THE CABLE SECRETARIAT 1952 - 1966
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Secret
1
THE CABLE SECRETARIAT
1952 - 1966
Secret
OC-9
November
Copy 2 of
PERMANENT HISTORICAL DOC,
DO NOT DESTROY
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WARNING
This document contains information affecting the national
defense of the United States, within the meaning of Title
18, sections 793 and 794, of the US Code, as amended.
Its transmission or revelation of its contents to or re-
ceipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
WARNING NOTICE
SENSITIVE INTELLIGENCE SOURCES
AND METHODS INVOLVED
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CIA Internal Use Only
Aocesa Controlled by DDM&S
OSD Review Completed
THE CABLE SECRETARIAT
1952-1966
by
Revised and Rewritten
by
Dire or o ommunications
Dir' torate of Management
and Services
November 1973
HISTORICAL STAFF
CENTRAL JNTELL.IGENCE AGENCY
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Foreword
This history of the CIA Cable Secretariat from
1952 through 1966 is a condensation of an original
four-volume draft completed in 1971. Because that
draft is preserved in the archives of the CIA
Historical Staff* and is available to Agency personnel
who may be interested in the detailed records of the,
Cable Secretariat, this condensation does not include
appendix material other than source references.
The original four-volume draft of the history
of the Secretariat was written by
and a later two-volume version was written by
This one-volume condensation was written by
of the CIA Historical Staff, who was at no
time a member of the staff of the Secretariat and thus
relied wholly on the work done by and on
the documents included as attachments in the first
draft.
* See HS/HC-875.
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''Contents
Page
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
I. Origin and Antecedents . . . . . .?. . . . 1
A. Predecessors of the Cable Secretariat. 1,
1. The OSS Secretariat and Message
Center . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2
2. The SSU Secretariat and Message
Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
B. Developments in CIG and CIA, 1946-1952 9
1. Organizational Development . . . . 9.
2. The Message Center . . . . . . . . . 10
II. Establishment of the Secretariat,
1952-1953 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
A. General Smith Acts . . . . . . . . . . 14
B. Key Personnel Assignments. . . . . . . 21
C. Establishing a Table of Organization . 23
D. Assumption of the Cable Duty Officer
Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
E. Administrative Support . . . . . . . . 27
F. The Career Management Problem. . . . . 29
III. Establishment of Policy, Procedures,
and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
A. Services for the DCI and the Deputy .
Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
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Page
l.. Distribution to the DCI and 34
the DDC I . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. Distribution to the Deputy 40
Directors . . . . . . . . . .
3. Cable Deliveries . . . . . . . . . 43
B. Cable Regulations and Procedures . . . 48
C. Cable Volume and Reduction Efforts . . 55
D. Changes in Responsibilities. . . . 60
1. The Cable Secretariat Screening 60
Section . . . . . . . . . . . ? ? .
2. The DDI Suspense Procedures. . . . 64
E. Vital Records and Emergency Planning . 76
1. Vital Records. . . . 76
2. Emergency Planning . . . . . 78
F. Other Activities and Events. . . . . . 80
IV. The Cable Reduction Program. . . . . . . . 82
A. Studies, Proposals, and Experiments. . 82
1. The Inspector General Study. . . . 82
2. The Management Improvement Staff 85
Study . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3. The DDP Study -- the "Fast Pouch". 87
B. Pouching Cables to Information 91
Addressees. . . . . . . . . . . ? . . .
1. Th OUCH Procedure . . . . 91
2. Revision of the Procedure. . . . . 94
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V.
VI.
VII.
Page
3. The Education of Cable Writers .
.
96
4. The Second Management Staff Study.
98
C. Cable Regulations and Handbooks. .
.
104
Development of the Teletype Dissemination
System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
111
A. Cable Secretariat Support. . . . . .
..
111
1. Preliminary Dissemination. . . .
.
111
2. Teletype Dissemination . . . . .
.
114
B. Improving the System . . . . . . . .
11"8
1. Expanding the Courier Service.-.
.
118
2. Standardizing Distribution . . .
.
119
Management Staff Studies, 1955-1958. . .
.
.123
A. Table of Organization, May 1955. . .
.
123
B. Proposed Merger with the Signal
Center, October 1955. . . . . . . .
.
125
C. The Second Table of Organization
Study, April 1957 . . . . . . . . .
.
128
D. The Scheduled Overtime Study, July
1957 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.
130
E. Cable Secretariat-Signal Center
Operations, February 1958 . . . . .
.
132
F. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.
134
New Technology in Cable Processing,
1957-1960 . . ... . . . . . . . . . . .
.
135
A. Early Developments . . . . . . . . .
.
135
vi
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. Page
B. The ~ Experiment . . . . . . . . . 140
C. Automated Cryptographic Transmission . 144
D. Improvement of TD Processing . . . . . 145
VIII. Changes in Procedures and Organization
1960-1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
A. The Intelligence Watch . . . . . . . . 147
B. TD Dissemination to the White House. . 150
C. Cable Processing . . . . . . . . . 153
D. Cable Secretariat-OCR Cable
Branch Merger . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
1. Rationale and Procedure. . . . . . 158
2. The Non-CIA Cable Branch . . . . . .160
3. The Branch Move to the
New Building . . . . . . . . . . . 163
E. Special Processing . . . . . . . . . . 164
1. DCI Selects. . . . . . . . . 164
2. State Cables . . . . . . . . . . . 165
F. Adjustment to the New Building . . . . 166
G. Records Management . . . . . . . . . . 170
IX. Management and Administration, 1960-1965 . 173
A. Management Methods . . . . . . . . 173
1. The Cost Criterion . . . . . . . . 173
.2. Staff Meetings . . . . . . . . . . 175
3. Other Management Methods . . . . 177
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Page
B. Changes in Agency Authority and
Organization. . . . . . . . . . . . 180
C. Administrative Reviews . . . . . . . . 182
1. Staffing Complement, 1962. . . . . 182
2. The IG Survey, 1963. . . . . 185
3. Staffing Complement, 1964. . . . . 187
X. Growth and Change, 1965-1966 . . . . . . . 192
A. The Workload Problem . . . . . . . . . 192
B. Procedural Changes
194
1. The Direct-Image System. . . . . . 194
2. Color Standardization. . . . . . . 196
3. Publication of Confirmations . . . 197
4. Revision of TD Processing. . . . . 199
5. Purge of the Pseudo/Crypto Files . 200
C. Requirements of the New Command. . . . 202
1. The DDP Duty Officer Staff . . . . 202
2. Briefing the DCI . . . . . . . . . 205
3. Th Committee Reviews . . . 207
XI. Summary and Conclusions. . . ... . . . . . 213
A. A Look Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
B. A Look Ahead . . . . . . . . 215
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. Page
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Illustrations
1.
Incoming Cable Brief . . . . . . . . . . .
39
2.
Cable Processing and Delivery System . . .
47
3.
Extract from O&MS Study, November 1953 .
59
4.
Cable Suspense Sheet . . . . . . . . . . .
69
5.
Excerpt from . . . . .
106
Appendix
A.
Source References . . . . . . . . . . . . .
220
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The Cable Secretariat
1952 - 1966
I. Origin and Antecedents
A. Predecessors of the Cable Secretariat
The history of the CIA Cable Secretariat-Message
Center actually begins on 15 July 1952, some five
years after the Agency was activated in September
1947. During that five-year period, of course, there
was a cable-processing activity in the Agency, but
it was closely patterned after those developed by
the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) from June 1942
to October 1945, the Strategic Services Unit (SSU)
of the War Department from October 1945 to January
1946,* and the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) from
January 1946 to September 1947. Although the July
1952 reorganization of the cable-handling procedure
in the Agency brought about some major changes,
* Although SSU was not officially terminated until
11 April 1947, 1/ the SSU cable processing unit was
transferred to CIG upon the activation of CIG on
22 January 1946. 2/ For serially numbered source
references, see tfie Appendix.
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the basic methods and techniques practiced by the
predecessor cable units were retained -- with, of
course, modifications. It is appropriate, then,
that a brief description of the OSS, SSU, CIG, and
early CIA cable-processing units be given here.
1. The OSS Secretariat and Message Center
OSS headquarters was a small group of buildings
at 2430 E Street NW in Washington. The office of the
Director, General William J. Donovan, was on the,
first floor of the Administration Building, one of
the smaller of the group. The Cable Secretariat, the
central point of authority for the processing and .
distribution of OSS cables, was on. the second floor,
just above the Director's office. The Secretariat
was staffed by,
The entire basement of the building,
below the first-floor offices of the Director and
his staff, was occupied by the Message Center.
Action responsibility for cables was assigned
by the Message Center to appropriate headquarters
units, and. information copies were sent to other units
in accordance with guidelines and distribution
patterns determined by the Secretariat for each type
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of cable. Distribution was simple during the early
stages of'OSS development; information copies were
furnished only to the Director, the Secretariat, the
Secret Intelligence (SI) Branch, and a number of
senior officers, on the Director's staff. All
distribution copies of incoming cables were plain-text
paraphrases of the decoded messages. The paraphrases
were written and typed by the code clerks, a pro-
cedure that was quite practicable as long as the
volume of incoming cables was small.
By the end of 1942, however, cable traffic had
'
increased to. the point where
25X1 chief of the message Center operations,
had to establish a typing section and specialized
cipher sections. By early 1943, message centers had
d
l
an
e
sewhere
in the Mediterranean area. By the end of 1943 there
were 75 administrative and traffic-handling people
in the Headquarters Message Center.
^ 25X1
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who had been Donovan's deputy in OSS,
assumed command of the unit. At the same time, Lieu-
the Strategic Services Unit.* 3/
In addition to OSS cable traffic the head-
quarters Message Center reproduced and distributed
Army, Navy, and State Department cables that were of
intelligence interest to OSS. In late:.'1942'the
Message Center was processing about 1,000 classified
cables a month -- OSS, Army, Navy, and State cables;
by late 1944 the volume had increased to more than
4,000 a month. In addition, the Center transmitted
official OSS unclassified telegrams to commercial
telegraph companies -- about 900 a month in late
1942 and more than 2,000 a month in early 1945.
2. The SSU Secretariat and Message Center
In October 1945 OSS was terminated, and that
part of it that had been concerned with clandestine
activities was transferred to the War Department as
tenant (jg)
r 'was named chief of
the SSU Secretariat, which occupied the same Admin
istration Building quarters as had the OSS
* There was also an intelligence research unit in OSS;
although it did not remain intact after the termination
of OSS, many of its personnel were placed in the State
Department, from whence they later transferred to CIA.
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Secretariat. 4/ In early November 1945 the Secre-
tariat was divided into two sections -- a Registry
Section, which remained in the Administration
Building, and a Cable Control Section, which was
housed in South Building next to the Message Center,
which had moved there from its crowded quarters in
the basement of the Administration Building. 5/
assigned as chief of the Cable Control Section, which
was charged with the responsibility for typing, re
production, and distribution of copies of SSU cables
-- a job that. formerly had been done by the Message
Center. 6/
Distribution patterns and cable addressing
procedures remained much the same as those OSS had
used. The Cable Control Section furnished copies of
all cables to the Director, to Staff II (Operations),
to the SI and X-2 offices, and -- when appropriate --
to the,Operations Auxiliary Branch and the Personnel
and Services Branches. 7/ In February 1946, how-
ever, the old OSS procedure of addressing cables by
names of individuals or branches was discontinued,
and a new system of addressee/addressor five-letter
indicators was used to identify the originator and
a senior Secretariat officer, was
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I
the action unit at headquarters. At the same time a
new method of showing the authority by which a cable
was sent was introduced*; all cables to overseas
missions bore the words "SIGNED: ' and all
cables from the field showed in like manner the name
of the chief of mission as the signer -- regardless
of the actual originator of the cable.
In September 1945
by that time. a
Major, left the Army and his job as chief of the OSS
Message Center and returned to private law practice.
At about the same time
returned from the OSS mission was
assigned as chief of the Center. By the time
reported for that duty -- in October 1945 -- the OSS
Message Center had become the SSU Message Center and
had been relocated in South Building in the west end
of the third floor. In the spring of 1946
of message centers in the Mediterranean area during
the war:,: became deputy chief of the Center.
* These changes are noted here because -- with
modifications -- they carried over to become elements
in the CIA cable-handling procedures.
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. Although the establishment of the Cable Control
Section of the Cable Secretariat had relieved the
Message Center of the typing, reproduction, and dis-
tribution chores, the other functions of the Center
continued much as they had been under OSS. As noted
above, there was a change in the addressee/addresser
identification technique in February 1946, and by
that time the paraphrasing step in cable processing
had been completely eliminated,* but essentially
the Message Center procedures remained the same.
There was, however, a new'problem that plagued the
Center -- transmission garbles. In February 1946**
at that time Acting Chief of the
Communications Branch, reported to
The processing of traffic, particularly in
Washington, was and will continue to be adversely
affected by the fact that SSU traffic is
handled by carriers whose facilities are not
only handicapped by shortage of personnel
* Actually, paraphrasing was eliminated for the most
part by the OSS Center in the fall of 1944 when a se-
cure cipher system was developed. 9/
** Although the Central Intelligence Group was estab-
lished by Presidential Directive in January 1946 and
a Director of Central Intelligence was appointed,
SSU continued to exist as a War Department unit until
April 1947; most of its activities, however, were
absorbed by CIG in July 1946. 10/
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but also by
the
use of
placements.
In
fact,
systems of
the
Federal
SSU traffic
as
a part
inexperienced re-
the communication
Government carrying
of their over-all
traffic have reverted to routine "peace-
time;" operating principles, which principles
are governed by economy in personnel and
funds rather than efficiency and security.
Furthermore, in this post-hostilities phase,
intelligence traffic as such is not recognized
as having any precedence over any other traffic
and therefore is subject to all delays, in-
securities, and general slowing-down of
official U.S. peace-time communications.
The messages, while encyphered in SSU systems
and processed by SSU Message Centers, are
therefore in the majority of instances ex-
tremely garbled by poor transmission and
sloppy terminal handling, which results in
substantial delays in the code rooms. 11
succeeded I I as
Director of SSU on 4 April 1946;
had served as
Executive Officer since the establishment of SSU in
October 1945. 12/ By June 1946 it had become ap-
parent that SSU was to become a component of the
newly established CIG; and on 1 July, in anticipation
of that change, the Message Center was assigned the
responsibilities of the Cable Control Section of the
SSU Cable Secretariat -- a return to the OSS cable-
processing pattern. To facilitate the change, on
27 June 1946 a complete revision of. SSU cable procedures
had been issued. 13/
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B. Developments in CIG and CIA, 1946-1952
Although the 1946-1952 period bridges both the
life span of CIG and the first five years of CIA,
there was a continuity of development in cable
handling that can best be described without separation.
Not until August 1952 was the pattern changed in any
major way -- a change that re-created, so to speak,
a Cable Secretariat, a unit that did not exist as
such during the 1946-1952 period.
1. Organizational Development
On 11 July 1946 CIG activated the Office of
Special Operations (OSO), a component designed to
conduct CIG's clandestine activities. At that time
the former SSU Communications Branch and the
Message Center were absorbed intact by OSO and ber
came components of the Special Support Division,
which was under the Executive for the Assistant
Director, OSO (ADSO). 14/
In 1947 CIA reorganized OSO, and the Communica-
tions Branch became the Communications Section, one
of six divisions under the Chief of Administration
and Services (CAS), who reported to the Executive
Secretary for the ADSO -- referred to as the
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?OSO Executive. 15/ On 1 January 1949 the Communi-
cations Branch, re-named the Communications Division,
was moved from the office of the CAS and placed
under the direct supervision of the Office of the
ADSO. 16/ The DCI removed the Communications
Division from OSO in July 1951 and established it as
the Office of Communications (OC) under the Deputy
Director for Plans (DDP). 17/ The next change, as
noted in some detail later, came in August 1952, when
.the DCI removed the Office of Communications from the
DDP and placed it under his own command. 18
2. The Message Center
During the early period of the development of
OSO -- from July 1946 to September 1947 as a CIG com-
ponent and then to September 1949 as a CIA component
-- the Message. Center had few cable processing prob-
lems. The procedures established by SSU in June
1946 were effective-in controlling cable traffic be-
tween OSO headquarters and the seven OSO foreign
branches. By September 1949, however, the office of
Policy Coordination (OPC) had been established to
handle covert paramilitary operations and had begun
to set up overseas missions,-- many of them in the
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same locations where OSO branches had already been
established. The responsibility for OPC cable traffic
was assigned to the Message Center, and life became
complicated. Not only did the total volume of cable
traffic more than double, but also new designations
had to be devised to distinguish between OSO and OPC
cables and to indicate OPC addressee/addressor iden-
tities.
Fortunately for the Message Center it was spared
the chore of the distribution of OPC cables. The OPC
organization was so complicated and OPC operations
were so tightly compartmented that OPC decided to do
its own distribution. Within the OPC Registry there
was established a cable unit. The Message_ Center
sent to that unit riine.copies of all OPC cables, and
a staff of cable analysts. within the. unit determined
the internal OPC distribution of the-copies. It soon
developed, however, that many of the OPC operations
overseas were of vital concern to OSO, and it was
necessary to develop an indicator that would.be.ap-
plied to cables of mutual OSO-OPC interest. Such
an indicator was devised - but it was left
to the Message Center to determine whether OSO or OPC
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should be assigned the action responsibility on a
given cable. This problem continued until January
1952, when OSO and OPC were merged to form the
Clandestine Services. 19/
In the meantime the Message Center expanded
rapidly. In May 1948 it was moved from South
Building to Temporary Building, L, and its name was
changed to the CIA Signal Center. At that time it
was assigned the additional responsibility of
enciphering, deciphering, and transmitting classified
telegrams from and to the field offices of the
Office of operations (00/C) .
The first of these field offices,
20/ had been activated by CIG in January 1947,
and soon thereafter field offices were established in
The already heavy load of the Signal Center
increased more than two-fold after the outbreak of
the Korean War in June 1950, and by the summer of
1952 the Processing Branch of the Center was typing,
reproducing, and distributing more than 12,000 cables
a month. With little more than half of its T/O filled,
the branch.was always heavily backlogged;
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people in the branch were barely enough to cover an
extended day that began at 0600 hours and continued
until 1700 hours. This was the situation that the
CIA Cable Secretariat inherited when it was established
in August 1952.
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II. Establishment of the Secretariat,
1952 - 1553
A. General Smith Acts
By the beginning of July 1952 General Walter B.
Smith had been in the DCI position about 21 months.
During that time he had become increasingly dis-
satisfied with cable' distribution procedures in the
Agency. His Executive Assistant at the time, 25X1
few days in July he tried to explain to Smith that
because there were thousands of incoming cables each
month only those that the DDP, the ADSO, and the ADPC
decided that the DCI should see were brought to his
attention.
Apparently this did not satisfy Smith. He said,
"what we need is a Cable secretariat as I had in SHAEF
-- there ought to be someone responsible to me, through
you, who will read all cable traffic and select for
me those cables he thinks I should see." Smith then
recalls that on one occasion during the first
* This account is based on an informal memo written
by0 in January 1971. 22/ The direct quotations
are given here as they appeared in the memo.
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picked up from his desk a group of cables that had
been addressed to the DDP and other officials and
25X1 told that it was not proper for cables to be
addressed,to his deputies, that cables should be
addressed to the Director, and that he wanted cable
distribution to be controlled by a cable secretary
in a secretariat. Then he said, "we must tell
to set it up that way.."
Smith then called General J. Lawton Collins,
Army Chief of Staff, and told him that he was setting
up a cable secretariat in CIA and that he wanted a
to be located and ordered to call
Smith in Washington. Smith did not ask Collins to
arrange for
to be assigned to the Agency --
he simply told Collins "I want him."
Whenl expressed concern that an officer
from outside CIA would know nothing of the organization,
procedures, and administration of the Agency, Smith
told him not to worry -- "this is a sharp young
officer who knows what I want; he will learn fast;
for Communications (ADCO), then reporting to the
DDP.
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Smith addressed the group at length on the treatment
to be given incoming and outgoing messages, particu-
larly the addressee and originator information.
Speaking directly to he said that he
wanted cable procedures established that would make
it clear that the.DCI was "in command" and would have
access to all messages through a command element
directly responsible to the DCI and would eliminate
the addressing of messages to subordinates and sub-
ordinate elements, both at headquarters and in the
field. In the field the senior representative at
any given field station was to be "in command" just
as was the DCI at headquarters. 23/
assistant directors, including, of course,
if he does not, we will find someone else." Smith
then told 0 that he feared that some blunder
overseas might become public knowledge before he
learned anything about the situation that caused it.
He said, "a general who does not know what his troops
in the field are doing is no good -- he is not in
command . "
A few days later Smith held a staff meeting that
was attended by all of the deputy directors and
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had his orders, and he carried them
out promptly. On,9 July, only a few days after the
DCI's staff meeting, he submitted to the Director
a memorandum on "Establishment of a CIA Message
Center." 24/ The memorandum first established the
facts bearing on the matter:
1. The CIA Signal Center, operating under the'
Assistant Director for Communications, contains
.a Processing Branch contiguous to the Communi-
cations Center, which performs the CIA Message
Center function but at a level considerably
below the Director of Central Intelligence.
It does not have the equivalent of a Cable
Secretary.
2. Trained personnel presently assigned to this
Processing Branch could immediately serve as a
nucleus of a message center organizationally
positioned under the Director's Office.
3. Current cable procedures, including dis-
.tribution and origination principles, are not
entirely consonant with the Director's stipu-
lated desires.
4. Cable procedures, in accord with the DCI
command and staff concepts, are currently
being developed.
The recommendations were these:
1. A CIA Message Center, consisting ofa
Cable Secretariat and a processing unit be
established immediately, and that this be
done by redesignation of the present Pro=
cessing Branch of the Signal Center as the
Message Center.'
2. The present Chief, Processing Branch be
appointed Acting Cable Secretary and be
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responsible to the Director through the
Executive Assistant for bringing to the
Director's attention all cables warranting
such action immediately they are received.
3. Senior Representatives or Chiefs of
Station be designated for each station in
the Field.
4. Covert Cable Procedures be revised i:n
accordance with the command channels which
follow upon the designations recommended
above.
5. A firm Table of Organization covering the
fully operating CIA Message Center be estab-
lished`after a development and trial
operational period.
Smith approved the recommendations on 14 July
with this en-
dorsement: "Put in effect as soon as merger paper
is issued and senior reps designated. We must also
issue a cable correspondence manual." 25/ The
"merger paper" was issued on 15 July 1952 and had an
effective date of 1 August. 26/ It was actually
a DCI directive that placed the Clandestine Services
(which had been established in January 1952 by
merging the OSO and OPC) directly under the command
of the DDP,* at that time Frank G. Wisner. The:-chiefs
* The DDP position had been established on 4 January
1951 with Allen W. Dulles as incumbent. Dulles had been
Deputy Director for Operations; (cont. on next page)
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of the CS area divisions were designated to serve as
channels between headquarters and the various field
installations and, in effect, would act as the
Director's executive officers for their respective
areas of responsibility. The directive also desig-
nated senior representatives -- later called chiefs
of station -- in field installations and charged
them. with the responsibility for command supervision
of all CIA field activities in their areas.
The final paragraph of the DCI's directive con-
tained the charter for the Cable Secretariat-Message
Center:
Procedures. The changed organizational structure
recognizes only two command echelons: The
Director and the Senior Representatives, with
the Deputy Director (Plans) acting for the
Director through the medium of the Area
Divisions on matters pertaining to the con-
duct of clandestine activities. . . . Cable
procedures will be adopted similar in general
to current practices of other Government
agencies. The Assistant Director for Com-
munications will prepare for approval and
prompt distribution a cable procedure manual
in conformity with the above, and will ar-
range for the establishment of a message
center, under the direction of a cable
(continued) that title was changed to Deputy Director
for Plans, but until August 1952 the DDP functioned
as a member of the DCI's staff, not as the chief of
the Clandestine Services. 27/
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eported for duty, detailed by the Army to CIA.
week before'it became effective,
secretary, to centralize and standardize
the handling and distribution of com-
munication traffic. When in operation, the
message center will become the responsibility
of the Executive Assistant to the Director.
The Army Chief of Staff, Collins, had done what
Smith had told him to do. On 22 July 1952, just a
week after the DCI's directive had been issued and a
recalls that he reported directly to
Smith in the DCI's office and that the interview went
substantially' as follows: "Well, I'm glad to
see you. How is Mrs. 0 Take a few days to get
settled in. You know what Iwant. Do you have any
for anything you
need." The very brief interview did not surprise
questions? Good. See
he had worked for Smith in the Joint Chiefs
of Staff in Washington and later in the Secretariat
of the General Staff in Supreme Allied Headquarters
in Africa (AFAQ) and in Supreme Headquarters Allied
Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF).
knew what Smith wanted, of course, but
he soon found that to give it to -,:him he needed more
people. The Signal Center processing branch, the
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element that was to be converted to the Cable Secre-
tariat-Message Center, had a T/O of =slots -- barely
enough to staff the Message Center alone. As he had
been instructed, with the
111 a LO July
1952 memorandum to.Colonel Lawrence K. White, the
Assistant Deputy Director for Administration (ADDA),
requested the establishment of a T/0 of
for the Cable Secretariat. 28/ White ap-
proved the request, subject to later review, 9 and
Butler had a total of 0 positions with which to work.
B. Key Personnel Assignments
The first order of business in the use of the ^
positions was-the appointment of people to fill the
key slots. The Director had made it quite. clear that
was to have the top position., that of Cable
bo
d
....
ar
, Smith Lola
to nominate a CIA employee-- one with
communications and operations experience and
familiarity with the organization and administration
of the Agency -- to serve as deputy.
_/ who had served
as a communications officer in OSS, SSU, CIG, and CIA
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and as an operations officer in CIA since December
1950. At the time that nominated him,
as serving as Acting Chief of the Far East (FE)
25X1
25X1
Smith approved of
qualifications 31/ and the chief of FE re-
leased
the Assistant to the Cable Secretary..
with the understanding that, after a
year as the Deputy Cable Secretary,u would
return to FE.*
The next key position to be filled was that of
Branch of the Operations Division of OC, learned of
the vacancy and requested transfer to the Cable Sec-
Deputy Chief of the Telecommunications
retariat. Earlier
had served as Chief of
the Signal Center as Signal Center Watch
Officer, and as Deputy Chief of the Signal Center.
The OC career service. board approved his request, and
the transfer became effective on 17 August 1952.
The appointment of filled the third of
the nine additional slots made available to the Cable
Secretariat. Four of the nine were earmarked for
* Routine personnel actions are'not documented here;
verification is available in the personnel files of the
Cable Secretariat..
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cable duty officers. The slots were GS-12 positions,
officially designated as Senior Processing Branch
Officers. All four slots were filled by GS-09's who
had served in the Signal Center Processing Branch.
became chief of the Cable Secretariat
Processing Branch,
chief of the brand'
became assistant
became chief of the
Top Secret section of the branch, and
was appointed with "assignment pending. The
remaining two of the nine slots were secretarial ones.-
C. Establishing a Table of Organization
Even with the filling of the seven key positions
in the Cable Secretariat and the anticipated trans-
from the OC Processing Branch,
knew that he could not handle two of the major
functions that properly belonged within the Cable
Secretariat -- the responsibility for the screening
of outgoing cables and the responsibilities of the
Agency Cable Duty Officer. These two functions had
not been performed by the OC Processing Branch, and
consequently the slots of the 11 officers who did
perform them were not to be transferred to the
Secretariat. F-~ felt that he would have officers
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capable of doing the jobs or capable of being trained
to do them, but he would have to have 11 additional
slots for clerical personnel at the GS-03, 04', and
05 levels to handle the routine work that those
officers would ordinarily take care of along with their
other duties.
At that time clerical personnel were hard to get
and hard to keep.- In the Secretariat the usual prob-
lems of resignation, transfer, and maternity leave
were-complicated by the necessity for shift work.
These problems not only made it almost impossible to
get the additional"ll clericals but also made it dif-
ficult to keep the clericals who. would be trans-
ferred to the Secretariat with the OC Processing
Branch; and when'_.the:..first actual T/O for the Cable
Secretariat was finally approved by the ADDA on
28 October 1952, it did not provide for the outgoing
cable and Agency cable duty officer responsibilities.
The approved T/O was. composed of 0 positions,
transferred from the OC.Signal Center Processing
Branch and the nine established earlier for the Cable.
Secretary function. The 0 positions provided for the
continuation of the functions of the OC Processing
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Branch, the new function of the Cable Secretariat
itself, and the additional function of a cable courier
service. The document that the ADDA approved on 28
October actually listed the Agency cable duty officer
responsibilities as belonging to the Secretariat,
but one of the endorsements stated that "It is under-
stood that certain of the listed functions (e.g.,
providing the cable duty officer for the Agency. . .)
cannot be performed until additional personnel have
come on duty. . . ." 32/
D. Assumption of the Cable Duty Officer Functions
The approval of the slot T/O did not mean, of
`5"' course, that) Thad) people to work with. Al
though the transfer of the OC Processing Branch per-
sonnel began in November 1952, by 1 December the
on-duty strength of the Secretariat was only.
people; and these were spread among three eight-hour
shifts seven days a week. In spite of this overload,
moved ahead with the effort to absorb the
Agency cable duty officer and outgoing cable
functions. In September he had reached an agreement
assume the responsibility for screening outgoing cables
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function. In August, 0 had proposed to the DDP 25X1
before transmission as soon as 11 additional clericals
entered oh duty with the Secretariat. By early
December, through the efforts of the DDP Chief of
Administration (COA), and the Office
of Personnel, the 11 clericals had come on board.
That made it possible not only to take over the
screening of outgoing cables but also to take the first
steps toward assuming the Agency cable duty officer
that a Secretariat duty officer be authorized to
function as the Clandestine Services duty officer
during other than normal duty hours -- nights and
non-work days. He had promised that within 30 days
after its on-duty strength reached ^ the Secretariat
would provide the DDP with competent duty-officer.
coverage. He kept the promise, and on 29 December
1952 the DDP issued
to become effective on 14 January 1953. On that day
the Cable Secretariat Cable Duty Officer (CSDO) Staff
began to function as DDP duty officers from 1730'hours
to 0830 hours. At the same time, the CSDO's relieved
.the Signal. Center Watch Officer Staff of the
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responsibility for providing duty-officer coverage
for the rest of the Agency.
The DDP duty officer chores had been handled
by the Foreign Intelligence (FI) Staff; and"after the
CSDO's.took over the job, FI continued for some time
to assign officers to act as advisers. The time spent
by the FI officers with the CSDO's gradually diminished;
and by early February 1953, FI advisory coverage had
been reduced to a three-hour period in the late
afternoon and early evening -- primarily to give the
FI Staff an advance look at cables that otherwise
they would not see until the next morning. Thus by
the end of January 1953 the Secretariat had acquired
the responsibilities for outgoing cable screening
and, for the most part, Agency cable duty officer
functions -- and
felt that he could provide 25X1
the kind of cable service that the DCI wanted.
E. Administrative Support
A necessary part of the development of the Cable
Secretariat was the provision of effective administra-
tive support. During the early months of development,
from July to mid-November 1952, administrative
support had been given willingly and promptly when
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and where it was needed -- after all, the Secre-
tariat was a creature of the DCI, and the Cable
Secretary reported to the DCI through the Executive
to the DCI. This kind of ad hoc support could not
continue indefinitely, however, and in November
systematic procedures and specific responsibilities
were established.
This action took the form of a memorandum of
understanding dated 13 November 1952 and signed by
the Executive Assistant to the Director;
Chief of the ADDA Organization and Management
Staff. 33/ The memorandum was largely a confirmation
of support procedures already in effect. A large
part of. the support came from the components of the
DDA -- personnel, logistics, and security.
,A significant minor part of the support, however,
came from the Office of the DCI and the Office of
Communications, which at that time was still a com-
ponent of the DDP.
and personnel.
the Budget
Officer of O/DCI, handled the Secretariat finances --
funds had been transferred from OC along with functions
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Chief of the OC Administrative Staff, had
handled the transfer of the positions from 0C .to
the Secretariat and continued to handle personnel
and placement matters.
It was the last support function, the handling
of personnel matters, that soon led to trouble. The
second paragraph of the 18 November 1952 memorandum
of understanding was:
The Office of Communications will provide all
personnel and career management support for the
Cable Secretariat not normally provided by the
CIA Personnel Office. The career management
of all Cable Secretariat personnel will be
administered by the Career Service Board of
the Office of Communications before which there
will be Cable Secretariat representation when
Cable Secretariat personnel are considered.
All personnel actions on Cable Secretariat
personnel will require joint approval from ap-
propriate representatives of the office of
Communications and the Cable Secretariat.
F. The Career Management Problem
Actually the trouble started when the memorandum
of understanding was. in draft form -- about two weeks
didn't like the drafted "Career Management" para-
before it was issued on 13 November 1952.
I graph and went toI chairman of 25X1
the OC career service board, and explained his ob-
jections. 34/ There were two: first, the criteria
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by which-Secretariat personnel became eligible for
consideration for promotion by the OC career board; and
second, the provision for the rotation of personnel be-
tween OC and the Secretariat.
didn't agree with
on either point, 35/ but he was willing to
compromise; the draft of the career management para-
graph was changed, and when the memorandum of under-
standing was issued, the paragraph made no mention
of the criteria for promotion of Secretariat per-
sonnel and no mention of the rotation of personnel
between OC and the Secretariat.
The compromise-by-omission tactic did not
satisfy and the issues were still very much
alive. By April 1953 the situation had developed to,
the point where
felt that something had to: be
done about it. Accordingly, on 2 April he sent to
a three-page memorandum describing the
problem, giving specific examples of situations that
had developed, and giving his own views on how the
career development of Secretariat personnel should be
handled.
pointed out that the omission of the
"promotion criteria" and "rotation policy" in the
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13 November 1952 memorandum had been meaningless and
the OC career board had applied both of them in the
handling of Secretariat personnel. He explained why
those two factors could not be reasonably applied to
his people, and he recommended that the career
management of Secretariat personnel be placed "else-
where than in the Office of Communication." 36/
discussed the memorandum with
agreed
and suggested that
principle with
recommendation,
send the memorandum to
did so on 13 April, and on
deputy, that he had no objection to -- in fact was in
25X1 favor of - recommendation. 37/ By 12 June
1 June (called and told
a revision of the 13 November 1952 memorandum of
understanding had been written and submitted for of-
ficial approval. 38/ The revision was very much the
same as the original; the only major difference was
the wording of the last sentence of the "Career
Management" paragraph. In the original memorandum
the last sentence was:
All personnel actions on Cable Secretariat
personnel will require joint approval from ap-
propriate representatives of the Office of
Communications and the Cable Secretariat.
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The revision that was submitted for official approval
simply changed "Office of Communications" to "Office
of the DD/A" -- a small change in words but a major
change in procedures. The acting DDA,* White, ap-
proved the change in procedure but thought that the
wording should be more explicit. His endorsement
stated that his concurrence was subject to an
amendment:
Acting Deputy Director (Administration) con-
currence in Memorandum of Understanding,'"Ad-
ministrative Support Cable Secretariat" is
subject to substitution of the following in
lieu of the last sentence of paragraph two,
"Career Management":
Procedures for giving approval to personnel
actions affecting Cable Secretariat personnel
prior to forwarding to the'Personnel Office
will be jointly developed by appropriate
representatives of the Office of the DD/A
and the Cable Secretariat.
When the revision was issued on 22 July 1953, it con-
tained White's change in the wording.
had not waited for bureaucratic wheels
to grind. As soon as he knew that) -Thad
* On 1 July 1953 the title of the Assistant Deputy
Director for Administration was changed to Deputy
Director for Administration. 39/
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approved the transfer of Secretariat personnel
management out of OC and tha had no
objection'to the transfer, he assigned his assistant,
to work with the OC career board -- which
5X1
no longer had veto authority but did have processing
machinery -- to clear up the backlog of Secretariat
personnel actions. still chairman of the OC
career board, cooperated fully; and by 16 June 1953
promotions had been approved for three Secretariat
officers from GS-09 to GS-11 and for one from GS-07 to
GS-09, and promotion recommendations for three others
from GS-07 to GS-09 had been scheduled. 40/ Before
the actual transfer of Secretariat career management
from the OC career board to the DDA career board, then,
accomplished, and personnel affairs in the Secre-
tariat were in good order.
plans for promoting his people had been
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III. Establishment of Policy, Procedures,
and Services
A.. Services for the DCI and the Deputy Directors
1. Distribution to the DCI and the DDCI
Within the first few weeks after beginning his
duties as Cable Secretary in August 1952, ~ began
to discharge what he saw as his most pressing respon-
sibility -- furnishing to the Director, concurrently
with other senior officials -- copies of cables that
warranted his attention. To do this and to get
experience that would provide guidance for his staff,
reviewed every cable processed by the Cable
Secretariat. He gave'particular attention to those
received since the close of business the previous day.
He began his review of the overnight accumulation at
0600 hours and made sure that cables he thought the
Director should see were processed in time to be in
the first delivery at the opening of business. His
personal review of all cables continued throughout
the working day and started again the next morning.
In absence the early review was done by
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25X1
25X1
or, in the absence of both, by As
the number of incoming cables increased and the re-
quirements became greater in number and complexity,
had to start his work day at 0300 hours. 41/
In September, after the cable duty officers had
gotten a feel for their jobs, responsibility for the
selection of cables for the DCI was delegated to them.
In addition, and as a particular responsibility, they
were to review all outgoing cables for statements
involving national policy. 42/ ThroughF---] Smith
had made it clear that he expected
to bring
such cables to his attention before they were trans-
mitted -- unless other action was personally approved
by himself or, in his absence, by Dulles, the DDCI.
early-morning examination of all cables
continued as a means of back-stopping and monitoring
his staff's DCI selections, reviewing cable distri-
bution in general,noting and following up on the need
for new requirements, checking on the proper release
of cables, and checking the quality and legibility
of reproduced copies.
Cryptonyms and pseudonyms contained in cables
were "broken out," or identified, for the Director by
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I
the cable duty officer in charge. This was done by
printing the identifying phrase or the true name
directly above the code designations wherever they
appeared in the text of the cable. Without these
identities the text of a cable was almost unintelli-
gible, except to those officers primarily involved
with the project or subject. In late August this
selection and. identity service was extended to the
DDCI who, until then, had shared the Director's
copy. 43/
The Cable Secretariat cryptonym and pseudonym card
file of identities -- inherited from the Signal Center
-- was far from complete; and in instances when a
search of the file failed to produce an identity, the
words "No Info" were printed above the code desig-
nation. This service was provided only for the DCI
and the DDCI, and instructions to the staff
were precise: "There must be no guessing -- either
we know, we find out, or we say we don't know." 44/
small routing slip that -- if the cable was to be
furnished to the Director -- the cable duty officers
attached to. the action unit's copy of every cable
way of finding out was to design a
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containing an unknown code designation. The slip was
addressed from the cable duty officer to the chief of
the action unit, it identified the cable, and it was
worded to the effect that "We have no identifying
data for the Director on [cryptonym]. Your cooperation
in supplying us with an identity will be appreciated."
When the identity was received, the cable duty officer
passed the information on to secretary
by note or telephone, and then a card was made and
added to the Cable Secretariat file.
This method of obtaining data proved to be an
unsatisfactory solution to the problem because it
provided data after the fact when the obvious solution
was to obtain the data before it was needed. Only
a few "No Info's" reached Smith's desk before his
displeasure. was made known to the Cable Secretary, to
the DDP, and to the DDP's senior staff. Immediately
thereafter, a file of identities that the DDP had
used in his Administration Building office was trans-
ferred to the Cable Secretariat; and area division
chiefs were directed to furnish the Cable Sec-
retariat with identities of all code designations
that might be expected to appear in cables.
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To make it easier for the Director and the DDCI
to read cables, in October 1952~ developed a 25X1
procedure that involved the preparation of synopses
for cables furnished to the DCI and the DDCI.* These
synopses, "briefs," as they came to be called, were
particularly helpful in cases where a current cable made
reference to several prior cables that had not been
furnished to the DCI or the DDCI. By summarizing
these references as background in the synopsis of the
current cable, the necessity for including the prior
cables as attachments was eliminated. A half-page
form was designed, and briefs were not to exceed the
limits of the single half page.** This was a new
responsibility for the cable duty officers, but they
rapidly adapted to the requirements of condensing
the substance of a two- or three-page cable to the
half-page limit of the briefing form. This was no
easy job, but the efforts were well received by Smith
and Dulles, and within a few months other officials
began to request the same service.
* Such cables were referred to as "DCI Selects."
** See Figure ;1, p.39.
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The number of DCI Selects averaged between three
and four percent of all CIA cables processed; in Octo-
ber 1952 there were 573, in November 606, and in
December 581.
2.' Distribution to the Deputy Directors
In February 1953 the Cable Secretariat began to
furnish to Loftus E. Becker, the Deputy Director for
Intelligence (DDI), briefs of those cables that were
distributed to both the DCI and the DDI. Briefs of
such cables continued to be furnished to the DDI when
Robert Amory, Jr., replaced Becker on 1 May 1953. 45
Also in February 1953 Charles V. Hulick, the DDP
Executive Officer, requested that break-outs be made
for the DDP's copies of cables furnished to both the
DCI and the DDP.' The Cable Secretariat complied with
this request and in April began to prepare briefs for
the DDP and to make distribution to him identical
to that being made for the DCI and the DDCI. 46/
Allen Dulles was sworn in on 26 February 1953 as
DCI, succeeding Smith. On 23 April 1953 Lieutenant
General Charles P. Cabell was sworn in as DDCI.
President Eisenhower had named Cabell to succeed Dulles
as DDCI on 24 January 1953. 47/ The Cable Secretariat's
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selection, break-outs, and briefing of cables for the
DCI and the DDCI continued as before, unaffected by
these changes.
At that time the DDP, Frank Wisner, maintained
two offices, one in the Administration Building near
the office of the Director and one in L Building near
the offices of his senior staff and the operating
units of the Clandestine Services. Wisner divided
his working day between the two offices, and --
because he could never know when the DCI might want
to speak with him about any given cable -- he asked
the Cable Secretariat to provide both of his offices
with copies of DCI Selects complete with break-outs
and briefs. The Cable Secretariat complied. The
DDP's requirements for cables, and other than DCI
Selects, were extensive, and a large number of cables
were sent to him, copies of which were delivered only
to the L Building office. These were processed with-
out either break-outs or briefs, but were arranged in
numerical. order. 48/
In April 1953, break-out service was extended to
the DDA, then Walter R. Wolf, for cables that were
disseminated to both the DCI and the DDA. There were
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very few of these at the time, for one reason because
the DDP/COA -- later designated DDP-Admin --
had assumed the basic administrative support functions
for the Clandestine Services when that component was
established by Smith. 49/ Another reason was that
in April the DDA's subjective cable requirements,
and those of the DDA complex of offices, were still
in the process Of being coordinated with the DDP.
Cable requirements for the DDA had been sent to
the DDP in November 1952, and there the matter rested
until 17 August 1953, 50/ when agreement was reached
on the type of Clandestine Services Cables the Cable
Secretariat should furnish the DDA and his component
offices. These requirements, which were approved by
White on 31 August 1953, described three types of
cables that were*not to be distributed to the DDA
initially but could be made available to him upon
approval of the DDP or the action unit:
(1) Cables concerning purely routine adminis-
tration.
(2) Cables bearing indicators which by direc-
tion limit distribution to specific offices
among which DD/A?is not named.
(3) Cables containing operational. or operational
administrative information.
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1
The cable distribution requirements for DDA component
offices contained the same provisions -- except (1),.
which was applicable only to the DDA himself.* 51/
3. Cable Deliveries
Although it was understood that the Cable
Secretariat's responsibility for providing a cable
delivery service for the Agency would be delayed until
its courier staff entered on duty, id not
delay delivery service for the Director and the Deputy
Directors. In September 1952 he established a cable
delivery schedule that provided for concurrent de-
livery during the normal work days at eight and ten
o'clock in the morning and two and-four o'clock in the
* These requirements remained in effect without sub-
stantive change until 3 February 1955. At that time
there was a major reorganization in which the Adminis-
tration directorate became the Support directorate and
the DDA became the DDS. An agreement between the DDS
and the DDP abolished the DDP Administrative Staff.
Responsibility for the functions of the staff shifted
with the career service transfer of. its members to the
DDS and the offices under his command. The functions
of the staff continued without interruption under the
.direction of the Special Support Assistant, who repre-
sented the DDS in the Clandestine Services (SSA/DDS).
Under this agreement the DDP delegated to the SSA/DDS
authority for specified administrative actions
within the Clandestine Services.
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supervisors, and cable duty officers for these de-
liveries, which were referred to as "hill runs."*
Most of the senior officials on the hill were at
their desks by a few minutes after eight o'clock, and
the first hill run was timed to arrive no later than
eight-ten. On Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays the
first hill run was timed for nine o'clock, unless
otherwise directed, and additional deliveries were
adjusted to the.actual work schedule Of the Adminis-
tration Building offices. Two and sometimes three
deliveries were made on Saturdays, and frequently one
or more deliveries were made on Sundays and holidays.
The Receipt and Delivery Section of the Records
Integration Division (RID/R&D) of the DDP was respon-
sible for providing messenger service for cables,
service included carrying outgoing cables to the
Signal Center, carrying incoming cables to recipients,
and carrying cables between divisions for coordination.
The DDP staffs and divisions were concentrated
* The E-Street area where the North, Central, Adminis-
tration, and South buildings were located was referred
to as "the hill."
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in J, K, and L Buildings, except for the Western
Hemisphere Division (WH), which was located in
Quarters Eye, a half mile away. One RID/R&D courier,
chief of RID, approved the arrangement and authorized
it to continue after the Secretariat assumed-re-
sponsibility for the delivery of cables. A similar
Scientific Intelligence (OSI). 52/
volunteered to make deliveries of cables to the WH
Division, the Office of Logistics, and the Office of
offices. To assist the Cable Secretariat,
change of classified mail between WH and other DDP
was used full time for the ex-
, chief of
the Mail and Courier Branch of the Logistics office,
for the delivery of cables to the Personnel Office
and the Office of Training. Without this assistance
from the Secretariat could not have
made deliveries to its Potomac Park customers
without adding an additional courier to its staff.
It was the middle of March 1953 before the
Secretariat's five-man courier staff had entered on
arrangement was made with
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duty and,was being fully used, one courier assigned
to the hill runs and four covering I, J, K, and L
Buildings.* Secretariat couriers handled cables
exclusively and were not required to carry any other
type of mail. During the normal work week they made
six scheduled deliveries a day to a central cable
desk in each area division, staff, and office in I,
J, K, and L Buildings. On these runs they picked up
outgoing cables that had been released and were
ready for transmission, but they were not authorized
to carry cables between offices for coordination;
to do so would delay scheduled deliveries of incoming
cables. 53/
The Cable Secretariat did not provide week-end
or holiday courier service to Agency components ex-
cept the hill offices. Other offices open on those
days would send someone to the Secretariat to pick
up their cables. The offices of the DDP and his
divisions and staffs regularly worked a half day on
Saturdays and called for their cables several times
before closing at about one o'clock. Thereafter,
until the opening of business on the next normal
See Figure 2, p.47.
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working day, offices relied upon the Secretariat
cable duty officer to alert their on-call duty
officer to any cable that required action out of
normal working hours.
For cables bearing a precedence of "Priority,"
notification by the cable duty officer was optional,
but for the two higher precedences, "Operational
Immediate" and "Emergency," it was mandatory that
after-hours delivery be made to the action unit 54/
or to a designated representative regardless of the
time the cable was received. The majority of calls
were made on "Operational Immediate" cables, action
responsibility for which was almost exclusively
assigned to the various DDP area divisions, and
division duty officers were frequent visitors to the
Cable Secretariat at all hours of the night.
B. Cable Regulations and Procedures
In his July 1952 memorandum, General Smith had
instructed the ADCO to "prepare for approval and
prompt distribution a cable procedure manual,",and
on 30 July 1952 the ADCO's staff issued a manual to
become effective concurrently with the establish-
ment of the Clandestine Services on 1 August.
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The manual, Covert Cable Manual (Headquarters), was
largely a: revision of OSO cable procedures and guides
that served as basic instructions for Signal Center
processing of cables. There was little or no change
in cable terminology, in security classification
.rules, in assignment of precedence, or in general
security precautions -- these were subjects not af-
fected by the Director's assumption of command control
of cable communication.
In the drafting of new rules the ADCO's staff
had drawn heavily on the wording of the Director's
memorandum, which -- in effect -- stated that only
those officials designated by the DCI were authorized
to release cables; that the Cable Secretariat would
maintain a list -- with specimen signatures -- of
such officials and would accept only cables bearing
signatures of those officials; that it was mandatory
for outgoing cables to be coordinated with and
physically pass through the area division responsible
for the activities of the addressee; and that the chief
of the area division would act as an executive officer
to the Director for the release of cables to officials
in his area. 55/
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single official --
command and staff concepts, and the manual might well
have been approved for publication had procedures for
addressing of cables stopped with the basic system
described above. The reason that it was not, was
that the system of address indicators controlled by
the ADSO provided for a person-to-person indicator
that resulted in an "EYES ONLY" distribution to a
In view of the ADCO staff's awareness of the
Director's "two-echelon" command concept, it is not
clear why the manual included a procedure for "EYES
ONLY" addressing.of"cables to anyone other than the
Director or his senior representatives, but in a
sub-paragraph it did:
(3) Internal Address for Person to Person
Messages requiring minimal handling
addressed to one given individual only
will be processed under the following
conditions.
(a) Such messages may be released by the
Director, his authorized headquarters
representatives, those designated by
the Director as field senior of-
ficials, and those sub-field of-
ficials at bases and sub-bases desig-
nated by senior officials.
(b) Such messages may be addressed to
(1) the Director, CIA, or his authorized
headquarters representatives, (2) senior
.representatives or. chiefs of stations,
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bases, or sub-bases, and (3) individ-
uals subordinate to the originator.
(c) Such messages will be delivered
directly to the addressee by the
receiving Signal Center. 58/
This was a clear and precise procedure. If approved
.as worded, it would authorize cables to be addressed
to the DDP, the COP, senior staff chiefs, and area
division chiefs; and it would authorize the Signal
Center to deliver such cables only to the official
addressed, thus by-passing the Director and his
Cable Secretariat. This, of course, was totally
25X1 unacceptable to ~. He knew that Smith was
intensely dissatisfied with this "EYES ONLY" practice,
as it had existed in the OSO addressing system, be-
cause -- as noted earlier in this paper -- he feared
that some blunder overseas would become public know-
ledge before he knew anything about the situation
that had produced it. As he had put it to 0 a
general who does not know what his field forces are
doing is not in command.
had taken on the task of editing and or-
ganizing the procedural material in the manual into
the format of an Agency regulation and of coordi-
nating the proposed regulation. He consulted
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on the wording that the Director preferred for person-
to-person.addressing of cables, and after several
drafts the following met with approval:
(c) Internal Address for Person to Person
,Messages
Person to person indicators such as "EYES
ONLY" and "EYES ALONE" are not authorized
for use in cables. To effect distribu-
tion to one individual only, the pseudo-
nym of the addressee; e. g. ,
will be used. Person to person cables
are authorized for the following categories
.of officials only:
(1). Person to person cables to Washington
may not be addressed to any specific
individual other than the Director
of Central Intelligence.
(2) Person to person cables from Washing-
ton may be addressed to any Senior
Field Official, but may not be ad-
dressed to any individual subordinate
to the Senior Field Official.
Three additional provisions of the regulation
authorized person-to-person cables from Washington to
headquarters representatives on temporary. duty within
the area of a senior field official -- but only for
cables that dealt with matters clearly outside the
sphere of responsibility of the senior field official;
authority was also given for senior field officials
to exchange person-to-person cables, but a senior
field official was prohibited from addressing such
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25X1
cables to any individual subordinate to another
senior field official.
The final provision charged senior field of-
ficials with responsibility for establishing policies
governing person-to-person cables within their own
commands. 0 completed the coordination of the
proposed regulation during September, and with the
approval of the DDA it was published on 28 October
1952 as the DDP approved the
field version, and on 7 November 1952 it was pub-
Smith was displeased with cables addressed for
his personal attention only, and in one such instance
his cabled response was a bit caustic:
lished as
LET ME SAVE YOUR OVERWORKED CODE CLERKS SOME
TIME. MESSAGES ADDRESSED TO ME AUTOMATICALLY
GO TO DULLES AND TO ALL OTHERS DIRECTLY
INTERESTED. THOSE EMANATING FROM YOU ARE
ASSUMED HERE TO REPRESENT THE OPINIONS OF
YOUR STAFF INCLUDING . . . IF LATTER ASSUMP-
TION INCORRECT, PLEASE INFORM. OTHERWISE
SUGGEST YOU CONFORM TO CABLE INSTRUCTIONS YOU
HAVE RECEIVED. 59/
He was also quick to express his views on "EYES ONLY"
addressing of cables to officials other than himself,
advising one senior representative in a "Personal-
from-the-Director" cable dated 3 November 1952:
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AS MY SENIOR REPRESENTATIVE IT IS IMPROPER
FOR YOU TO DIRECT MESSAGES FOR THE EYES ONLY
OF ANYONE IN THIS AGENCY BESIDES MYSELF.
MOREOVER, I HAVE PROVIDED SAFEGUARDS TO PRE-
VENT SUCH RESTRICTIONS. KINDLY COMPLY WITH
INSTRUCTIONS YOU HAVE RECEIVED IN CONNECTION
WITH THE TRANSMISSION OF CABLES. 60/
sent a copy of this cable to C. V. Hulick, EO/DDP,
suggesting that it might be wise to inform releasing
officers to avoid use of the "EYES ONLY" term and to
have them advise the field officials not to use it
in cables addressed to the Director. 61/ Because the
regulation had not yet been published and be-
cause it would require several weeks to reach the
7__after publication, cabled instructions seemed
C. Cable Volume and Reduction Efforts**
In March 1953 CIA cable volume reached a new high
* In 1954 the term "EYES ONLY" was restored for use
in cable addressing, but the restrictions that limited
the use of the term to cables for the DCI or a chief of
station or base remained in effect. A provision added
in 1967 enjoined field officials that "Cables requiring
action at headquarters should not be addressed EYES
ONLY to the Director unless it is intended that the
Director personally take the action indicated." 62/
** This brief discussion covers only the early efforts
to reduce cable volume. For a full discussion of the
cable reduction program, see IV, below, p. 82.
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of 14,900 cables, and in April the new DCI, Dulles,
issued a notice that directed Agency personnel to
review all cable traffic for the purpose of reducing
the volume by diverting to pouch facilities all
correspondence not requiring the most expeditious
handling. The notice pointed out that the Depart-
DCI considered it imperative that a similar reduction
be made in CIA cables. 63/
During the next eight months the Cable Sec-
retariat became deeply involved in the compilation
of statistical data for use in measuring the success
or failure of Agency efforts to achieve the reduction
requested by the DCI. The Cable Secretariat's study
of approximately 5,450 cables processed during the
first 15 days of June 1953 provided. the following:
One: Intelligence cables comprised only 7:.2%
of the total incoming traffic; operational
62%; administrative 31%.
Two: Total traffic exchanged with the various
geographic areas: EE 25.50; FE 34.6%; NE 11.8%;
SE 6.2%; WE 16.0%; and WH 5.7%.
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Three: Originators of Outgoing Cables: DD/P
Area Divisions and Staff components 84.1%;
COMMO 3.7 Finance Division (FD) 3.1%; Trans-
portation Division (LO/TD) 2.4%; and all other
components 6.6%.
Four: Incoming action assignments: DD/P Area
Division and Staff components':90.30; COMMO 4.9%;
Finance Division 4.0%; all other components .8%.
64/
Compilation of figures for these four categories
of cables continued through December 1953, and al-
though there were fluctuations of a point or so from
one month to another, at year end the only change of
substance was in the administrative category, which
was down to 25 percent,.a decrease of six points. 65/
Cable volume had always fluctuated from one
month to another, and it continued to do so during the
six months that followed the issuance of the DCI's
directive. Measured from the April base figure of
13,800 cables, October volume of 10,950 cables was a
reduction of_2,850 cables, nearly 21 percent.
In theory, if this reduction was a direct result
of the diversion of cables to pouch facilities, there
should be a corresponding decrease in Signal Center
workload as measured by group count, and there should
be a corresponding increase in the workload of RI as
measured by the number of documents pouched. In
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actual application, however, this apparent correlation
in cables, group count, and pouched documents did not
work out as anticipated.
In November the Organization and Management
Staff (O&MS) of. the DDA compiled a tabulation of the
Cable Secretariat's cable volume, the Signal Center's
group count, and RI's pouched document volume. These
data led to the conclusion that factors other than
the diversion of, cables to pouch channels had con-
tributed to the reduction in cable volume and that it
appeared necessary that further efforts would be re-
quired to carry out the DCI's directive.
With the Signal Center's group count down only
by 4.6 percent in December -- indicating more words
per cable -- and a 5.1 percent increase in documents
pouched by RI, it appeared that little real progress
had been made.* 66/
The decline in cable volume, measured from the
March high of 14,900 to the December figure of 10,100
was most fortunate for the Secretariat, which at the
close of 1953 was operating with an on-duty strength
of people -- seven short of its adjusted T/0'
of slots.
* See Figure 3, p. 59.
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FIGURE 3
Extract from O&MS Study, November 1953
Cables, Group Count, and Pouched Documents
Cables a/ Cable Groups b/
Pouched
Documents c/
Percent Number
Percent
Percent
1953 Number Change .(Thousands)
Chan
e
N
b
g
um
er Change
Jan 12,365
3,976
25,821'.
Feb 12,208
3,961
26,695
Mar 14,904
4,562
27,598
Apr 13,831 Base
4,460
Base
36,198 Base
May 11,539 -16.6
4,115
- 7.7
30,489 -15.8
Jun.'.. 12,391 -10.4
3,925
-12.0
30,794 -14.9
Jul 12,161 -12.1
4,539
+ 1;:8
37,394 + 3.3
Aug 10,774 -22.1
3,855
-13.6
30,628 -15.4
Sep 10,301 -25.5
3,846
-13.8
30,273 -16.4.
Oct 10,954 -20.8
4,257
- 4.6
38,028 + 5.1
a.
b.
c,
Cable Secretariat cable count.
Signal Center group(word) count.
RID pouched document count.
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non-CIA cables to all other CIA components, in-
cluding the DCI. The combined volume of cables from
State, Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Foreign Opera-
tions Administration (FOA) fluctuated between 7,000
and 8,000 a month,'the major portion from State. Of
the total number, about 25 percent were screened in
the Secretariat and were filed'as being not respon-
sive to the DDP.components' stated requirements. The
remaining 75 percent were processed by the simple
method of multiple routing, under cover sheets, of
several copies of each cable to three or four com-
ponents. About 300 of these cables each month were
of such wide general interest that they had to be
typed, proofed, reproduced, and mailed to customers
in the same manner as that used for CIA cables. 68/
From 30 June to 10 July 19530 was on
detail to the Department of State at the request of
General Smith, who was then Under Secretary of State.
Smith had borrowed to survey State's Secre-
tariat Message Center procedures and to take a fresh
look at State's guidelines for distribution of cables
to CIA. In a 13 July personal letter to the DCI,
Smith had this to say of detail to the
Department:
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approach was direct and constructive.
His suggestions for improvements in our Message
Center procedures are being implemented. He
has provided the Secretariat with a fuller under-
The DCI forwarded a copy of the General's
letter to
under a covering memorandum in which
he expressed his appreciation and belief that "The
work that you did will aid-both the Department and
this Agency in achieving common aims." 70/
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2. DDI Suspense Procedures
From August 1952 to July 1953 the Cable
Secretariat distributed to the DDI cables containing
substantive intelligence information, but not when
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such cables contained operational information in
addition to the intelligence information. A number
of cables containing both types of information were
received each month, and for these the Secretariat
restricted dissemination to components of the DDP --
the only exception was the inclusion of the DCI and
that-intelligence information contained in these
cables was frequently mentioned in the DCI's morning
staff meetings, and this caused him, Becker, great
embarrassment because, having no prior knowledge of
the information available to others in the meeting,
he was unprepared to answer questions raised by the
DCI. Becker argued that he was not aware of any
limitation on the DDI receiving operational informa-
tion and that it seemed obvious that the DDI's need
to have cables containing substantive intelligence,
so that he might bee able to answer questions raised
by the DCI, had no relation to whether or not the
cable contained operational information. 75/
the DDCI. Loftus Becker, the DDI, protested td
replied that he personally saw no objection
to furnishing such cables to the DDI; but in the ab-
sence of a directive reflecting DDI and DDP coordination
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he believed that he should continue to follow the
instructions of Richard Helms, the DDP Chief of
Operations (COP), which were to the effect that for
protection of methods and sources, the distribution
of Clandestine Services cables containing intelligence
information was to be confined to Clandestine Services
components when such cables also contained sensitive
operational information. 76/ Existing procedures
provided for intelligence information to be extracted
from such cables and passed to certain DDI components
by teletype or memorandum, but this process was con-
siderably slower than receiving initial dissemination
of cables from the Secretariat.
When Amory succeeded Becker, Amory's protests
25X1 to F_~ were identical to those of Becker but de-
I
cidedly more vehement.
restated the position
he had taken on the issue when it had been raised by
Becker -- that an agreement between the DDI and the
DDP about what cables would be furnished the DDI was
necessary. said that the DCI was aware of
the distribution policy being applied to the type of
cables that Amory wanted and that he had received no
instruction from the DCI to modify the,-policy.
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Amory was unsuccessful in arranging with the
DDP an agreement that would permit the Secretariat to
furnish the DDI with cables containing a combination
of intelligence and operational information, and
Secretariat dissemination policy for such cables re-
mained unchanged until July 1953.
At that time the DCI intervened and charged the
Cable Secretary with the responsibility of furnishing
the; DDI with all intelligence items contained in
cables. The method by which the Cable Secretary would
discharge this new responsibility was described as
The Cable Secretary will refer those cables
which, in his judgment, might contain material
of a sensitive operational nature to the appro-
priate Area Division to determine whether the
entire cable or only portions may be released
to the DD/I; and, in addition, to obtain guid-
ance from the Area Division as to the breadth
of the dissemination within and beyond the
DD/I. If the entire cable is not forwarded to
the DD/I, the DD/P will cause the appropriate
portions to be transmitted by PD, teletype, or
other means.
In the event that the Cable Secretary believes
a cable or portion thereof contains material
of intelligence value and the Area Division
recommends that it not be disseminated to the
DD/I, the Cable Secretary will refer the issue
to the Executive Assistant to the Director to
obtain the decision of.the Director or the
Deputy Director.
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In order to assist the Cable Secretary in per-
forming the screening function and to ensure that
the requirements of the DD/I are.being met, the
DD/I will require a senior member of his office,
who has limited official contacts outside of
CIA, and who is acceptable to the DD/P to spot-
check on one day of each month all incoming
cables received by the Cable Secretariat during
a day, but which were not selected for distribu-
tion to the DD/I. Excluded from the cables the
DD/I representative may see will be EYES ONLY,
KAPOK, RYBAT, and such other cables as are
specifically designated by the DCI. Such cables
received during the day under examination will
be sent by the Cable Secretary to the EA/DCI
for verification by the DCI that they should be
withheld. 77/
This procedure was proposed in a 7 July 1953
DCI memorandum addressed to the DDCI, the DDP, the DDI,
and the Cable Secretary. The change was to become ef-
fective on 31 July, but it was delayed until 20 July
to allow time for the Cable Secretary to obtain from
the DDP and the DDI concurrences on Secretariat opera-
ting instructions, governing the new procedure. These
instructions involved the identification of cables
containing a combination of intelligence and opera-
tional information by placing the phrase "Suspense
DD/I" on the dissemination line of the cable and the
attachment of a "Cable Suspense Sheet" to the action
copy of the cable. The cable suspense sheet was a
half-page form* designed and printed on bright yellow
* See Figure 4, p. 69.
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Figure 4
Cable Suspense Sheet
FORM 7C USE PREVIOUS
6.73 JJ EDITIONS
SECRET
DATE
REPLY REQUESTED
CABLE SUSPENSE SHEET
EXPEDITE
I N NUMBER
SUSPENSE TIME
FROM:
SUSPENSE ACTION:
CABLE SECRETARIAT - I A 53..HQS.
THE ATTACHED CABLE APPEARS TO CONTAIN POSITIVE INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION AS WELL AS SENSITIVE OPERATIONAL INFORMATION
AND IS SUSPENDED FOR POSSIBLE RELEASE TO THE FOLLOWING ENCIRCLED UNITS:
FOR CIA INTERNAL USE ONLY: DDI. D/OCI. DDS&T. D/OSI. D/FMSAC, D/MS, D/ONE
PLEASE INDICATE BELOW THE ACTION DESIRED AND RETURN THIS FORM AND THE CABLE TO THE CABLE SECRETARIAT BY THE TIME SHOWN
ABOVE. SEE PARAGRAPH 70,E= DATED 6 APRIL 1967.
REPLY TO: CABLE SECRETARIAT TUBE CT 7 or ES 6
DISTRIBUTE COPIES OF.CABLE ( ) AS RECEIVED ( ) AS MODIFIED FOR CIA INTERNAL USE ONLY TO:
THE UNITS ENCIRCLED ABOVE: TO C/FI 2, CIW, DDO/DO AND THIS DIVISION.
( ) CABLE MAY NOT BE RELEASED. INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION IS BEING DISSEMINATED AS TDFIR
CABLE MAY NOT BE RELEASED. INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION IS BEING FURNISHED BY MEMORANDUM IN ATTACHED ENVELOPE(S)
"
ADDRESSED
DDI (SUSPENSE CABLE RELEASE)" AND IF APPROPRIATE "DDS&T (SUSPENSE CABLE RELEASE)." PLEASE FORWARD
MEMORANDUM TO ADDRESSEE(S).
CABLE MAY NOT BE RELEASED. FILE. (TO ASSIST DDO REVIEW OF CLANDESTINE SERVICES SUSPENSE SYSTEM
GIVE ONE OR
.
TWO SENTENCE REASON)
SIGNATURE
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During August, the first full month in which the
suspense procedure was in effect, out of a total of
7,000 incoming cables the Secretariat suspended 45
for DDI distribution. A tabulation of the actions
taken on the suspended cables follows:
Released to the DDI, AD/CI, and FI/RQM----- 10
Released through preliminary
dissemination---------------------------- 27
Released to OCI by telephone--------------- 4
Release to the DDI disapproved------------- 4
The four cables that the area divisions disapproved
for release to the DDI were considered to be "too
sensitive," "Operational information," or "informa-
tion received from another agency"; and. the Cable
Secretary concurred in the decisions of the area
divisions. 79/
In September there were 63 cables suspended and
nine cables disapproved for release. the
Deputy Cable Secretary, did not concur with the
reasons given for one disapproval and forwarded the
cable to 0 to force release of the intelligence
information..
were disapproved for release; and again there was
number of suspense items rose
agreed with'
, and the in-
formation was released to the DDI. In October the
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in Nov-ember there were a total of 154 suspense items,
19 of them disapproved for release for reasons that were
concurred in by the Cable Secrtariat. Among the dis-
approval reasons given. by the area divisions were
these:
for non-concurrence. Again Dagreed with
one that' referred to with his reasons
Lateral cable, not for Washington action;
CE internal security material;
Previously disseminated, contains no new infor-
mation;
Awaiting confirmation before dissemination;
Dissemination disapproved because of incorrect
information;
Operational source identification; and
Available from other sources, overt press
coverage.
did not agree that overt press coverage was a
valid reason for disapproving release of information
to the DDI, and he instructed the Cable Secretary to
so inform the area divisions should that reason be
used again.
The DCI memorandum upon which the DDI suspense
procedure was based prescribed that once each month a
representative of the DDI, one acceptable to the DDP,
would screen one day's cable volume as a check on the
Cable Secretariat's performance: There were a number
of steps involved in the implementation of this action:
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One: A call was made to the DDI's office for
the name of the representative who would screen
the cables.
Two: A call was made to the DDP COP's office
to furnish him the name of the DDI representa-
tive and to get his approval of the person
named.
25X1
Three: All incoming cables received in'one 24-'
hour day were assembled for screening.
Four: The assembled cables were screened by
the Secretariat to remove those sensitive
operational cables that the DCI had indicated
should not be shown to the DDI representative --
EYES ONLY, KAPOK, RYBAT, and a number of others
identified by cryptonym.
Five; Cables selected for exclusion were sent
to the EA/DCI for verification by the DCI that
the cables should be withheld.
Six: An appointment was made for the DDI
representative to review the cables in the
office of the Cable Secretary.
Early in the week of 21 September 1953
that Amory, the DDI, had designated
of OCI as the DDI representative
to screen one day's incoming cable traffic.
informed Helms, the DDP COP, and. arranged for
to do the screening on 24 September.
I 25X1
25X1.
Incoming traffic for. the 23rd was assembled, and
separated it into two groups, one group for
screening by
I, the other group for screening by
There were 247 cables involved, 65 of which
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were sent to
distributed to or suspended for the DDI.
for verification that they should
be withheld from ~ screening. screened
the remaining 182 cables and found only one cable of
possible interest to the DDI that had not been
personal opinion was that the cable was of counter-
espionage interest only, but he arranged for future
cables on the same subject to be suspended for the
DDI. 80/
The second DDI cable screener was
a special assistant to the DDI.
cables once each month from October 1953 through March
1
to cancel screening appointments in April, May, and,
June.*
1954. The press of other business caused
In six consecutive screening visits
had found that the Cable Secretariat had failed to
suspend only five or six cables of possible DDI
interest, and he recommended to Amory that the
vnai
Indications Center (NIC), activated as ajcommunity
support staff in July 1954. 81/ Preparation for this
assignment may well have been the reason for cancelling
appointments to screen cables.
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screening function be discontinued. Amory did
not act on the recommendation, and in July 1954
he named as his representative
to screen cables.
By January 1955
was convinced that
the one-day-a-month screening of cables was serving
no good purpose and that the DDI suspense procedure
was not meeting. the needs of the DDI. He discussed
the matter with 0 and then the two of them went
to Amory to get the DDI's personal view on the
problem. Amory pointed out that the suspense pro-
cedure was of little help to him; he was still at-
tending DCI meetings at which was discussed cable
information that had been made available to the DDP,
the deputy DDP, and the DDP/COP but had not reached
his, Amory's, desk because it had been delayed by the
suspense procedure. He thought that the only solution
was to provide the DDI himself with copies of all
cables containing intelligence information immediately
on receipt of the cables. He suggested that the
suspense procedure might still be used for dissemination
to DDI components -- primarily OCI -- and that the
spot-check screening be continued.. agreed with 25X1
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25X1
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system to DDI components.. In February 1956
Amory, but he pointed out that only the DCI had the
authority to change the suspense procedure and that
the initiative would have to come from Amory -- which
it did; the procedure was soon altered, and the DDI
was included in the initial distribution of cables
that contained intelligence information.
The one-day-a-month DDI spot check continued,
however, as did the application of the suspense
replaced as the DDI spot-checker; in October
1957
replaced
replaced
and in May 1958
A year later, in May 1959,
Amory decided that the spot check on the suspense
items was no longer necessary. He so informed the
DDP/COP; and on 14 May,
as informed that the
spot-check screening was to be discontinued.
E. Vital Records and Emergency Planning
1. Vital Records
tion site,
chief of the Signal Center, for the Cable
In July 1953 arranged with
Secretariat vital records to be stored with those of
the Signal Center at the Agency's-emergency reloca-
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In the event of an emergency that necessitated
the evacuation of headquarters buildings, both the
Signal Center and the Cable Secretariat would relocate
and resume their functions in the same building at
the relocation site. At that time the only. records
considered vital in the processing of cables at the
site were copies of the Secretariat's cable distri-
bution guide and a set of standard operating pro-
cedures. On 3 July 1953 copies of these were de-
posited with the Signal Center for safekeeping. 82/'
To provide break-out service,for the DCI at the
relocation site, however, it was necessary to find
a way of duplicating the Secretariat's cryptonym and
pseudonym card file, which by that time contained
many thousands of'identity cards. On 23 October 1953,
discussed this problem with
deputy chief of RID.
said that furnishing the
Secretariat with duplicate cards was.out of the
question; it was all that his staff could do to keep
the file updated with additions and deletions. He
also said that the only practical way of duplicating
the file was to microfilm it, as was done every
three,.-,or four months for RID's file, and he offered
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to have his camera man film the Secretariat file.
accepted the offer, and the file was filmed
during November. Five 100-foot reels were required,
and these were deposited with the Signal Center on
3 December 1953, 83/ completing the vital records
needed by the Secretariat for emergency processing of
cables at the relocation site.
2. Emergency Planning
On 22 October 1953 represented the
Cable Secretary at a conference between Office of
Communications and.General Services representatives
that was called for the purpose of establishing
requirements for supplies and equipment in the event
that it became necessary to evacuate headquarters and
resume activities at the relocation site. For the
purpose of a joint emergency plan it was agreed that
Secretariat personnel would integrate their actions
according to an existing Signal Center plan., Under
this plan the Cable Secretary, 0 and Deputy
Cable Secretary,
and the Executive officer,
, would rely on the Chief of the Signal Center,
to alert them to the existence of an emergency.
would move immediately to the reloca-
sounded the alert; 0 was.
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designated group leader for the Signal Center and the
Cable Secretariat. Designated assistant group leader
would
alert. certain personnel,
direct the securing of the Cable Secretariat work
area, and collect all cables and file copies of cables
processed the previous day and place the material in
canvas pouches. After these tasks had been done,
the designated "emergency force" would move to the
site,carrying the pouches. All transportation to the
site was to be by privately owned vehicles.
Deputy Chief
commanding officer of the relocation site. The memo-
randum contained a requirement for a microfilm reader
for the Secretariat's exclusive use in breaking out
identities for the DCI. 84/
through General Services to
of the Signal Center, were assigned the task of drafting
an ADCO memorandum to the commanding officer of the
site, outlining the joint-requirements of the Signal
Center and the Cable Secretariat for expendable and
non-expendable supplies. the ADCO, signed
this memorandum on 20 November 1953 and forwarded it
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F. Other Activities and Events
On 18 August 1953 0 left Washington on.
military orders to attend the Army Command and
General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
During his absenc~ was designated Acting Cable
he returned to Washington on 23 December 1953 and
was then on leave until 4 January 1954.
In July 1952, when the chief of the Far East
I
???.., 7aui~caa~. a5 Lepuuy
Cable Secretary, it had been with the understanding
that the detail would be for one year, after which
I
feasible for ~to leave the Secretariat immediately,
but in November he did begin to divide. his working
day between FE.and the Secretariat. He spent the
morning hours in the Secretariat drafting aF_~
Secretary. was away for almost.four months;
would return to FE. As of mid-October 1953,
had been on loan to the Cable Secretariat for
15 months, and FE wanted him to return for an opera-
tional assignment. With F___1?away it was not
L
which he wanted to com-
plete before returning to FE. In the afternoons he
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read files and reports in preparation for his new
assignment.
regulation in late December, and on 22 January
1954 he officially returned to FE Division. On
moved into the Executive Officer position.
(completed the drafting of the
as Deputy
Cable Secretary, and on the same date
31 January 1954
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IV. The Cable Reduction Program
A. Studies, Proposals, and Experiments
1. The Inspector General Study
As noted earlier, although the DCI's notice
requesting a 25-percent reduction in cable traffic
was issued in April 1953, by the end of the year no
real progress had been made. The Inspector General
(IG), Lyman Kirkpatrick, described the situation
succinctly in February 1954:
Since the promulgation of the DCI's Notice in
April re cable traffic, there has been little
substantive accomplishment in reducing cable
traffic per se, nor has there been any discern-
able pattern amongst the relationships, either
increase or decrease, of number of cables, total
group-count of cables and number of dispatches.
During the period concerned, the only discern-
able factor is that there appears to be a
minor lessening of total volume of the three
elements concerned, i.e., cables, group-
counts and dispatches continue to fluctuate
with no relationship. 85/
Earlier in 1954 Kirkpatrick had appointed a com-
mittee to study the problem and to come up with a
staff study that would recommend solutions; the committee
was composed of senior officers of the IG Staff, the
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DDA, the DDP, the Office of Communications (OC), and
the Cable Secretariat. 86/ On 8 February Kirkpatrick
called a meeting of the committee; the draft of the
the Secretariat representative at the meeting, said
that he concurred generally with the findings and
recommendations'of the study but had some reserva-
tions. These he made specific in an 11 February
memorandum to the IG. 88/ He said that he did not
believe that further notice on the reduction of cables
should be issued over the DCI's signature; rather,
staff study was presented and discussed. 87/'
he suggested, "we implement specific plans by which
..we can comply with his 17 April 1953 directive. If
all possible .means result in failure, then it may be
necessary to issue some new directive in the name of
the Director."*
Apparently Kirkpatrick was convinced that to get
the job done the authority of the Director was needed
-- even though that authority had.already been
exercised; and on 19 February he sent to the Director
u- o
violate a time-honored military command principle: a
commanding officer does not repeat a written order; it
is the responsibility of his staff to see that the
order is carried out--
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the completed staff study under a memorandum that
stated:
Inasmuch as the major volume of cable traffic
emanates from the DD/P organization, it is
planned, subject to your approval of this staff
study, to furnish DD/P with various amounts
of material gathered in the course of compiling
these recommendations, such material perhaps
being' of additional value to him in trying to.
accomplish the desired reduction. 89/
No doubt this paragraph in the IG's cover
memorandum was intended to make it clear to the
Director that the DDP had been the major culprit in
the failure to reduce cable traffic. The same point
was made indirectly in the section of the staff study
itself that established the facts bearing on the
problem:
The reduction of cable traffic volume must be
attacked on a three-fold basis: (a) the elimi-
ination of non-essential cable traffic and
using the dispatch medium therefore; (b) prac-
ticing the greatest economy of words for those
messages deemed essential for cable communications;
(c) elimination to the greatest degree possible
of "book" and "multiple addressee" cables,
principally of the "info" variety.
The IG's staff study also informed the DCI that
two additional studies of the problem were in progress
-- one by OC designed to produce statistics on the
originators of cable traffic, and one by the Manage-
ment Improvement Staff (MIS) designed to evaluate the
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feasibility of using "pouchgrams" instead of cables.
The IG's study recommended that certain respon-
sibilities be assigned to the DDP, the DDA, the AD/C0,
and the Cable Secretariat and specified those respon-
sibilities. The final recommendation was:
That within ninety days of the approval of this
study that if there is not accomplished a size-
able reduction of cable traffic, that the DCI
instruct the Cable Secretary to establish maxi-
mum quotas on a word-count basis for the
various units of organization which will repre-
sent the required 25% reduction in traffic be-
low the level of April 1953. The establish-
ment of such maximum quotas will not pre-
clude the right to exceed any given quota
based on demonstrated operational necessity.[*]
The DCI approved the IG staff study recommendations on
1 March 1954, and the components charged with specific
responsibilities began to go through the process of
meeting them -- some assiduously and some pro forma --
with, as is noted later, dubious results.**
2. The Management Improvement Staff Study
Meanwhile, the MIS study of a possible pouch-
gram procedure referred to in the IG study was in
* This badly over-stated threat was never carried
out, of course; the last sentence effectively pulled
any teeth that the threat was intended to have.
** See below, p. 90.
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progress, and on 18 March 1954 it was officially
presented to the Cable Secretariat. 90/
The study contained 11 closely packed pages
of facts, discussion, conclusions, and recommenda-
tions; there were 22 attachments containing statistical
data -- including that developed by the OC study
mentioned in the IG's study, charts, diagrams, and
dispatch forms used by other Government departments
and agencies. In substance the study recommended that
pouchgram procedures should be used only if all other
efforts to reduce cable traffic failed. 0 dis-
cussed the study with Hulick, EO/DDP, and they agreed
that they didn't like the negative approach of the
MIS recommendation and that the pouchgram procedure
should be given a trial run with two or three.
a! .
principle overseas stations. The pouchgram they
had in mind was "a form of communication written on a
cable form, using cable language, coordinated, re-
leased, and distributed as a cable, but sent to the
25X1 field by pouch." 91/. 0 designed a procedure
for pouchgram processing, which Hulick and
the AD/CO, approved; and Hulick recommended that the
stations be used in
the test run. After considerable discussion among
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the elements concerned, primarily the Secretariat
and the DDP area divisions, the plan was completed;
25X1 it was approved by on 31 August 1954. 92/
3. The_DDP Study -- the "Fast Pouch"
In the meantime the DDP had developed a re-
finement on. the pouchgram procedure. On 13 August
1954 the DCI, in a meeting with his deputies, again
expressed his concern about the volume of cable
traffic, requested remedial action, and approved the
plan and recommended:
for improved courier service to the major Agency
stations in Western Europe. 93/
On 24 August the DDP sent to the DCI a staff-
study memorandum that incorporated the Hulick
1. That the Chief, Registry be authorized to
will provide the Agency with Daily except Sun-
day and Monday pouches between Headquarters and
with next day
delivery-for a trial-period of six months at a
cost not to exceed $1,938 per week based on CIA
proportionate use of this service.
2. That the Chief of Registry, Cable Secretary
and the Assistant Director of Communications
arrange for the necessary implementing action
in Headquarters and the field.
The DDP memorandum -- signed by Helms, the DDP/
COPS, for the DDP -- was concurred in by the DDA, White;
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the ADCO,
and the DDCI, Cabell.
Before signing his approval, the DCI, Dulles,
made an addition to the second recommendation: "and
report to the DCI at the end of the six months'
trial whether this system should be continued."
Dulles approved the recommendations on 11 October
1954.-'94/
Between that time and the end of January 1955
were worked out in detail, and personnel both at
headquarters and the three overseas stations were thor-
oughly indoctrinated. The first westward fast-pouch
courier flight was on 11 February 1955; the first
eastward flight was on 15 February. 95/
From the beginning of the experiment the Cable
Secretary furnished Hulick with a pouchgram weekly
count, and the chief of RID furnished him with the
weight of each pouch to and from the three overseas
stations. On the basis of these data Hulick informed
the area divisions and the three senior representatives
overseas of their week-to-week performance in terms of
percentages of routine cables diverted to pouch and
the average pouch weights for the courier flights.
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At the end of the first two weeks of the experi-
ment, Hulick advised the stations by pouchgram that
"Results Fast Pouch Service to date disappointing in
that we are not approaching maximum use this facility
by diverting routine precedence cable traffic to
Fast Pouch," and he asked all releasing officers to
make a greater effort to increase diversion. 96/
On 1 April 1955 an additional courier flight
each way was added, providing six trips each week
instead of five, but by the end of the tenth week of
the experiment the results were still disappointing.
After the twelfth week Helms sent to the chiefs
of the area divisions and the senior representatives
involved in the trial run a memorandum summarizing
the results of the test up to that time and asked
each of them for his views on whether or not the ex-
periment should be continued. 97/
The responses were uniformly in favor of con-
tinuation, but some of them pointed out that there
were problems -- for example, the distance of the
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By the end of May there had been little im-
provement,but both the DDP and the Cable Secretary
were optimistic about the future. Wisner, the DDP,
sent to the Director a memorandum that said, in
effect, that all concerned in the pouchgram project
agreed that the experiment had proved to be success-
ful and recommended that it be continued. 98/ Ap-
parently the Director had been watching the weekly
records maintained by Hulick, and he took no action
on Wisner?s recommendation. He had made a decision,
however, and on 26 July, 24 weeks after the trial run
had been starters cab
..,. n
~_
t
es
and
announcing discontinuance of the fast pouch
service, effective 30 July. 99/
On the following day, 27 July, discontinuance
of the fast pouch service was announced by
100/ which reminded re-
leasing officials that they should still use dispatches
in preference to cables and deferred cables in prefer-
ence to those of higher precedence.
The discontinuance of the fast pouch service ap-
peared to be fully justified. Despite the great
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efforts of the DDP, the DDS,* and the Cable Secretariat,
the volume of cable traffic had continued to rise.
By July 1955, a year after the fast pouch service
had been proposed and six months after it had been put
into effect, cable volume had reached 16,000 a-month
-- a 25 percent increase over the July 1954 volume.**
The fast pouch service was an experiment that
failed, but the effort to reduce cable volume continued.
B. Pouching Cables to Information Addressees***
1 7
1. The
Pouch Procedure:
About five months before the Fast Pouch ex-
periment had actually started, another cable-reduction
* The Deputy Director for Administration (DDA),
had been re-designated the Deputy Director for
Support (DDS) on 3 February 1955.
** The monthly cable volume continued to rise
thereafter. For March 1956 it was 18,100; for March
1957 it was 18,300;-and for March 1958 it was 19,100.
*** The: undocumented statements in this section are
based on the Cable Secretariat's monthly reports
covering the period.
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J
device, the ouch procedure, was initiated.
The IG's study of February 1954 had emphasized the
need for eliminating to the greatest degree possible
book and multiple addressee cables, particularly
"INFO" addressees. In his 11 February 1954 memoran-
25X1 dum to the IG,Qidentified "INFO" addressees
as constituting about 40 percent of the total cable
volume handled by the Signal Center, citing the
25X1
chief of the Center, as the source of this estimate.
then in the process of formal coor
dina-
tion, contained a provision for pouching copies of
cables to "INFO" addressees and that this category of
cables offered the greatest potential for achieving
a 'major reduction in cable volume.
The procedure for pouching copies of cables
for information addressees was simple, and for cable
originators it posed no burden other than that of
making a decision that one or more of the infor-
mation addressees of his cable should receive copies
by pouch channels. Once he had made this decision,
all labor involved in the preparation of the steri-
lized copies,.the delivery of them to RI, the pouching
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25X1
to the field, and delivery to the addressee would be
done for him by the Secretariat, RI, and the signal
centers overseas. By this procedure multiple ad-
dressee cables would be prepared in the usual form, ex-
cept for showing as additional information specifically
which addressees whould be furnished sterilized
copies of the cable by pouch -- for example,
For each station indicated as a pouch addressee
the Cable Secretariat would furnish to the Dispatch
and Pouch Section of RI two copies of the cable,
properly sterilized for pouching. This procedure was
established to be effective 1 September 1954 by
to become effective on the same day. The notices
established the indicatoz
to identify envelopes
containing cables to information addressees; this
was intended to facilitate the handling of the
material in regular dispatch channels and to signify
that upon receipt at its destination the envelope,
was to be delivered to the signal center for normal
cable accounting and, numbering and then was to be
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25X11
I
delivered to the addressees.
This procedure provided originators'with a
relatively easy means of diverting a major portion
of cable volume to pouch channels -- if they could
make the decision to use it. For example, a 200-word.
multiple addressee cable to an action addressee and
to three information addressees -- counted as four
cables in the Signal Center -- generated.800 groups
of cryptographic transmission. Simply by specifying
VIA POUCH for information addressees, the originator
could reduce Signal Center transmission by 600 words,
75 percent of the total. With the Secretariat
furnishing RI with the sterilized.copies for delivery
to the addressee, it is hard to understand why the
procedure never proved to be effective in reducing
cable volume. During the first five months that the
procedure was in effect -- from September 1954 through
January 1955 -- the Cable Secretariat processed 60,500
cables, of which less than 150 were diverted to pouch
by the procedure.
2. Revision of the Procedure
After the activation of the Fast Pouch procedure
in March 1955, no one bothered to count the small
number of cables diverted to pouch channels through
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use of the, procedure. Meanwhile, cable
volume continued to rise for six consecutive months.
From 15,000 in March it had reached an all-time high
of 17,800 in August 1955; this was an increase of
63 percent, or 6,900 cables more than in August 1954.
The Cable Secretariat's monthly cable count was
derived from the simple method of recording the
number of DIR numbers and IN numbers used during
the month. Each number used was counted as one
cable regardless of the number of addressees; but
each addressee was counted as a transmission in the
Signal Center,and true cable volume was two or three
times the figures recorded in the Secretariat.
During the two weeks immediately following the
discontinuance of the Fast Pouch service, a count of
cables diverted to the pouch showed that out
of 8,000 cables processed during those two weeks there
were but six cables pouched from headquarters and
three received by pouch from the field. Using the
procedure for lateral exchange, however, the
field had done considerably better; that count was
46 pouched cables for a total of 12,500 words.
gave these figures to Hulick and recommended that the
procedure be discontinued. On 25 August 1955
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with a
recommendation that existing procedures be revised to
25X1
Hulick sent figures to
"permit the continuance of
for lateral exchanges
in the field and that it.be discontinued for traffic
to and from Headquarters."
accomplished by rescinding
recommendation, and the revision
On 21 October 1955
25X1 modifying
concurred in this
of the procedure was
outright and by
with notification to the field
that the procedure would thereafter apply only when
the information addressee was another field station,
and that when DIR was an information addressee the
cable would be sent to headquarters by electrical
means.
3. The Education of Cable Writers
When approved the recission of the
procedure for headquarters, he said he believed
that the procedure was workable but "the lack of con-
tinued re-education of cable writers had resulted in
its gradual disuse to the point where it was no
longer practical to continue it." 101/ His comment
was brought to the attention of the Director of
Training, Matthew Baird, and in the spring of 1956
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of Communications, and the DDP --
?a course called "Cable Writing" was initiated as a
joint venture of the Office of Training, the Office
then chief of SE Division, was the DDP repre-
sentative.
The Deputy Directors saw to it that everyone
concerned with cables enrolled in the course. Classes
were large; there were more than a hundred people in
each running of the course. chief of the
Signal Center, and members of his watch.officer staff
opened the course with a number of illustrations of
how plain text was converted letter-by-letter into a
cipher text, and examples were given showing how
careless wording and the use of unauthorized abbrevia-
tions and contractions added unnecessary words to the
cables. The course closed with
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for headquarters use. 102/ agreed to try it
again for three months, and the procedure was
in May 1956 that th~
giving a
discourse on the principles of clear and concise
writing.
Assuming that the cable writing course would
accomplish its purpose, Hulick, the EO/DDP, proposed
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reinstated, on 1 June 1956.'103/ The three-month
test ran from 6 June through 4 September, and it
proved conclusively that, despite the reeducation of
the cable writers, th procedure was still an
ineffective means of reducing cable traffic.
During the test about 2 percent of 14,200:
outgoing cables were diverted to pouch. ob-
served that, with few exceptions, 95 percent of the
diverted cables were less than 60 words in length and
that the savings to the Signal Center were very small
in terms of group count. He told Hulick that he was
content to let the procedure continue, as it was
reducing at least that much of the Signal Center's
encode-decode workload.* 104/
4. The Second Management Staff Study
The cable writing course provided by the Office
of Training (OTR) with the support of the Signal Center
* The rocedure continued, with little
change in volume diverted, until 17 April 1970,
when it was again rescinded for headquarters use
for much the same reasons as before. At that time
field stations were diverting a substantial volume
of Intelligence Information cables -- average length
about 500 to 600 words -- laterally to information
addressees by th rocedure.
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continued for the next few years, and OTR augmented
the course by including cable writing instruction in
other courses -- the Operations Support Course, the
Operations Course, and the Operations Familiarization
Course. In spite of this effort, however, in March
1958 new all-time highs were reached in both cable
count (19,100 cables) and group count (about 7,500,000
words), and the Management Staff was again directed
to study and find solutions to "Excessive-Unwarranted
Cable Traffic." 105/
This Management Staff study was even more
comprehensive than the one made on the pouchgram
procedure in 1954.106/ It contained more than 50
pages of facts, discussion, charts and graphs, and
a single recommendation:
that there be established on the T/O of the
Executive Officer[*] of the DCI, and physi-
cally located in the Office of the Cable
Secretariat, a position to be known as the
Cable Control Officer. This position should
be established for a six-month trial period
and it will be the duty of the individual
assigned to:
* On 1 July 1957, ~ the DCI's Executive Assist-
ant, was redesignated the DCI's Executive Officer, with
responsibility for coordination of the staff actions
in CIA.
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(1) Examine daily, on a post-mortem basis,
incoming and outgoing cables disseminated by
the Cable Secretariat to determine the nature,
extent, and frequency of infractions of
existing cable regulations.
(2) Prepare more precise regulations regarding
the use and preparation of cables where present
regulations fail to provide clear, understand-
able prohibitions to the originating offices.
(3) Record and report to the Deputy Directors
concerned all instances in which there are clear-
cut violations of regulations covering the use
and preparation of cables.
(4) Advise the Office of Training of those
areas wherein it appears most profit could
occur from training emphasis.
(5) Keep informed as to the trends in cable
traffic through close liaison with the Signal
Center, Office of Communications, and the Cable
Secretariat in order to assist in the imposition
of temporary restrictions whereever necessary.
Provision was made that the individual selected should
be fully cleared and should be acceptable to the DDP,
the DDS, and the DDI. The study was addressed to the
DCI through the DDS and was sent forward to the DDS on
16 October 1958. The DDS indicated his concurrence
in the recommendation on 22 November 1958 and nominated
- by that time transferred from his position
as chief of the Signal Center to the job of deputy chief
of the Americas Division of OC -- for the position of
cable control officer.
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Cabell also concurred and recommended that
be appointed.' 107/
In final discussion with members of
the Management Staff before they issued the study, it
was understood that they intended to suggest that he,
.wear the additional hat of cable control of-
ficer. He had made it clear that because the duties
of the position duplicated so many of his own as
Cable Secretary, he was doubtful that establishing
another title or position was the best approach to
the problem. He was certain that if the position
were established, the DDP would consider that in
order to be effective the person in the job would have
to be an operations officer in the DDP chain of com-
mand. told that in spite of these mis-
givings he would go along with:.the proposal provided
that the person was not located in his office and
did not look to him for a major portion of his
support. 108/
Kirkpatrick, the IG, commented on the study to
the effect that it was doubtful that the establishment
of the position of cable control officer would achieve
a substantial reduction in cable traffic. He also
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said that without grave reservations he could not
support the philosophy expressed in the study that
"discipline, to be respected and most effective,
'should come from outside the organization being dis-
ciplined." He believed that the Deputy Directors
had the authority to exercise what discipline was
necessary-and certainly were capable of doing so.
The need was not for more policing but for a greater
concentration on the elimination of unnecessary
reporting by cable and in further inprovement in
pouch service. 109/
Amory, the DDI, saw no objection to establishing
the new position on a temporary basis provided that
it was clearly understood that the officer would have
authority to act only in an advisory capacity after
the actual release of cable traffic and would have no
command or review authority before the release of
cable traffic. 110/
Bissell,* the DDP, stated that
it seems to me that we do not need more regu-
lations, nor more enforcers of regulations.
* Frank Wisner, the DDP, was succeeded by Richard M.
Bissell, Jr., on 1 January 1959.
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is a lack of real interest in the subject
all along the line.
I agree with) lopinion that
the basic reason for excessive cable traffic
Anyone appointed to this job would have to be
so senior and so experienced that he would
surely be needed more elsewhere. He would have
to swing a great deal of weight on strictly
operational questions to be effective -- e.g.
in attacking abuses of PP Staff's long guidance
cables as too many addressees, he would have
to know which stations are likely to use the
guidance, and which customarily ignore it, and
why.
To keep up a correspondence with the field on
this subject (where the abuses are greatest)
would require not one man but a staff, probably
steadily increasing in accordance with Parkin-
son's Law. Even ignoring the field, this
proposal means too much paper work.-- a report
on every infraction (and presumably a rebuttal
and a counter-rebuttal, and meetings, etc.),
a monthly report to. the DCI (would he read it?,
more reports to Deputies, Staff, and-Division
Chiefs, etc.)
Bissell said that he did not mean to recommend that
we do nothing and that he understood that finding ac-
ceptable substitutes for cables was progressing on
two fronts, teletape and better handling of regular
dispatches, and he thought that priority attention
-should be given in that field. 111/ Apparently the
DCI agreed with Kirkpatrick, Bissell, and others,
for he did not approve the recommendation to estab-
lish the position of cable control officer. 112/
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C. Cable Regulations and Handbooks
In February-1954 the formal coordination of
proposed
-- he had finished it in September 1953 --
was returned to the Cable Secretariat for negotiation
of the qualified concurrences of six offices
each
,
of which wanted some major or minor'change in the
text. Because of the.pressure on the Secretariat to
produce a "how-to-do-it" handbook,* and because so much
of the proposed regulation was handbook material, the
Cable Secretary decided that the document should be
separated into two publications -- a regulation
containing only material that was regulatory in its
scope, and a cable handbook containing all of the
essential procedural material in0 draft.
took on this task, working on the
changes proposed by the six offices and on the
division of material. The reorganization was com-
pleted in March; and after informal coordination with
the offices concerned, the revised draft of the regu-
lation was returned to the Regulations Control St
ff
a
for formal coordination.
* See above, pp. 48-49.
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In the revision of
was changed to I
the subject
reduced to a half dozen pages of policy statements,
largely those established in of
October 1952. The revision was approved by White,
the DDS, on 12 June and published on 25 June 1954. 113/
The proposed handbook was an unusual document.
chief of the Regulations Control
Staff, agreed -- albeit reluctantly -- to permit the
b to be printed in color,
an exception to the standard black-and-white printing
of regulatory publications. Near the end of Sep-
tember the handbook, which was dated 25 June 1954,
was distributed to offices throughout the Agency. It
had a bright red', white, and blue cover, it.was
bound in spiral plastic, and certain pages contained
graphic illustrations, made by the visual aids staff
of the Office of Logistics, in three colors to em-
phasize the importance of the text.*
a copy of the handbook.
* See Figure 5, p. 106. Also see for
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Figure 5
Excerpt from
COMMUNICATIONS
25 June 1954
SECTION I
CABLE WRITING TECHNIQUES
1. Cultivating Techniques. - The ability to write a good cable,
one which is clear, concise and accurate is not an inherent ability--
rather it is an ability cultivated through adherence to sound. practices
and through close attention to detail. In most instances, preparation
of a cable in draft form and cardful editing of the draft are essential
if the cable is to be both clear and concise.
2. Cables vs Pouch. - When it has been determined that some form
of communication must be sent to the field, the writer should consider
whether a cable is the best form of communication to be used. He should
consider whether the matter might not be handled satisfactorily by pouch,
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In October 1958 a revised edition of the cable
handbook was published. The section on the Cable
Secretariat had been expanded to include detailed
descriptions of the processing of DDI suspense items.
This was essentially the same procedure described in
TO DD/I, dated 2.July 1954, in which the suspense
time allowed for area divisions to dispose of sus-
pense cables had been reduced from six to three
hours. In the 1958 edition the suspense time had
again been reduced -- from three to two hours. In-
creased pressure to meet the two-hour limit was put
upon area divisions by the following instructions
for the Cable Secretary's disposal of'DDI suspense
items:
(1) File, on advice from the Deputy Director
(Plans) (or his designee) that the cable cannot
be released to DD/I.
(2) By direction of the Deputy Director (Plans)
(or his designee), release to DD/I the cable as
received or modified, as appropriate, to remove
sensitive operational data and source.
(3) Failing receipt of advice or direction (as
set forth in either subparagraphs (1) or (2) im-
mediately above), release the cable or the
modified version thereof, as appropriate, to
DD/I upon expiration of the two-hour suspense.
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The Cable Secretary was never forced to exercise
this new-authority. To insure that the deadlines
were met,0 instructed his cable duty officers
to monitor the times closely and to inform Hulick, the
DDP Executive Officer, fifteen minutes before the
expiration of suspense time. This procedure worked
out very well; within a very few minutes after making
such calls the items were promptly cleared for re-
lease, modification, or denial by the reports officer
concerned, who either telephoned or came in person to
the Cable Secretariat.
On 14 January 1956 the DCI had issued a
memorandum for the DDP, the DDI, and the DDS on
"Organization of the Clandestine Services," which
rescinded Smith's 15 July 1952 memorandum on the
same subject. In the January 1956 memorandum the
DCI reaffirmed that "The Deputy Director (Plans)
is the Director's Deputy and channel for the direc-
tion and control of CIA clandestine activities." It
also reaffirmed the provision that "Release by, or with
the authority of, DCI, DD/P, or the appropriate Chief
of the Clandestine Services operating division is re-
quired for all outgoing overseas cables and dispatches."
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Exceptions to this requirement were cables bearing
"Special Indicators," and these were to be issued
solely by the DDP -- in appropriate situations at
the request of other Deputy Directors -- in order to
control the distribution and reduce the coordination
of sensitive and specialized material. Such in-
dicators would clearly designate the office or
offices to which such material would be distributed
and limited, including the Clandestine Services area
division having responsibility for the station
concerned. 114/
The 1958 edition of the cable handbook con-
tained a listing of the "Special Indicators," which
had been issued in February 1956 by the DDP to the
DDI and the DDS and to their subordinate offices. These
special indicators permitted certain exceptions to
normal releasing channels at headquarters and indicated
origination and release by other than a DDP component.*'
Use of the special indicators by field installations
* The conditions under which Agency components use
special indicators have never been changed, but a
number of additional offices have been assigned such
indicators as they were established in the organiza-
tion of the Agency -- for example, the DDR (later
DDS&T) and its component offices. 115/
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did not imply release by other than the chief of
station or base. The special indicators also served
to reduce coordination on sensitive and special
cables at the originating installations and assisted
in the control of dissemination, at both the origi-
nating and addressee stations. 116/
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V. Development of the Teletype
Dissemination System
A. Cable Secretariat Support
1. Preliminary Dissemination
One of the major tasks of the Cable Secre-
tariat was the processing of Preliminary Dissemi-
nations (PD's), a product of the reports officers in
the DDP area divisions. The primary responsibility
of these officers was the preparation of CIA Infor-
mation Reports (IR's) for formal dissemination to the
intelligence community. For the most part, the IR's
were based on incoming cables, and after they were
prepared by the reports officers, they were sent to
the Reports Control Section of the FI-Staff, which
validated and logged them and then sent them on to
the Printing Services Division (PSD) of the Office
of Logistics (OL) for reproduction and delivery by
courier mail to the members of the community -- a
process that took at least three days and sometimes
as many as six.
This time lapse between receipt of the cable and
dissemination of the information contained in the cable
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was acceptable for routine information, but there
was some information that required immediate dis-
semination. That was the function of the PD's.
The area division reports officers prepared PD's
on a special form and sent them to the Secretariat,
where they were processed as outgoing cables and
passed on to the signal center for transmission to
State, Army, Navy, Air, NSA, JCS, and SECDEF, and to
OCI.
The Secretariat's processing of PD's was much
more complicated than the standard processing of
outgoing cables. After the Signal Center's trans-
mission of the PD's, the original copy was returned
to the Secretariat for retyping and distribution
within the Agency. This involved the reproduction of
copies, the assignment of distribution symbols for
DDP components, the return to the originator for
sterilization, and thereafter the reproduction and
dissemination of the sterilized copies for non-DDP
units.
In the summer of 1954 the Secretariat was pro-
cessing an average of 300 PD's a month, and in September
25X1 the Cable Secretary, 0 decided to launch his
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own cable reduction program by simplifying the handling
of PD's.. He induced the FI Requirements Staff to
change the one-ply PD form to a multiple-copy form
similar to the Secretariat's outgoing cable form.
This provided a Ditto master, which eliminated the
retyping and proofing in the Secretariat, provided
a transmission copy for the Signal Center, and made
possible the Secretariat's distribution concurrently
with Signal Center transmission. In October 1954, area
division reports officers began preparing PD's on the
standard outgoing cable forms -- it would take some time
for the new PD forms to be printed, and the Secretariat
was able to furnish Agency components with finished
copies within an hour or so of the time of filing
for transmission.
The speed-up in the processing of PD's soon led
to an agreement that the Signal Center would trans-
mit only PRIORITY PD's, and ROUTINE PD's would be
processed for courier delivery -- an arrangement that
reduced the Signal Center's workload by about 100,000
groups of electrical transmissions per month. 117/*
* The undocumented statements in this section are
based on Cable Secretariat Monthly Reports covering
this period.
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During October 1954 a total of 306 PD's were
processed, and 275 of these were diverted to courier
delivery. The volume of PD's continued to rise
thereafter, and by June 1955 it reached more than 400
a month and a year later more than 500 a month. It
was in June 1956 that there came a major change in the
system of disseminating PD's to the intelligence
community.
2. Teletype Dissemination
On 4 June 1956 the Preliminary Dissemination
category of information reports was abolished and re-
placed by the Teletype Dissemination (TD). 118/ The
members of the intelligence community were so informed
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The job of the reproduction and distribution
of a "sufficient number of copies to satisfy needs
formerly met by the followup".fell to the Secretariat.
Deliveries were made to the Departments of State and
Defense by Secretariat couriers, and the Office of
Central Reference was provided with enough copies of
the TD's to complete the distribution, including that
to US Government agencies that were recipients of
CIA information reports on certain subjects but were
not normally addressees -- for example, Treasury,
Agriculture, and Immigration. The Secretariat soon
found that the hectograph equipment used to reproduce-
copies of TD's was not capable of turning out enough
clear copies to meet the need, so offset printing
equipment was procured. The TD and cable forms were
revised and printed on offset masters, and by the
end of 1956 the offset system was firmly established.
In the meantime, however, the volume of TD's had
.risen to the point where the Secretariat had to have
help. The volume in June 1956, when the TD replaced
the PD, was 575; by October it had increased to more
than 900 -- that was the time of the Hungarian and
Mid-East. crises. Early in November0 asked Hulick,
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the EO/DDP, for more manpower 120/; Hulick recog-
nized 0 problem, set the administrative
machinery in motion, and almost immediately the DDP,
the DDI, and the DDS each assigned a man to TDY with
the Cable.Secretariat. The men were sorely needed,
for during November the Cable Secretariat repro-
duced and disseminated 25X1
By the
end of the first week in December the introduction
of the offset printing system and the easing of the
Hungarian and Mid-East crises reduced the workload
somewhat, and the DDP and DDI men were released to
their offices; the DDS man liked the work and was
transferred to an available slot in the Cable Sec-
retariat T/O.
A significant factor in the development of the
Secretariat's capability to handle the TD reproduction
and dissemination was the adoption of three employee
suggestions. All three of the suggestions had been
submitted during the period from March through
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August 1955, but the process of evaluating them for
granting incentive awards took some time; and they
were not worked into the Secretariat system until
after June 1956 when the TD's replaced the PD's.
During the 1956 October-to-December crisis
period, however, they were in effect, and in April 1957
an evaluation group composed of
chief of the
Records Management Staff, summarized the tangible
benefits of adoption of the suggestions:
Since adopting the new "TD" (Teletype Dis-
semination) System stimulated by these three
employee suggestions, the reporting workload has
been cut almost in half. (Tab G). A consider-
ably curtailed teletype transmission, supple-
mented or supplanted by a single, more extensive
(dittoed originally, now multilithed) hard copy
dissemination by Cable Secretariat, now suffices
to get this "Hot" information reported to the
policy making and all other working levels of
the intelligence community in a timely manner.
Unnecessary and duplicate handling, readings,
extractions, filings and references are
eliminated. Backlogs of routine CS reports have
been reduced and better quality finished intelli-
gence reports are now being written with cor-
responding improvements in customer services.
Reports Officers now have more time to devote to
such essentials and sometimes previously neglected
Intelligence Officer functions as: developing
requirements, directing field collection ef-
forts, and providing guidance to field personnel
in producing more pertinent, accurate and com-
plete reports.
Incentive awards totaling $8,500 were granted to
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the four people who made the three suggestions -- two
people submitted one of them jointly. The DCI pre-
sented the wards checks to
B. Improving the System
1. Expanding the Courier Service
Although the diversion of the dissemination of
routine TD's from electrical transmission to courier
delivery achieved a major reduction in the workload
of the Signal Center, priority TD.'s still had to be
teletyped to the members of the'intelligence community.
There were four courier deliveries to State and the
Pentagon each day, but priority TD's required faster
service. As.the total volume of TD's increased
steadily, so did the Signal Center's.workload; and
on 4 June 1958, two years after the initiation of the
TD system, the courier deliveries were increased to
nine each day -- one each hour beginning at 0800. 121/
This made it possible to divert the day-time priority
TD's to the courier system and thus relieve the
Signal Center of all TD transmissions during the day.
In July 1958 the Iraq and Lebanon crises, coming
almost simultaneously, generated a sharp rise in both
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cable and TD traffic; and to relieve the Signal Center
of the burden of night transmission of TD's, the
courier service was expanded to provide night delivery
on an every-two-hour schedule. Thereafter only the
most urgent TD's were transmitted -- and there were
very few of them. The result was that in July 1958,
91.5 percent of a total of
'D's were delivered
by courier; in August it was 98 percent) I and
in October it. reached 99.07 percent
In terms.-of workload savings to the Signal
Center, the June 1956 diversion of routine TD's to
courier delivery saved the Center about 16 hours a
day of cryptographic transmission 122/; the expansion
of the courier service in June and July 1958 reduced
the Center's group count
2. Standardizing Distribution
From the beginning of the TD system, distribution
was a joint responsibility of the OCR* Documents
Division (OCR/DD) and the Cable Secretariat. The Sec-
retariat furnished OCR/DD with 25 sterilized copies
* On 12 August 1955 the Office of Collection and Dis-
semination (OCD) was re-designated the Office of Central
Reference (OCR). 123/
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1
of each TD, and OCR/DD distributed them among the
Office of Research and Reports (ORR), the Office of
National Estimates (ONE),
the Office of Training.
(OTR), the US Information Agency (USIA), and other
CIA and non-CIA addressees indicated by the originator
of each TD. The Secretariat distributed TD's within
the Agency to the DCI, the DDCI, the DDI, the DDI
Office of Current Intelligence (OCI), the DDP, and the
staffs and divisions within the DDP complex; it also
distributed to State, Defense,* and NSA.
On 18 August 1958 chief of
OCR/DD, sent to the Cable Secretary a memorandum in
which he recommended that the Secretariat take over
OCR/DD's TD distribution function. He pointed out
that the OCR/DD distribution was routine, governed by
a standing list of addressees and other addressees
listed by the originator of each TD. To save time
and duplication of effort, he said, "it is requested
* Actually, distribution was made only to Army Staff
Communications, which reproduced the TD's and sent
copies to ACSI, Navy, Air, the JCS, and SECDEF.
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that your office accomplish the standard distribution
and distribution to the addressees indicated at the
bottom of each report which is presently done by
this Division." 124/ On 19 August I
deputy, sent
chief of PI
memorandum along to
that the Secretariat would be happy to go along with
the request if
approved and would authorize
certain procedural changes in the preparation of
TD's. 125/ The changes would require reports officers
to indicate on the transmittal page of the TD form a
standard DDP dissemination and on the TD itself the
pre-determined non-DDP distribution. These changes
would eliminate a large part of the Secretariat's
processing chores.
About two months later -- on 20 October --
responded with a memorandum in which he said
that he "fully agreed with the delegation of certain
OCR responsibilities for distribution of TD reports
to the Cable Secretary" as proposed by
To the memorandum he attached a copy of PI
126/
Memorandum No. 555, addressed to Area Division Chief
Reports Officers and authorizing the changes
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that the Secretariat would assume
responsibility for the total distribution of TD's. 127/
By December 1958 the Secretariat had proved that
it could handle the job. In a 15 December memorandum
` the EO/DCI, the chief of FI
commended the Cable Secretary and his staff for their
successful efforts in speeding the delivery of CS
information reports to the intelligence community.
said that since 21 October the Secretariat
had relieved OCR of almost all responsibility for the
reports and at the same time had
cut the processing time in half. The memorandum went
on to say:
This example is, however, only one in a long
series in which Cable Secretariat personnel
have contributed very materially to the im-
provement of the Washington distribution sys-
tem. We are constantly impressed by their
dedication to duty and the imagination and
initiative they have applied to problems
which very directly affect the usefulness of
CS intelligence information. 128/
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suggested by the Secretariat. The effective date
was to be 21 October 1958. On 21 October
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VI. Management Staff Studies, 1955 - 1958
A. Table of Organization,. May 1955
The'steady increase in cable traffic through-
out the 1955-1958 period, the introduction of the
Fast Pouch procedure in February 1955, the growth
of the Preliminary Dissemination problem in 1955 and
early 1956, and the establishment of the Teletype
Dissemination system in June 1956 were bound to have
a major impact on the Secretariat's manpower re-
sources and to raise questions about the efficiency
of the Secretariat's operations. The result was that
five Management Staff studies of Secretariat activities
were done during the period from May 1955 through
February 1958.*
The first study during the period was conducted
in April and May 1955 in response to the Cable
Secretary's 9 March request for an increase in his
T/O. 129/
* The March 1958 study of "Excessive, Unwarranted
Cable Traffic," discussed in some detail earlier, was
not primarily a study of Cable Secretariat activities.`
See p. 98, if.
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supervisors,
cable analyst
clerk typist supervisors,
GS-04 clerk typists, and one GS-04 courier. To
support his request, ~ cited a ten-percent
increase in cable volume, the heavy workload
involved in sterilizing cables for the fast-pouch
trial run, and the growth in the volume of PD's. His
request stated that
A sincere and conscientious effort has been
made to cover the positions involved by
diverting personnel from other activities.
It has been determined that such diversion is
no longer feasible. 130/
The Management Staff study was completed late
in April 1955, and on 12 May
the chief of the staff,
was informed that
had approved the
T/O increase and had forwarded his recommendation
through concurrence channels to the DDS, White. 131/
After concurrence by the EO/DCI, the Budget
Division, and the Director of Personnel, White gave
his approval on 23 May. 132/
Because of the complications of the three-shift,
seven-day work week of the Secretariat, the Management
Staff examiners had taken a close look at absenteeism
and unnecessary routines that might develop from
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improper distribution and work flow. They found that
absenteeism was not excessive and that there were no
questionable routines; among the conclusions of the
study was the statement that
discussion with the Cable Secretary
gave every indication of prudent administra-
tion and an intelligent:. appreciation of recog-
nized management practices acquired through
past experience. 133/
positions; but in August 1955, before the
new positions were filled, an Agency-wide limit on
personnel ceilings reduced the T/O tol (positions. 134/
B. Proposed Merger with the Signal Center, October 1955
In September 1955 the DDS requested the chief of
the Management Staff to make a study of the Cable
Secretariat and the Signal Center to determine the
feasibility of merging them.
as sent a copy
of the DDS memorandum requesting the study, and he im-
positions gave the Secretariat a
that he would cooperate
fully. Along with his offer of'cooperation, however,
statement of his personal views on the
proposed merger.
,He believed that the Secretariat was properly
placed organizationally and that to merge its
went
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administrative functions with "the very important --
but totally unrelated -= technical function of the
Signal Center . . . would be a step backward." He
said that transfer of the Secretariat out of the
Office of the Director would deny the Director and
his Deputies the clear-cut and direct command
channels that existed. In conclusion he said:
I believe that the office of the Cable
Secretariat must remain a part of the
Director's Office. It could not, in my
opinion, function as efficiently as a::part
of any office other than that of the
Director. 135/
of the Management Staff did
the feasibility study on the proposed merger, and
to finish by 7 November.
that he hoped
thereafter, but on 16 November
with an IG study of the Office of Communications.
They discussed Secretariat-Signal Center relationships
and functions, andl (told
about his many
discussions with) including the last one
in which the 7 November completion date had been
established.
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heard no more from and heard noth-
ing more about the Management Staff study. On 11 Janu-
ary 1956, however,
IG study of Communications
was issued, 136/ and ~learned that the IG study
had included consideration of the Management Staff
study and contained a statement to the effect that al-
though the results of the Management Staff study had
not been approved, it was understood that there would
be a Management Staff recommendation that the Cable
Secretariat and the Signal Center be merged. The IG
report went on to say that such a merger would be
organizationally logical but it should be implemented
in slow stages -- to permit the "already overloaded
Signal Center Staff" to adjust to the consolidation.
The IG study then recommended that
The DCI approve the consolidation of the Signal
Center and the Agency Cable Secretariat/Message
Center but that such consolidation, if approved
by the DCI, be implemented gradually in such a
manner that it will not impose an undue burden
on the Chief and the Deputy Chief, Signal
Center.
On 17 February 1956 the-Director of Communications,
indicated his non-concurrence in the IG
recommendation: "Do not concur at this time. The OC
views have been passed to the Chief Management Staff
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in connection with the study made by his office." 137/
The D/OC's non-concurrence effectively killed
the merger proposal, and the Cable Secretariat continued
as a component of the Office of the Director.*
C. The Second Table of Organization Study, April 1957
Although positions had been added to the T/O
of the Cable Secretariat in August 1955, manpower
continued to be a pressing problem; and in November
1956 the DDS requested a second Management Staff
study of the personnel requirements of the Secretariat.
The study actually did not begin until 22 April 1957.?
chief of the Management Staff, then assigned
to the job. finished the
fact-finding phase in May, but it was not until
12 August that the study in final form was submitted
to he EO/DCI. 139/
The study made three recommendations; the Manage-
ment Staff believed that.if these recommendations
were approved and implemented, man-hour productivity
could be increased and there would be no need for
* On 1 February 1972, however, the Cable Secretariat
was transferred from the Office of the Director to the
Office of Communications. 138/
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increasing the T/O of the Secretariat. ~ and his
staff considered the recommendations and decided that
although none of them seemed likely to provide a sig-
nificant increase in productivity, collectively they
might diminish some of the manpower problems; so
these recommendations were adopted:
(1) Convert the two rotating shifts, the
'Day Shift and the Evening Shift, to straight
shifts.
(2) Establish a procedure for the periodic
submission of individual production reports.
(3) Meet increased work demands of a temporary
nature, resulting from periods of international
unrest, by activating "Situation Emergency."
The "Situation Emergency" plan was spelled out
in the report. Generally it provided for the shifting
of Secretariat personnel from routine jobs to activities
affected by the emergency, the temporary use of
cleared new employees from the Interim Assignment
Section of O/Pers, the TDY assignment of people from
other Agency components, and a sort of do-it-yourself
system in cable distribution to the DDP components.
In addition to the three recommendations, the
Management Staff report contained a number of suggestions
about minor changes in reporting and administrative
procedures, most of which the Secretariat accepted.
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the other study was submitted. In July 1957
D. The Scheduled Overtime Study, July 1957
When the report of the second Management Staff study
of the Secretariat's T/O was submitted on 12 August,
the covering memorandum, signed by stated that
During the course of the study, it was observed
that the Cable Secretariat staffs its week-end
shifts on an overtime basis. In order to
determine whether this method of staffing rep-
resents the most efficient utilization of
personnel and an economical expenditure of
funds, the Cable Secretary in the interest of
good management, has invited the Management
Staff to review with him the problem of staffing
over week-ends. This problem will be subject
of a separate study. 140/
The "separate study" was actually begun before
termine the answer to the question "Does the Cable
Secretariat policy of scheduling overtime represent
the most economical approach to meeting its present
returned to the Secretariat to try to de-
week-end staffing requirements?" The search for the
answer was based on one assumption: "The elimination
of scheduled overtime must result in a monetary
savings" -- an assumption that appeared to be the
answer to the question.
One must wonder whether or not 0 was
technically correct when he said that the Cable
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Secretary had "invited" the Management Staff to
make a study of the overtime problem. had
been struggling with the same question since he
became Cable Secretary in 1952, and he had concluded
that the answer to the question was "yes" and that the
assumption was false.
Several times over the years between 1952 and
1957 and his staff had studied the alternative
to scheduled overtime -- the establishment of a.
staggered work-week, which would require the addition
of a fourth shift to be manned by eight or ten ad-
ditional employees. The mathematics of the studies
always led to the same conclusion: the cost of the
overtime was much less than the cost of the fourth
platoon. The word "overtime," however, was a bad one
in the Agency's management lexicon, so did not
object to the Management Staff having a try at the
problem.
If he had -- and if his objection had been
supported in high places -- he might have saved the
Management Staff a lot of time and manpower. The
study went on and was completed and submitted to the
EO/DCI on 23 October 1957. 141/
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It was a very thorough study; the mathematical
analysis was impeccable, and it inexorably led to the
conclusion that the cost of the scheduled overtime
was $8,099.85 less than the cost of any alternative
device. The single recommendation in the report of
the study was that the Cable Secretariat continue the
use of scheduled overtime. On 26 October Q the
EO/DCI, approved the recommendation. 142/
E. Cable Secretariat-Signal Center Operations,
February 1958
Although the proposal to combine the Cable Sec-
retariat and the Signal Center had been laid to rest
in October 1955,* apparently the DDS was not fully
convinced that managerial effectiveness was best served
by having two components in different directorates
doing the same kind of work -- handling cable traffic.
In October 1957 he requested the Management
Staff to examine Cable Secretariat and Signal Center
operations and come up with the answer to a complex
question:
Can any combination of functions, tasks, pro-
cedures or activities bring about a saving in
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manpower, and are certain refinements now
carried on for the Office of the Director
necessary? 143/
senior examiner on his staff. During the latter part
assigned the study to a
of October and all of November
virtually lived
in the Secretariat and the Signal Center and observed
and recorded the details of all of the procedures in
both units. Then he devised a series of step-by-
step flow charts covering the procedures, carefully
coordinating everything with the chiefs and deputy
chiefs of both components. He completed his report in
January 1958, and on 7 February
submitted the
report to White, the DDS, who approved it on 11 February.
The report described the investigative methods
used, included the series of flow charts illustrating
processing activities, and reached five specific
conclusions -- all of which led to two recommendations:
a. That the distribution of functions and
activities of the Signal Center and the Cable
Secretariat remain as they are.
b. That the question concerning procedural
duplication between these components and the
question concerning unnecessary refinements
in Cable Secretariat service to the DCI be
dismissed as being more seeming than real.
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F. Conclusions
Perhaps it should be noted at this point that of
the five Management Staff studies of Cable Secretariat
operations during the 1955-1958 period only one was
positively productive -- the first one, which recom-
mended a increase in the Secretariat's T/O.
The October 1955 study of the feasibility of com-
bining the Secretariat and the Signal Center came up
with definitely negative recommendations, as did the
July 1957 study of overtime practices and the
February 1958 study of possible duplication in Cable
Secretariat and Signal Center procedures. The
April 1957 study of the Secretariat's manpower prob-
lem., although it recommended
changes, produced nothing of
One must conclude that
We are pleased to report that in the conduct of
comment in his 12 August 1957 memorandum to
order. There was ample justification for the
some minor administrative
real value.
had studied his
own problems thoroughly and had put his own house in
this study, the Executive Assistant [
observed many management practices
which were evidences of efficient and progressive
executive performance on the part of the Cable
Secretary.
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VII. New Technology in Cable Processing, 1957 - 1960
A. Early Developments
Needless to say, both the Cable Secretariat and
the Signal Center were constantly aware of the
possibilities of applying technological advances to
all phases of cable processing. As noted earlier,
for example, with the sophistication of the teletype
capability, the Signal Center had converted the
Preliminary Dissemination system to Teletype Dis-
semination; and with the development of new appli-
cations of the basic offset printing process, the
Secretariat had adopted offset for the reproduction
of copies of incoming cables. During the 1957-1960
period this adaption of technological developments
to cable processing became one of the major concerns
of all Agency components involved in communications.
Some of the early adaptions of technology tended
to create as well as solve problems. For example, in
1956 and 1957 the Signal Center converted the high-
volume overseas signal centers from manual cipher to
machine cipher, a change that greatly increased the
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transmission capability of the system. The effect on
the Cable Secretariat, however, was quite different.
Under the manual system the Signal Center had
provided the Secretariat with offset multilith masters
for incoming cables, and the Secretariat simply used
the masters to reproduce distribution copies; under
the machine cipher system the Secretariat got raw
teletype copies of the machine-deciphered cables,
and these had to be edited and retyped on offset
masters before distribution copies could be prepared
-- a considerable addition to the Secretariat's
workload.
While the Secretariat was still developing ways
to absorb this additional burden, the DDP records
integration system was undergoing technological changes;
and in the fall of 1957 the assistant
Executive Officer of the DDP, asked the Secretariat to
provide DDP cable originators and action units with
a special records integration (RI) copy of each cable
-- both outgoing and incoming -- in addition to the
standard distribution. This the Secretariat did. The
RI copies made a significant improvement in the
indexing of cables, but it also put another burden on
the Secretariat.
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Not only did some of the applications of tech-
nology -- like the Signal Center's machine cipher
system and RI's indexing system -- create peripheral
problems, but also some of the attempts to apply
technology were fruitless. As early as October 1954
then the deputy Cable Secretary, had
suggested that the Secretariat's typing, proofreading,
and duplication chores might be drastically reduced
by the adoption of flexowriters. In January 1955
the Office of Communications rejected the proposal
as being impractical. did not give up the
idea, however, and in September 1955 he visited the
cable processing center at the Department of State
and learned that the use of flexowriters was --
contrary to OC's judgment -- quite practical. State
had developed a method whereby reproducible masters
could be derived semi-automatically through the use
of teletype tapes and Friden flexowriters. This had
required some changes in cable format -- changes
related to the transmission of digits and unusual
words -- but it had. worked.
discussed the new technique with
agreed that it was worth a try.
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On 23 September 1955 proposed to the Director
of Communications that he reconsider October
1954 suggestion and give the flexowriter system a trial
run -- adding that if the trial was successful the
Secretariat's typing staff could be reduced by one-half
to two-thirds, which would mean a saving of as much as
$50,000 a year. 144/ On 4 October replied
that he was agreeable to "modifying current message
preparation procedures on a trial basis," 145/ and
he directed his staff to make the necessary changes for.
a one-week test with station. He
stipulated that at the conclusion of the test an
evaluation would be made from a communications stand-
point to determine whether or not the adoption of the
procedure would result in a net saving to the Agency.
The test was conducted during the week of 14 Novem-
ber 1955. The Secretariat had borrowed two flexo-
writers for the occasion; the machines were not ex-
pressly designed to use teletype tape, but they served
the purpose. The Signal Center furnished the Sec-
retariat with apes of cables from
during the week, ^ of them were processed through
the flexowriter, and the average time.required for
the preparation of masters was reduced from 12 minutes
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per cable to 6 minutes, a clear indication that the
test had been successful -- as far as the Sec-
retariat was concerned.
As far as the Signal Center was concerned,
however, the trial run was a near disaster.
transmissions were routed through the Army's
radio-teletype network, and they reached the Signal
Center in badly garbled condition; the Signal Center
staff did its best to unscramble the garbles --.a
time-consuming task -- but even then only
Tapes could be processed through the flexowriters:'.
in the Secretariat. On balance, the test run was a
failure; it proved that the teletype tape-flexo-
writer could be effective only with accurate, un-
garbled transmission of cipher text from the field to
headquarters. The. project was abandoned.
A year later, in November 1956, a second flexo-
writer experiment was launched -- this one in a sort
of reverse direction. both
advocates of the use of the flexowriter, proposed
that Priority TD's and dispatches be originated on
the flexowriter. The theory was that the clear-text
tape generated could be used by both the Signal
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1
Center and RI. The proposal was accepted on a trial
basis, but the Signal Center soon found that the
tapes generated varied in format and were not ac-
curate enough to meet the Center's rigid standards;
that project, too, was abandoned.
I 25X1
B. The L___1 Experiment
Although the two flexowriter experiments had
proved to be failures, was still con-
vinced that the machine could be useful in improving
the Agency's communications system. In February 1959
he completed a paper, "Proposal for the Rapid Trans-
mittal of Information Reports and Customer Reactions,"
and circulated copies among the Agency offices con-
cerned with communications. The paper came to the
attention of the DCI, who decided that it warranted
serious consideration and assigned the job to a
planning group that had been appointed late in 1958.
The group, given the somewhat grandiose official
title of "The Agency Planning Group for Mechanically
Integrated Reporting and Communications System," was
composed of 22 men. of the DDP was
chairman; there were four other DDP members, including
represented the Secretariat;
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and there were four DDI members, ten members from
DDS components, and one representative from what was
then the oft-ice of the Deputy Director for Coordi-
nation. 146/
The group met on 19 February 1959 to discuss
25X1 the paper. What proposed was, in brief,
the establishment of a pilot model for a new field
reporting system in which information reports would be
originated in TD format using a flexowriter; the by-
product tape would then be mechanically encrypted
and pouched to headquarters, where it would be mechani-
cally decrypted and turned over to the Cable Sec-
retariat for processing on a flexowriter that was.a
twin to the one used in the field to,originate the
report. proposed that station be
used for the pilot project and that the experiment
get under way as soon as possible -- he said that he
was prepared to go to immediately to set up
the procedure so that the test could be in progress
while the planning group was considering the other
aspects of his proposal. The other aspects were those
concerned with the various uses that headquarters
components could make of the decrypted flexowriter
tape after it arrived in the Secretariat.
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The planning group discussed the proposal at
great length, each member raising questions about the
impact of,the system on his own particular component.
At the end of the discussion it was agreed that the
pilot project be initiated as
memorandum recommending to the Deputy Directors that
the pilot project be approved. 147/ The. Deputy
Directors approved the recommendation, F--] went
I 25X1
1959. 148/
---- ._....... u ~~.~ 'i-LLP s secretary,
of the Office of the DDS, to draft a
project began on 25 March
During the first six weeks of the trial run, only
25X1 system, all of them dispatches.
The Secretariat
processed these on a borrowed flexowriter, and the
nal
~- ~~
proposal proviaea
for the Secretariat to process the tapes until the
system became fully operational, after which the
processing would be handled either by RID or the DDP
operating divisions. By the end of June a total of
1
I
had been sent
average transmission time, from typing to the
automatic retyping in the Secretariat, was 4.9 days;
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sent to the DDP, the DDI, and the DDS a memorandum
advising them that the preliminary trial run had shown
that
reproduction and dissemination procedures.*
In July the chairman of the planning group,
and the total time elapse between origination in
Munich and receipt at the desk of the DDI analyst was
7.2 days -- a vast improvement over the 54 days
formerly required by the traditional pouch and manual
It is clear from the results of the 0 test
the 0 system is feasible. From a tech-
nical point of view, the system works well and
can be made to work even better. The results
we hoped for can be attained or clearly could
be attained. 149/
said that the planning group recommended that
test link be continued and that additional
links be established at
The Deputy Directors promptly approved the recommen-
dation, 150/ and the expansion of the
ystem
went forward. The Cable Secatariat continued to
process the tapes until February 1960, and then the
* The 54-day figure was given in
I 25X1 February 1959 proposal.
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responsibility was transferred to EE, WE, and FE
divisions of the DDP. Since that time the system
has continued as the major means of transmitting
dispatch material.
C. Automated Cryptographic Transmission
25X1 Meanwhile, 0 planning group had been working
on another phase of technological development in com-
munications. As noted earlier, an attempt to adapt
the flexowriter technique to the reproduction and
dissemination of mechanically decrypted cables had
been a failure because of imperfections in the
electrical transmission of mechanically encrypted
cables. In December 1958 and his staff
submitted to the newly formed planning group a com-
prehensive description of the Agency's communi-
cations system, including recommendations for
improvement. 151/
The major recommendation was for a program that
would completely automate the cryptographic process.
The program called for improved circuits and new
equipment that would permit transmission of encoded
cables at the rate of 100 words a minute, automatic
decrypting without garbles, and production of a
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clear-text teletype tape that would serve as a
master for reproduction of distribution copies.
Such a system would relieve the Signal Center of the
garble problem and the Secretariat of the reproduction
problem.
The planning group recommended approval of the
proposal, the DCI approved, the equipment was procured,
and the program began to develop. The first new
circuits to use the new equipment operated at only
60 words a minute.-- neither the foreign telephone
company relays nor the M-19 teletypes then in use
could cope with the 100-word speed. By the end of
1960, however, the newer high-speed M-28 teletypes
had been installed and the foreign relay capability
had been improved; the system was operating at the
100-word-per-minute rate; 152/ and the cable
processing in both the Signal Center and the Secre-
tariat had been vastly simplified.
D. Improvement of TD Processing
In January 1958 the Cable Secretary had intro-
duced a refinement in TD processing that later dove-
tailed neatly with the fully automated transmission
of encrypted cables. new procedure was
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relatively simple. By making some changes in the
format of cables at the point of origin, the Cable
Secretariat could provide the action unit with a
teletype master in TD form, the area division reports
numbers and the
officers could simply add
distribution information and return the master to the
Secretariat, and the Secretariat could then use the
master for'the reproduction and dissemination of TD's.
This procedure would virtually eliminate the typing
of TD's by reports officers and would simplify TD
dissemination. 153/
proposal was approved, and on 10 March
1959 Helms, the DDP/COP, sent instructions to the
field by book dispatch. 154/ The new system began
early in April, and by the end of the month Helms
sent another book dispatch to the field:
The new system for preparing and handling
intelligence reports can already be set
down as a definite success in most areas,
even though the system is only a few weeks
old. Cabled reports are, more and more,
being disseminated exactly as you have
written them. 155/
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I VIII. Changes in Procedures and Organization,
1959 - 1965
A. The Intelligence Watch*
In February 1959 the Chief of the DDP Foreign
Intelligence (FI) Staff proposed to the DDP/COP that
a team of intelligence watch officers be organized
to provide immediate processing and dissemination of
the most urgent intelligence information cables at first during non-duty hours only and possibly,
after a trial run, on a round-the-clock schedule..
The purpose of the group would not be to.duplicate
the function of the regular cable duty officers but
rather to provide the DDP area divisions and staffs
with instant information.
The group would be composed of a chief, an
administrative assistant, and six watch officers. it
would be called the Intelligence Watch Officer
Group (IWOG - later shortened to IW), and it would
* The development of the Intelligence Watch is dis-
cussed in detail in Studies in InteZZigence, Vol. 14,
No. 1, Spring, 1970, p. 37, "Rapid Transit in Clan-
destine Intelligence." Much of the information in this
section is based on that article.
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handle cables bearing IMMEDIATE and PRIORITY
precedences and, when time permitted, selected
ROUTINE cables. It would be a component of the FI
Staff, but it would serve the entire DDP. Physically
it was to be located as close as possible to the
Cable Secretariat.
The DDP approved the proposal, and by mid-1959
had been appointed chief of the group.
who had served as deputy Cable Secretary from
August 1952 to January 1954, had just returned from
an assignment overseas at an FE Division post.
his group, and the function of the group were welcomed
by the Cable Secretariat, and after some complicated
space manipulation on the top floor of Wing Two of
L Building, space was arranged for them adjacent to,
and with immediate access to, the Secretariat quarters.
All of this took time, of course, and it was
.not until midnight on 5 February 1960 that the IW
actually began operations. The procedure was the
immediate release of intelligence information cables
to the action unit and the simultaneous release of
TD's to information addressees. From the outset,
the IW used the device -- suggested of 25X1
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eliminating the distribution to information re-
cipients of cables that had been released as TD's.
This practice avoidedd1xlicate receipt of cable
information by many recipients, and it also re-
lieved the Cable Secretariat of a part of its
responsibility for TD handling. The IW used
new transmittal forms that notified TD recipients
that there would be no additional cable distribution
to them and notified action units if TD's were
being suspended pending release by the action unit.
The entire IW operation worked smoothly and in-
tegrated perfectly with Cable Secretariat pro-
cedures.
During March 1960, the IW processed
intelligence information cables during non-
duty hours, and _f them were released as
TD's. By May the IW non-duty hour operation had
demonstrated that IW-released TD's could be pro-
cessed for intelligence community distribution more
rapidly than those referred to the operating divi-
sions for release approval, and the IW function was
extended to a 24-hour schedule.
In effect, the IW operation not only pro-
vided the DDP components with instant information --
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the original purpose -- but also it achieved a major
improvement in the processing of TD's.for distribu-
tion both inside the Agency and to the non-Agency
members of the community. By the end of 1960, TD's*
were being disseminated to the community within a
few hours after receipt at headquarters. During the
first half of 1960 the average TD dissemination was
that the IW operation was not solely responsible
for the breakthrough in TD handling; field reports had
improved in format., transmission and Signal Center
processing had reached greater speed and accuracy,
and the Secretariat had developed more rapid repro-
duction and distribution techniques. In any event,
by the end of 1960 the TD system was in excellent
working order.
B. TD Dissemination to the White House
In late April 1961, acting on instructions from
* In November 1959 the TD had been officially re-
titled "Information Report" and thereafter bore that
label when disseminated. Within the Agency, however,
the TD name continued in use for some time.
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Helms, who was chief of DDP operations,
(chief of FI) and
at the White House with Robert Komer of McGeorge
Bundy's office. It seemed that Bundy, Special
Assistant to the President for National Security
Affairs, wanted to be provided with the more im-
portant Clandestine Services information reports.
that Bundy
didn't want all CS reports, just the more significant
ones. In reporting the Komer discussion to Helms
25X1 on 27 April, said that it had been determined
that only certain categories of reports would be sent
to Bundy's office:
A copy of whatever dissemination
of the Cable Secretariat provides to the DCI
with an indication to the DCI that this par-
ticular report has gone to Bundy.
01
25X1
E
25X1
0
'
0 25X1
A copy of the~[the disseminations by
letter] that go to any member of the USIB by
name.
The more significant disseminations made up
from pouched reports which, if sent to Bundy's
office, would also go to the Director's office.
156/
oncluded his report to Helms with the remark
had mentioned the new procedure
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Jack wanted me to equip you with this information
so that you could mention it to the Director on
Friday morning at the Staff Meeting, because
Jack's notes show, he says, that the Director,
after due consideration and discussion, had
said send them "all' 1 ::1
On 28 April the chief of FI
Reports Control
sent to the DDP chief reports officers a memorandum
informing them that dissemination to Bundy's office
would not affect the reporting channel from OCI to
Brigadier General Clifton in the White House, that
they would recognize the Bundy disseminations by the
symbol EXO/BUNDY, and that cable duty officers would
be responsible for .the actual dissemination. 157/
With the procedures established and the affected
people informed, dissemination to Bundy began on
Monday, 1 May 1961.
At that time and for about six months thereafter
the TD's were delivered only during daytime on-duty
25X1 hours. In October
was informed by FI~ I that
a Mr. Debrevoise in Bundy's office had requested that
deliveries be made on a round-the-clock, seven-day-a-
week schedule. The day-time deliveries were to con-
tinue to be made to Bundy's Executive Office Building
office, and after 1730 deliveries were to go to the
Situation Room at the White House. 158/ Round-the-
clock service began on 30 October 1961.
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C. Cable Processing
The two flexowriter experiments described earlier
had failed largely because of technical imperfections
in the transmission systems then in use. By the
spring of 1960 the installation of new circuits and
the complete, automation of the ciphering system had
corrected the imperfections, and most cables from
the field were being received in a format that could
go directly into the Secretariat's reproduction and
distribution system. There was no longer a barrier
to the use of the flexowriter for the automatic
typing of masters of incoming cables. By this time,
however, there had been new developments in the
technology of copying, and the flexowriter was no
longer the answer to the Secretariat's problem.
In early 1960 the Haloid Xerox Office Copier,
Model 914, came on the market. 159/ In November 1959
the machine had been demonstrated at a business show
in Washington; and had
examined it and had decided that it was a piece of
equipment that offered a breakthrough in cable pro-
cessing. The Xerox copier not only produced copies
automatically at a rate of six a minute but it also
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25X1
could make offset masters from a paper original --
masters that could be used in satellite reproduction
and distribution centers, such as those in OCI and
OCR, and were good for clear production of as
many as 500 copies.
As soon as the Xerox 914 was available for
rental, chief of
the Printing Services Division (PSD) of OL, to
arrange for a 914 to be placed in the Secretariat.
Xerox machine was installed in the Secretariat in
March 1960. It was an instant success.
A rental contract was arranged, and by the
end of July more than 50,000 masters and copies had
been made on the 914. then arranged for the
rental of a second machine to give the Secretariat a
back-up capability that insured continuation of
processing in the event of breakdown and during periods
of preventive maintenance. The rental cost of the
first machine had been absorbed by PSD, but on 1 July
1960 the Secretariat assumed the rental cost of the
914, in accordance with an earlier agreement between
lid this -- on a. free-trial basis -- and the
, and for the second machine,.which~
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was delivered and installed in October.
The master-making capability of the Xerox 914
eliminated one of the most time-consuming chores in
the Cable Secretariat -- the typing, proofing, and
retyping of incoming cables. The process with the
914 was simple and fast. The teletype copy from the
Signal Center was placed on a photo-trimmer, and the
teletype heading -- of concern only to the Signal
Center -- was cut off. Then the confirmation at the
end of the page or the end of the cable was removed.
The cable itself was then pasted on a cable form,
using a continuation-page form if the cable ran
more than one page, and the copy was then ready for the
914. The time required for the procedure was between
15 and 45 seconds, depending on the length of the
cable.
From the original copy the 914 produced masters
at the rate of five a minute, about 12 seconds for
each. The old method had required about 12 minutes
for the preparation of the copy for a master and about
six minutes for the reproduction of each master. The
914 process was from five to six times as fast as the
old method.
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The Xerox 914 could not, of course, absorb all
of the typing and reproduction chores of the Secre-
tariat. In January 1961 ade a study of cable
processing in the Secretariat. The study showed that
16 percent of incoming cables were received in the
manual system in the Signal Center and had to be
processed manually in the Secretariat; 5.5 percent
were intelligence information cables on tapes pouched
to headquarters, and the Secretariat processed the
tapes; 27 percent were received in the machine
cipher system from overseas stations not yet equipped
with the automated high-speed equipment and still
using the old cable format, which required manual
processing; 51.3 percent of all incoming cables were
processed on the Xerox 914. 160/ The study did not,
of course, include the operations of the non-CIA cable
branch in Q Building,* which up to this point had
been using the thermofax system for reproduction of
non-CIA cables. In mid-summer of 1961, however, a
third Xerox 914 and an offset press were obtained
* See below, p. 160.
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and placed in the Q Building branch.
Although the cost of using the Xerox equipment
in cable processing was much less than that of any
other known method, the increased use of the machines
from 1961 to 1965 brought the annual cost of operation
to about $25,000 -- figure that suggested that the
cost of outright purchase of the 914's might be less
than the cost of rental. In January 1965
suggested this possibility to
Corporation would sell new machines for $29,500 or
would sell the leased machines for less with full
credit for rentals paid up to a limit of $L4,500. 161/
and his staff considered the problem
thoroughly and decided that it would be better to
continue the rental; plans were made to revise the
cable processing system, plans that might materially
reduce the use of the Xerox, and besides, a new
model of the 914 -- the 2400 -- was.about to be put
on the market. 162/ When,'.incidentally, the Xerox
2400 did come out later in 1965, the rental cost was
too high to be justified by the benefits of the in-
creased production speed, and stuck with the'
914's.
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D. Cable Secretariat-OCR Cable Branch Merger
1. Rationale and Procedure
As noted earlier, the processing and dis-
tribution of non-CIA cables had been assigned to the
DDI Office of Collection and Dissemination (OCD) --
a logical assignment at the time because of the
dissemination responsibilities of the office.
When OCD was reorganized and re-named the Office
of Central Reference (OCR) in August 1955, the non-
CIA cable function was retained. Because of the
physical proximity of OCR to the other components of
the DDI, this arrangement worked very well as far as
OCI, ORR, and OSI were concerned. The DDP components,
however, were located in the buildings along the
reflecting pool, some distance from OCR, and the re-
quirement for courier delivery delayed their
receipt of non-CIA cables. In September 1960
a special assistant to Bissell, the DDP, ap-
proached
with the proposition that the Secre-
tariat take over the OCR?cable branch and thus
eliminate the delay -- the Secretariat was, of course,
located within the DDP complex.
agreed that the best way to get
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the proposition considered was first to advise
and then refer the matter to the Management Staff for
so that the DCI would know what was going on
study.
took care of informing I , and on
and said that he
thought that the Bissell proposal had some merit and
that he was referring it to White, the DDS, for study
by the Management Staff.
function. 163/
The Management Staff assigned
he would cooperate fully; but he also pointed out
that because of the nature of the requirements
governing the dissemination of non-CIA cables, he was
not particularly interested in acquiring the
the study --
of the Secretariat staffing and overtime. After a
preliminary look at. the problem, came up
with a statement that the purpose of the study would
be to determine
what effect the transfer of the non-CIA cable
dissemination function to the Cable Secretariat
would have on the speed of service to various
Agency components, and whether the present
dissemination system could be speeded up. 164/
In the section of his report dealing with "facts
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25X1
bearing on the problem" ointed out that the
.transfer would obviously speed up the delivery of non-
CIA cables to the DDP but would slow down dissemination
to other Agency components.
The speed of delivery, however, was not the only
factor to consider. study pointed out that
the Agency would be in the new building within a
year, that the transfer of the OCR cable branch would
also have to be accompanied by the transfer of the
RID element that disseminated non-CIA cables, and that
immediate transfer would require additional Cable
Secretariat space for ^ persons and 26 safes in L
Building, which was already badly overcrowded.
Taking all of the factors into consideration,
in by Amory (the DDI), Bissell (the DDP), and
physically the non-CIA cable function remain "in the
OCR Cable Branch and the RID until the move to the
new building" and that administratively the function
be transferred to the Secretariat in preparation for
the physical merger at the time of the move. 165/
2. The Non-CIA Cable Branch
The recommendation of the study was concurred
came up with the recommendation that
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(the EO/DCI); and on 5 February 1961 White (the DDS),
issued an Agency Notice announcing the change in
responsibility and setting the effective date as
22 January, with the physical merger of personnel,
facilities, and records to be deferred until the
move to the new building. 166/ By the end of
February the non-CIA Cable Branch of the Secre-
tariat was established in Q Building -- RID
people had been transferred to the branch to complete
the centralization of the function.
There was an immediate speed-up in the delivery
of non-CIA cables to DDP components -- largely through
the use of Secretariat couriers in addition to the
Agency couriers on which the OCR cable branch had
depended -- and the speed of delivery to DDI com-
ponents was maintained.
In March 1961 the total cable volume handled by
the Secretariat, including the non-CIA branch, ex-
This included a 44-percent increase in CIA cables and
an 18-percent increase in non-CIA cables over the
1960 monthly averages. 167/
The increase in the handling of non-CIA cables
compounded an already difficult situation. The OCR
ceeded any previously recorded
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and RID people now merged in the branch had been
processing non-CIA cables for different customers
and with different methods to meet different re-
quirements. The former OCR people had to be re-
trained to process cables to meet DDP requirements,
and the former RID people had to adapt to the re-
quirements of non-DDP components. At the same
time, all of them had to change old methods to meet
as far as possible the dissemination standards ap-
plied by the Secretariat to CIA cables.
In spite of the increased volume of non-CIA
cables and the re-training problems, the branch
succeeded in doing the job it was designed to do.
On 30 March 1961 -- less than two months after the
merger became effective -- the chief of WH Division,
J. C. King, sent to the DDP a memorandum saying that
"since the recent consolidation of the OCR and FI/[::]
elements into the Cable Secretariat," dissemination
of State and Defense cables to WH had been "speeded
up from five and one-half and often more hours to an
average of about one hour after receipt in the
Agency." 168/ was informed of the WH memorandum
and immediately passed the compliment on to the
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of whom were women -- non-CIA cable
branch in a memorandum addressed to
you and your office in making possible this improved
service to WH." 169/
3. The Branch Move to the New Building
By the last week of September 1961 the new
Headquarters Building had neared completion to the
point that a number of DDI components were being
moved into permanent quarters there.
Among the first elements to move was the CIA
Watch of OCI and its production staff, one of the
chief of the branch, adding "My thanks to
primary customers for non-CIA cables. To avoid an
interruption of service,. the non-CIA cable branch was
moved to the new building at the same time. The
Secretariat's permanent quarters were not yet finished,
and the branch began operations in temporary quarters
on the ground floor. Because the DDP components
were not scheduled to move until several months'
later, three members of the branch, instead of going
to the new building, moved into the Secretariat space
in L Building and continued to service the DDP
elements. This arrangement continued until March 1962,
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when the Cable Secretariat as a unit moved into
' permanent quarters in the new building.*
E. Special Processing
1. DCI Selects
25X1
On 1 December 1961 appointed
, who was the Executive Assistant to the
DCI, the DDCI, the DDP, and the CCP/COP books of
cables arranged by geographic areas, each area
group preceded by a summary page covering all of the
-cables in the group. Within each group the cables were
arranged in the order of descending urgency -- a de-
termination that was made by the cable duty officer,
who also prepared the summaries. 171/
The same kind of book was prepared for non-CIA
cables, using the same method of grouping and
* See below, p. 167.
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DDCI, as the Cable Briefing Officer for the new
Director, John McCone. 170/ This position had not
existed before -- the function had been performed on.
25X1 an ad hoc basis by
New procedures
25X1 had to be devised, so began to provide the
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I
summarizing. Apparently the book device for
handling DCI Selects was effective, for it has con-
tinued in use since that time.
2. State Cables
About two years after the change in the pro-
cessing of PCI Selects, a major change was made in
the processing of State Department cables. Until
April 1963 State messages were delivered to the
Agency in 17 copies. The non-CIA cable unit, both
before and after its transfer to the Secretariat,
prepared the copies for distribution. This process
involved logging, handprinting the dissemination
list on one copy for the files, handprinting a name
and address on each of the other copies, and then
sending the copies to the individual addressees; it
was necessary to make additional copies if the dis-
semination list exceeded 16 addressees. In addition
to the work involved there was the disadvantage of
an addressee not knowing who the other addressees were
-- often a source of confusion and misunderstanding.
In March 1963 this problem came to the at-
tention of Lyman Kirkpatrick, then the Executive
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Director,* and he asked to try to find a
solution. solution was simple but ef-
fective; reduce the number of copies received from
State from 17 to four,.and the Secretariat would
take care of the entire distribution in the Agency.
a 19 April memorandum to Kirkpatrick, 172/ and Kirk-
patrick approved. Paul Borel, the AD/OCR, made the
necessary arrangements with State. Thereafter the
Secretariat received four copies of State cables;
two were sent immediately to the OCI duty officer,
one was sent to the Secretariat duty officer to scan
for DCI interest, and the fourth was processed for
distribution copies -- each copy bearing a complete
list of addressees.
spelled out his propsal in some detail in
F. Adjustment to the New Building**
The Agency's master plan for the move into the new
,
r
patrick
62) s former position 2 May
_
10 Apr 62). In May 1962 was aul~cjl ~ '
+
0 pppinted Inspector
General
Ki
k
'
y
was eliminated, and the position of Executive ) e for
* In April 1962 the EO/DCI position held b
** The undocumented information in this section is
based on Cable Secretariat Monthly Reports and on the
recollections of the original author.
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Headquarters Building called for the Cable Secre-
tariat, the Signal Center, and the Intelligence
Watch to move simultaneously on 10 March 1962 --
as noted earlier, the non-CIA cable branch had moved
into temporary quarters in the new building in
September 1961., and on 1 March 1962 the branch moved
into the permanent Secretariat quarters. The
10 March three-unit move had to be carefully co-
ordinated and planned so that there would be no
interruption of cable and TO processing at any time.
Before the move the Signal Center had installed
duplicate equipment in its area of the new building
and had arranged the circuits so that by throwing a
series of switches cables could be received simul-
taneously at both locations.
The equipment and circuitry had been thoroughly
tested, and the Signal Center was prepared to throw
the switches immediately upon notification that the
Cable Secretariat and the Intelligence Watch were
shutting down and leaving for the new building. The
move began on schedule at 0730 on 10 March. The
Secretariat's area in the new building had been com-
pletely furnished and had been stocked with all
necessary supplies, so within a few hours the Secretariat
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was doing business as usual. During these few hours,
of course, Secretariat personnel were processing
cables in the new building, using the non-CIA cable
branch facilities and other pre-installed equipment.
There was no interruption of service. The Secre-
tariat's move was planned and managed by
and he fully deserved the praise given him
by the DDS. 173/
During the first month in the new building the
Cable Secretariat processed a total of
the second highest monthly volume recorded up to that
time. New equipment and better work areas improved
work-flow patterns and permitted efficient, high-volume
production without overextending personnel.* The new
lounge area, equipped with basic kitchen equipment,
had an excellent effect on employee morale, particu-
larly that of the evening and midnight shifts. There
were problems, however; some of them were minor and
some major, but all of them required adjustment.
For example, the conveyor system that had been
installed between the Secretariat and the Signal
* By late 1963, however, it had become apparent that
the Secretariat area needed renovation and change to
improve operating efficiency. 174/ The work began in
March 1964 and was finally completed in December.
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Center had'proved to be totally unacceptable.
When it was tested before the two units moved into
the building it seemed to have been designed for the
movement of iron ore rather than pieces of paper.
.It was removed before the Secretariat occupied the
space; and until June 1962, when the pneumatic-tube
system was installed, cable traffic had to be hand-
carried between the Secretariat and the Signal Center.
Even then, however, there were restrictions on the
kinds of material that could be put into the pneumatic-
tube system. These restrictionswere relaxed some-
what after the adoption of a secure-mailing wrapper,
but Top Secret documents still had to be hand-
carried.
A more serious problem -- at least for several
months -- was that of servicing the Agency components
that had not yet moved into the new building. There
were several of these in the buildings along the
reflecting pool and the buildings in the old head-
quarters area on E Street. A part of the problem was
handled by maintaining a satellite operation in a
small office on the ground floor of L Building. The
office was open from 0700 to 1700 on work days, and
each morning at 0700 a Secretariat courier would
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deliver the overnight headquarters accumulation of
cable traffic to the satellite office, where the
components still located in the reflecting pool
area would pick up their cables. At 1700 when the
office closed, the day's take of outgoing traffic
would be taken by courier to the Secretariat for
processing. The E Street part of the problem was
solved by establishing a courier schedule of four
round trips each day between headquarters and the E
Street buildings. As the DDP components moved into
the new building the entire problem disappeared; those
Agency elements that did not move were not major
customers of the Cable Secretariat.
G. Records Management
In January 1963 the chief of the Signal Center,.
at the time, suggested that the Signal
25X1
Center archives be moved to the Cable Secretariat,
and the Director of Communications asked the Records
Management Staff to make a study of the possibility.
8 February -- even before the study got under way he made his position clear to Kirkpatrick:
knew of the proposal, of course, and on
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I would like to be on record that I do not want
these archives; however, it is quite possible .
that the best place for them is in my office. 175/
The Records Management Staff study was completed on
3 April 1963, and the report was put into coordination
channels. By 16 May the coordination was completed,
and sent the report along to Kirkpatrick
under a memorandum that indicated concurrence with
report's recommendations -- which were, in effect,
that the Signal Center archives be transferred to the
Cable Secretariat and that the transfer be effective
on 1 July 1963. 176/
had concurred in the recommendation, but
in a 17 May memorandum to Kirkpatrick he listed five
provisions qualifying his concurrence. 177/ The pro-
visions concerned, among other things, responsibility
for evaluation of cables for permanent retention, the
transfer of personnel from the Signal Center to the
Secretariat, and the provision of equipment. Kirk-
patrick approved the recommendations of the study and
agreed with qualifications, and on 1 July 1963
the archives were officially transferred to the Cable
Secretariat. Included in the transfer were
people and their positions -
archives assistants
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and one archives clerk. At that time, in accordance
with one of the recommendations of the Records
Management Staff report, the name of the archives
was changed to "The CIA Cable Reference File." Lack
of space prevented the immediate physical transfer of
the function, but by September space was available,
and the physical transfer took place.
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1
IX. Management and Administration, 1960 - 1965
A. Management Methods
1. The Cost Criterion
was a pre-McNamara advocate of
using the cost-effectiveness criterion in the evaluation
of government operations -- at least the operations of
the Cable Secretariat. Although cost-effectiveness, was
of interest to
supervisors and was reported
to them, his major use of it appeared to be internal
-- as a device to make the personnel of the Secre-
tariat aware of how well'they were doing. It should
be noted, of course, that the Secretariat -- unlike
most other Agency components -- was a production unit,
and its output could be measured specifically in
terms of the.number of cables processed during any
given period of time. Thus the nature of the opera-
tion lent itself neatly to the cost-effectiveness
concept. In any event, 0 used the cost factor,
and his employees' awareness of it, as a management
tool.
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1
1
The first of the reports on the cost of process-
ing cables in the Secretariat covered the six-month
period from 14 June to 12 December 1959. The report
covered all costs directly attributable to Secre-
tariat operations -- salaries, insurance, retirement,
travel, supplies, equipment, equipment rental,
printing services, and the like. The report showed
that during the six-month period the cost per cable
was $2.435.* A second report covering the next six-
month period,.from 13 December 1959 to 11 January 1960,?
showed the cost per cable to have been $2.438. Later,
after the merger with the OCR and IR non-CIA cable
units, the.reports were done on a fiscal-year basis and
arrived at a cost-per-cable figure combining CIA and
non-CIA cable processing. These fiscal-year reports
also developed productivity-per-person figures.
Bar-graph charts of the results of the cost
studies were posted, new figures were added at the
end of each fiscal year, and Secretariat employees
always had a measure of the effectiveness of their
performance. For example, they could see that in
* All reports on "Cable Secretariat Operations
Costs" are available in the files of the Cable
Secretariat.
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the cost per cable was $2.436; the T/O was
and the productivity was0 cables
never lost an opportunity for
involving his staff in the Cable Secretariat's
policies, procedures and problems. He believed
that all problems could be resolved by team
work of the people most concerned, once they
became involved; that communication must go
both ways -- up and down; that those who super
vise should reflect an awareness of what the
workers want from their leaders -- under-
standing and appreciation of the work being
done, and a willingness to throw a little
weight at the workload, rather than at people.
He made his views known to his Senior and
Junior supervisory staff; that he expected them
to communicate with the people they supervised;
that they abide by the same rules and regulations
that the employees were expected to observe;
that they give prompt consideration to grievances,
fiscal year 1960 the total of cables processed was
per position. In fiscal year 1965 the total cable
Perhaps the best analysis of managerial. 25X1
style is that written by'his deputy in September 1970:*
the productivity per position had increased to
cables.
2. Staff Meetings
the cost per cable had
been cut to: $1.54; the T/O had increased toll; and
* The analysis was written byl Iwho was
the author of the four-volume first draft of this
historical paper.
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and that every employee be treated with con-
sideration and with respect. He encouraged
the staff to discuss the problems of their
people and to try to arrive at a satisfactory
solution before passing the problem to the
Front Office.
philosophy; he also practiced it. Each month he held
what was called a "combined staff meeting," which was
attended by supervisory representatives from each of
the three shifts and by three or four non-supervisory
workers -- clerks, typists, press operators;;and.'.
couriers. Everyone was given an opportunity to speak
freely on any problems of procedure or policy and to
offer suggestions of how working procedures or con-
ditions could be improved. No suggestion was dis-
missed out of hand; a team of three people was ap-
pointed to study each suggestion and make a report of
the conclusions -- a recommendation for adoption,
not only preached this managerial
modification, or rejection --
and give the reasons
called this procedure
"The Cable Secretariat Management Review." It
proved to be a very effective way of involving, at one
time or another, almost all people at all levels in
the problems of the Secretariat.
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3. Other Management Methods
At a "combined staff meeting" early in 1958
suggested the publication of an office news-
paper; he pointed out that the three-shift operation
of the Secretariat tended to segment the staff and
that a news bulletin of some kind might be effective
in creating a sense of unity. His suggestion was
studied by one of the three-man teams; it was approved
and on 4 April 1958 the first issue of CabZe Secre-
tariat Comments was published. It was a six-page
mimeographed paper containing a statement of the ob-
jectives of the publication, a "meet-the-boss"
article describing background and experience,
items of information about the development of plans
for the new Headquarters Building, and a page of
humorous cartoons related to the day-to-day activities
of the office. The paper was an instant success
within the Secretariat and even attracted the attention
of the EO/DCI, who asked to be put on the
distribution list -- a request that was reported in
the second issue of the twice-monthly publication.
One of the problems of managing an office that
operated 24 hours a day seven days a week was that of
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developing a means of performance evaluation that
would ensure fair recognition of the performance of
those people who worked the evening and midnight
shifts and thus were not often directly observed by
front-office management. To do this, 0 estab-
lished specific performance standards for those jobs
that were measurable in terms of average production
and average rates of error. These were keyed to the
standard fitness report performance ratings -- weak,
adequate, proficient, strong, and outstanding. In
that way performance could be evaluated not only on
the basis of a supervisor's judgment but also on the
mathematical score determined by the application of
the performance standards to the individual's pro-
duction record. This procedure went into effect in
1963, and in February 1964 the first Quality Step
Increase (QSI) granted in the Cable Secretariat was
25X1 awarded to a GS-08 cable analyst, on
the basis of his work in exceeding the norms estab-
lished by the performance standards. During 1964 and
1965, QSI's were awarded to 16 Cable Secretariat em-
ployees, about equally divided among the three shifts,
in positions ranging in grade from GS-05 to GS-13.
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was always rising, and ~ was constantly looking
for new, faster, and less costly methods of cable
processing. True to his philosophy of management, he
centered hissearch in the Secretariat itself. In a
November 1963 memorandum addressed to all Secretariat
personnel he announced
. . an intensive program for implementation
in 1964 in which we plan to examine many of
our practices and procedures and to effect im-
provements whereever possible. The objectives
of this review are to improve the quality of our
product, to reduce unit cost, to reduce our
processing time and to improve working
conditions. 178/
The memorandum made it clear that all functions of the
Secretariat were targets for improvement, but a list
attached to the memorandum identified 27 specific
procedures that were prime candidates. The program
produced a, great many suggestions, and several of them
were implemented -- for these the originators were
rewarded through the Agency Suggestion Award Program.
For example, a substantial cash award was given to an
employee who suggested new procedures for logging and
filing non-CIA cables -- procedures that eliminated
needless filing space and folders, speeded up pro-
cessing, facilitated destruction of obsolete material,
and dovetailed with procedures for filing CIA cables.
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B.. Changes in Agency Authority and Organization
Since the beginning of Cable Secretariat' opera-
tions, procedures for the dissemination of cables
within the Agency were based on the requirements
of organizational components and the preferences
of the people who headed those components.
Each change in Agency organization and each
change in high-level administrative officers required
several changes in dissemination procedures.
noted earlier, on 1 January 1959 Richard Bissell had
succeeded Frank Wisner as DDP, and there had been
changes in cable dissemination to the DDP. From
that time until 29 November 1961, when John McCone
succeeded Dulles as DCI, there had been no major
organizational changes and no changes in senior
officials.
Thereafter, however, through the spring of 1962,
the changes came in rapid succession. This, of
course, was during the period that the DDP components
were moving into the new building; the Secretariat
was deeply involved in adapting dissemination pro-
cedures to the moves and at the same time was altering
procedures to meet the requirements of these changes
in Agency organization and command: 179/'
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27 Dec 61 -- C. P. Cabell resigned as DDCI, ef-
fective 31 Jan 62.
17 Feb 62 -- Richard Helms succeeded Richard
Bissell as DDP. Thomas Kara-
messines became Acting DDP/COPS.
19 Feb 62 -- Deputy Directorate for Research
(DDR) established; Herbert Sco-
ville named DD:R.
9.Mar.62 -- Marshall S. Carter appointed DDCI,
succeeding Cabell.
19 Mar 62 . --
Thomas Karamessines named DDP/COPS.
(Position re-titled Assistant DDP
on 1 May 62.)
30 Mar 62 -- Robert Amory, DDI, resigned from
Agency; Huntington Sheldon named
Acting.DDI.
1 Apr 62 -- Offices of General Counsel, Legis-
lative Counsel, and Comptroller
moved from DDS to Office of the DCI.
John Bross succeeded Edward Saunders
as Comptroller.
10 Apr 62 -- Position of EO/DCI eliminated and
position of CIA Executive Director
established; Lyman Kirkpatrick in-
cumbent.
15 Apr 62 -- Elements of DDP Development Projects
Division (DPD) moved to DDR. 180/
16 Apr 62 -- R. Jack Smith named Assistant
Director for Current Intelligence,
succeeding Huntington Sheldon.
23 Apr 62 -- Ray Cline named DDI; Huntington
Sheldon named Assistant DDI.
2 May 62 -- John Earman named Inspector General,
succeeding Lyman Kirkpatrick.
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C. Administrative Reviews
1. Staffing Complement, 1962
While the Cable Secretariat was involved in
the complicated adaption of cable dissemination pro-
cedures to the changes in Agency organization'and
command, 0 was wrestling with another problem
-- that of staffing the Secretariat to meet the produc-
tion requirements. In his 11 April monthly report,
the last to go to the EO/DCI -- thereafter they went
to the Executive Director, Kirkpatrick = he pointed
out that his T/O was five persons short of the
authorized =positions.
In his monthly report covering operations in
May he told Kirkpatrick that he was preparing a
proposal to revise the Secretariat T/O by adding some
new positions and upgrading some slots. On 12 August
he submitted the proposal along with a memorandum
that said that he was proposing a ceiling change from
positions, a change that "is in line with
the T/O approved in 1955 --
was asking for the upgrading of a number of positions
below the GS-12 level.
cables." 181/ The memorandum also stated that
picked
.up when we took on the dissemination of non-CIA
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and CIA cable processing and the establishment of
full-time chief and deputy chief positions in the
Message Center for each of the three shifts. On
20 September report was sent to the DDS by
the Director of Personnel, then Emmet D. Echols,
with the recommendation that the proposed "revision
to the staffing complement of the Cable Secretariat-
Message Center be approved (Tab A), (*) and that the
personnel ceiling be increased from com-
mensurate with the present authorized position
strength." 183/
The DDS, White, approved the recommendation
but noted that "DD/S is without authority to approve
ceiling increase. This matter should be resolved with
the Comptroller." 184/ This meant another memoran-
dum had to be sent to the Comptroller, which it was
on 27 September. 185/ The Comptroller, John Bross,
approved the recommendation on 5 October, 186/ but
it appeared that he, too, lacked authority to approve
ceiling increases; and on 8 October Bross sent the
recommendation to the DDCI, Carter, indicating
* Tab A was the standard T/O form showing the position
title, the position number and grade, and the number of
people in each position; for example, Watch Officer,
GS-0132.07 - 12, (9), which meant that nine people would
occupy positions as GS-12 Watch Officers.
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established his T/O at
Comptroller concurrence and recommending DDCI ap-
proval. 187/ Carter approved on 10 October, 188/ and
on 15 October received a copy of Form 261, which
2. The.IG Survey, 1963
In late October 1963 Farman, then the Inspector
General, called 0 and told him that the IG Staff
was about to make a routine inspection of the Cable
ssured Earrn
hi
~.. o
s lull cooper-
ation. The IG survey was completed near the end of
November, and on 23. December Farman sent the survey
report to Carter with a covering memorandum in which
he said:
The Cable Secretariat is a tightly organized
office which provides, under demanding..,
standards of timeliness and security, dissemina-
tion of communications to Agency command and
working levels and to other agencies and de-
partments. The Cable Secretariat has met its
mission so successfully that our recommenda-
tions are peripheral to its primary functions.
189/
Attached to Barman's memorandum was a memorandum
prepared for Carter's signature and addressed to the
Cable Secretary requesting that within 30 days he
furnish-"d summary of action taken on the recommenda-
tions of the IG survey report.
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On 17 January 1964~ submitted to the DDCI
the requested summary, saying that with the exception
of recommendation number six he had taken positive
action on all of the IG's recommendations. 190/
Recommendation number six was the elimination of
individual production reports, which the inspectors
had found to be an irritant to the people who were
required,'to submit them. In the comments that ac-
companied his memorandum to the DDCI,F--Isaid,
I am not at this time in agreement with the
Inspector General's views on the premise
that the production reports are of consider-
able value to me in my management of the
Cable Secretariat.
Apparently dissent was effective, for
on 19 March 1964 he received from Kirkpatrick, the
Executive Director-Comptroller (ED-C),* a memoran-
dum telling him that "the recommendations contained
in the Inspector General's survey report on the.
Secretariat are approved with the exception of
recommendation #6 which is disapproved."
and the Executive Director became the Executive
Director-Comptroller. The change was announced by
* On 18 November 1963 the Office of the Comptroller
became a part of the Office of the Executive Director,
26 November 1963.
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The final paragraph of the ED-C's memorandum
said,
This Inspector General survey confirms the
outstanding manner in which you are adminis-
tering the Cable Secretariat, and I personally
commend you and your staff for an exceptionally
fine Inspector General's report.
3. Staffing Complement, 1964
One of the "exceptionally fine" aspects of the
hands a lever with which to raise his staffing com-
plement. Because the section that did that is a
revealing analysis of the condition of the Cable
Secretariat at the end of 1963, the full text is given
here:
IG's report was a section that put into
While the presently rising volume can be ex-
pected to level off eventually, there is no
indication that this will be in the foreseeable
future.
This continual rise in the volume of work
will inevitably confront the Cable Secretary with
the problem of determining the extent to which
additional personnel are needed. This is not a
problem that he can control, as his work is the
result of the activities of others. His
organization must process what comes to it.
Under present conditions there is little if any
slack in the Secretariat. With it apparently
becoming standard practice to carry an almost
continual backlog under normal conditions, it
follows that in time of crisis serious strains
will be placed on the Secretariat's ability
to fulfill its mission. In fact, it has been
reported to the inspectors that during the
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1
1
I
Cuban crisis the Secretariat fell far behind
in processing the heavy flow of traffic.
As the control point for the flow of critical
information the Secretariat is an essential
activity. Its operation with too small a
margin in personnel strength could prove
critical in future crises. At the time of the
inspection the Cable Secretary was well along
in the exploration of new equipment and'the
development of new procedures to increase
the production capacity of the office. He
was confident that over the next year these
new programs will contribute to a significant
increase in Secretariat productivity. We are
impressed with the new programs, and with the
Cable Secretary's evaluation of their po-
tential, especially in view of his long
record of success in such innovations in the
past. However, we hold some reservations
about the extent to which mechanical ef-
ficiency can continue to meet all the demands
that may be placed upon the office. While we
accept the Cable Secretary's evaluation at
this time, we still feel that the entire
problem of staffing should be reviewed after
completion of the new steps, to determine
the extent to which they meet all the demands
levied upon the Secretariat.
lost no time in applying the lever. On
13 January 1964 -- about two months before the recom-
mendations of the IG's report were officially ap-
proved -- he sent to the Salary and Wage Division
of 0/Pers a memorandum in which he quoted the IG's
comments on the staffing problem and requested that
a review of the Secretariat's staffing complement be
made before the end of 1964. 191/ The Salary and
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I 25X1
Wage Division complied with
request, con-
ducted the review, and submitted the findings on
either his lever had been limp, or he had used the
wrong fulcrum. The Salary and Wage Division had made
three recommendations:
11 December 1964. 192/
The'findings were something of a shock to
a. That the Records Management Staff be
requested to make a full'-scale study of the
processing requirements of the Cable Secretariat;
b. That immediate steps be taken to secure full.
staffing of the Cable Secretariat, including
temporary authority to exceed current ceiling
by three clericals, pending results of the
Records Management study; and
c. That failing to obtain additional personnel,
a temporary staggering of hours for some of the
second and third shift personnel, but that this
should not be used as a final solution.
could accept none of these recommendations.
On 16 December 1964 he sent a somewhat indignant memo-
randum to Kirkpatrick. He pointed out that his opera-
tions had been thoroughly studied again and again, most
recently by the IG Staff in December 1963, and he did
not believe that another study was needed; he was
convinced that the solution of his problem was re-
vised procedures, more people, and full utilization
of appropriate mechanical-computer equipment.
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He dismissed the suggested temporary staggering
of work hours as not being feasible because of the
consequences of disrupted households and a lack of
public transportation and car pools. He said that
the "taking of immediate steps to fully staff the
Cable Secretariat" would be doing no more than the
Office of Personnel had been trying to do or many
months. He recommended to Kirkpatrick that
a. Our T/O be increased
b. No further studies be made of the Cable
Secretariat at this time.
c. I be directed to report on whether
processing time and capabilities are im-
proved when we have on hand
(Note: it is not reasonable to expect
to maintain a strength of 0 in: this unit
-- to maintain= people on hand, we need
a T/O ofI in my opinion.) 193/
25X1
25X1
25X9
25X9
Kirkpatrick approved ecommendation
25X1
, butt Idid not
know it until early February 1965 when the DCI Ad-
ministrative Officer forwarded to him a copy of a
memorandum for the Director of Personnel on the
subject of "Position Ceiling Change" dated
8 February 1965 and signed by the Management Control
Officer. 194/
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The memorandum referred to
16 December 1964 memorandum and stated that the
Secretariat's new ceiling was positions "per
direction of the Executive Director-Comptroller."
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X. Growth and Change, 1965 = 1966
I
I
25X1
U
25X1'
A. The Workload Problem
25X1 Aso had pointed out in his 16 December
positions did not necessarily mean that there would
be people on board. Indeed, when the Secretariat
memorandum to Kirkpatrick, an official T/O of
25X9 had a T/O of ^ positions, it was not possible.--
even with the earnest efforts of the Office of
Personnel -- to fill all of them. The February 1965
,increase fro was of benefit to the Sec-
retariat only because it increased the recruiting
requirement and thus increased the possibility of
getting more people on board.
By May 1965 more positions had been filled, but
the Secretariat was still nine persons under the
authorized ceiling and it was in
May, immediately after the crisis in the Dominican
Republic, that the Secretariat set a new high monthly
r
---- p
ocessed and anotner new
record for cables processed during one 24-hour
period --F--] 195/ Largely because of the
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I
1
shortage of personnel the Secretariat was forced
to increase its monthly average of overtime use
by 385 hours.
Fortunately the workload of the Secretariat
had been reduced somewhat in February 1965 when a new
pneumatic tube, called the "purple tube," was in-
stalled to permit transmission of cables directly from
the Secretariat to the Operations Center. Before
that time the pneumatic tube system could be used
only during day-time hours, and at all other times
cables had to be hand-carried. Because the "purple
tube" linked only the Secretariat and the Operations
Center, there were no security restrictions on its
use, and all cables -- including TS -- could go
through the tube.
During the summer of 1965 the shortage of
personnel in the Secretariat was relieved temporarily
by the use of summer employees. The Agency's
summer employee program -- the temporary employment
of the sons and daughters of Agency employees --
had been in existence for several years, but be-
cause of the sensitivity of the work of the Secre-
--_-- ..~~~?~ NLUyram. 1n may 1965,
193 -
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however, he decided that summer employees could be
used, and he requested that eight of them be assigned
to him. 196/ His request was approved by the ED-C
and the Director of Personnel, and in June the
summer employees came on board. Because none of
them had TS. security clearance, it was necessary to
establish special procedures in their duty assign-
ments, but by the end of the summer it was clear
that the special treatment had been worth the effort.
In his monthly report for September said:
All of them performed their duties to the
full satisfaction of this office. They
were of tremendous help to the Cable
Secretariat and I would be happy to recom-
mend any one of them for permanent assignment
to the Agency.
B. Procedural Changes
1. The Direct-Image System
A breakthrough of a kind in the processing
of cables had been made by the Cable Secretariat in
March 1960 when the Xerox 914 was installed it
eliminated the tedious process of making masters
by typing, proofing, and retyping.* By the
* See above, p. 154.
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beginning of 1965 the Xerox equipment was still
useful, but it was clear that the procedures for
the use of it could be considerably simplified. The
major problem was that the Secretariat received
cables from the Signal Center on white teletype
rollpaper, which had to be cut and mounted and
then fed into the Xerox for the making of a master.
By February 1965 the Signal Center and the
Cable Secretariat, working together, had devised a
method of using offset master material instead of
the standard rollpaper in the teletype machines;
the offset master was then produced by the tele-
type machines:themselves, and there was no need
for cutting and mounting and using the Xerox for.
production of a master. The new process was called
the "Direct-Image Teletype Master System."
Although the cost of the offset master material
was slightly higher than that of the standard roll-
paper, it was more than justified by the overall
reduction in the cost of processing cables -- the
cost in March 1965, the first full month when the new
system was in use, was $1,961 lower than the cost in
January 1965 -- and by the reduction in the
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Secretariat's processing time -- a decrease of
47 percent in processing immediate precedence items
and 43 percent in processing priority messages. 197/
The new system did, however, have its drawbacks.
The offset master material was sensitive to finger-
print marks and grease, and it tended to curl at
the edges, which caused some trouble in the offset
presses.* On balance, however, the direct-image
system was definitely superior to the old method.
2. Color Standardization
Another improvement in cable processing
was made in March 1965. Over the years the Secre-
tariat had been using five different colors of
paper in reproducing cables. Each incoming message
required three different colors -- yellow to the
action unit, green to the RI files, and white to
all other recipients. Each outgoing message re-
quired two colors -- blue to the RI files and pink
to information recipients. The use of the different
colored paper required that the high-speed, semi-
* In early 1967 these disadvantages were eliminated
by re-engineering the teletype machines -- "stunting,"
it was called -- so that they printed page-size texts
on fanfold paper, thus providing a master in pre-
printed cable form. 198/
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automatic reproduction equipment had to be stopped
frequently to change from one color paper to another;
this meant that the equipment could not be operated
at or near capacity. With the Secretariat T/O
still unfilled and cable volume increasing steadily,
even small improvements were important; and
saw in the multi-colored-paper procedure a chance
for a small improvement.
On 18 March 19650 attended a DDP staff
meeting and recommended that the Secretariat drop
the use of different colored paper and reproduce
only white copies. He pointed out that the change
would reduce from 21 to 10 the steps necessary in:,
the reproduction of cables. 199/ The members of
the DDP staff accepted all but one part of
proposal; they insisted that outgoing cables con-
quite willing to compromise, and thereafter only
white and pink paper was used in the processing of
cables -- a definite improvement over the old
method.
3. Publication of Confirmations.
An improvement of somewhat greater magnitude
came in July 1965. Up until that time incoming
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cables repeated ("confirmed") critical parts of
messages -- names, dates, times, numerals, and
the like -- at the end of the message. The Signal
Center and the Cable Secretariat were responsible for
cross-checking the confirmation with the body of the
cable to insure clarity and accuracy, and then the
Secretariat deleted the confirmation before the
cable was reproduced and disseminated. The cross-
checking was a tedious process; Secretariat and
Signal Center personnel could not be familiar with
the background of most of the confirmation material,
and much of their time was used in unnecessary
cross-checking.
On the other hand, the cable addressees were
familiar with the situations, events, and people
referred to in the cables and were much better
qualified to check confirmations for accuracy. After
some unofficial coordination with the Secretariat's
major customers_______ announced on 6 July 1965 that
as of that date all incoming messages -- except
Intelligence Reports -- would be disseminated with
the confirmation portion included, just.as the cable
was received. 200/
- 198
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4. Revision of TD Processing
Perhaps because Intelligence Reports --
still referred to internally as TD's -- were
disseminated to other members of the intelligence
community, special care was taken to produce copies
of high quality. Cables reproduced for Agency dis-
semination were processed on Xerox equipment; but
the Xerox copies were not always up to the TD
quality standards, and the flexowriter was used
for TD's. This required that the Secretariat con-
vert the punched paper teletype tape, supplied by
the Signal Center, to a direct-image master for
use on the flexowriter. It took about 20 minutes
to process the average TD; if three TD's were
received for processing at the same time, the third
would be delayed for about an hour before it got
into dissemination channels. In August 1965
proposed that the format for TD reporting
from the field be modified so that the addition of
paste-on headers would enable the Signal Center tape
to serve as a master for the flexowriter proces-
sing. 201/ The proposal was approved by the DDP,
the instructions'for format changes were sent to the
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field, and by April 1966 the new procedure was in
operation. 202/
5. Purge of the Pseudo/Crypto Files
During 1965 there was another change in cable
processing procedures -- one that warrants mention
even though its direct effect on the Secretariat's
operations was not a major one. As noted earlier,
the Secretariat maintained a listing of all pseudo-
nyms and cryptonyms that might be expected to appear
in cable traffic. This list was used by the cable
duty officer when he selected messages for the DCI's
information. He would prepare a "breakout slip" giving
the true identities of the pseudonyms and the spell-
out of the cryptonyms in a message, and the break-
out slip would be attached to copies that went to
the DCI, the DDCI, the DDP, and the ADDP -- any one
or all of whom might not be familiar with the
pseudonyms and cryptonyms used.
In March 1965 Helms, then the DDP, told
that he was somewhat concerned about the fact
that the breakout slips often identified specific
sources when such identification was not necessary.
Helms believed that a descriptive device would serve
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the purpose of the breakout and would avoid specific
identification. agreed with Helms, and soon
thereafter the DDP began a thorough review of the
Secretariat's pseudo/crypto list. In a 9 April
memorandum to Kirkpatrick 0 reported that
Karamessines had detailed two DDP employees
to review each identity, with the objective
of substituting where appropriate a descrip-
tive identity which will not pinpoint--,an
individual . . . . The idea is that the
identity would meet the needs of the DCI
equally well as the present system and better
protect the identity..-.:of the source. 203/
As an interim measure while the purge of the
files was in progress, the cable duty officers were
requested to "use their good judgment and wherever
possible furnish a breakout which does not pinpoint
a particular individual." 204/ The review of the
files was completed in October 1965. In his monthly
report covering October, o informed the
ED-C, adding that Karamessines had instructed the
DDP divisions and staffs to avoid the need for a
repetition of the purge exercise by providing the
Cable Secretariat with descriptive identities of new
pseudonyms and informing the Secretariat when pseudo-
nyms and cryptonyms became inactive.
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C. Requirements of the New Command
In the spring of 1965 there were changes in the
top command of the Agency and of the DDP that had
major effects on the operations of the Cable Secre-
tariat. On 28 April Vice Admiral William F. Raborn,
Jr., replaced McCone as DCI, and Richard Helms was
moved from his position as DDP to the DDCI position,
replacing Carter, who then became Director of the
National Security Agency. At the same time, Desmond
Fitzgerald was appointed DDP to succeed Helms.
Karamessines remained in the position of ADDP. 205/
For some months, while the new command was getting
settled the processing of cables continuedwithout
major change, but by September things began to
happen.
1. The DDP Duty Officer Staff
Since the beginning of the Cable Secretariat
operation in 1952, the Secretariat duty officers had
been known as CSDO's and were so designated in cable
handbooks and cable regulations. When the DDP
created the Clandestine Services duty officer
position in January 1953, the CSDO term happened. to
fit that position also. This dual application of the
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term created no confusion over the years simply
because the Secretariat duty officers also served
as Clandestine Services duty officers. The Secre-
tariat staff was a bit dismayed, therefore, when on
23 September 1965 the DDP issued Clandestine Services
which stated that henceforth the CSDO
designation would be used only to identify
the Clandestine Services Duty Officer, who
number of responsibilities and authorities, some
of them new and some of them formerly in the province
of the Cable Secretariat and the Operations Center
Senior Duty Officer:
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In effect the CS notice relegated the Cable
Secretariat duty officers to a support role -- with
their designation reduced to CDO. They were to con-
tinue to support the SDO and the Intelligence Watch
(IW) Staff, and in addition they were to provide the
major support for the CSDO staff. By sheer happen-
stance the date of the CS notice, 23 September 1965,
was the day that India and Pakistan momentarily
halted fighting over Kashmir in compliance with a UN
Security Council resolution and later in the day
broke the cease-fire agreement and resumed heavy
fighting. These events created a sudden swell in
cable traffic, and during the remainder of September
the Cable Secretariat duty officer staff was faced
with the problem of carrying out normal duties --
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vastly increased in volume
In addition, of course, the CDO's
had to provide support for the newly established CSDO
function. The CSDO staff had neither cable reference
files nor pseudo/crypto files, and the CDO's had
to provide copies of referenced cables and iden-
tities of pseudonyms and cryptonyms for virtually
all the cables handled. Eventually of course, the
problems were solved, and the CSDO and CDO systems
adjusted to normal operating procedures.
2. Briefing the DCI
One of these procedures was the briefing of
the DCI. During his tenure as Director, McCone had
preferred to use a special assistant in his own
office as a cable briefing officer; the special
assistant was fully briefed on the over-night cable
traffic by the SDO and the Cable Secretariat duty
officer. When Raborn succeeded McCone, the method
was changed. Raborn usually arrived at his office
by 0615 hours each morning, and he wanted an im-
mediate briefing on the night's cable take. The
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SDO and the CSDO, both of whom had been on duty during
the night, were the logical briefers -- until Sep-
tember 1965 the CSDO was the Cable Secretariat duty
officer wearing his second hat. After the CS
notice set up the CSDO system, the CDO helped the
SDO and the CSDO prepare for the briefing, and each
morning just before 0600 they would check with the
CDO for late messages that might be of interest to
the DCI.
The DCI briefing routine started when the
on-duty security officer called the Operations
Center and told the SDO and the CSDO that the
Director had entered the building. They timed
their arrival at the DCI's office to coincide with
his, and the briefing began as the Director sat down
at his desk. The SDO opened with non-covert and
special intelligence information that had come in
during the night; the CSDO followed with coverage
of significantClandestine Services matters. By
working agreement between the two briefing officers,
if the CSDO considered any part of his briefing to
be operationally sensitive, he would signal the SDO,
who would then leave the room -- the SDO, of course,
was not a DDP officer and thus was not privy to
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sensitive operational intelligence. During the
briefings, which usually lasted between 30 and 45
minutes, the Director listened and ate his break-
fast; the.atmosphere was informal and relaxed, but
there was no time wasted in idle conversation.
When Helms became DCI at the end of June 1966,
the early-morning briefings were dropped. Helms
preferred to be briefed by his Deputy Directors
during his daily meetings with them at 0900. The
change meant that the SDO briefed the DDI, and the
CSDO briefed the DDP before the morning meeting,
and the CDO supplied both briefers with the
latest incoming information right up to the time of
the briefings -- usually at 0800.
3. Thel (Committee Reviews
In early 1966 the Secretariat was still ad-
justing to the change introduced by the DDP's
establishment of the new CSDO system, when another
major change came as a result of the requirements
of the new command. Raborn made it clear that he
did not like the lack of uniformity of format in
the cables that came to his desk. The "lack of
uniformity" had been intentionally developed over the
years as an effective method of making instant
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identification of the various categories of cables
-- there were five or six categories determined by
such factors as degree of sensitivity, types of
distribution, required operational action, adminis-
trative response, and the like. The DCI's preference
had to be considered, however, and on 2 March 1966
Colonel White,* the ED-C, appointed a committee to
study the possibility of establishing a uniform
format for all cables. 206/
Director of Communications, was
named chairman of the committee, and there were
eight members -- two each from the DDP, the DDI, and
the DDS; one from the DDS&T; and one from
the Secretariat.
The committee met on 11 March and several times
during the next ten days, and on 22 March the secre-
tary of the group submitted to a draft of its
recommendations. 207/ By 29 March the draft had been
put into the shape of a final report that was sub-
mitted to White for approval. 208/ Attached to the
report were drafts of the headquarters and field regu-
lations that would implement the actions recommended
by the committee.
White succeeded Kirkpatrick as ED-C on 5 July 1965
, 24 June 1965).
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The recommendations were broad in scope; they
covered all outgoing and incoming cables -- in-
cluding intelligence reports. In general, the
recommended format changes were designed to establish
a uniform pattern for all cables, the uniformity
to be achieved by assigning to each of the first
four lines of all cables a specific function and
form -- classification, time of release, originator,
references, precedence, information addressees,
sensitivity indicators, project cryptonyms, and the
like, all in predetermined order. The committee's
recommendations were approved in April 1966, 209/ to
become effective on 1 May -- the existing cable forms
were to be used, but with the new format, until new
forms specifically designed to fit the new format
could be printed and distributed.*
Although the work of the0 committee had
satisfied the DCI's desire for uniformity in the
format of cables, it had not considered another
factor that concerned him -- probably because his
* A year later, on 6 April 1967, a revised edition
of the Cable Handbook
new procedures.
were issued, containing e
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concern had not been known to the committee when
they began their study in March. At some time in
April the Director mentioned to the ED-C that some
cables came to his desk without any indication of
who else had received copies. He felt that he
should have that information. White informed
of the Director's remark, and on 15 April
notified White that the committee had been
reconvened to study the matter and also to con-
sider another related matter -- the earlier com-
mittee study had revealed the fact that there was
split responsibility in selecting cables for the
attention of the DCI and other key officials in
the Agency. 210/ In accordance with Headquarters
the Cable Secretariat was respon-
sible for DCI selects. Also, however, the SDO at
the Operations Center reviewed all special intelli-
gence messages and selected some for DCI attention,
and he sometimes sent to the DCI advance copies of
regular messages provided the Operations Center by
the Cable Secretariat. Copies sent to the DCI by
the SDO did not show distribution lists, and at
times the SDO sent copies of the same messages that
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the Secretariat had selected for DCI attention.
The committee soon came up with a
proposal of procedures that would insure that
copies'of Agency and non-Agency cables selected for
the DCI, the DDCI, and the ED-C would show internal
Agency distribution, would eliminate duplicate
distribution, and would insure that the Operations
Center and the Cable Secretariat would know the
criteria each other used in selecting cables for
senior officials. The proposed procedures were ap-
proved and became effective on 25 April 1966 and
were incorporated in the Cable Secretariat Standing
as of. that date. 211/
The new procedures retained the regulatory
responsibility of the Secretariat duty officer for
the selection and dissemination of cables for DCI
attention,, but they required that when the CDO sent
advance copies of selected cables to the SDO, the
CSDO, or other units he would indicate that the
cable was a DCI Select. The new procedures also
required that a distribution list appear on all
copies of cables that went to the DCI. In addition
there was the requirement that when the SDO, the
CSDO, or any other official decided that the DCI
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should see a certain cable not selected by the CDO'
he would request the CDO to send it, giving his
reasons for the request. The new procedures were
effective but they did place an additional burden
on the Cable Secretariat -- a burden that gradually
diminished as each of the authorized "selectors"
became familiar with the criteria used by the others.
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XI. Summary and Conclusions
A. A Look Back*
If one were to describe the CIA Cable Secretariat
as the heart of the Agency, the analogy would not be
too much overdrawn. To the extent that current
information is the life blood of intelligence, the
Secretariat's function; has always been that of.
supplying the parts of the Agency body with the sub-
stance of life; and the supply system had to be
fast, efficient, and continuous. Like any viable
body, the Agency was always growing -- either in
size or complexity of functions or both, and the
Secretariat had to adjust to these changes and meet
new requirements as they arose. More often than not,
the new requirements were not accompanied by in-
creases in the Secretariat's T/0. To meet them, then,
there had to be a constant search for ways of im-
proving procedures and a constant effort to apply
* This section was written by one who was not a member
of the staff of the Secretariat. The conclusions and
evaluations are based on a study of the four-volume
original history of the Secretariat and on the im-
pressions the writer gained during almost 20 years of
service with the Agency.
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technological developments to cable processing.
Over the years from 1952 through 1966 improvement
of procedures -- by any and all possible means --
became the hallmark of the Secretariat.
Although a great many of the cable processing
problems were solved by the adaption of sophisticated
Cable Secretary,
machinery as it became available, the richest source
from which procedural improvements came was the
Secretariat's own people. Not only were they thoroughly
versed in the techniques of cable processing but also
they were sincerely committed to the mission of the
Secretariat. To a great extent this commitment was
generated by their admiration and respect for the
came to the Agency in response to the
direct request of General Smith, then DCI. Smith
because he was familiar with
work. in military cable processing. and he had con-
ability to establish and manage
an Agency cable secretariat.
The years have justified Smith's confidence.
quickly adapted his military experience to
the new situation, he anticipated problems and found
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solutions before they became critical, and he grew as
the Agency grew. He won and held the respect of his
superiors, and he did it without compromising his
own convictions; he never hesitated to voice op-
position to proposals that he deemed unproductive,
but he always had sound reasons for opposition.
Perhaps most important to the effective function
of the Secretariat, he stood up for the people who
worked for him, and he did whatever he could to
promote their welfare. It was only fitting, there-
fore, that at the time of his retirement late in 1971
~~ ~riuy~cu ullu agency's Intelligence
I 25X1
Medal of Merit.
B. A Look Ahead
Although the time span of this paper extends only
through 1966, it seems appropriate here to identify
the major development in the Secretariat during the
period that followed 1966. This was the introduction
of the automation concept. Actually the possibility
of computerizing cable processing was being considered
apparent that the mere improvement of procedures by
the combined application of ,ingenuity and mechanical
xy tnat time it had become
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devices could not possibly keep pace with the
increasing volume of cable traffic and the com-
plexity of dissemination.
A 29 December 1965 memorandum for the record
describes a conversation that
then the ED-C. 212/
had with White,
told White that the Army
be combined with that of the Signal Center.
that the computerization of the Cable Secretariat
chief of OCS, Joseph Becker, recommended to
and the State Department message systems were being
computerized, that he had examined the progress on
them, and that he believed that the Cable Secre-
tariat could automate. White agreed that the pos-
sibility should be explored, and memorandum
was sent along to the Office of Computer Services (OCS)
with the request that the problem be studied. OCS
completed the requested study in April 1966. The
recommended to White that Becker?s proposal be ap-
proved, and at the same time he recommended that the
cable receiving functions of the Intelligence Watch
and the DDP also be computerized. 213/ White ap-
proved both Becker's and recommendations and
authorize to include a request for funds in
his FY 1968 budget.
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did so. The budget request for the
automation of the Secretariat was a figure
based on the OCS estimate of cost. The request was
included in the overall Agency budget request that
was submi tii- +-? 4-1- n,,,, --- _r ,
November 1966
e Budget (BOB).
was informed that
the BOB had removed the The reason
given was that.the request was not supported by
specifications concerning the items required and the
timing of installation. In March 1967 reported
to White that the BOB's reason was not a valid one and
that he,~ intended to go ahead with specific
planning on the assumption that funds would be made
available in the FY 1969 budget. 214/
Soon thereafter with White's approval,
formed an Automated Communication Terminal (ACT) working
group. It was composed of representatives of the
Cable Secretariat, the Office of Communications, and
OCS. The group began working on specifications and
completed a first draft in June 1969. By that time
~ad concluded that "we have a long way to
go -- years, not months -- before automation is a
fact in the Cable Secretariat." 215 / He was
quite right. The ACT specifications were submitted
- 217 -
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the Signal Center, the second for the Cable Secre-
tariat, and the third for other elements --
primarily the IW and the DDP cable receiving functions.
In June 1970 a contract for the first phase was
more than.the budget allocation. The ACT program
was then divided into three phases, the first for
was submitted -- about
for an estimate of cost. On 18 July the estimate
to a firm of consultants, the
let to
Specifica-
tions for phase two were completed in January 1971,
and on 14 February, the day before bids were to be
solicited, the ED-C announced that phases two and three
' were put on indefinite hold pending completion of a
study of the overall Agency computer program.
^
----~~ .L rLVyram rl.anning and Budgeting
1' 25X1
was assigned to conduct the study.
immediately began to assemble.a host of material for
l
med
h
knew, nothing at all about the functions of the Sec-
retariat he would spend at least several weeks
learning something about 20 years of development in
___
1..
a V because
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cable processing. Actually pent about two
hours in the Secretariat. He completed his full
report of computerization in the Agency in less than
60 days, and that part of his conclusions related
to the Cable Secretariat recommended, in effect,
that the Secretariat be abolished and its functions
be scattered around among other Agency components.
report was given to the Deputy Directors
and the Cable Secretary as an oral briefing. He had
no specific ideas about implementing his conclusions
and recommendations; he said that such things were
not his concern and another study would have to be
made before anything specific could be done. "Another
study" was not made, and computerization of the
Cable Secretariat was in abeyance -- perhaps in
limbo.
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Appendix A
Source References
1. Memo for Asst. Secy. of War from Dir. SSU, sub:
Liquidation of SSU, 11 Apr 43. C. (HS/HC-804)
2. President?s Directive of 22 Jan 46 to Sec. State,
Sec. War, and Sec. Navy, 22 Jan 46. U.
(HS/HC-450)
4. Ibid., p. 5.
5. Ibid., p. 11.
6. Recollection of
Cable Sec. files.*)
7. Antecedents ( 3, above), p. 15.
9. Recollection of the author,
10. Antecedents (3, above).
12. Antecedents (3 above) , p. 20.
* Unless otherwise indicated, copies of all documents
cited in this appendix may be found in the files of the
Cable Secretariat.
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14. Antecedents (3 above), p. 38.
15. Ibid., p. 46.
16. Ibid., p. 59.
17. Ibid., p. 156.
18. Memo for DDCI et.aZ. from DCI, sub: Organization
of the CIA Clandestine Services, 15 Jul 52. S.
19. Antecedents (3 above) .
20. CIA/HS Chronology, Vol. 1, p. 13. S.
21. Antecedents (3, above), p. 41.
24. Memo for DCI from ADCO, sub: Establishment of
a CIA Message Center, 9 Jul 52. S.
25. Ibid., transmittal sheet.
26. Memo for DDCI et. al. from DCI (18, above)..
27.
28. Memo for ADDA from ADCO, sub: Establishment of
Message Center Cable Secretariat T/O for DCI,`
26 Jul 52. S.
29. Ibid., transmittal sheet.
30. Memo. for DCI from ADCO (24, above).
31. Ibid., transmittal sheet.
32. Memo for DDA from AD(Personnel), sub: T/O for
Cable Secretariat, etc., 21 Oct 52. S.
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33. Memo of Understanding, sub: Administrative
Support for the Cable Secretariat, 13 Nov 52. S.
34. Memo of Conversation with) I, sub:
OC CSB responsibility for Cable Secretariat
personnel, 3 Nov 52. S.
36. Memo for EA/DCI from Cable Secretary, sub: Ad-
ministrative Support for Cable Secretariat,
2 Apr 53. S.
37. Ibid., transmittal sheet.
38. Memo of Understanding, sub: Administrative
Support for the Cable Secretariat, 22 Jul 53. S.
39. Key Personnel (27, above).
40. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for June 1953. S.
41. Recollection of the author,
42. Cable Secretariat Order 23-52, sub: Procedure
for Handling Cables and Briefs for the Director
and His Principal Staffs, Sep 52. S.
43. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for August 1952. S.
44. Cable Secretariat Order 23-52 (42, above).
45. Key Personnel (27, above).
46. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for April 1953. S.
47. Key Personnel (27, above).
48. Cable Secretariat Order 23-52 (42, above).
49. Antecedents (3, above) .
50. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for August
Z953. S.
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51. Cable Secretariat Distribution Guide, Section VI,
sub:_ Cable Distribution Requirements for DD/A
and subordinate offices, 17 Aug 53. S.
52. Memo for
(no subject ,
53. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for March
1953. S.
54. Cable Secretariat Covert Cable Manual (Head-
quarters), 30 Jul 52. S.
55. Ibid., p. 1.
56. Ibid., p. 2.
57. Memo for DDCI et. aZ. from DCI (18, above)..
58. Cable Secretariat, Covert Cable Manual (Head-
quarters) (54:, above).
59. Cable, DIRECTOR (OUT 66204), 4 Nov 52. S.
60. Cable, DIRECTOR (OUT 66011), 3 Nov 52. S.
62. CIA Reg. 90-2, Basic Cable Policy, revised
17 Apr 70. S.
61. Memo for C. V. Hulick, EO/DDP from
(no subject), 4 Nov 52. S.
Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for Decem-
ber 1953. S.
65. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Reports for May
through October 1953. S.
66. O&MS Study, sub: Survey Report of Proposed
Pouchgram Procedure, Nov 53. S.
67. CIA/OCD Cable Branch, Report for April 1953. S.
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68. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for August
1953. S.
69. Letter for DCI from General Walter B. Smith,
13 Jul 53. S.
70. Memo fort (from DCI, sub: Letter
of Commendation, 21 Jul 53. S.
71. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for July
1953. S.
72. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for August
1953. S.
73. CIA/OCD Cable Branch, Report for August 1953. S.
74. CIA/OCD Cable Branch, Report for September
1953. S.
75. Memo for Cable Secretary from DDI, sub: DDI
Distribution, 10 Sep 52. S.
76. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for September
1952. S.
77. Memo for DDCI, DDP, DDI, Cable Secretary from
DCI, sub: Dissemination of Intelligence Infor-
mation, 7 Jul 53. S.
78. Memo for DDP, DDI, Cable Secretary from EA/DCI,
sub: Dissemination of Intelligence Information,
14 Jul 53. S.
79. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for August
1953. S.
80. Memo for the Record, attached to Cable
Secretariat, Monthly Report for September 1953,
30 Sep 53. S.
81. Memo for
82. Memo for the Record, sub: Concerning 25X1
Vital Records Program, 23 Oct 53. S.
.
(no subj , Iv L)ec /u.
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84. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for Decem-
ber 1953. S.
85. Memo for DCI from IG, sub: Staff Study "Reduc-
tion in Cable Traffic," 19 Feb 54. S.
86. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for Feb-
ruary 1954. S.
88. Memo for IG from Cable Secretary, sub: Reduc-
tion in Cable Traffic, 11 Feb 54. S.
89. Memo for DCI from IG (85, above).
90. Management Improvement Staff Study, sub: Survey
of proposed Pouchgram Procedure, undated but
received in Cable Secretariat 18 Mar 54. S.
91. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for March
1954. S.
92. Memo for EO/DDP and Cable Secretary from ADCO,
sub: Improved Pouch Service, 31 Aug 54. S.
93. Ibid., Attachment Q, Part III.
94. Ibid., Attachment Q, Part V.
95.
97. I k
98. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for May
1955. S.
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101. Memo for D/OC from EO/DDP, sub: Pouch Cable
Procedures, 25 Aug 55. S.
102. Memo for D/OC from EO DDP sub: Pouching Cables
to Info Addressees 11 May 56. S.
103. Cable Secretariat SOP 5-36, Processing "BY
POUCH" Cables, 1 Jan 56. S.
104. Memo for DDP/COP, Attention Hulick, from Cable
Secretary, sub: Out Cables Pouched by Head-
quarters to Field Stations, 5 Sep 56. 5.-
105. Memo for.C/MGT Staff from C/O&MS - DDP Area,
subs Proposed Solutions to Excessive Un-
warranted Cable Traffic, Mar 58. S'.
106. Memo for DCI through DDS from Chief, Management
Staff, sub: Cable Traffic, 12 Oct 58. S.
107. Ibid.; concurrence page.
108. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for October
1958. S.
109. Memo for EO/DCI from IG, sub: Comment on
Recommendation for Establishment of the Position
of Cable Control Officer, 10 Feb 59. S.
110. Memo for EO/DCI from DDI, sub: Comment on
Recommendation by Management Staff on Cable
Control Officer, 29 Jan 59. S.
111. Memo for-EO/DCI from DDP, sub: Comment on
Recommendation by Management Staff on Cable Con-
trol Officer, 19 Jan 59. S.
112. Memo for DCI through DDS from Chief, Management
Staff (106, above), concurrence page.
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113. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for June
1954. S.
114. Memo for DDP, DDI, DDS from DCI, sub: Organi-
zation of CIA Clandestine Services, 14 Jan 56. S.
117. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for September
1954. S.
118. Memo for Cable secretary from ~ sub: In-
troduction of the TD Category of Information
Report, 4 Jun 56. S.
119. OUT Teletype 5206 to Intelligence Community,
4 Jun 56. C.
120. Memo for DDP, Attention Hulick, from Cable
Secretary, sub: Request for Transfer of Slots
and Funds to Cable Secretariat from DD/P,
5 Nov 56. S.
121. Memo for DDP Area Division Chief Reports Officers
sub: Courier Delivery
of TD's, 4 Jun 58. S.
122. Memo for C/FI/ from Deputy Cable Sec-
retary, sub: Teletype Disseminations, 2 Jul
56. S.
123. Key Personnel (27, above).
124. Memo for Cable Secretary from Chief, OCR/DD,
sub: Distribution of TDCS;s, 18 Aug 58. S.
125. Memo for Chief, FIf____from Deputy Cable Sec-
retary, sub: Dissemination of TD's, 19 Aug
58. S.
sub: Dissemination of TD's, 20 Oct 58. S.
126. Memo for Cable Secretary from Chief, FIA
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127. Memo for C/OCR/DD from Cable Secretary, sub:
Dissemination of TD's, 21 Oct 58. S.
128. Memo for EO/DCI from Chief, FIO sub:
Appreciation for Cable Secretariat Help in
Distribution Procedure, 15 Dec 58. S.
129. Memo for Chief, Management Staff from Cable
Secretary, sub: Revision of T/O for CS-MC,
O/DCI, 9 Mar 55. S.
130. Ibid.
131. Memo for Cable Secretary from C/O&M Staff, DDS,
sub: Revision of T/O for Cable Secretariat,
12 May 55. S.
132. Memo for DDS from C/Management Staff, sub:'
Revision of T/O for Cable Secretariat, 16 May
55. S.
133. Ibid., Attachment T.
134. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for August
1955. S.
135. Memo for Chief, Management Staff from Cable
Secretary, sub: Possible Merger of Cable Sec-
retariat and Signal Center, 29 Sep 55. S.
136. Report of IG Survey of the Office of Communica-
tions, 11 Jan 56. S.
137.
138.
139.
Ibid., concurrence page.
Memo for EO/DCI from C/MGT, sub: Management
Study of Cable Secretariat Staffing Require-
ments, 12 Aug 57. S.
140. Ibid.,
141. Memo for EO/DCI from Chief, Management Staff,
sub: Cable Secretariat Overtime Study, 23 Oct
57. S.
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142. Ibid., concurrence page.
143. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for October
1957. S.
144. Memo for D/OC from Cable Secretary, sub: Use of
Teletype Tapes in the Preparation of Reproducible
Masters, 23 Sep 55. S.
145. Memo for Cable Secretary from D/OC, sub:' Use
of Teletype Tapes in the Preparation of Repro-
ducible Masters, 4 Nov 55. S.
146. Minutes of 19 February 1959 meeting of The Agency
Planning Group for Mechanically Integrated Re-
porting and Communications System. S.
148. Minutes of 14 April 1959 meeting of The Agency
Planning Group (see 146, above).
149. Memo for DDP, DDI, DDS from Ch/Planning Group,
sub: 0 System, 10.Jul 59. S.
150. Ibid., concurrence page.
151. OC Background Paper No. 8 for Agency Planning
Group from D/OC, sub: Agency Communications.
(undated but submitted in December 1958). S.
152. "History of the Signal Center" (draft), Start of
the Communications Revolution, by
Apr 71. S.
153. Memo for Assistant EO/DD/P from Cable Secre-
tary, sub: Revision of Procedure for Cabled
Information Reports, 19 Jan 59. S.
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156. Memo for COP/DDP from C/FI, sub: Dissemina-
tion of CS Information Reports to Mr. Bundy,
27 Apr 61. S.
25X1 157. FI/0 Reports Control Memorandum No. 607, sub:
^ Dissemination to Special Assistant for National
Security Affairs, 28 Apr 61. S.
158. Memo for EO/DCI from Cable Secretary, sub:
Delivery of TD's to White House, 30 Oct 61. S.
159. "History of the Signal Center" (152, above).
160. Memo. for the Record, Cable Secretary, sub: Dis-
tribution of Typing Workload in the Cable
Secretariat, 19 Jan 61. S.
161. Memo for Cable Secretariat from C/PSD/OL, sub:`
Purchase of Xerox Machine, 26 Jan 65. S.
162. Memo for C/PSD from Cable Secretary,. sub: Pur-
chase of Xerox Machine, 18 Feb 65. S.
163. Memo for the Record, Cable Secretary, sub:
Proposal by DDP to Combine Functions of.OCR/
Cable Branch with Cable Secretariat, 6 Oct 60. S.
164. Memo for DDS from Acting Chief, Management Staff,
sub: Management Staff Study of Dissemination of
Non-CIA Cables, 11 Nov 60. S.
165. Ibid., Attachment.
167. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report fo
S.
June 1962.
169. Memo for C/Non-CIA Cable Branch from Cable Sec-
retary, (no subject), 30 Mar 61. S.
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171. Memo for Cable Secretariat from Cable Duty
Officer, sub: Mechanics of Cable Summary
Preparation, 7 Nov 61. S.
172. Memo for Executive Director from Cable Secretary,
sub: Reduction in Number of Copies of Telegrams
furnished CIA by State, 19 Apr 63. S.
173. Memo fo Deputy Cable Secretary,
from DD/S, sub: Appreciation, 28 May 62. S.
174. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for February
1964. S.
175. Memo for Executive Director from Cable Secretary,
sub: Cable Archives, 8 Feb 63. S.
176. Memo for Executive Director from Director of
Communications, sub: Survey Report of Signal
.Center Archives, 16 May 63. S.
177. Memo for Executive Director from Cable Secre-
tary, sub: Survey Report of Signal Center
Archives, 17 May 63. S.
178. Memo for All Cable Secretariat Personnel from
Cable Secretary, sub: Procedures Improvement
Program for 1964, 6 Nov 63. S.
179. Key Personnel (27, above).
180. CIA/HS Chronology, 1946-1965, Vol. II. S.
181.. Memo for Executive Director from Cable Secre-
tary, sub: Review of T/O for Cable Secretariat-
Message Center, 12 Aug 62. S.
182. Memo for DDS from Executive Director, sub: Review
of T/O for Cable Secretariat-Message Center,
13 Aug 62. S.
183. Memo for DDS from Director of Personnel, sub:
Review of T/O for Cable Secretariat-Message Center,
20 Sep 62. S.
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184. Ibid.,, concurrence page.
185. Memo for Comptroller from C/Salary and Wage
Division, OP, sub: Ceiling Increase for Cable
Secretariat-Message Center, 27 Sep 62. S.
186. Ibid., concurrence page.
187. Memo for D/DCI from Comptroller, sub; Ceiling
Increase for Cable Secretariat-Message Center,
8 Oct 62. S.
188. Ibid., Approval page.
189. Memo for DDCI from IG, sub: Inspector General's
Survey of Cable Secretariat, 23 Dec 63. S.
190. Memo for DDCI from Cable Secretary, sub: In-
spector General's Survey of Cable Secretariat,
17 Jan 64. S.
191. Memo for Chief, Salary and Wage Division through
Director of Personnel from Cable Secretary, sub:
Review of Staffing, 13 Jan 64. S.
192. Memo for Cable Secretary from Salary and Wage
Division, OP, sub: Review of Staffing,
11 Dec 64. S.
193. Memo for EX/DIR COMPT from Cable Secretary,
sub: Salary and Wage Division Reviews of
Staffing, 16 Dec 64. S.
194. Memo for Director of Personnel from Manpower
Control Office, sub: Position Ceiling Change,
8 Feb.65. S.
195. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for May
1965. S.
196. Memo for Director of Personnel from Cable Sec-
retary, sub: Summer Employees for the Cable
Secretariat, 6 May 65. S.
197. Memo for Chief, Signal Center from Cable Secre-
tary, sub: Processing Times by Cable Secretariat
for Immediate'and Priority Cables, 12 Apr 65. S.
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198. Memo for DDS from Cable Secretary, sub: Im-
provement in Message Processing, 27 Sep 67. 'S.
199. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for March
1965. S.
200. Memo for Recipients of OP-4 Cables from Cable
Secretary, sub: Reproduction of OP-4 Cables,
6 Jul 65. S.
201. Memo for ADDP from Cable Secretary, sub: Re-
vision of TD Format and Processing Procedures,
13 Aug 65. S.
202. Cable Secretariat, Monthly Report for May
1966. S.
203. Memo for ED-C from Cable Secretary, sub: Iden-
tities for DCI, 9 Apr 65. S.
204. Memo for CSDO's from Cable Secretary, sub:
Sensitive Breakouts, 3 Mar 65. S.
205. Key Personnel (27, above).
206. Memo for DD/I, DD/P, DDS&T, Cable Secretary
from EX/DIR, sub: Agency Procedure for Handling
Messages, 2 Mar 66. S.
207. Memo for Chairman Study Group,
from______________ Secretary Study Group, sub:
Agency Procedure for Handling Messages, 22 Mar
66. S.
208. Memo for EX/DIR from D/COMMO, sub: Review of
CIA Message Procedures, 29 Mar 66. S.
209. Ibid., concurrence page.
210. Memo for EX/DIR from C/COMMO, sub: Review of
CIA Message Procedure, 15 Apr 66. S.
211. Memo for D/COMMO from Cable Secretary, sub:
Review of CIA Message Procedure, 25 Apr 66. S.
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212. Memo for the Record, Cable Secretary, sub:
Use of a Computer by Cable Secretariat and Its
Effect. Upon Agency Units, 29 Dec 65. S.
213. Memo for ED-C from Cable Secretary, sub:
Automation of Cable Processing in Cable Sec-
retariat, 1 Jul 66. S.
214. Cable Secretariat, Annual Report, Mar 67. S.
215. Memo for ED-C from Cable Secretary, sub: Cost
and Size Analysis of the ACT System, 18 Jul
69. S.
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CIA Internal Use Only
Access Controlled by DDM&S
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