CIA ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY IN BRIEF

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89B00552R000800090005-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 11, 2001
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: March 1, 1975
• Content Type: SUMMARY

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CIA ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY
IN BRIEF
,5ummary
During the nearly three decades of its existence; the Central Intelligence
Agency has continuously adjusted its organizational structure to cope with
changing conditions and responsibilities. Within the pattern of constant
change, however, there have been four points at which major reorganizations
have occurred. In its first two years, CIA took on numerous new activities
and shifted responsibilities for those activities frequently. In 1951-52, two
separate entities engaged in overseas operations were merged and the rapidly
growing intelligence production function was reorganized. Another massive
change occurred in 1962. A new Directorate was established to take over the
many projects for technical, as opposed to clandestine human source, collection
of information that were already underway and to assume the responsibility for
conceiving and developing future technical collection systems. Concurrently,
the remainder of the Agency was reorganized and important command and
control funct ons were centered in an Executive Director-Comptroller. In
1973 a number of activities were transferred organizationally, with emphasis
on grouping together similar functions, and the Executive Director-Comptroller
functions were dispersed.
Initial Organization
A Central Intelligence Group (CIG) headed by a Director of Central
Intelligence (.DCI) was established in January 1946 by President Truman,
and it immediately began assuming intelligence functions carried out by
various agencies during World War II . Concurrently, Congress was
engaged in a review of the entire national security structure, including
intelligence, which resulted in the National Security Act of 1947 directing
establishment of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The CIG was accordingly
transformed into the CIA, which began with an organizational structure
that included a number of administrative functions and four major operating
components:
--The Office of Reports and Estimates, which was initially responsible
for all finished intelligence production. The direct forerunner of all the
producing offices now in existence, it was subdivided repeatedly as the
See t 947 organization chart.
Classified by 006808
Exempt from general
declassification schedule of E.O. 11652
exemption category 5B(1),(2),(3)
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production function grew in size and diversified in responsibility. It
was initially formed in the Central Intelligence Group by personnel
transferred from State and the military services.
-- The Office of Special Operations, derived from what remained of the
wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which had been attached to the
War Department as the Strategic Services Unit in the immediate postwar
period. It was responsible for espionage and counterespionage. Follow-
ing OSS practice, worldwide communications and security support also
were assigned to this operating Office.
-- The Office of Operations, responsible for overt and domestic collection
of foreign intelligence. It, too, was formed partly out of the remnants of the
OSS structure that had been attached to the Pentagon and included a coordinated
domestic collection activity which became the Contact Division. It also incorporated
the broadcast monitoring assets of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service
transferred from the War Department and foreign document centers taken over
from the Army and Navy and merged into the Foreign Documents Division.
-- The Office of Collection and Dissemination, responsible for establishing
intelligence collection priorities, coordinating the collection efforts of the
various agencies, and organizing the dissemination of both raw intelligence
and finished reports. It soon assumed control of reference and records
centers as well.
As additional activities and assets were transferred to CIA, they were added
on to the existing structure. For example, joint military intelligence surveys
became a CIA responsibility in October 1947; accordingly, the National Intelligence
Survey program was organized in a Basic Intelligence Division of the Office of
Reports and Estimates.
The National Security Council, established concurrently with the CIA,
began issuing a series of directives in December of 1947 which shaped the
subsequent structure and missions of CIA. One of the most significant ordered
immediate expansion of covert operations and paramilitary activities. In
response, on 1 September 1948, the Office of Policy Coordination was estab-
lished. * It had an anomalous relationship with the rest of the Agency, since
the NSC ordered it to remain as independent of the remainder of CIA as
possible and placed it under the policy direction of the Departments of State
and Defense. For OPC's first two years, policy guidance came directly from
'See t e FT0 organization chart.
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State and Defense, although the chain of command was through the Director
of Central Intelligence. It was during this period, under OPC, that such
activities as Radio Free Europe, the Committee for Free Asia, Radio Liberty,
the Asia Foundation, and the youth, student, and labor programs of the
Agency began.
Shortly after the establishment of OPC, a Hoover Commission Task Force
began making recommendations on national security organization; they were
partially endorsed by the Commission itself in February 1949. A separate
National Intelligence Survey Group headed by Allen Dulles filed its own
report to the NSC in January 1949. The NSC subsequently directed merger
of the Office of Special Operations, the Office of Policy Coordination and the
Contact Branch. This could not be accomplished under the original charter
of OPC, however, and no major change was made until General Walter Bedell
Smith took over as DCI in October 1950.
The existence of both OSO and OPC meant that two clandestine organizations
were responding to separate chains of command while working within many of
the same foreign countries. They had caused continual difficulties--especially
by competing for the same potential agents--and General Smith immediately
insisted that all orders to OPC be passed through him. He also designated a
number of Senior Representatives abroad to coordinate the separate, activities,
By mid-1951, integration of the two organizations had begun; complete integration
was ordered in July 1952, although some overseas stations continued to report
directly to the DCI through overseas Senior Representatives until 1954. The new
joint organization was renamed the Clandestine Services; within it, an International
Organizations Division was activated in June 1954 to handle student, youth and
labor programs.
General Smith also created two new Deputy Directors, one for Administration
and one for Operations; the latter, redesignated the Deputy Director for Plans
(DDP) in January 1951, headed what became the Clandestine Services.
Meanwhile reorganization of intelligence production offices was being
undertaken. The Office of Research and Estimates was divided into the
Office of National Estimates, responsible for national-levelpolicy-related
papers that projected analysis into the future, and the Office of Research and
Reports (ORR), which handled economic and geographic intelligence and the
National Intelligence Survey program. A new Office of Current Intelligence
was added in January 1951. A year later, a Deputy Director for Intelligence (DDI)
was named, with supervision, over the above offices as well as the Office of
Scientific Intelligence, the Office of Collection and Dissemination, and the Office
of Intelligence Coordination which had been directly under the DCI. In March
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of 1952, the Office of Operations (engaged in overt functions: domestic
contacts , 25X1 A
was placed under the DDI. And that November the Photographic
Intelligence Division was established within ORR's Geographic Research.
Area. A separate Office of Basic Intelligence was formed in 1955.
Between 1950 and 1952 the Agency grew markedly. Administrative
support functions increased along with other activities. In February 1955,
responsibilities for training, personnel administration and communications
were centralized in the Directorate for Administration and the Directorate
was renamed the Directorate for Support. By 1955, therefore,. the basic
structure of the current agency had been established.* The Director had
three functional deputies, each in charge of a Directorate. Overt collection,
analysis, and production of finished intelligence were centralized in the
Intelligence Directorate. Other intelligence collection--both espionage and
rapidly growing technical forms--was in the Plans Directorate. The Support
Directorate provided administrative services of common concern as well as
specialized support for the various units.
ee e 95 organization chart. Terminology practices also were
well established by the mid-50's. The Clandestine Services labeled their
major operating entities Divisions (subdivided into Branches) and their
staff and administrative units Staffs. The Intelligence Directorate has Offices
(subdivided into Divisions) which produce finished intelligence, Services
which provide analytical assistance to the production units, and Staffs for
administrative work. The Support Directorate has consistently referred
to its major components as Offices, a practice which was also usually
followed in the science and technology area when it became an independent
organization. Thus, Technical Services--which conceives and develops
equipment for use in clandestine operations--has been moved as organiza-
tional preferences have changed, and movement has led to a name change.
It was the Technical Services Staff or Division when under the Clandestine
Services (DDP) and became the Office of Technical Services when affiliated
with other technical Offices. Similarly, the unit responsible for contacting
US citizens to glean from them information on foreign countries and personnel
has at various times been an Office, a Service and a Division. There have,
however, beer. occasional aberrations from the system, usually for security
reasons. And there have been frequent name changes, stemming from
security considerations, attitudes elsewhere in the country toward various
CIA activities, and personal preferences.
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Much of this structure still exists'. Over time, however, functions have
been shifted from one Directorate to another, realigned within Directorates
or eliminated--usually for one of two reasons:
--Decisions or recommendations have been received from other parts
of the governmental structure: the President, the NSC, Congress,
and a succession of special commissions and internal study groups.
--Organizational philosophy has changed as personnel have changed.
Various approaches have been taken to organization--grouping
similar functions, grouping organizations by common interest (such
as a geographical region) or forming close organizational links
between the supplier of a service and the principal customer. These
changes have been shifts in emphasis; the organization has always
been a combination of the three approaches.
Changes in the priorities given to particular missions or intelligence
targets have also resulted in changes in the size and authority of organizational
components. Growth in a substantive area has led to occasional divisions of
one unit into smaller ones, providing more reasonable spans of control.
In the half dozen years following establishment of this framework, most
changes were minor. The DCI's Senior Representatives abroad were eliminated
in 1957. A Photo Interpretation Center was established within the DDI in 1958,
combining functions from several components including the Photo Intelligence
Division. It was replaced in 1961 by the National Photographic Interpretation
Center, a joint CIA-DIA activity supervised by CIA. And the personnel and
responsibilities involved in the development of technical collection devices--
primarily aircraft, satellites and associated equipment--were transferred from
the office of the DCI to the Plans Directorate, where they were designated the
Development Projects Division.
1961-1963
Late in 1961, the new DCI, John McCone, established a working group
chaired by the Agency Inspector General, Lyman Kirkpatrick, to study Agency
and Intelligence Community organization and activities. Final recommendations
were submitted in April 1962 and led to the last major reorganization of the
Agency.
Even before the study was completed, one major decision was made.
Technological advances had been numerous and very rapid during the 1950's.
They had presented new opportunities for intelligence collection by machines;
reconnaissance aircraft had been developed within the Agency, and work was
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underway on the first reconnaissance satellite. Collection of electronic
intelligence by interception devices was another fast-growing area. Technology
had also made new kinds of information available for analysis and created a
need for more analysis by scientifically trained people. Mr. McCone designated
a Deputy Director for Research, with initial responsibility for elements drawn
from the Development Projects Division of DDP and additional responsibilities
to await completion of the study, in February 1962. The Office of Research
and Development, the Office of Electronic Intelligence, and the Office of
Special Activities (responsible for overhead reconnaissance activities) were
established immediately. The Office of Scientific Intelligence (from the DDI)
and automatic data processing activities (from Support and the Comptroller)
were added in 1963. With the establishment late that year of the Foreign
Missile and Space Analysis Center, the renamed Directorate of Science and
Technology assumed the basic form it still maintains.
The Kirkpatrick study also resulted in a major strengthening of the Office
of the Director. The General Counsel's office, Audit Staff, Comptroller,
Office of Budget, Program Analysis and Manpower and the US Intelligence
Board Secretariat were added to it. By late 1962, the position of an Executive
Director-Comptroller had been established and his role as third in command
of the Agency had been delineated.
The Kirkpatrick study also urged formation of an office to centralize and
professionalize paramilitary activities and an organization to provide a command 25X1A
mechanism for future contingencies. This led to formation in the Plans Directorate 25X1A
(DDP) of the Special Operations Division.
By the end of 1963, the organization had settled into the pattern it kept for
the next decade. Four directorates existed. They were primarily differentiated
by function, but units performing services frequently were co-located with
their customers. Central direction was strong, with an Executive Director-
Comptroller playing a major role in all Agency activities, and the Board of
National Estimates reporting directly to the DCI, although the supporting
Office of National Estimates remained in the Intelligence Directorate for
about another year.
See t e 1964 organization chart.
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1964-1972
Organizational arrangements remained large 7.y static for the next decade,
though growing emphasis on analysis led to further subdivision of analytical
offices. The DDI's Office of Operations was reorganized and renamed the
Domestic Contact Service in mid-1965. The Office of Basic Intelligence was
enlarged and took over geographic responsibilities from the Office of Research
and Reports. The latter was divided in 1967 into the Office of Economic
Research and the Office of Strategic Research. In the DDS&T, the Office of
Special Projects was established in 1965 to conduct overhead reconnaissance,
a duty that had been previously handled by a Staff. Staffs to address special
needs were added in the Plans Directorate. Responsibility for proprietary
organizations was transferred from the Domestic Operations Division to
other DDP components in December 1971, and the Division was renamed
the Foreign Resources Division the following month. Some mechanism for
coordinating and evaluating national foreign intelligence activities had existed
since the establishment of the Agency; in 1972, this took the form of the
Intelligence Community Staff in the Office of the DCI.
Activities related to Southeast Asia grew and subsequently contracted
during this period. Organizationally, such changes were reflected in the
creation of a Special Assistant to the DCI for Vietnam Affairs with a supporting
staff and in formation of a number of new low-level components throughout
the Agency.
1973-1975
The most recent series of changes began when James Schlesinger was
named DCI in early 1973. He put in train a number of organizational studies
and directed a number of transfers; some were accomplished during his
tenure and some were carried out after William Colby replaced Mr. Schlesinger
as DCI in mid-1973.
The organizational moves and personnel reductions of that time led to
today's organization:
25X1A
--There was increased concentration of non-technical collection
25X1A
activities in the DDP,
25X1A
from the DDI.
The staff structure was reduced and the Directorate
was redesignated the Directorate of Operations.
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--Three technical activities--Technical Services (technical support
to clandestine activities), communications research and development,
and the National Photographic Interpretation Center were transferred
to the Science and Technology Directorate. S&T also merged certain
functions of the Office of Scientific Intelligence with the Foreign Missile
and Space Analysis Center and established the Office of Weapons
Intelligence. The Office of Special Projects (satellite activities) was
transformed into the Office of Development and Engineering, which
provides engineering and system development support Agency-wide.
--A new Office of (Foreign) Political Research was established
in the DDI.
--Computer services, which had been fragmented but with their
largest manifestations in S&T, were transferred to the Support
Directorate. And the Support Directorate itself went through two
name changes, first to Management and Services and subsequently
to the Directorate of Administration.
--The Board and Office of National Estimates were abolished and
replaced by a group of senior functional and geographic specialists
called National Intelligence Officers drawn partially from outside the
Agency. Both the senior NIO and the head of the Intelligence Community
Staff were named Deputies to the DCI.
--The position of Executive Director-Comptroller was abolished.
Many of its functions were redistributed within the Office of the DCI and
the Directorate of Administration. A Management Committee composed of
the DCI, his principal Deputy, the four Deputies in charge of Directorates,
the Comptroller, the General Counsel and the Inspector General was
established to advise the DCI on the management policy questions.
There have been only two significant subsequent changes. For budgetary
reasons, a decision was made to terminate the National Intelligence Survey
program in the Office of Basic and Geographic Intelligence; accordingly,
the geographic intelligence unit was redesignated the Office of Geographic
and Cartographic Research. The most recent change, resulting from
termination of the Agency's U-2 program and effective 31 January 1975,
was abolition of the Office of Special Activities.
As of February 1975, therefore, the directorate structure is generally the
same as it was in 1965. * However, there is a stricter adherence to combining
* See the February 1975 organization chart.
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similar functions than in earlier periods. Management direction and control
is decentralized. The staff structure has been considerably reduced and
simplified.
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ORGANIZATION AS OF SEPTEMBER 1947
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Intelligence Advisory
Committee
General
Counsel
Deputy
Executive Director
Interdepartmental
Coordinating and
Planning Staff
Office of Reports
and Estimates
Basic Intelligence
Group
Current Intelligence
Group
Estimates
Group
Scientific
Group
Regional
Branches
Map Intelligence
Branch
Director of Central Intelligence
Require
ments
Branch
Branch
Dissemination
Branch
Executive for
Inspection and
Security
Executive for
Administration and
Management
Office of Special
I Operations
Budget & Liaison
Security Branch
Admin & Services
Divisions:
Personnel.
Transp.& Supply
Special, Funds
Communications
Cover
Registry
Advisory
Council
Office of
Operation.'.
Foreign Document
Branch
Contact
~` Branch
Foreign Broadcast
Information Branc
Foreign Staffs;
Branches Training
- Info. Control
Special Equipment
Technological
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Office of Collection
and Dissemination
Collection
Miscellaneous Ups.
A.~do19B00552R000800090005-
 Office of Coliectiin
and Dissemination
Office of Research
and Reports
F -7 Offof
mates
National E"'.1.
Office of
Current Intelligence
I-
Office of
Scientific Intelligence
Office of Operations
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ORGANIZATION AS OF MARCH 1955
(I \IKAI. I\I1I.11(11\(.1 .\(i1\( )
DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INrFI LIGENCE
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
Inspector
General
Executive Assistant
to the Director
r Inspection and
Review Staff
Planning and Proyram
Coordin ition Staff
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
IF LANS)
Foreign Intrlhgence
Staff
r Pidhtical/P;ychclonical
Stiff
r Counterintelligence
Staff
Senior
Representatives
CHANNEL
Technical Services
Staff
N
I ntf Iiiyence
Advisory
Committee
Special Assistant for
Planrnny and Coordination
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
(SUPPORT)
ASSISTANT DEPUTY
Special Support
Assistant
Office of Communications! hAudit Staff
Office of the Comptroller
Office of Logistics
Office of Security
ti'
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COLLECTION
GUIDANCE STAFF
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ORGANIZATION AS OF MARCH 1964
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
BOARD OF
NATIONAL
ESTIMATES
CABLE
SECRETARIAT
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
FOR INTELLIGENCE
OFFICE OF
NATIONAL ES7IMATES
OFFICE OF
CENTRAL REFERENCE
OFFICE OF
RESEARCH AND REPORTS
OFFICE OF
CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
OFFICE OF
OPERATIONS
OFFICE OF
BASIC INTELLIGENCE
NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC
INTERPRETATION CENTER
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
FOR PLANS
DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR
COMDR STAFF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Fotolgn intalllgancO
Staff
CounminiclugencO
Staff
perationall Svcsl
Staff I
Domestic Ops oDiv.
S ecial Ols. Div
OFFICE OF
COMPUTER SERVICES
OFFICE OF RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT
OFFICE OF
SPECIAL ACTIVITIES
OFFICE OF
SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE
4 FOREIGN SPACE ANALYSIS
CENTER
DEPUTY TO DCI FOR NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
PROGRAMS EVALUATION I
OFFICE OF BUDGET. PROGRAM ANALYSIS,
.
AND MANPOWER _
RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT
REVIEW BOARD
I FOR SUPPORT
ED~cAI STAFF
OFFICE OF
COMMUNICATIONS
OFFICE OF
LOGISTICS
SPECIAL SUPPORT
ASS'STANT
OFFICE OF
PERSONNEL
OFFICE OF
SECURITY
Technical Services Div'
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OFFICE OF
TRAINING
OFFICE OF
FINANCE
SECRET
 Legislative Counsel
Inspector General .
Deputy for the
Intelligence Community
r Agency Management
Committee
Directorate of
Administration
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ORGANIZATION AS OF FEBRUARY 1975
Central Intelligence Agency
& Awessments Staff
COMi4IREX Staff
"'Office of
Current Intelligence
Office of
Political Research
Deputy for National DIRECTOR
intelligence Officers OF
i
FE,,c-ti,e CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
Deputy Director of
Central Intelligence
Office of
Strategic Research
Office of
Economic Research
Office of Geographic &
Cartographic Research
Central
Reference Service
Counter intelligence
0 perati ons
Office of
Weapons Intelligence
Office of
Communications
Office of Logistics
Tice of Research . Office of
and Developmenf Medical Services
Office of
Scientific Intelligence
Office of Development
1 and Engineering
ational Photographic
Uretaonenter
Office of Technical
Service
Office of Personnel
Office of Security
Office of Training
Office of Finx~~AT PEC
Office of Joint
Computer Support
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