TRUMAN SAYS CIA WAS DIVERTED FROM ITS ORIGINAL ASSIGNMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP68-00046R000200110002-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 26, 2014
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 21, 1963
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release @ 2014/03/26: CIA-RDP68-00046R000200110002-4
SPRINGFIELD, MASS. -
REPUBLICAN
S. 112,302
, heat ttfit ? Ottior
Pato Piss Pints
Date: ilc.1; ,2 1. i 954 1
s, Paley Malting Arm? ?
Truman Says ,CIA Was Diverted
. ;
From Its Girginal Assignment., '
By HARRY S TRUMAN
%Veal -ssess he, capacity to
' (Copyright, 1963, by Harry S Truman)
work Orthe highest level of gov-
ernment responsibility and to
have no involvements of any
i necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations Of I kind of partisan piffles.
our Central Intelligence?CIA. At least, I would like to submit I wanted to mike sure that
? here the original reason why I thought it necessary to organize 1CIA was not to be another over-
this agency during my administration, what I expected it to do ?lapping facility. Quite to the con-
anti how it was to -operate as an arm of the President. ' , I; Vary ? it was intended to pt-c-
f.vt it. As visualized it. it. was
think it is fairly obvious ?
i, to coordinate and consolidate the
that by and large a Presidents late. thus '!
. us preventing the; adop
performance n office Is RA ef-,tion of course of action neces-
i
lective as the information he has sary to protect our security.
and the information ha gets.; In this new kind of world in
That is to say. That. assuming which the United States oecupies
the President himself Possesses a position of leadership among
qa knowledge of our history, 8. the free nations. faulty infor-
, sensitive understanding of .our !nation. careless intelligence .or
+-institutions,- and an insight into unintelligent reports on intent-
the nee& and aspirations of the stcpcc, or unintelligible conclu
people, he heeds to have avail- sions, can prove very damaging
able to him the most accurate to our policy-making decisions
? and up to?the minute inform- arid to the conduct of foreign re-
; bon on what is going on every- 'mimic whinh, is the personal
' where in the ivoid, and particu- responsibility of the President.
lady of the trends and devel- Therefore, I decided to set
liniments in all the danger spots up A special organization
? .?In the matest heti`v,ean East an!! charged with the collection of
W Thi is a.? immense task all intelligence reports from ev-
and requires a special kind of esy 'available source and to have
i an -intelligence Wilily. , those reports reach me as
1 Of course, every President has President without departmental
'available to him all the informa' "treatment" of interpretations.
, lion gathered by the many. intel- I wanted and needed the infor-
; ligence agencies already in ex- mation in its "natural raw"
Ist?'"'e? DePartrmIns af State. state and in as comprehensive
? Defense, Commerce Interior and a volume as it
was practical for
others are constantly engaged. in me to make full use of it. But
' extensive information gathering the most important thing about
and have done excellent work. this move was to guard against
But their collective information the chance of intelligence being
reached the President all 1?0 used to influence or to lead the
frequently in conflicting sioneles President into unwide decisions
Mons. At, times the intelligence ?and I though it was necessary
reports tended to he slanted. to that the President do his own
.conform to established positions thinking, and evaluating. Since
of a given depatment. This be-
comes confusing and what's
_worse. such intelligence is of
little use to a President in reach-
ing the right deciskins.
Cause of Pearl Harbor
I have seen instances where
?The Army. Navy and the State
Department - were duplicating
their intelligence coverage?
which resulted in inaccurate
conclusions. I have always- felt
that the Pearl Harbor disaster,
*as partly. the result of that
_ .kind of intelligence confusion. It
seemed to me that much of the
Intelligence gathered failed to
s 'reach the top levels in the goy-
ernment?and that when. It did?
s, it was not in proper form.. In
critical times certain important
bits a'intormation, came. too
3-
(--e-rt ANDENSEA
' .5eliERS
netilibh
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (NANA)---I think it has become
Declassified and Approved
President into unwise decisions
making was his?then he had to
he sure that no information is
kept from him for whatever
reason at the discretion of any
one department or agency, or
that unpleasant facts be kept
from him. There are always
those Who would want to shield a
President from hod newaor mis-
judgments to spare him front be-
ing "upset."
Men of Integrity
,Now, this at best was tt most
difficult requirement to meet,
and the only thing I could think
about that would give it some
reasonable Assurances of suc-
cess is that the people placed in
charge of this new Intelligence
,facility for the President were
men of the. highest Integrity ,and
flow of information so that it
would reach the President with
rici intervening steps in that pro-
cess. It was to he directly under
the President and solely respon-
sible to the President.
In this wny, the 'Central Intel-
ligence Agency would function
as A source of oontinuing vital
information. unedited and unln-
terpreted for the use of the
President, thus enabling him to
he informed on everything cur-
rent and without the usual pro-
cedural delays.
No President has the right to
abdicate his responsibility. for
administering the operations of
the Executive Branch of the gov-
ernment. He can delegate but he
cannot escape the personal re-
sponsibility for anything that
may go wrong. If there is any
!job in the world that calls for
I the kind of unremitting drudg-
I ery, of Never ending homework,
it is the Presidency of the Unit-
ed States.
It is not only the loneliest job
in the world it is one of con-
tinual soulsealthing and of deep
and. sustained thought: A Presi-
dent is in the grip of events that
never seem to let go. He is in
every sanse the captor of the
? most exacting office in the gilt
; of a free people. But with all
that,it la a wonderful and in-
. .
piescribaide experience.' It is ex-
.asperating and it is exhilarating.
.It is a moment in history that
;enables a man to serve mankind
Iln A broad and comprehensive
way- and to shape the course of
the world towards a happier ek
istenee and its hope for a life in
peace.
CIA "Diverted"
For some, time I have been
distrOrtied by the, way the CIA
has been diverted from its origi-
nal assignment. Ithas become
an operational and' at times a
policy-making arm of the gov-
ernment. This has led to trouble
and may have compounded our
difficulties Jn, SeVoill;eXPlosive,
!areas.
I never had any thought .tinit't
;when I set up Ihe CIA that it
Iwould ? he injected into peac0
time cloak nail dagger operas'
bons. Sonic of the complicatiens.
and embarrasonent that I think'
we have experienced are in peel
attributoble to the fact that Mils
quiet intelligence nrm of the
President has been so removed
from its intended role that, 11 is
heihg inte-preted as a syrhbol of
sinister and inesterioua .foreign
intrigue ? and a subjetst -for cold
war enemy propaganda.
With all the nonsense put out
by Communist propaganda
about "Yankee imperialhan,"
"exploitive capitalism," "war-
mongering," "monopolists," in
their name calling assualt on the
West, the last thing we needed
'iwas for the CIA to be seized
vtipan as something akin to a sub-
verting influence in the affairs
of other people.
I- well knew the first temposi
rary Director of the CIA, Ad-
miral Souers, and the later
permanent Directors of the CIA,
General Hoyt Vandenberg and
Allen Dulles. These were men
of the highest character, patriot-
ism and integrity and I as-
sume this is true of all those
who continue in charge.
' But, there are now some
searching questions that need to
,be answered. 1, therefore, would
like to see the CIA be restored
to its original assignment as the
intelligence arm at) the Presis
dent, and that whatever else it
can properly Perform in that
special field ? and that its op-
erational Miles be terminated or
properly used elsewhere.- ?
: We have grown up As .a nit'
tion, respected for our free in-
stitutions and for our ability to
maintain a free and open so!
ciety. There is something about
the way the CIA has been tune-
-tinning that is casting a shadow
over our historic.posittiOn and I
feel Unit vve need to correct lt.?
For Release @ 50-Yr 2014/03/26: CIA-RDP68-00046R00071)n1 11111n9_4