INFORMATION CONTROL - - ARCHIVES, HISTORY, AND RECORDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00433A000100010005-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 19, 2002
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: May 26, 1972
• Content Type: MF

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26 May 1972
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Intelligence
Deputy Director for Plans
Deputy Director for Science and Technology
Deputy Director for Support
Information Control --Archives, History,
SUBJECT
and Records
1. Executive Order 11652 and the implementing National Security
Council Directives governing the classification/declassification of national
security information must be implemented by 1 June 1972. It is also clear
that new pressures are building under the Freedom of Information Act
toward declassification of events in U. S. history wherein CIA played a
significant role. The implications of these developments clearly require
the fullest coordination of information control procedures, including
records management, histories, and archives administration. It follows
that we should provide a single mechanism for the execution of these p.ro-
grarns.
2. In essence, the three elements of Information Control: Records
Management, Archives, and History, all record our experience to make
it available for future use as required. This use includes file searches
for current operational support, briefing and training new personnel, and
answering press or congressional questions as to the Agency's role in
earlier events. The problem is to design a system which will satisfactorily
answer the needs of the future in these fields with a minimum expenditure
of man-hours and funds at present. In these days of declining personnel
ceilings, we obviously cannot dedicate large amounts of current manpower
to making immediately available detailed answers to all contingent ques-
tions. At the same time, we must constantly protect the sensitive sources
and methods of intelligence in the national interest and respect our fiduciary
responsibility for the safety of many of our sWi s?1z 6 QE AV
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3. In our approach to this problem in this internally compartmented
Agency, it is essential to decentralize much of the responsibility and most
of the actual effort. At the same time, this decentralization needs to be
matched by a system. which will indicate the degree to which minimum
standards are met by all units, and a mechanism by which units can profit
by interchange of experience and by sharing solutions.
4. In our analysis we must clearly recognize different kinds of information
material and the different purposes we expect them to serve. Some of our
records arc important basic reference tools, e. g. , CI files. Some are
analyst working files of moderate life requirements. Some are formal
publications of the Agency distributed elsewhere in the government with
source sanitization. Some are operational records and documents, and
some of these are highly sensitive and must remain compartmented as well
as classified. Some of our reviews of past events are essentially chronicles
of these events, which have value to new arrivals. Some should be analytical
reviews drawing lessons and conclusions. Our system should reflect these
differences if it is to do the job needed.
5. The following overall approach to this situation has been developed
for implementation through the mechanisms indicated:
a. Records Managem.entHR
(1) Effective records management is the foundation stone of
any satisfactory action in these fields, as well as current operations
depending upon effective records. It must be the subject of continuing
and serious attention at all levels of the Agency and is the direct and
full responsibility of each Directorate and subordinate unit with respect
to its own records. The Executive Director will report on the Agency
program periodically to the Director and Deputy Director, and it will
be reviewed semiannually with the Deputies.
(2) Therefore, a new Records Management Board is hereby
established with senior officer representation from the Office of the
Director and each of the Directorates. The Office of the Director
representative will be the Chairman and the Agency Records Manage-
ment Officer. The Directorate representatives will be of senior grade,
will be the Directorate Records Management Officer, and will be
assisted by full tithe Technical Assistants if they have other respon-
sibilities. This Board will serve as the internal Agency Classification/
Declassification Review Committee in compliance with Executive Order
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11652. The Board will be supported by a Technical Committee of
full-time Records Officer representatives from each Directorate
and such panels as may be required.
(3) The first order of business for this Board will be the devel-
opment of a system and structure for the integrated administration and
management of our archives, history, and records declassification
systems, following the general principles outlined in this memorandum.
Regulations developed for publication in time to meet the 1 June deadline
of the Executive Order and implementing instructions are to be regarded
as interim measures to satisfy the immediacy of the deadline and serve
to highlight the importance of immediate concerted effort to establish
orderly and meaningful long-term programs.
(4) The Records Management Board will report its conclusions,
recommendations, etc., (with any dissents) directly to the Executive
Director. The Records Management Board will make semiannual reports.
to the Executive Director, outlining the status of the Agency's Records
Management Program, any problems it is experiencing, and its recom-
mendations for improvement of the program (including reports on records
management to be submitted by the Directorates).. The Executive Direc-
tor will consult with the Deputy Directors before implementing any such
recommendations.. The present CIA Records Administration Branch,
Support Services Staff, DDS, will be transferred to the Office of the
Executive Director-Comptroller and will become a Secretariat for the
CIA Records Management Board. The CIA-Records Center will remain
under the supervision of the Chief, Records Administration Branch in
the Office of the Executive Director.
(5) The Records Management Board will furnish a nonvoting
member to the Agency Information Processing Board, with authority
to submit agenda items and recommendations to the Information Pro-
cessing Board. He will particularly bring to the attention of the Infor-
mation Processing Board those aspects of the Agency's Records Manage-
ment Program which should be considered by the Information Processing
Board, with any recommendations for support of the Agency Records
Management Program requiring Information Processing Board action.
He will similarly make available to the Records Management Board all
information coming before the Information Processing Board which
might be of value or be appropriately considered by the Agency Records
Management Board and its members.
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(6) The Records Management Board will develop recommen-
dations as to categories of Agency records (such as the categories
in paragraph 6 above, plus any others deemed appropriate) and as
to specific guidelines for the selection, retention, and declassifica-
tion of records in these categories. These guidelines should also,
where appropriate, include time periods for retention and declassi._
fication by category and indicate disposition thereafter, and include
appropriate measures to comply with legal and executive require-
ments for retention and declassification.. In particular, recommen-
dations should be made as to the identification of categories which
might appropriately be retired as classified government documents
under GSA auspices or passed to the National Archives, rather than
held solely under CIA control to protect intelligence sources and
methods.
(7) The Records Management Board will serve as the forum
for recommendations for declassification, Agency contributions to
other Agency historical programs and other interagency problems
involving the Agency's records. In this process, coordination will
be made as appropriate with the General Counsel, the Director of
Security, etc.
b. Archives
(1) Each unit submitting an annual report (see below) will
identify its key documents and files for permanent inclusion in Agency
Archives. The Records Management Board will develop the system
or systems by which such documents will be identified on a systematic
basis during the year and indexed for later access and declassification
review as an element of the Records Management Program. Annually,
each unit will make an overall review to ensure that the documents
marked for archival retention are neither excessive in detail, inappro-
priately classified nor incomplete through omissions. A certificate to
this effect will accompany the unit's Annual Report, and the Agency
Archivist will report any problems in this process to the Executive
Director through the Records Management Board.
(2) The Agency Records Management Officer will also be
appointed as the Agency Archivist, to supervise the Agency's Archives
Program. He will coordinate the execution of the Archives Program
through the Agency Records Management Board. He will work in close
coordination with the Agency Historian. The Deputy Directors in their
Directorates will appoint their Records Management Officers also as
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Directorate Archivists, to supervise this program in the Directorate.
The Agency and Directorate Archivists will supervise compliance
with overall Agency Archives regulations to be drawn up and issued
after consultation with the Deputy Directors. A semiannual report
to the Executive Director on the Archives Program will be prepared
by the Records Management Board.
c. Histor (HR
The major thrust of the Agency Historical Program will be
placed on the development of analytical histories of important Agency
activities and operations. The "Office History" approach to date,
which has been largely successful in bringing our history up to 1965,
will no longer be the major focus of the program, as the chronicling
of future Agency activity will take place under the Annual Report
system outlined below. Thus, future Agency histories will take major
subjects of Agency activity and analyze the ways in which the various
elements of the Agency worked together to produce the overall contri-
bution to the operation in question. There will be some situations in
which a single element of the Agency provided all or most of the Agency
participation in any one activity. There will be occasions also when
sensitivity will require that any analytical review of an operation be
conducted in a most restricted fashion. This will apply to many
Clandestine Service histories. Priority will be given to establishing
the basic Agency history of the more prominent operations and acti-25X1A
vities in which the Agency has been en a ed, e. g. , Cuban Missile
Crisis, Bay of Pigs, War in Vietnam,
U-2 Operations, etc. , with particular attention to lessons derived from
these experiences. These histories should also be indexed in a fashion
to permit their use to provide immediate response to public or con-
gressional inquiries on these prominent events to the extent feasible.
Histories will in the future depend upon Annual Reports for general
chronicle and upon the Archives Program for identification of key
documents. The Agency Historian will be an ex officio member of
the Records Management Board, will report directly to the Executive
Director, and will work in close coordination with the Agency Archi-
vist/Records Management Officer and the Directorate Historians who
will be fully consulted on all matters affecting histories concerning
their Directorates.
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d. Annual Reports
(1) To provide the necessary chronicle of the Agency's acti-
vities at minimum expenditure of effort, a system of annual reports
of the units and offices of the Agency will be developed. These will
be submitted to the next senior command level for review and then
held by the originating unit, with a copy incorporated in the Agency's
Archives. The requirement for these annual reports will be timed
and coordinated with the submission of the Agency's Annual Report
to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the Agency's
Annual Program submissions to avoid duplication of effort. The identi-
fication of the elements to submit these annual reports and an outline
of their format will be developed by the Agency Historian for the Execu-
tive Director, in coordination with the Deputy Directors. These may
include significant contractor units, when these played a significant
role in Agency programs or operations. These annual reports should
highlight major accomplishments, major problems and overall con-
clusions and recommendations for future action in the unit itself or
by elements supporting or associated with it. As required, compart-
mented annexes can be compiled and held separately covering parti-
cularly sensitive events.
(2) In many areas it will be essential to produce one-time
reports to cover the years from 1965 (or the most recent history) to
the current Annual Report. This will be undertaken by units identi-
fied to submit future Annual Reports. In those situations in which an25X1A
overall Agency history to be produced will cover the period in quest-ion,
a separate Annual Report need not be developed (e. g. , the
the War in Vietnam), as the necessary chronicle and Archives can be
developed at the same time as the analytical history. In other cases,
however, a one-time effort to catch up to the current annual report
system will be necessary, and this will be undertaken by the unit in
question. Staff supervision of this activity will be provided by the
Agency Historian and Archivist.
e. Classification and Declassification
The Records Management Board will be the focal point for the
Agency's implementation of the classification and declassification
procedures required by Executive Order 11652. The Board will coordi-
nate as required with the General Counsel, the Director of Security,
and others in carrying out this responsibility. The Agency Representa-
tive to the Interagency Classification Review Committee under Section
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7 of this Order will work through the Agency Records Management
Board in carrying out his responsibilities.
f. fly s'~tx..u~~2e will be appointed
by the Executive Director to serve as Agency Records Management
Officer, Agency Archivist, Chairman of the Agency Records Manage-
ment Board, and perform such other duties in the field of Information
Control as the Executive Director may prescribe.
isl W. E. Colby
W. E. Colby
Executive Director-Comptroller
cc: Inspector General
General Counsel
Director of Security
DDS /SSS
Rewritten:
ExDir/WEC:sfc
Distribution:
Original - DDI
I- Each other addressee
1 - Inspector General
1 - General Counsel
1 - D/Security
1 - C/IPB (Mr. Briggs)
1 - C/Historical Staff
1 - C /SSS
1-ExDir
1-ER.
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