INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS ON COUNTRY-LEVEL APPROACH TO THE HISTORY OF THE CLANDESTINE SERVICES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-06202A000100100019-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 2, 2000
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: October 13, 1964
• Content Type: MF

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IirIDEl''TIt1l
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, Historical Staff
SUBJECT: Introductory Comments on Country-level
Approach to the History of the Clan-
destine Services
1. Preparing the organizational or functional his-
tory of any Clandestine Services segment is at once a
creative and a tedious job. The identification of the
stages or phases of our program as it parallels shifts
in US policy, the vicissitudes of a foreign government
or the movement of key staff officers becomes an intri-
guing exercise. To develop such a story into a factual
and fluid account is a stimulating challenge. One must
surely be an inventor of no mean proportions to develop
the means and create the tools to cope. with the many
aspects of. each CS activity. In any sense of the word
this would be a constructive task of real benefit to the
Agency and in particular the officers of the DD/P.
2. The Clandestine Services have relied too heavily
and too long on the word-of-mouth technique for passing
along contributing experiences and valuable lessons
learned. The shifting of priorities, with a build-up in
one area while there is a balancing decrescendo elsewhere,-
carries with it a natural lag in the transfer of our ex-
periences, if indeed the transfer occurs at all. Also the
growth of the Clandestine Services, even with our present
well-organized and numerous training courses, makes in-
formal and,sporadic'reporting on our activities an inade-
quate method for reviewing the past and shaping the future
fulfillment of our responsibilities.
3. Therefore it is incumbent upon us to apply more
systematic procedures in recording that which is now un-
documented or which is obscured by the transfers of our
officers or the meandering shifts within their operational
assignments. Between assignments each officer should pre-
pare a brief paper, of not more than a few pages, covering
the work which he has just left. This statement should
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include at'least a general critique of his activities,
non-Agency individuals with whom he worked (agents in
cryptonym)', effectiveness of his operations, unusual
problems faced and how solved, accomplishments, and sub-
ject, date and control number of studies, recommendations
or "think pieces" of any type (other than intelligence
and project reporting) which the officer has prepared.
Critiques of this type would go a long way toward filling
the enormous gaps, in the pattern of Clandestine Services
experience, which appear in the record.
4. Each country desk should maintain a project
folder. Such a folder can provide invaluable continuity
as well as'a catalog of all operations previously attempt-
ed, with their purposes and the ultimate reasons for termi-
nation. Active projects can always be found at the desk,
but terminated projects are either not brought to the
attention of new officers or if informally discussed are
usually not requested from the?document center for careful
review, The project outline, project approval, project
termination, an outline of major changes -- policy, pur-
pose, substance and support -- if such pertain, and a
listing of,'agent assets involved in the project should
compose the packet of five to ten pages on each project.
The only analytical effort would be in preparing the out-
line of major changes. It is conceived that this might
be prepared most efficiently by the headquarters case
officer, after the sign-off on the'',project termination,
before the. project is forwarded for release to the docu-
ment center. The desk's master prcyject folder should
hold a.running list of all projects with purpose, date
of approval, primary or sub-projects, and date of termi-
nation (if and when terminated).
5. We should know what officers have been respon-
sible for or assisted in carrying out our program at any
period-in history and in any part of the world. The DD/P
desk should systematically maintain a chronological set
of all-approved tables of organization, and personnel
assigned to that desk and the country supported. Today
it would.be impossible, without the examination of thou-
sands of 201 folders, to definitively list those officers 25X1A
who have served the Agency in or
any other country. When it becomes necessary for us to
call for such information in order to quickly compose a
specialized task force to cover an-:emergency situation
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our files are found wanting. (Payroll records, with name
and field 4llotment only, are not .n any geographical
order nd'gre filed under covering,: vouchers which would
have to be individually identified,: after tracking down
the covering field dispatch. These payroll records, if
they could be located pay period by pay period, would
have to be1imanually reviewed and extracted. They do not
carry he grade or position of the., individual. Thy Central
Processing lists, prepared at irregular intervals, carry
name, grade, country of destination, general job title
(ops officer), career designation, and ETA. These only
go back to,1959 in the Master File in Central Processing.)
6. It can be seen that with a minimum of effort the
individual desks can plug many of the present holes. Such
action should facilitate the orderly review and proces-
sing of CS operations and eventually contribute to the
full round-up of our activities in,a particular country.
Special studies and reviews of unique and isolated segments
of our program are of value and should be identified and
brought to ether by the officer on the branch or desk who
has the re,pponsibility for holding the historical material
for the country.
7.' Steps will have to be taken which will permit a
more orderly resurrection and use Of our archival material,.
Against taking such steps it may be argued that:
a. "Maintenance of post''facto records and copies
of reports which have long since served their purpose takes
too much time and borders on wastefulness." Actually a
file of such abbreviated information builds a continuity
at the desk level and saves a tremendous amount of time for
new officers -- station chiefs and desk chiefs on down --
who are attempting to get read into their new responsibili-
ties. Also there is a satisfaction in the thoroughness
which is rgflected in records thus assembled and systema-f
tized; all- of this actually saves time and builds confi-
dence in our officer corps.
b. "These new responsibilities will place an
additional and unwarranted workload on the desks." The
largest effort, namely that of summarizing terminated
projects, *ill be spread rather, thinly across the desks
of all:headquarters case officers,,,probably averaging
only four or five per year per officer. These men who
have the greatest knowledge of project activities are
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best qualified for this task. 'The only other new obliga-
tion which this system would bring' is the preparation of
the personal critiques of the job just left. Since these
would be prepared between assignments -- usually during
TDYs -- the burden would be slight.
c. "There will be little demand for these assem-
bled records except by historians." Such correlated ma-
terial canigreatly simplify and speed the briefing and
debriefing, process. It also would be of great value and
save much time in the preparation of responses to urgent
higher level requests. Material thus brought together
would serve as a ready backstop for chiefs of station,
branch chiefs, and desk officers in testing their opinions
and judgments of new demands and shifting programs.
d. "Reports from officers at the conclusion of
a job or from case officers concerning their projects will
be too subjective." The Clandestine Service is young and
vigorous. Its strength and life is spurred on by the in-
ventivenesS and creativeness of its officers. We need in
.the record,ithe resource which new ideas and opinions can
give to it, We need the human critique, warm and personal,
to give pointed meaning and depth to the more formal, stand-
ardized project and administrative reporting. Many gaps
in routines!reporting patterns can be filled through this
device.
8. Iii accord with the. above and from experience in
the curreni drafting of a history of our activities in
Vietnam, Iirecommend to the DD/P that:
a. Each division and senior staff chief of the
CS designate a senior officer on his immediate staff as
his coordinator for historical reporting and recording.
b. Each division and staff chief select an
appropriate position (CI position is recommended or
Reports Officer) at desk level and.; designate the incum-
bent as responsible officer for the maintenance of such
records an4 files for reference as may be recommended by
the CS historical board and approved by the DD/P.
9.~ This proposal would in effect provide a structure
for halting the slippage and plug many voids in the re-
coverability of valuable information in our archival
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system. It would provide the framework of reference and
continuity by which isolated studies, reports and debrief-
ings can be supported. Such are then available as a re-
sort to future analysts and chroniclers.
10. A procedure for drafting~i the chronicles of the
CS - and ?ne which has held mx firm conviction since I
began the preparations for the chronicle of our activities
in Vietnam late in 1963 -- has been admirably presented in
Memorandum For: Chief, Historical Staff,
WPIPWy 1964, paragraphs 6, 7, and 8. To perform
adequately an historian must be able to locate and acquire
that which, has gone before. In some cases large segments
of files overseas have been destroyed as a security pre-
caution. Often all copies of a document are destroyed
because it! is considered marginal, subjective or an ini
11. An officer(s) selected to draft a section to
the CS. history must be able to' retrieve material from the
document center (presuming such documentation has been
arranged in a retrievable pattern) and have access to cur-
rent filesb Also he will invariably be called upon to
plug the holes in the historical record and to add poign-
ant meaning to otherwise sterile fact through selective
debriefings of knowledgeable persons. The'selection of
the drafting officers is doubly important for what they
will produce is at once an historical presentation and an
instrument,'for training and guiding CS officers in the
future. From such papers we should be able to develop a
greater clarity in approaching our operations, a firmness
and resilience in our purpose, a keener edge to our tech-
niques, and a more pointed application of our methods.
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