LIAISON DIVISION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00951R000200200022-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2000
• Sequence Number: 22
• Content Type: REPORT

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; as-o acn Reg is- '`
LIAISON DIVISION
Specifically,-the Liaison Division (LD) was
charged with responsibility for
providing a con L:ral_ Agency service
Lo coorcl:i. n.-t Le
assign collection action, disseminate
i.nLelligence materials, and conduct
related operational, :.Liaison with other
government agencies; and for controlling
operational liaison..."
In earlier years (1946-1947), LD's basic functions
of requirements, collection and dissemination had t/;_=,r.
performed by the original (or "old") OCD which func - L ned
i .n tandem with the Reference Center. When the k- I-) i._~ t.s
iere merged in 1948 to form the "new" OCD, the three
functions were placed in its Liaison Division. In.itLally,
LD had four branches: State, Defense, CIA and non-IAC.
In addition, there was the Cable Branch, transferred
r()nn fl.:
ara.nch, which had just been established in January 1953.
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The original functions of requirements, collection and
dissemination were carried out by four "area" branches
(State, Defense, CIA and nnn-IAC), each of which handled all three
of the closely related functions within their individual organizational
area of responsibility.
Thus, Liaison officers in each branch reviewed all ad hoc collec-
tion requirements* issued by CIA and the other TAG members and
ascertained that Washington sources had been exploited before
assigning field collection action.
LD's requirements review and assignment authority for "all"
TAG ad hoc collection requirements was, however, largely theo-
retical. In actual practice, many non-CIA departments such as
State and the Services levied their own specific collection require-
ments. Even within the Agency the production offices frequently
passed requirements directly to field collectors for the sake of
expedience and there were even instances where bypassing the
}
OCD channel was officially sanctioned. I/
Nonetheless, LD's value in the sphere of collection require-
ments was undeniable. The importance of its work was not
restricted to CIA or even the TAC. leather, it embraced all
"General" or "standing" requirements were first handled by
the Coordination, Operations and Policy Sta.ff(COAPS) and later
by its successor, the Office of Intelligence Coordination (OIC). 1/`
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Government agencies and was an effective two-way channels
The Liaison Officers not only collected for the home troops
but, in turn, provided non-CIA offices with intelligence from
CIA sources. 3/
In addition, the Liaison Officer performed yeoman service
in the purely liaison aspect of his job. Constantly shuttling back
and forth between CIA and the external offices to which he was
accredited, he quickly developed impressive knowledgeability
about the latter offices; became thoroughly familiar with their
requirements and collection potential dissemination patterns,
security practices and, probably most importantly,. with'the
key personnel. He was 'the one who could, among other things,,
ferret out the "right man" in another agency, arrange one-tune
or continuing contacts between CIA people and their opposite it,
11, pl~,
members outside,-arrange briefings and debriefings At times
he was even used to arrange initial contact with a witting or
unwitting outsider for a covert operation (normally beyond his
ppherc of responsibility). He was in short, a highly useful
intelligence catalyst.
In all, despite the running battle with those who would
by-pass its collection requirements channel, LD with its impressive
network was to remain "both in and outside the I:AG organization,
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the chief collection-control point and the ,Agency's chief contact
point" for years to come. (The collection function was trans-
furred Ct) 00 Contact division in 1961 and the resultant Liaison
Staff was finally terminated in January 1969 when liaison respon-
sibility was transferred to other offices. 4(Chrono_p2 5)/ )
In addition to requirements and collection, dissemination was
also the responsibility of LD-- the last of the three basic func-
tions assigned to the division when the "new" OCD was formed in
May 1948. It had been a primary responsibility of the predecessor
offices from the time of the prototype Office of Dissemination
in 1946, when O/D had to have operating help from ORE until
adequate staffing could be achieved. 2 / One month after
its establishment, LD further strengthened its role as the Agency's
central dissemination arm (although there were still many types
of documents - such as maps, atomic energy reports, special
intelligence And "operational" intelligence - excepted from the
channel) 267/ when it assumed administrative and executive
control over the interdepartmental Reading Panel (IRP). 2 ~5 /
As with requirements and. collection within the Liaison
Division of 1953,disseniination was carried out by all four branches.
Thus, as the State Branch's liaison officers handled all require-
ments and collection activities involving the Department of State,
SEMI ET,
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so too did the Branch's dissominators receive and disseminate
all reports from the Department and the Foreign Service. Simi-
larly the Defense Branch personnel handled the document flow
from the Department of Defense and the three Services; the CIA
Branch routed all internally produced reports; and the non-IAC
Branch was responsible for documents originating with all other
Governmient agencies.
Within each branch, then, IftP disseminators read. the
documents received and, according to the heading Requirements
Manual, determined to whom, within or outside the Agency,, they
would be of interest.
By 1953 - 54 LD's'dissemination apparatus nau been aeveavpuu
through long experience and practice to the point where "it was
probably the sing'.le most important dissemination tool for carrying
out the Director's continuing obligation to insure exchange of
intelligence information within the Governemnt's security organ-
ization." 1 (p721/
The system of dividing responsibility for a. single function, in
this case dissemination, among four "area" branches had been
selected as the most efficient procedure by OCD's management.
The reasoning: since. each agency used a unique format and
rnarldngs on, its documents, a disseminator reading vast amounts
ee_
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of material could work much more efficiently if reading respone
bility was restricted to the documents of only one agency.
Some measure of the system's efficiency and the volume of
-work handled by the LD disseminators can be gained from two
indicators. First, compared to the early days of CIG when there
were only six possible points of distribution, booming business
had forced the pattern steadily upward until it fluctuated between
70 and 100 points of "normal distribution" by 1952 - 53. Similarly,
the volume. of incoming documents handled by the disseminator
soared upward from a 1946 trickle to a massive total of
in 1953.
As indicated previously, later-vintage additions" to Liaison
Division were the Cable and International Conference Branches.
The Cable Branch became.a part of LD's organizational
structure in February 1951, by which time increasing acceptance
of OCD's role as a centralized "service of common concern!' had
become inns evident among IAC members. One of the
apparent results of this growing p iloso by was the transfer of
the responsibility for handling message traffic from
ONE, to OCD and the establishment in the Liaison Division of a
separate Cable Branch. The Branch was responsible for the
receipt, dissemination and filing of all. incoming cables. 1_R23. 74/
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In addition, it provided reference service from its files, special
cable service for the DCI and the DDI, and procured background
material referred to in codeword cables. j _p25/ The Cable
Branch remained in Liaison Division until November 1956 when
it, along with all other dissemination functions, was' transferred
to the Document Division in OCR (OCD's new disignation from
1955). 4 p172/
The final addition to Liaison Division Was the International
Conferences Branch (ICs). The Branch was set up in January
1953 as a result of concern within ORE, OSI, 00 and the
Clandestine Services about the lack of sufficient data regarding
Soviet attendance at intprnationa.l conferences and trade fairs a
departure from the previous Soviet "Iron Curtain" policy. j p21/,
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By 1961, however, interest in Sovbloc attendance at
international conferences and trade fairs had declined
sharply with the rapid expansion of East-West exchanges
and other legal travel. In consequence, the function was
terminated in February 1961 and the manpower dLverted to,
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exhibitions also attended by Soviets. One position was.
transferred to the Biographic Register to continue
publication of the CR-C series but,only on those con-
ferences and fairs of scientific and technical interest.
L262/
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