LETTER TO MCGEORGE BUNDY FROM JOHN A. MCCONE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01580R002004140037-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 25, 2013
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: May 28, 1964
• Content Type: LETTER

1 Ili Declassified in in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/01/07: Clk-RDP80R01580R002004140037-3
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4sIj 1 LW. Aa .RA VA %IAN 414,
2 8 MAY 1964
The Honorable McGeorge Bundy
? Special Assistant to the President
for National Security Affairs
The White House
Dear Mac:
On May 25th I received your letter of May 22nd
transmitting a copy of the President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board's report and recommendations on the NRO.
You asked for my comments at the earliest convenient time
and in any event no later than June 1st. .
As you know this subject has been under discUssion,
more or less continually, ever since the NRO was conceived
in the summer of 1961. I have found it extremely difficult to
distill my thought. on the subject and to arrive at a conclusion:
as to a plan of management which will best serve the national
interests and utilise to the fullest extent the resources and
potentialities of both the Department of Defense and the Central
Intelligence Agency.
The report raises a great many questions in my mind --
some old ones and some new ones. Because of my pre.occupation
for the past several days with other matters of urgent importance.
with which you are familiar, it will be impossible for me to be
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responsive to your request by June 1st. As you know, -I
am leaving tonight on a trip to Honolulu. Accordingly I
suggest a later date, perhaps June 15th. as a more appropriate
date for me to reply to the report of the President's Board.
I know that the June 1 date was set so that my views
and those of the Secretary of Defense could be considered by
the Board at its meeting on June 4th. Perhaps their needs
could be fulfilled by an oral discussion of some of the points
raised in the report. If they so desire, I will be glad to meet
with them for this purpose.
? In the meantime, in the interest of being absolutely
sure that the NRO program is not impaired because of lack -
of action on this report, I have scheduled a meeting this after-
noon with Dr. McMillan to discuss any management problems
which he might have on his mind and also to review with him
the reasons for the recent failures of satellite reconnaissance
which occurred in March and April, as well as the delay which
foreclosed CORONA launchings during the tnonth of May. This
tuifortunately is depriving us of needed inputs to our intelligence
inventory, essential to update the several estimates on Soviet
military posture which are usually produced in the late summer
so they. will be available for the NATO meetings in the fall.
.Distribution:
1 & 2 - Addressee
L3-:. DCI
4 - DDCI
5 - ExDir
6 DD/S&T
7 - NIPE
Yours very truly,:
(Signed) JOHN A. ;Icc011iu
John A. McCone
-?
Director
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/01/07: CIA-RDP80R01580R002004140037-3
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/01/07: CIA-RDP80R01580R002004140037-3