF

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17 April 1963
MEMORANDUM FOR: Members of Executive Committee
SUBJECT : Future Housing of CIA Units
In attempting to comply with Action Memorandum No. 217,
it is fundamental to decide first the question of the location of the
Clandestine Services. Kirk advises me that this will be the subject
to be discussed at a special Executive Committee Meeting on Friday,
19 April. I am attaching hereto Mr. Dulles's memorandum of
21 August 1961 to McGeorge Bundy which may be helpful in preparing
your thoughts for the discussion on Friday.
L. K. White
Deputy Director
(Support)
2 attachments
Att 1: Mr. Dulles's memorandum
Att 2: Action Memorandum No. 217
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21 August 1961
MEMORANDUM FOR: The Honorable McGeorge Bundy
Special Assistant to the President
for National Security Affairs
SUBJECT
CIA Occupancy of the New Building
in McLean, Virginia (Recommendation
by the President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board of 18 July, 1961)
In your memorandum of July 24 you transmitted to me for
comment, before its submission to the President, the following
recommendation of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory
Board in its report to the President of 18 July 1961:
"The Board recommends that action should be
taken at the earliest possible date to assure that the
Central Intelligence Agency's plans for the occupancy of
the new building in McLean, Virginia are feasible. (We
believe there are valid questions that may be raised about
these plans. In particular, there are questions about
moving all of the clandestine activities into the building.
We recommend accordingly that these plans be reviewed
administratively, and that a feasibility study be made
as to the possibility of housing all of the clandestine
functions, or some part thereof, in another place. We
believe it may be appropriate to house in the new building
some of the non-clandestine functions of the Central
Intelligence Agency which are now scheduled to be
relocated to other buildings in Washington)".
The points which the Board has raised in this recommendation
affect a very important phase of the work of C.I.A., and I wish, at
the outset, to assure you that the feasibility of our planned occupancy
of the new building has been thoroughly considered and under constant
review since the building program was initiated more than ten years C
ago. 0
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My comments on the Board's recommendations fall into two
general categories; first, the practical problem with which we are
faced today as regards the relocation of our personnel; second, the
question of tradecraft in the field of our clandestine functions.
Since 1951 the Agency has been planning the construction of a
building which would house the major part of our headquarters
personnel. This project was initiated after careful consideration
of the security and other factors involved in this procedure. The
original decision to proceed was reached by General Waiter Bedell
Smith, who was then Director, at a time when, as now, our activities
were scattered among some 30 buildings, for the most part of
temporary construction.
In presenting the matter to the Congress at that time, the
security risks involved in transporting classified documents between
buildings and the physical insecurity of the temporary buildings
themselves were stressed, as well as the economy and efficiency
of operations from a single headquarters building. As a result of
this presentation, the Congress on 28 September 1951, passed an
authorizing measure for $38 million.
Due to a technicality, the appropriating action failed of passage
and it was not until 1 July 1955, after a site had been selected and
approved by the appropriate authorities, that the President renewed
the request to the Congress for the necessary legislation. On
4 August 1955 the Congress appropriated funds for the preparation of
plans and specifications and in 1956, the Congress appropriated the
funds to complete the building and the access highways.
As the printed hearings before the Senate Appropriations
Committee evidence, the entire question of the security of the Agency's
operations was gone into in great detail. The pros and cons of the
location of our headquarters clandestine services personnel in one
building, which we in the Agency had been studying for many years,
were carefully considered by the members of Congress directly
concerned. It was clearly the understanding of the Congress in
making the appropriation for our headquarters that these personnel
would be included in the new building.
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,s
ALLEN W. DULLES
Director
cc: The President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board
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