ORGANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R001400150004-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 30, 2002
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 28, 1948
• Content Type: SPEECH

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ORGANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CENTRAL INTELLI GENCE AGENCY
Second Latin American Intelligence Conference
Quarry Heights, Canal Zone
21-28 January, 1948
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COMPLIMENTARY OPENING
Gentlemen:
The Director of Central Intelligence, Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter,
has asked me to express his thanks for the invitation to have representation
here and to extend his best wishes for a successful conference. He has also
directed me to tell you what I can of the organization and development of the
Central Intelligence Agency in the short time allotted to me.
Tomorrow, the concept of central intelligence will have been in practical
application two years. As some of you may recall, a representative of the
Central Intelligence Group, as our organization was then called, gave a presen-
tation upon the organization and functions of CI G at the first Latin American
conference, and reported its accomplishment up to that time. During the past
year, substantial development of central intelligence has occurred. I should
like to explain this growth and development after first giving briefly some
background information to provide continuity to my remarks.
BACKGROUND OF THE GIG
The opening of the second World War found the American intelligence ser-
vices in an impoverished state and almost wholly dependent upon our allies for
the intelligence required to conduct global war. Before the end of hostili-
ties our original disability had been largely corrected, but only at the cost
of building up large separate departmental intelligence agencies and a special
Office of Strategic Services, with overlapping missions acid functions. Serious
efforts to avoid this condition were made by forming various joint committees
and taking important steps in the coordinating of intelligence policy, but
there was no machinery by which such measures could be completely carried out,
and none could be evolved during the war period. As a result, the intelligence
services emerged from the war unanimous in the opinion that intelligence should
be conducted under an over-all coordination that would provide for all contin-
gencies of national security. It was this conviction, strongly supported by
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the President and other responsible officials of the government, that brought
into being the Central Intelligence Group, and marked a turning point in many
years of traditional American policy.
THE CI G
The various plans for a central organization with a strong coordinating
authority, which were submitted by the major intelligence agencies, eventually
resulted in a compromise plan -which was issued by President Truman as an
Executive Directive dated 22 January 1946. This Directive established a
National Intelligence Authority, consisting of four voting members - the
Secretaries of State, War, and Navy and the President's personal representa-
tive, which was charged by the President with planning, developing and co-
ordinating all Federal foreign intelligence activities so as to provide for
the accomplishment of the intelligence mission related to national defense.
The President's Directive also provided for an implementing organization
entitled "The Central Intelligence Group" with a director who was authorized
and directed to act for the NIA in coordinating the Federal foreign intelli-
gence activities so as to insure that the over-all policies and objectives
established by this authority were properly implemented and executed. To assist
and advise the Director of Central Intelligence in the discharge of his mission,
an Intelligence Advisory Board was established, consisting of the heads of the
intelligence agencies of the State, War, and Navy Departments and of the Army
Air Forces.
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ACT OF 1947 AND THE CIA
This structure for central intelligence existed until recently by virtue
of the executive authority of the President. The need for its permanent
legal establishment was well recognized, and the Congress therefore acted to
provide for central intelligence in the National Security Act of 1947. Title I
of the Act covered central intelligence and the provisions thereof became
operative on 26 September 1947 when Rear Acrniral Hillenkoetter was sworn in
and took office as the current Director of Central Intelligence.
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PROVISIONS OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY ACT
The effect of this legislation, so far as national intelligence is con-
cerned, was chiefly to establish formally in law, the program of national
intelligence initiated by the President in his Executive Directive. Generally
speaking, the functions of the Central Intelligence Group were charged to its
legal successor, the Central Intelligence Agency. However, instead of function-
ing under the NIA, which under the Act ceased to exist, the Central Intelligence
Agency now operates directly under the National Security Council, which was
established to advise the President in the whole field of national security.
I am sure that you were all generally acquainted with the organization
of the CI G, and I shall therefore devote little time to its counterpart in
CIA. It may be profitable, however, to cover very briefly the salient
features of the organization.
ORGANIZATION AND FUNCTIONS OF THE CIA
As prescribed by law, the Central Intelligence Agency discharges two
basic responsibilities: (1) it coordinates all aspects of foreign intelligence
affecting the security of the United States, and (2) it performs certain
intelligence operations which can best be performed centrally. The principal
coordinating responsibilities are the following:
(a) Coordination of intelligence policies and intelligence
activities of the Government;
(b) Over-all coordination of collection and dissemination,
and the dissemination of national intelligence;
(c) Over-all coordination of intelligence research, and the
production of national intelligence.
The common operations are several and of a miscellaneous character.
It was early established as a principle of Central Intelligence that
coordinating and. operating functions should be carried out separately. The
organization of CIA with minor exceptions observes this principle by maintaining
a separate office for the major functions in each category. General planning
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of over-all coordination of departmental activities and the determjning of
recommendations to be presented to the National Security Council are accom-
plished in a special staff called the Interdepartmental Coordinating and
Planning Staff which has as its members representatives of the Departments
on detail to CIA. Otherwise the major coordinating functions that I just
named reside in two coordinating offices: the Office of Collection and
Dissemination and the Office of Reports and Estimates.
Activities of an operational nature, as differentiated from staff and
coordinating functions, are conducted by two principal operational offices.
These are the Office of Special Operations and the Office of Operations.
The former conducts for CIA and in behalf of the appropriate Federal intelligence
agencies all secret intelligence. These operations will not be discussed
FIRST EFFECTS! OF THE NS ACT - NEW DIRECTIVES
I have indicated that the National Security Act did not matdrially modify
the principles of central intelligence ennungiated by the President's letter
nor make any substantial change in the coordinating agency. The Act did, how-
ever, significantly enlarge and emphasize the role of intelligence in the
national security by placing the Central Intelligence Agency directly under
the National Security Council. The immediate effect of this change in circum-
stances was to bring about a complete reexamination of the objectives and
policies set for central intelligence by the National Intelligence Authority.
In assuming direction of national intelligence, the NSC was obliged to con-
tinue the old NIA directives in effect or supplant them with directives of
its own devising. The Council acted to maintain the NIA directives in force
temporarily as an interim measure but employed the situation to accomplish
an appraisal of the whole field of national intelligence by directing that a
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new series based upon the provisions of the National Security Act and the
experience of the NIA be drawn up for issuance as NSC directives. The re-
sultant new directives bring up-to-date all of the instructions of the NIA
and in general considerably strengthen the coordinating position of the CIA.
The directives with which field personnel are most familiar are the
NIA Directive No. 7 on "Coordination of Collection Activities Abroad" and its
implementing CIG Directive No. 18. Their revision retains the original prin-
ciples of allocation of basic departmental responsibilities in the field of
overt collection, of the field coordinator, and of certain measures for co-
operation and coordination in the field. It is to be expected that these will
be reannounced in the implementing directives of your respective agencies.
The National Security Council is designed to act in a much broader field
than the National Intelligence Authority. It is therefore expected that the
coordination of national intelligence will benefit accordingly am)khat the
improvements made in the old NIA directives will be followed by other important
developments. That of course lies in the future. Central intelligence has
made important progress in the past which may be mentioned because it has
resulted in an increase of operations and activities benefiting the departmental
agencies as well as national intelligence as a whole.
This development is illustrated in both the coordinating and operating
functions of the CIA. With respect to the former, it has been particularly
apparent in the degree that coordinating activities have expanded. For example,
at this time last year the Office of Collection and Dissemination was handling
approximately 50 requests for information per month. This figure rose rapidly
during the year as personnel and facilities increased, so that now requests of
all kinds average 300 per month. Dissemination activities kept pace with the
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increase in requests. CIA Reading Center is now processing over 20,000 incoming
items a month, not counting multiple copies and about 3,500 outgoing items.
DEVELOPMENT OF COORDINATING FUNCTIONS - ORE
The figures I have just quoted are a measure of the expansion of the
coordinating activities under the Office of Collection and Dissemination. The
Office of Reports and Estimates, the other principal coordinating office, has
likewise experienced substantial growth in its field. It has, for instance,
in the last year reached a high level of productivity in national intelligence
in the form of daily and weekly summaries and special evaluations and studies.
It has also assumed the responsibility for the coordination and production of
the basic intelligence formerly included in the joint Army-Navy intelligence
studies, or JANIS, and in the War Department's Strategic Intelligence Digest.
In addition, it has very recently taken over the Map Intelligence Branch of the
Department of State and will develop this activity for the use and benefit of
all agencies.
ATOMIC ENERGY RELATIONSHIP
It might also be pertinent at this point to mention an important new
coordinating authority accepted by CIA with respect to atomic energy. CIA now
acts for the Atomic Energy Commission to see that all departmental collection
resources are made available to it and that dissemination of atomic energy
information is properly screened and controlled in accordance with the
dissemination policies of the Commission. This relationship, now in its early
stages, will grow and improve with experience.
DEVELOPMENT OF OPERATING FUNCTIONS
These examples of the increase and development of CIA coordinating functions
demonstrate that the Central Intelligence Agency has been able during 1947 to
extend the benefit of its coordinating processes to all of the departments
with major intelligence responsibilities and in addition to many Federal
agencies with secondary intelligence interests. For operational reasons,
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however, the so-called common services performed by CIA are of importance to
the intelligence deparzaents and any increase or expansion of these services
is of special interest. I shall refer to a few developments of this nature.
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DEVELOPSENT OF LIBRARY FUNCTIONS - REFERENCE CENTER
There has been developed during the past year of one other activity which
I think will be of interest to you. I refer to the establishment of the CIA
Reference Center. This Reference Center is designed to furnish a centralized
reference service to CIA and to the other agencies. Its most important service
will be the maintaining of a Central Index of all foreign intelligence documents,
regardless of physical location. Ifhen fully functioning, this service will
not only provide an important reference adjunct to the intelligence agencies,
but will also be the key to eliminating much duplication in requests. The
Reference Center is also establishing the following:
(b) A Foreign Industrial Register providing an index of foreign
industrial installations, developments and resources, and for inter-
national and functional relationships;
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(o) A Graphic Materials Division which will furnish an index of
location and type of graphic material of foreign intelligence interest
available to the Goverment;
(d) An Intelligence Documents Library which will be the depository
of all standard reference books and all intelligence documents permanently
filed in the CIA.
The Reference Center will make the maximum use of machine techniques in
all of its processes and has already received several machines designed
especially for its use. These give evidence that many obstacles to indexing
and filing on the scale required for national intelligence purposes will be
overcome.
CONCLUSION
In the time allotted to me I have attempted to depict in a general way
the organization of the CIA and to describe its growth since the last
conference. Within this brief period it has undergone a most significant
change by being confirmed in law and assigned a vital role under the National
Security Council. It has, at the same time, experienced development making
it an effective instrument in its field of the national security. It has not,
however, been able to attain all of the goals set for ultimate accomplishment,
and much of its progress has admittedly been by process of trial and error.
All of its advances have been made possible by the advice and assistance of
the departmental agencies. With this continued assistance, the Central
Intelligence Agency is confident of continuing its present rate of progress
towards perfecting the truly national intelligence service required for
present times and conditions.
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ORGANIZAT rR ? I N03MA/,Mlig QUO.R*'R?-t50004-1
Presented at the Second Latin American Intelligence Conference
Quarry Hei hts, Canal Zone - 21-28 January 1948
Speaker: CIA
I. Introduction
A. Thanks of DCI for invitation to have representation and wishes
for successful conference.
B. Central intelligence two years old.
1. First year one of beginnings. Reported at first LA conference.
2. Second year one of development and growth. Will be covered in
this conference.
II. Background of the CIA
A. Central intelligence concept derived from experience of War II.
1. American intelligence services not prepared; dependent upon
allies.
2. Wartime set-up generally effective when under way but not
fully coordinated.
a. Joint agencies
b. OSS
B. Creation of CI G
1. Plans submitted by several agencies.
2. Plans implemented by Presidential letter of 22 January 1947.
a. Created National Intelligence Authority.
b. Set up implementing organization of "Central Intelligence
Group."
c. DCI appointed to head CI G and act for NIA.
3. Intelligence Advisory Board set up to advise DCI, consisted
of heads of intelligence divisions of the departments and of
the AAF.
III. Central Intelligence Agency
A. Need recognized by congress for permanent national intelligence
organization, and included in National Security Act of 1947.
1. Title I of Act covers central intelligence. Effective on
26 September 1947 when Admiral Hillenkoetter was sworn in.
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1. Effect of Act is chiefly to establish in the program of
national intelligence stated by Executive Directive of
22 January 1946.
2. Functions of GIG charged to legal successor - the Central
Intelligence Agency.
3. CIA, however, functions directly under the National Security
Council; NIA ceased to exist.
C. Responsibilities and Functions of CIA
1. CIA by law discharges two functions:
a. Coordinate`s all aspects of foreign intelligence
b. Performs certain intelligence operations which can best
be performed centrally.
2. Principal coordinating functions:
a. Coordination of intelligence policies and intelligence
activities of the Government.
b. Over-all coordination of collection and dissemination,
and the dissemination of national intelligence.
c. Over-all coordination of intelligence research, and
the production of national intelligence.
3. Common services are several and of a miscellaneous nature.
D. Organization of CIA
1. Predicated on theory that coordinating offices do not operate
and vice versa.
2. Principal coordinating offices:
a. Inter-Departmental Planning and Coordinating Staff
b. Office of Collection and Dissemination
c. Office of Reports ard_Estimates
3. Principal Operating Offices:
a. Office of Special Operations
b. Office of Operations
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IV. Effects of the National Security Act of 1947
A. Act did not basically change principles of central intelligence
but did significantly enlarge and emphasize role in national
security by placing CIA directly under NSC.
B. First effect of direction of NSC has been reexamination of
principles and objectives set for central intelligence by NIA
through drafting of new NSC directives. These directives bring
up to date instructions of NIA.
C. New directives in general considerably strengthen coordinating
position of CIA.
1. Field representatives are familiar with NIA No. 7 on
"Coordination of Collection Activities Abroad," and its
implementing CI G Directive No. 18. Revision of directives
retains original principles of old directives.
V. Development of CIA
A. Development of functions.
1. Is seen in both coordinating and operational activities.
B. Development of coordinating functions - OCD
1. Expansion shown by fact that only 50 requests for information
handled at this time last year. 300 of all types now.
2. CIA Reading Center now processing over 20,000 incoming items
a month, not counting multiple copies, and over 3,500
outgoing items.
C. Development of Coordinating Functions - ORE
1. Has reached new.levels of productivity in production of
national intelligence in the form of weekly and daily
summaries and special evaluations and summaries.
2. Has taken over responsibility for coordination and production
of "basic intelligence":
a. JANIS
b. SID
3. Has also taken over State Department Map Branch.
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D. Coordination for Atomic Energy Commission
1. CIA now acts for AEC to see that all collection facilities
are made available to it and that dissemination of atomic
information is screened and controlled according to wishes
of AEC.
E. Expansion of Operating Functions
1. Expansion of operational services of great interest to
agencies for operational reasons.
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H. Miscellaneous Services
1. Reference Center. Designed to furnish a centralized reference
service to CIA and the other departments. Reference Center will:
a. Maintain a Central Index of all foreign intelligence
documents regardless of physical location.
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c. Maintain a Foreign Industrial Register providing an index
of foreign industrial potential.
d. Maintain a Biographical Intelligence Register affording an
index of important foreign personalities.
e. Maintain a Graphic Material Division which will furnish an
index of the location and type of graphic material of foreign
intelligence interest to the government.
f. Maintain an Intelligence Documents Library which will be the
depository of all standard reference books and foreign
intelligence documents in file in CIA.
g. The filing and indexing of material and information handled
by the Reference Center is based on the latest filing practices
and machine operations.
VI. Conclusion
1. Within the last year, the Central Intelligence Agency has been
confirmed in law with a most important relationship to-the national
security and has become an effective instrument in its sphere.
2. Trial and error has been a factor.
3. All progress has been with aid and advice of the departments;
with continued advice and assistance is confident of making more
progress towards perfecting a truly national intelligence.
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