(UNTITLED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00951R000400090001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 22
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: REPORT

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25X1X8
of CIG's onl busin hind capability in the
Center an previous exposure to
the "contact" business. After V-E Day in mid-1944,
then with the General Staff Corps,*
had been recruited by the Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) to set up West Coast offices and
conduct a "Survey of Foreign Experts"--that is,
to locate organizations and individuals in the
western states with knowledge of Far Eastern
countries and to index their capabilities. As
25X1A9a
25X1A9a
U
a resilt of the operation, a file of some 10,000
5x8 cards was amassed each of which indexed,
among other things, the source's area, language
and professional knowledge. After the war, a
complete set of the cards was placed in the OSS
25X1A9a
* served on the staff of Col. Alfred
c ormac , Military Intelligence Chief, General
Staff Corps.
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Archives 72/ and it was a selected portion of
these cards which became the base for CCR's files.
It is not so surprising, then, that the contact
control operation was initially placed in the new
Reference Center--partly, one would assume,
25X1A9a because of experience and the enthusiasm
he had conveyed to Alfred McCormack;* but most
certainly because the "index" would thus become
part of the Center's vaulted machine controls.
In actual fact, at the time there was no other
place to put the activity. It was very shortly
afterward, however, that the Contact Branch of
the new Office of Operations was established** and
the battle was joined. Where the mission of 00/Contact
* Col. McCormack had left the General Staff Corps to
become the first Special Assistant to the Secretary
of State for Research and Intelligence. In an April
1946 memorandum to the D/CIG, McCormack was one of
the few to urge that the U.S. continue its wartime
domestic collection effort.
** October 1946.
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T
was to "open up" U.S. organizations in order to
tap the flow of intelligence information from
their foreign representatives, CCR's job in OCD
was to machine index for rapid retrieval the
information producing capabilities of the individual
sources involved. From the outset, this functional
dichotomy was anathema to the officers of the
Contact Branch's Field Division. In their opinion,
no one., apparently not even their own headquarters
people, could properly protect the identities of
their U.S. sources. As later noted by the Contact
Division's historian, "it was obvious...that the field
officers would never consent to the inclusion of
their sources' identities in an index available to
all of the outside intelligence agencies; or, to
venture into a completely different area of dispute,
to other elements of CIA." 73/ The contact control
index, or CCR, remained in OCD for two more years
before the OO/C position prevailed and1, as we
have seen,`?the operation was transferred out of
OCD and absorbed by 00's Contact Branch.
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The second function to be transferred out of
OCD during the last half of 1948 was the map
activity carried out by the Map Division of the
Graphics Register. In June)of1947, the State-OSS
map library and geographic intelligence functions
had been transferred to CIA and in August were
re-established in ORE as the Map Intelligence
25X1A9a Branch under From its inception,
the Graphics Register had carried out a closely-allied
function in its Map Division: the codification and
machine indexing of essential information on foreign
maps of intelligence value held by governmental and
non-governmental institutions in the U.S. It was
this activity which, in September 1948, was moved
out of OCD and merged
with the Map Library
Division of ORE's Map Branch. Again, however, the
machine support responsibility remained with OCD's
Machine Division. 74/
By the close of 1948, OCD's rate of growth
was still increasing despite the two functional
excisions. In December the on-board personnel
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25X1A9a
strength had risen to 305 against an authorized
total of 394, as compared to 92 people and an,
authorized total of 224 just 12 months previously.
Operationally, the divisions were eliminating the
functional flaws but service demands were increasing
even faster than personnel strength. Key reassign-
ments continued to be rather frequent. In August,
was brought into OCD as Chief of
the Industrial Register where had 25X1A9a
been Chief pro tem. In September, 25X1A9a
returned to the Air Force to be succeeded as OCD's
Deputy Assistant Director by 25X1A9a
on loan from the Army; and replaced 25X1A9a
25X1A9a as Acting Chief of the Biographic
Register. In December,
who had been first the Navy and later the CIA desk
officer in the old OCD's liaison operation, was named
Chief of the Liaison Division, replacing the division's
25X1A9a first chief,
25X1A9a
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With one exception, the key assignments
remained unchanged during 1949. The single
exception was the arrival of who
became Chief of the Biographic Register on
3 January 1949, 75/ retaining as his
25X1A9a
25X1A9a
25X1A9a deputy. - in GR and _in IR still had 25X1A9a
no deputies--at least in the titular sense. In
the new Liaison Division, 25X1A9a
25X1A9a served as deputy; 25X1A9a
25X1A9a orked under as Assistant 25X1A9a
Librarian; and continued as 25X1A9a
25X1A9a
deputy in the Machine Division. By 1949, the
Executive and Coordinating Staffs had been replaced
by the Administrative Staff and the Operations Staff;
25X1A9a the former headed by (although she would
not be formally appointed until December of 1950 76/),
25X1A9a
In the Library, 25X1A9a
had succeeded in 25X1A9a
January 1949 as Top Secret Control Officer (TSCO),
CIA Records Administrator and Custodian of Registered
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25X1A9a Documents. he original TSCO had
transferred to ORE when the Central Records
Division had been merged with the reorganized OCD
25X1X8 in May 1948. /77 * In February 1949, Central
Records Division itself was reorganized within OCD.
The mail and courier activity became the respon-
sibility of OCD's Administrative Staff and the
Administrative Records, Top Secret Control and
the Records Management (CIA Archives) functions
were assigned to the Library.
During the first eight months of 1949, OCD's
on-board strength had risen more than 12% to 343
people and the authorized T/Ohad beenincreased
by almost 15% to 449. In addition, the Office's
operations were finally beginning to achieve the
* Throughout the first 25 years of reference
service history, there have been only five Top
Secret Control Officers (excluding the original
25X1A9a TSCO, - who never joined OCD): 25X1A9a
from January 1949; from April 1950; 25X1A9a
25X1A9a from September 1954; in
25X1A9a 1961; and from 1968. 25X1A9a
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functional effectiveness that comes with experience.
After its late start, for example, the Graphics
Register, with 24 people, handled over 1400 requests
for still photos and motion picture film during
Fiscal Year 1949. Within its field of responsibility--
preparing biographic reports and providing other types
of biographic support--the Biographic Register was
amassing files on all types of foreign personalities
and not simply on the foreign scientific and
technological personalities for whom it was held
responsible by NSCID No. 8. During Fiscal Year 1949,
the Register's staff of 62 people~hadjresponded to
1229 request.`rs; the Industrial Register, also with
62 people on board,had`answered 628 queries; and
the reconformed Liaison Division, with 25 people,
had`-provided 2413 collection and liaison services.
The Library's broader reference function naturally
resulted in a far larger request total of over 22,000
for the same fiscal period. It also had the largest
working staff,\of?,97 people. Cumulatively, the OCD
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components during Fiscal Year 1949--that is, after
two to three years of operating experience, depending
upon the unit--serviced a total of 28,245 requests,
almost 3,000 of which were received from non--CIA
requesters. In addition, the Liaison Division
received and disseminated over 263,000 documents
(including cables and airgrams)*--an increase of
almost 23,000 over the total of the previous fiscal
year. 78/ 79/
It was thus evident by 1950 that OCD had become
a reality within the profession; that its functions
had been soundly conceived and developed. In short,
* It is interesting that 22 years later, in FY 1971,
the 12-month total for collateral documents received
had stabilized at almost exactly the same figure--
260,000 (exclusive of cables which, in later years,
were held for only several months). The all-time
collateral document peak of 409,000 was registered
in FY 1963. From that point forward, however, the
true work measurement had to include the Special
Intelligence documents which the office began
receiving in 1963 and which, in FY 1971, alone
totalled more than 582,000 items.
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the planners had accomplished what they had set out
to achieve--hat is, the creation of a first-of-its-
kind, centralized intelligence reference facility.
By that year, the office had grown into an on-going
and youthfully successful operation. Constant
change, both major and minor, would, of course,
continue to occur and the system was still a far
cry from the comparatively sophisticated machine
that would evolve in future years. Nonetheless,
OCD had become an effective and viable operation.
The basic problem was no longer one of trying to
make the machine work and prove its value. Rather,
the major difficulty was the operation's inability
to keep pace with the soaring request load.{\\The
divisions' administrative files for 1950 reflect
a heavy use of overtime, the need for additional
personnel, and the development of backlogs in
pending requests, filing and reproduction. In the
Library, where the March document flow reached a
total of 23,000--a 37% increase over the 1949
monthly average--a seven-day work week was implemented
and the staff members were given an option of Saturday
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25X1A9a
or Sunday work. In the Biographic Register, the
Regional Branch (for nonscientific personalities)
had become seriously overloaded, particularly
because of the heavy volume of requests being levied
by the Special Research Center in "Q" Building (later
the Office of Current Intelligence) and the recently
formed office of Policy Coordination. In the other
divisions, conditions were similar and action was
taken to pare back responsibilities. In July, plans
were approved to relieve OCD of the Agency's machine
records functions) as recommended by the Management
Staff's survey team. Since the CIA machine system
had begun in OCD (in the pre-merger Reference Center),
the office had been assigned responsibility for
applying machine techniques to the Agency's accounting
and administrative record keeping. By 1950, nine
such programs were being performed by the Machine
Division's Administrative Project Branch, ranging
from personnel statistical records and payroll
accounting to stock inventory and machine utilization
records. On 17 July 1950, Acting Executive
approved the transfer of all administrative
25X1A9a
-136-
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support by machine techniques:. from OCD to Management's
Special Support Staff (SSS) in "L" Building. It is
doubtful that the move lightened the work burden on
OCD since 11 slots were also transferred.
who had been Chief of the Machine Division since its
inception, \also( moved with the function to SSS,
presumably to serve as supervisor-planner for all
25X1A9a
Agency machine operations.* He was subsequently
succeeded as MD's chieis former deputy,
25X1A9a L Other functional transfers were
effected. By the end of the year, IR had arranged
to transfer to the Air Force responsibility for
foreign airfield activities and had initiated formal
proposals to transfer its files on foreign transportation
and communications systems to the Army Map Service.**
* By 1950 there were already six separate CIA machine
installations: 00's Contact Division in South
Building; OCD in M Building (by far the most extensive
operation); the Special Research Center in Q; OSO's
Communications Division in L (where SSS would also be
established); and MD's Board of Geographic: Names unit
in South Interior Building.
** The transfers to AMS were never effected and the
functions remained with IR.
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,`The situation was further aggravated by the outbreak
of the Korean War and all of OCD was forced into
a six-day work week from mid-July to early October.
To help absorb the ballooning workload, Dr.
in May had requested an additional 29 people--2 for
LD, 13 for the Library and 14 for BR's Regional
Branch, thus raising OCD's authorized total to 471.
In addition, the size of the division's files were
already beginning to signal future space problems.
By June\ofjl950, the Intellofax file contained almost
315,000 documents compared to the December 1949 total
of 150,000 unindexed reports. In BR, the 25,000
personality dossiers of December 1949 had increased
to about 95,000; IR's industrial installation files had
grown from 25,000 to almost 50,000 during the same
period., and late-starting GR had, by mid-1950,
amassed files containing 250,000 ground and 20,000
personality photos.
Key personnel assignments remained relatively
static during 1950. In June, OCD's
Deputy Assistant Director, returned to the Army and
was not immediately replaced. In December, two former
BR officers, transferred
out of OCD, the former to Administrative Services and
25X1A
25X1A9a
25X1A9a
the latter to OPC. 25X1X8
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Despite its growth problems, the overall
success of the OCD operation by the end of 1950 was
indisputable. In addition to the technical and
analytical expertise which had been developed by
desk personnel, OCD's success was attributable,
in no small degree, to the office's machine systems'
growth. By the close of the year, Intellofax had
become effectively operational. The system would
never cease to be a target of customer criticism
but it nonetheless represented a technological
breakthrough. Irrespective of its early flaws and
the shortcomings that would draw fire throughout its
existence, the Intellofax System provided the intelli-
gence analyst with a tool which had never previously
been available anywhere. It presented, for the first
time, a solution to the analyst's historical problem:
the painstaking and time-consuming effort necessary
to pull together all available intelligence material
bearing on a given problem. Whatever its shortcomings,
Intellofax did provide the intelligence analyst, to
a very considerable degree, a mechanical means of
readily obtaining access to all pertinent intelligence
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25X1A5a1
documents, thereby meaningfully increasing the time
available to him for pursuing his primary function --
the production of intelligence.
The Intellofax equipment and procedures that
were originally in use )wouldichange drastically in
future years. For at least two years after it became
fully operational, concurrent "shake-down" tests would
be) conducted and even during the first year of full
operation (1950), drastic changes were effected.
At the outset, for instance, it had been planned to
electronically transmit the Intellofax tapes to
requesters. Late in 1949 and early in 1950, the first
Faxcard transmitters and receivers were delivered by
and installed -- the former
in the Library and the latter in M and Q Buildings.
In theory, the selected Faxcards (IBM punched cards)
could be reproduced by Facsimile machines onto the
Intellofax tape which, in turn would be fed into
the transmitter and electronically sent to the receiver
closest to the requester. Within months, however,
technical and human difficulties developed. First,
transmission presented security problems which, at
that time, could not be quickly solved. In addition,
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customers balked at having to load the paper tapes
into the receiving machines and insisted that inter-
office mail would generally provide sufficiently speedy
service for the transmission of their requested
Intellofax tape runs. Considering the multitude
of other technical matters demanding attention,
and the apparent lukewarm attitude of the customer
sector, the decision was made about mid-1950 to
abandon the transmission phase of the Intellofax
System. It was never resurrected. The basic
Intellofax System, however, Gwoul&\ continue` to develop*
as the first machine-based document retrieval system
within the intelligence profession, largely sustaining
Dr. Andrews' earlier observation in a status report
to the DCI when he suggested
It is quite possible that the central
reference system being built by CIA will
ultimately prove the most important central
intelligence service which the Agency
provides. 80/
The Intellofax System wouldlendure"for 17 years
until 1967 when, largely for reasons of economy
and redirection of effort, it jwo`ud be} replaced
by AEGIS (Already Existing General Information
System) which, in truth, was indeed far more
general and far less detailed than Intellofax.
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In retrospect, it would appear that probably
the most significant acknowledgement of OCD's success
status was the decision to leave the office untouched
when the Agency was sweepingly reorganized in late
1950 and 1951 particularly the production offices.
During .-Azea Xt will be recalled, the departing
DCI, Admiral Hillenkoetter,~hadlpostponed all
reorganization until his successor"had!had the
opportunity to consider the recommendations made by
both the Dulles Survey Group and the Agency's own
Management Staff. With regard to OCD, the Dulles
team had urged complete dismemberment of the office)
while the Management task team had recommended transfer
of OCD's liaison and administrative machine functions
to other Agency components (the remaining functions
to be carried out by a renamed "Office of Reference
and Dissemination"). After his arrival in October,
Smith committed himself to the Dulles Committee's
recommendations and quickly thereafter (on 13 November)
announced the formation of a new office of Research
and Reports (ORR), the establishment of the Office
of National Estimates and, a few days later, the
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Office of Intelligence Coordination (OIC).* In
view of the DCI's announced approval of the Dulles
findings, the end of OCD and transfer of its functions
to the new offices was expected momentarily. In
fact, the machine unit, the Library and the
Registers were actually regrouped as branches in
a proposed organizational chart for the new ORR.
As previously noted,_however, General Smith's final
decision in December was to leave OCD intact and the
office was grouped with the production offices under
the new Only minor changes 25X1A9a
were made in OCD's charter: responsibility for the
Agency's Records Management Program (CIA Archives)
and mail and courier servicewere~shifted to the
Deputy for Administration.
* OIC was the expanded "Coordination Division"
proposed by the Dulles group to replace COAPS,
the five-month old successor to ICAPS.
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SECRET
For the remainder of General Smith's tenure
and for most of Allen Dulles' administration, OCD
fortunately remainder undisturbed by the organiza-
tional changes that /wouldl,reshape'the Agency. The
situation permitted OCD to continue its progress
25X1A9a
toward full development and the changes that, did
occur were internally inspired. During a relatively
uneventful 1951, , it will be recalled that the
Liaison Division was partially reorganized: the
Cable Branch was set up in February and, in June,
the military desks were combined into a single
Defense Branch. It was also in June`\of;1951 that
the compartmented Special Register (SR) was established
in "Q" Building as OCD's seventh line division,
replacing the Collation Division of the fledgling
Office of Current Intelligence. The operation was
placed under OCD authority to assure indexing and
retrieval compatability between OCI's special.
intelligence and the collateral material. M
was named SR's first chief. The
25X1A9a
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year also marked the beginning of OCD's limited
involvement in direct field collection. In
25X1A9a February,
25X1 C
25X1A9a
Chief of BR's
Scientific Branch, completed a survey of files
in 11 U.S. military intelligence headquarters in
Europe. During the trip, he arranged for the
of the Industrial Register led
an Overseas Microfilming Team to Europe. For about
two years the teamwouldoperated"out of
not only exploiting files of industrial intelligence
interest (over 1,000 reels were microfilmed) but also
coordinating some of the Agency's overt requirements
25X1A9a
25X1A6a
* was later chosen to head up
OCD's new Statistical Division, formed in
November 1957 from SR's Statistical Branch.
The following year he accompanied the operation
when it was transferred to the Photographic
Intelligence Center ( ?amed the Data
Management Division. as chief of 25X1A9a
NPIC's Production Services Group when he retired
in 1969.
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with U.S. field collectors, particularly with State's
Publications Procurement Officers. Although there
;would be'only one more large scale, direct collection
effort mounted by OCD,* such operations were the
beginning of OCD's low-key program of dispatching
representatives to the field on ad hoc collection or
coordination missions.**
Key personnel changes, although also?.minimal
during 1951, completely changed the leadership of
the Liaison Division. In April LD's Deputy Chief,
25X1A
and of BR would exploit,
the biographic files of U.S. installations in
25X1A6a and other - cities. The 25X1A6a
opera on resu ed in the acquisition of hard copy
or microfilm records on almost 8,000 foreign S&T
personalities.
** After the Agency absorbed State' biographic effort
in mid-1961, the program`,would be,'expanded to assure
two or three annual trips abroad, primarily to
coordinate biographic collection with Foreign Service
posts and improve communications between CIA reference
analysts and their Foreign Service counterparts.
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iff.
25X1X8
25X1A9a
was named OCD's new Deputy Assistant
25X1A9a
Director, replacing who had returned 25X1A9a
to the Army the previous year. In August the
(by then Captain 25X1A9a
was recalled to sea duty and was
succeeded a month later by 25X1A9a
In January
1952, OCD's status as an
"intelligence" office was reiterated when it was
regrouped with the production offices .cc the
new Deputy Director for Intelligence,
Although undisturbed by the altered chain of command,
OCD continued its painful expansion, beset by soaring
request loads and inadequate staffing. As the
Agency's offices expanded, so too did their demands
on the Office of Collection and Dissemination. A
total of over 27,000 requests for intelligence
information were received by five of the OCD
divisions in 1951 (not including the Machine Division
and the new Special Register), an increase of 29%
over the 1950 total of less than 21,000. 82/
Personnel and space growth was almost constant. In
81/
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