MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION FROM(Sanitized)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00269R000200060066-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 4, 2003
• Sequence Number: 66
• Publication Date: January 24, 1961
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Relese 2003/09/29 : CIA-RDP86B00269R000-200060066-1
24 January 1961
1. I met with General Graves B. Erskine, Assistant Secretary
of Defense for Special Operations, on 23 January for about one hour
on the subject of the National Security Council actions in approving
the recommendations in the Joint Study Group Report on Foreign
Intelligence Activities of the U. S. Government. I called his
attention to the changes in National Security Council Intelligence
Directives 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 which in substance substitutes the
"Secretary of Defense" or the "Department of Defense" for the
services, that is, Army, Navy and Air Force, in these intelligence
directives.
2. General Erskine indicated that he was having a Defense
Instruction issued to the services and the Joint Chiefs of Staff
which would henceforth require them to send policy papers directed
to the Director of Central Intelligence through General Erskine's
office for coordination before being sent to the Director. I
commented that there was quite a large volume of such papers and
that I thought this would assist the Director by having the policy
request reviewed before sending it to him for action.
3. I told General Erskine that I now could get busy and make
recommendations regarding the organization of the Coordination Staff
which is authorized by recommendation No. 29 of the Joint Study
Group Report and asked him if he would support such a staff if it
had representation from the services as well as from the Department
of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He indicated that the
Department of Defense is moving toward closer integration of the
service activities at the Department of Defense level. He stated
that he would not object if representation was needed from the
three services on the Coordination Staff. He rather doubted if
representation from the Joint Chiefs of Staff was necessary. I
pointed out that I particularly wanted representation from the
three services and the National Security Agency so that we could
have technical experts in the intelligence field to conduct the
surveys contemplated by the Coordination Staff.
4. I then gave General Erskine a general idea of the DCID
which I felt was the proper vehicle to get the Staff underway.
He made a few constructive comments on the very rough draft which
I read to him -- he suggested that we remove the word "foreign"
when used with foreign intelligence activities, and suggested that
we have the Staff allegiance to the Director of Central Intelligence
rather than the intelligence community as a whole. He thought that
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the administration for the Staff should be carefully setup possibly
entirely in the Office of the Director but that salaries could be
paid by the parent departments and agencies. He did not like the
use of the word "components" in a DCID because the word "component"
has a specific meaning in the Department of Defense, namely, a
component command under a unified command.
5. When I left he said he would support the Staff and the
general ideas I outlined to him and that he was most anxious to
use my office as a point of contact with his office so that we
both could be mutually informed of coordination problems.
6. I pointed out that the changes in NSCID No. 5, paragraphs
8. a., b., and c. might need clarification because the Command
Relationships Agreement which sets forth CIA's wartime responsi-
bilities was agreed between the Director of Central Intelligence
and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He suggested that the best way to
handle this would be to write a letter to the Secretary of Defense
to the attention of his office suggesting that the words "Joint
Chiefs of Staff" in the present Agreement be changed to the "Secretary
of Defense" and request that the Agreement remain in force as it
now stands.
7. General Erskine offered to have his assistant, Mr. Clyde
Elliott, assist my representative in writing an appropriate
administrative paragraph for the proposed DCID.
8. General Erskine also informed me confidentially that one
of our chiefs of station was persona non grata with one of the
major military commands and asked me to pass this word on to
the proper place in CIA. I have prepared a one copy memorandum
and have sent it to Mr. Kirkpatrick, Inspector General.
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