LETTER TO MS. JEANNE W. DAVIS FROM W.E. COLBY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00269R000600030002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 75
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 28, 2002
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: LETTER

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THE DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
Ms. Jeanne W. Davis
Staff Secretary
National Security Council
Washington, D. C. 20506
Dear Ms. Davis:
Enclosed herewith are my comments, as requested in your
memorandum dated July 11, 1975, subject, The Commission on
the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of
Foreign Policy (The Murphy Commission), on the recommendations
contained in Chapter 7, "Intelligence," of the Murphy
Commission report.
My views on the Commission recommendations in other
chapters of the report will be submitted separately, including
comments on the need for secrecy legislation and the importance
of cover for CIA operations overseas.
Sincerely,
W. E. Colby
Enclosure:
as stated
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NSC REFERRAL NOT REQUIRERD
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RECOMMENDATION (46)
The DCI should have an office in close proximity to the
White House and be accorded regular and direct contact with
the President.
The DCI's relationship with the President depends on
the President's preferences and working habits. Since the
present DCI's office at Langley is only fifteen minutes from
the White House, I see little value in establishing an
additional office nearer, as access is easy any time the
President desires it. I also believe it important that the
DCI maintain a close relationship and full familiarity with
the analytical base within CIA. upon which most of his sub-
stantive judgments are founded.
As for regular and direct contact with the President,
again this must depend upon the President's preferences and
working habits. Regular and direct contact does exist with
the President in National Security Council meetings and special
meetings called on particular subjects from time to time. In
addition, I have no inhibitions against requesting a direct
and even private meeting with the President on any occasion
when this might be required. Normally, however, I believe it
useful for the Assistant to the President for National Security
Affairs to be kept fully advised of the DCI's and the Agency's
contacts with the President in order that the Assistant to the
President fulfill his responsibilities to the President with
respect to national security affairs.
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RECOMMENDATION (47)
The CIA should be retitled the Foreign Intelligence
Agency (FIA), and its Director the Director of Foreign
Intelligence (DFI).
I see no particular advantage to be gained by retitling
the CIA as the Foreign Intelligence Agency (FIA) or changing
the title of the Agency head to the Director of Foreign
Intelligence. The change would be cosmetic and not substantive.
It could do violence to the concept of "central intelligence"
which was the primary purpose for the creation of CIA.
Putting more stress on the fact that the responsibilities
of the DCI and the CIA are limited to foreign intelligence can
be accomplished by inserting "foreign" in appropriate places
in the basic legislation--as already has been proposed both
.by me and the Rockefeller Commission.
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RECOMMENDATION (48)
--each incoming President should review and make
such changes in PFIAB's membership as may be
required to give him high personal confidence
in that body's values and judgement; that
--he make himself directly available to the
Chairman of PFIAB upon the latter's request;
and that
--the PFIAB staff should be increased in size,
and drawn in part from sources outside the
intelligence community.
I fully concur in this recommendation. As I noted in
my 23 June 1974 comments on the Report to the President of
the Commission on CIA Activities within the United States,
I have the highest regard for the contribution which the
PFIAB has made to the improvement of the intelligence structure
of our Government to date, and I look forward to the Board's
specific supervision and independent assessment of our per-
formance in the future.
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RECOMMENDATION (49)
Covert action cannot be abandoned, but it should be
employed only when clearly essential to vital U.S. purposes
and then only after a careful process of high level review.
I concur in the observation that covert action cannot
be abandoned and should be employed when vital to our national
goals, but only after a careful process of high level review.
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RECOMMENDATION (50)
As the sensitivity and risks of covert action require
appropriate review and consultation:
--covert action should only be authorized after
collective consideration of its benefits and
risks by all available 40 Committee members,
and that,
--besides granting initial approvals, the 40 Committee
should regularly review the continuing appropriateness
of activities still being pursued.
The recommendation is essentially sound; the President,
of course, has the right in exceptional cases to establish
special procedures.
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RECOMMENDATION (51)
PL-93-559 be amended to require reporting of covert
actions to the proposed Joint Committee on National Security,
and to omit any requirement for the personal certification
of the President as to their necessity.
The establishment of a single, small and select joint
committee of the Congress with a clearly defined role which
could include a review of covert action programs would limit
the proliferation of sensitive information. I concur in the
Commission's recommendation that PL-93-559 be amended to omit
any requirement for the personal certification of the
President.
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RECOMMENDATION (52)
The NSCIC should be actively used as the principal
forum for the resolution, short of the President, of the
differ:i.ng perspectives of intelligence consumers and pro-
ducers, and should meet frequently for that purpose.
I believe this recommendation is well intentioned but
is perhaps a little artificial. The members of the NSCIC
have a number of important responsibilities, and any attempt
to get them to meet "frequently" might lead to more form
than substance in the relationship. It certainly is appro-
priate, however, that the guidance and needs of intelligence
consumers should-be made available to the Intelligence
Community on a regular basis.
To achieve this, several steps have been taken. The
NSCIC Working Group, now chaired by the Deputy Assistant to
the President for National Security Affairs, has been estab-
lished to provide periodic staff-level identification of
consumer needs and comments for submission to the members of
the NSCIC. The Economic Intelligence Subcommittee of the
NSCIC, chaired by the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
for International Affairs, has been organized to concentrate
especially on the increasingly important subject of economic
intelligence from the point of view of the consumers.
Lastly, one of the motives for the establishment of the
National Intelligence Officers, and a standing assignment of
them, was to improve communication with customers in the
specialized fields covered by these officers. With this
structure of staff-level contact, I believe that occasional
meetings of the NSCIC itself, focused on significant documents
such as the DCI Perspectives, Key Intelligence Questions,
etc., would be more fruitful than meetings of the principal
members of the NSCIC "frequently."
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RECOMMENDATION (53)
While the intelligence agencies should retain and
exercise their improved competence in the analysis of
international economic issues, the Departments of State,
Treasury, Commerce, and Agriculture, and the Council of
Economic Advisors must maintain similar capabilities.
We believe that, in all four of the Departments, those
capabilities should be significantly strengthened.
This recommendation has considerable merit. Inter-
national economic issues more often than not are complex,
many-faceted, and elusive. Analysis from various depart-
mental viewpoints can add to the overall understanding
of the implications of these issues and give greater-assur-
ance that U.S. policymakers are informed of their full range
of options. The benefits from strengthening the competence
of all Washington economic agencies in international econo-
mic analysis will be even greater as these agencies perfect
the means for sharing their analytical findings. Greater
sharing of analytical products also will guard against
unnecessary duplication of research.
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RECOMMENDATION (54)
A small staff of the highest quality, drawn from within
and without the intelligence community and responsible for
the drafting and review of NIEs, should be established.
This staff, reporting directly to the DFI, should be charged
with reporting clearly any important differences in the
views of concerned agencies, and the reasons for such differences.
This recommendation clearly endeavors to recapture in
a central office the drafting of national estimates, with
the idea that these drafts be subject to later consultation
with the member agencies of the Intelligence Communit-y. I
concur with the suggestion of an increase in the small
editorial staff that assists the National Intelligence
Officers in producing the best possible substantive and
editorial national estimates. I believe, however, that the
drafting function should not be constrained to a single
staff', but. should, at the National Intelligence Officers'
option, be drafted centrally or assigned to one or another
member of the Intelligence Community. I think the latter
system is apt to surface more sharply differences in the
judgments of the various member agencies of the Community
than the rigid procedure of drafting centrally and seeking
comments. The National Intelligence Officer structure is
clearly an evolving institution and has no immutable character,
but I think the purpose remains valid of using them as a way
of improving communication among the experts within the
Community, with our customers and with other talent outside
the Community. I believe this communication is facilitated
by keeping the National Intelligence Officer as a single
staff officer responsible to the DCI rather than allowing
this group of officers to develop a bureaucratic existence
and life of their own. The Commission's recommendation, it
appears to me, considers only the estimate function and
tries to obtain the benefits of both the new National
Intelligence Officer system and the old Board of National
Estimates. I believe this is not entirely feasible, and my
preference clearly is the National Intelligence Officer
system as a bray of more clearly identifying differences of
view among the Community, improving our overall intelligence
process of collection, processing and producing all sorts of
intelligence (not estimates alone), and providing the DCI
with substantive support in his managerial as well as his
substantive responsibilities.
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RECOMMENDATION (55)
a. Under the direction of the DFI, the IC staff should
expand "Perspectives for Intelligence" into an annually revised
multi-year plan for the allocation of responsibilities across
the intelligence community. The plan should be reviewed in
USIB and approved by the NSCIC.
b. On the basis of the multi-year plan, the IC staff
should prepare an annual Consolidated Foreign Intelligence
Budget. After review by IRAC and OMB, this document should
guide the budget submission of each of the agencies and depart-
ments of the intelligence community to OMB. It should also
provide a basis for the consideration, by the proposed Joint
Committee of the Congress on National Security, of the funds
to be annually authorized the intelligence community.
Reference 55a:
I do not consider that the "Perspectives for Intelligence"
should become the vehicle to accomplish actions which are
now and, in my view, should continue to be the responsibility
of the National Security Council.
The annual "Perspectives" is intended as DCI guidance
to the Community concerning problems expected to arise within
the coming five years. It could quite logically become a
multi-year plan which would identify, among other guidance,
those aspects of the existing allocation of responsibilities
to which study should be addressed. Any directives to
reallocate major responsibilities on the basis of studies
initiated in response to the "Perspectives" should require
approval of the National Security Council itself.
Reference 55b:
Except for one essential difference, this recommendation
reflects the present situation. The "Perspectives" is one of
the documents now taken into consideration in the annual prepara-
tion of my recommendations for the national foreign intelligence
program which I submit to the President through the OMB.
The essential difference, however, is that my recommenda-
tions to the President are based on a review of the budgets
prepared elsewhere, primarily in the Department of Defense.
My recommendations are meant as advice to the President on
the overall intelligence program to aid him in assembling the
budget he submits to the Congress and not as a guide for the
initial preparation of the budget submissions of other agencies
and departments of the Intelligence Community.
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Recommendation 55b would make me responsible for before-
the-fact budgetary guidance on intelligence matters to the
statutory members of the National Security Council, which I
do not consider appropriate.
The final sentence of the recommendation contemplates
an annual authorization for appropriation of funds for the
activities of CIA, a requirement that does not exist under
current law (CIA Act of 1949). Such a new annual authorization
request carries with it the same security problems as would
an open budget for the CIA. Moreover, providing documents
to the proposed Joint Committee which have been prepared as
staff preparations for the President's Budget raises serious
questions concerning the separation of powers.
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RECOMMENDATION (55)
a. Under the direction of the DFI, the IC staff should
expand "Perspectives for Intelligence" into an annually revised
multi-year plan for the allocation of responsibilities across
the intelligence community. The plan should be reviewed in
USIB and approved by the NSCIC.
b. On the basis of the multi-year"plan, the IC staff
should prepare an annual Consolidated Foreign Intelligence
Budget. After review by IRAC and OMB, this document should
guide the budget submission of each of the agencies and depart-
ments of the intelligence community to OMB. It should also
provide a basis for the consideration, by the proposed Joint
Committee of the Congress on National Security, of the funds
to be annually authorized the intelligence community.
Reference 55a:
I concur in the general thrust of this recommendation, but
the allocation of responsibilities among the various agencies
of the Intelligence Community is not within my control.
The annual "Perspectives for Intelligence" is intended as
a DCI guidance document applicable to the next five years.
Developing the "Perspectives" into a multi-year plan which
discusses the allocation of Community responsibilities could
be a logical development from the present document, but such
a plan would not be directive in nature. Directive authority
rests with the National Security Council in such matters.
Reference 55b:
Except for one essential difference, this recommendation
reflects the present situation. The "Perspectives" is one of
the documents now taken into consideration in the annual prepara-
tion of my recommendations for the national foreign intelligence
program which I submit to the President through the OMB.
The essential difference, however, is that my recommenda-
tions to the President are based on a review of the budgets
prepared elsewhere, primarily in the Department of Defense.
My recommendations are meant as advice to the President on
the overall intelligence program to aid him in assembling the
budget he submits to the Congress and not as a guide for the
initial preparation of the budget submissions of other agencies
and departments of the Intelligence Community.
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Recommendation 55b would make me responsible for before-
the-fact budgetary guidance on intelligence matters to the
statutory members of the National Security Council, which I
do not consider appropriate.
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 t~~
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DCI/IC-75--0651
15 July 1975
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT Comments on Recommendations of the
Murphy Commission
1. Attached for your signature is a letter (TAB A)
for Ms. Jeanne W. Davis, NSC Staff Secretary, responding
to her memorandum of July 11, 1975 (TAB B) which advised
the President wishe&to receive comments on the recommenda-
tions of the Murphy Commission. Unclassified replies were
requested, if possible.
2. The attached comments relate only to recommendations
in Chapter 7, "Intelligence,' deadline for which is 17 July.
The IC Staff prepared the comments on recommendations 46, 47,
48, 52 and 55; the DDO on recommendations 49, 50 and 51; the
DDI on 53, and the D/DCI/NIO on 54.
3. The NSC memorandum requested you comment on 16
recommendations in other chapters of the Commission report.
Deadline for these is 21 July, and it is planned to have them
ready for your consideration on 18 July. With these comments
will be the statements you requested, on the need for secrecy
legislation and the importance of cover for CIA officers
overseas. The entire list of 190 recommendations is being
reviewed to see if there are any on which you should comment,
other than those specifically listed by the ZNSC Staff.
Samuel V. Wilson
Lieutenant General, USA
Deputy to the DCI for the
Intelligence Community
Attachments:
as stated
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COORDINATION:
15 JUL 1975
lG "
1 6 UL 1975
1 5 JUL 1975
1 5 JUL 1975
16 JUL 1975
16 JUL 1975
16 JUL 1975
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Distribution:
0 - Adsee.
,,I'- ER
1 - DDCI
1 - Each Coordinator
1 - CS/ICS
TAT
1 - D/DCI/IC
1 - AD/DCI/IC
1 - IC Registry
TAT DCI/ICS/CS/
(15 July 1975)
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WASHINGTON, D.C. 20506
,Tuly 11, 1975
txecuti?:e I;_.)~tcy
MEMORANDUM FOR
The Acting Secretary of State
The Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of Defense
The Attorney General
The Secretary of Agriculture
The Secretary of Commerce
The Secretary of Labor
The Director, Office of Management
and Budget
The Executive Director, Council on
International Economic Policy
The Administrator, Agency for International
Development
The Director, Arms Control and
A
Disarniaiu ii. Ageiicy
The Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers
The Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Director o[Central Intelligence
The Administrator, Energy Research and
Development Administration
The Chairman, Civil Service Commission
The Assistant to the President, Domestic Council
The Director, United States Information Agency
SUBJECT: The Commission on the Organization
of the Government for the Conduct of
Foreign Policy (The Murphy Commission)
The President wishes to receive comments from the principal foreign
affairs'Departments and Agencies on the recommendations contained
in the report of the Commission on the Organization of the Government
for the Conduct of Foreign Policy (The Murphy Commission).
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Attached is a master list of all Commission recommendations. Beside
each recommendation is an indication of those agencies whose comments
are specifically requested. These designations are not exclusive,
however, and agencies should feel. free to comment on any recommendation.
Comments on the recommendations, signed by the Departmert or Agency
head, should be submitted by Monday, July 21. However, comments on
the Organization of Intelligence (recommendations 46-55) are due by
close of business Thursday, July 17.
In addition, the departments are requested to submit their views on the
broader issues dealt with in the report, such as Executive-Legislative
relations, by Friday, July 25.
Comments should, if possible, be unclassified since they may receive
further distribution.
t i
Jeanne W. Davis
Staff Secretary
? 1
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RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE
COMMISSION ON THE, ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
FOR THE CONDUCT OF FOREIGN POLICY
RECOMMENDATION (1)
State The defining characteristic of these tasks F'of a Presidential
Defense staff] is that they embody.staff responsibilities rather than line
OMB authority. They provide assistance to the President, not direction
CIA to departmental officials other than to convey Presidential instruc-
tions. There should be only one official with line responsibility in
the White House, and that is the President himself.
RECOMMENDATION (2)
Having revie