THE OFFICE OF COLLECTION AND DISSEMINATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00951R000400020095-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 8, 1998
• Sequence Number: 95
• Content Type: REPORT

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.e, r':i.cc of Collection and
.e ' C Survoy Group rccon.,;.ended lac dismci~bcxmcr.L o OC.I.
Tuo years lator William Jackson, the a)C C, moved to ccrry ou,,
that recommendation, which was his o:?nz idea. Bedell
'however, decided not to do that. Smith's reversal of
must be attributed to the persuasive jaowers Of James J.
the Assistant Director for Collection and Dissemination.'"
OCD survived untouched the general rco~ucr~ization of CIA pursuer,;:
to NSC 50.
The cabal of colonels who came to CIG with GenQraL Var~eur_bcr~;'
zd read in an Amoy reUu1atior. that the intelliUerice process con-
a~: o :!bllection, evaluation, and dissemination. On their
vice vandenberg es-,.ablished an Office of Collection, an Off ice
";v4 . pion (Oil ), and an O Tice of Dissemination.' 591/ The
';ffice of Collection had nothing to do with the collection o~:
For a more extended treatment of this subject, see
"Ord anizctional History of the CentraL
1n e hence Agency, 1950-1953," DCI Historical Series, IIS-2, Chapt,
M. Andrews, the ADCD, is not to sae confused with
thy contemporary Advisor for 1~ana ement.
See above, p. 1.6.
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information in foreign ia,;,-tz. Its function was to gc'bhe.r fro-m
Ctato and the Penta on the intel.liC;ence materials that O1-3Z would
ttoorro1t to and Qvalua,te. it 'l`ha Offte o:i Disscm~.nal:ion would than
distribute to the White House, State, and the Pentagon the "strategic
and national policy intelligence" that OM produced. Two months
passed before it occurred to some bright mind that the same set of
liaison officers and couriers who collected information for ORE
could also disseminate the O1~ product, that two separate offices
for collection and dissemination were not required. The two offica;s
were then combined to form one Office of Collection and Disseminat -on.
This episode is indicative of the level of sophistication thw?
General Vandenberg and his preferred advisors brought to the directio.l
of intelligence.
The plan for ORE included a . "Library, " which was to contain not
only standard reference works, but also a central file of all the
intelligence documents that would come into ORE' s 25X1A9a
possession.
S
then the CIA Executive for Administration and Management,
and then in ORE took Particular ~ r
interest in thi
"Libra.ry" and from it developed the idea of a Reference Center in
all of the intelligence materials in the possession of the Govern:ne ,?
would be deposited, indexed, and made available to all intelligence
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rvencies. As might have been c: y ected, the Departmental a ,er~cias
flatly 'cefuscd to surrender their files to CIG; the Reference
Contor could be no more than C:c's cQntral rU:6'erQnca daoility.
The management of 01U, engrossed in more urgent internal and
c::ter na,l problems, paid no attention to the development 04 the
Reference Center. For that reason transferred it -ror, OR
to his own office., in September 1947, 600 In January 1948 he
engaged James Id. Andrews to be its Chief. 601. Andrews was an
enthuaiastic advocate of the use of business machines for the
indc~c:;? retrieval, and analysis of inf orriation. * In May 191;?8
the reference Center was merged into the original OCD and Andrews
was made the Assistant Director for Collection and Dissemination. 602
As organized by Andrews in 1918, OCD consisted of the Library
(a general repository o (intelligence documents), three specialized
registers (Biographic, Industrial, and Graphics), and a Machine
Techniques Branch -- all from the Reference Center -- and a Liaison
Branch, the old OCD. 603 Thus it was the Reference Center that had
teItien over OdD, rather than vice versa.
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Andrews souUht to instill in OCD personnel the idea that 0C.-E)
existed only to serve the other components of CIA, and the D_-
part-mental. c,ucncies as well, insofar as practicable. They must forGot
about pretensions to superior coordinatinc authority and do their
utmost to service every demand or request that come to them, no
matter what the source. 6Oi1? That was indeed a remarkable doctrine
in the CIA of 191.8.
The NSC Survey Group examined OCD just after this reorGaniza--
tion had Gone into effect. It had no co;;ni.zance of the -previous;
period of trial and error. It could not know how the new arrange-
ment would work out..
On theoretical rather than empirical Grounds, the Survey Group
concluded that the Liaison Branch of OCD had a coordinatinG yunc,ion
that should be assiGned to its proposed "Coordination Division.'r
The rest of OCD (the former Reference Center) was plainly related to
research and should therefore be assigned to the proposed "Research
and reports Division." 60,E Andrews' comment on'this proposal was
that it was, in effect, a return to the situation that had existed
before September 191+7, which had been unsatisfactory. 606/ Eillen%oettcr
rejected the proposal, but the NSC approved it in NSC 50. 507/
By this time the Liaison Branch had undertaken the coordination o"
specific collection requirements, as distinguished from the gene a
coordination of collection operations, which remained a function o:
(CAPS.
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n accordance with the "Dulles Pcport" and icco 30, Jackson
included In his plans for OPui e: Reference Division conpoccd o:L'
the foamier Reference Ccntcr elements of OCD. The Liaison Braneh
would uo to OTC and OCD would cease to exist. 608/
Andrews was resigned to the demise of OCD, but de'termi ned
that t .Tic lie:LLorence Center he had created should not be subordinated
to 01~ , cc the '"Li.larary' had been to OuR. No doubt with :he si7?_ ort
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of Andrews appealed to Goner a.l Smith. His line: was teat
OC'i) wcis a service oruani.za;tion, in t ho, service of all of the co.a-.
1,oac:n of CIA, and of the L!AC a.C encios as well. It should not be
s~: bordinatcd to Just one of its rainy Customers. The, result would
be the neglect from which the Library had suffered in 012E, or at
e;,.s t a reduction in its functions to suit the limited interests
o:: ORE. If OCD roust be abolished, let all of its elements be
assigned to OIC, where they could continue to serve the whole
intelligence community. 609
General Smith was no doubt impressed by this ar imient -- and
even more by Jamie Andrews' spirit and his Grasp of his business.
A,ith readily agreed that the e erenee Center elements of 0C
should not be subordinated to ORE. At the sem~e time he s7erceived
the the day-to-day service operations of OCD would be incongruous
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in OIC. Most importantly, he saw that James Reber was not the
rn.n to take the place of Jemes,Andrews in charge of that business. 610
His decision was to leave Andrews and OCD exactly as he had found
them. 611
The only changes made in OCD during Smith's term as DCI were
the addition of a new Special Register, for the machine-indexing of
Comint materials, and a great increase in i= personnel strength, in
keeping with the general intensification of intelligence activities
2 Iiif the Period.* In June 1950 the authorized strength of OCD had
This rate of increase was actually greater than that
of the substantive offices that OCD served. 612
The Office of Operations.
The advent of Bedell Smith had little effect on the operations
of the three constituent elements of the Office of Operations. The
Office as a whole was subordinated to the Deputy Director, Plans,
during 1951, but was transferred to the Deputy Director, Intelligence,
on 1 March 1952..
See below, Chapter VIII.
-X-X- For a more extended treatment of this subject, see
"Office of Operations: Overt Collection, 1916- 5, DDI
Historical Series, DCS-
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