SPECIAL MEETING OF THE INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE 1 APRIL 1948

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85S00362R000200110004-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 17
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 13, 2002
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: April 1, 1948
• Content Type: MIN

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'A A
SPECIAL MEETING
OF THE
INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
1 APRIL 1948
SUMMARY
Action to be Taken
Action to be taken Responsibility
1. Study the draft NSCID, as amended
at the meeting, and submit comments All
to the Director of Central Intelli- Representatives
gence. Present.
Action to be Taken by the Secretariat
1. Prepare and circulate the amended
version of the draft NSCID to
those present.
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T_ 't I
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PRESET'
CTn
STATE
ARMY
NAVY
USAF
SECRETARIAT
INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY COLD ITT JE
ALSO PRESENT
5X1
CIA
STATE
ARMY
SPECIAL T. EATING
OF THE
Rear Admiral R. H. Hillenkoetter (Chairman)
Mr, W. Park Armstrong, Jr.
Lieut. General :S J. Chamberlin
Rear Admiral Thom-- B. Inglis
Major General G. C. 1-1cDcnald
Captain J. E. Fitzpatrick
Lieutenant C. T. R. Adams
Colonel Harold G. Hayes
Colonel Lionel is o McGarr
USAF
Rear Admiral E, Stone
Captain J. N. 'Fenger
Captain Carl F. Espe
Major General Co P. Cabell
Colonel Richard P. Klocko
A special meeting of the Intelligence Advisory Committee for
consideration of the proposed. National Security Council Intelligence
Directive relating to Communication Intelligence (COMINT) was held
in Room 7117, North Interior Building, Washington, D.C., at 1300,
1 April 1948.
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ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER opened the meeting by stating his
wish to outline the genesis of the National Security Council
Intelligence Directive (NSCID) draft to be considered at the
current meeting. He said that when the Charter and Executive
Order proposed by the United States Communication. Intelligence
Board p(USCIB) had been referred to the Secretary of Defense
Mr. Forrestal had examined the proposals.
After examination Mr. Forrestal informed the Director of.
Central Intelligence that he considered the problem one to be
solved by existing National Security Council intelligence
directives and that-he had requested comments from the three
service secretaries.
He continued that subsequent events had called forth
the second memorandum (dated 22 March 194) and the tentative
National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) up for
consideration at the current meeting. Turning to the business
at hand, ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER suggested seem to be to consider the drafteNSCID P
by oeara-
t athe raggraP by best
graph. para-
graph.
CHAMBERLIN said that before the discussions of the
draft got under way he desired to clarify his status as a
spokesman for the Department of the Army. He said that in view
of the events of the preceding few days he had been unable to
obtain the highest echelon reactions to the draft NSCID-and con-
sequently would have to reserve freedom of action until he could
take the matter up with his Chief of Staff. He commented that
he certainly could not abrogate the responsibility of his Chief
of Staff over a military unit such as ASA. He commented that
this general "charter" problem had acted to place him in this
position of being asked to approve a measure which would in
effect place the Chief of Staff of the Army on a subordinate
.level (insofar as COMINT matters would be concerned) to that
occupied by the Army member of USCIB. He reiterated his state-
ment that he was not empowered to take any final action during
the current meeting, adding that he would nonetheless be glad
to do what he could to assist in arriving at a commonly acceptable
draft NSCID for submission to higher authorities within the
member agencies.
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ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER stated his opinion that it was singu-
larly unfortunate that not all members present were invested with
the necessary authority to take action on the draft, and expressed
surprise that such a situation should have come about.
GENERAL CABELL said his position was the same as that occu-
pied by General Chamberlin--namely, that he was not authorized to
speak for the Chief of Staff of the Air Force or the Secretary of
the Air Force.
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER repeated his statement of disappoint-
ment that some members were unable to represent their respective
departments. He observed that if such a condition continued to
exist no progress at all could be made,
ADMIRAL INGLIS commented that it appeared to him that this
difficulty might be cleared up a bit by reference to the Navy's
position in the matter. He said that he and ADMIRAL STONE were
authorized to represent the Chief of Naval Operations and the
Secretary of the Navy insofar as the drafting of a recommended
NSCID for submission to the National Security Council would be
concerned, but this did not mean that they could bind the Chief
of Naval Operations and the Secretary of the Navy by statements
made at the current meeting. He said it was his understanding
that consideration of any draft which might be approved at the
current meeting and forwarded to the NSC would appear as an
item on the agenda for a future NSC meeting and that since the
agenda will no doubt be circulated to members in advance of
the meeting, the Chief'of Naval Operations will have ample
opportunity to consult with the Secretary of the Navy before
the latter is called upon to. make a decision on the matter,
GENERAL, CABELL said that this was also his view,
ADMIRAL INGLIS commented that he of course could not"speak
for the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations"
in the sense of binding them to a predetermined course of action,
but that he and ADMIRAL STONE could represent the Chief of Naval
Operations and the Secretary of the Navy in arriving at a mutu-
ally acceptable draft of an NSCID to be submitted to the Secretary
of the Navy as a member of the National Security Council,
ADMIRAL STONE said this was a clear expression of his own
views,
GENERAL CHAMBERLIN said that his earlier statement would have
to stand, however, adding that he could not concur in any final
action at the present meeting but would be glad to contribute to
the discussions,
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ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER again expressed disappointment at the
limitations which would have to be observed by some members but
commented that "if that's the way things are, we will have to go
ahead and do the best we can." He asked for initial comments.
MR. ARMSTRONG said he would like to review the Department
of State's position.- He said that his Department had from the
beginning of the "charter problem" taken the position that the
National Security Council is the proper "parent" body for USCIB.
He added that the Department of State still considers this to be
the case. Thus, he said, the draft NSCID up for consideration
at the present meeting had returned the question of "parentage"
to the sphere upon which the Department had previously expressed
agreement. He added that, however, in examining this draft the
Department of State representatives had concluded that certain
changes might be mutually acceptable and beneficial to USCIB
members. Thus, for example, he said, it had been considered
that certain of the provisions in the draft might better be
handled by later, implementing directives and some of the phrase-
ology involving repetition could be improved. He added that
the result of these conclusions took shape as an alternate draft
of the NSCID which was somewhat shorter but essentially the same
as the CIA's draft. He said that he wished to ask a procedural
question in that at some time during the deliberations on the
"charter problem" the Department of State desired that its al-
ternate draft be put forward for consideration by the Intelligence
Advisory Committee (IAC). He asked whether those present desired
to consider the two drafts simultaneously or preferred to post-
pone consideration of the Department of State's draft until the
CIA's draft had been checked. He said that perhaps Admiral
Hillenkoetter could decide how this should be handled.
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER said he would leave the decision to
members. The matter was discussed 'briefly and it was agreed to
take the CIA's draft up first, to consider it paragraph by para-
graph, and then to compare the resulting version with the al-
ternate draft prepared by the Department of State.
GENERAL CABELL said he again suggested that the phrase
"and unified direction" be deleted from the Navy's proposed re-
draft of paragraph 1 of the NSCID draft. He said that other-
wise the Navy's proposed paragraph was acceptable to him.
GENERAL CHAMBERLIN read his proposed revision of paragraph
l of the NSCID draft and commented that his version omitted the
phrase "and unified direction" but was otherwise the same as
the Navy's version. He said he would place a period after the
words "such intelligence" and would delete the words enclosed
by parentheses.
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER asked MR. ARMSTRONG's opinion and the
latter said he would prefer to reserve his comments until the
Department of State's alternate draft had come up for consideration.
ADMIRAL STONE endorsed the Navy's paragraph 1 as written.
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MR. ARMSTRONG invited attention to possible need for use
of the phrase "there is hereby" since the NSCID will be an
enacting document. ALL 12MBERS agreed to include this phrase.
ADMIRAL INGLIS said he noticed that both in the CIA's
draft and in ID's draft of paragraph 1 the phrase "under the
National Security Council" had been omitted. He asked whether
this omission had been decided upon for any special reasons.
i.DLIIRAL HILLENKOETTER said that this USCIB-NSC relation-
shiV was defined in later paragraphs of the draft.
GENERAL CHAMBERLIN commented that this phrase most cer-
tainly should not be left out of the draft completely, and
COLONEL HAYES said that the phrase came in the preamble to
the directive.
GENERAL CABELL said that his earlier comments had been
made on the assumption that substitution of the Navy's para-
graph 1 would involve deletion of the preamble.
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER said that the substitution of the
Navy's paragraph for the present paragraph 1 would not disturb
the preamble.
ADMIRAL INGLIS said he considered that paragraph 1 might
be a good place to define the relationship of USCIB to the NSC
anyway, since this would establish the concept early in the
directive. MEMBERS discussed this suggestion and agreed to
include the statement of relationship.
DISCUSSION then returned to the phrase "and unified direc-
tion." ADMIRAL INGLIS said that ADMIRAL STONE had indicated
a desire to leave the "and unified direction" phrase in the
paragraph.
ADMIRAL STONE said he would defer to the wishes of the
members in this matter and that hence he would go along with
the deletion of the phrase. He recalled, however, that this
same matter had been exhaustively discussed in USCIB meetings
and inclusion of the disputed phrase had been agreed upon. He
said, however, that if those present at the current meeting
favored omitting the phrase, he would defer to their wishes;
adding that, in substance, the phrase "authoritative coordina-
tion" might be interpreted to mean approximately the same thing
as "unified direction." He commented, however, that one reason
for inclusion of both phrases had been the fact that both appear
in the National Security Act of 1947 (NSA).
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ADIGIIRAL INGLIS said he agreed with ADMIRAL STONE, and
ADMIRAL HILLEI\TIKOETTER concurred, adding that he would rather
have both phrases included but would accept deletion of the
"unified direction" phrase in deference to the desires of other
members of.the Committee.
GENERAL CABELL raised a question as to whether the preamble
should specifically cite Section 101 as well as 102 of the NSA
or was necessary at all. During subsequent discussion of the
question whether any section of the Act should be mentioned
specifically, 1&Z. AM4STRONG and ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER emphasized
that the terminology of the preamble was standard for all NSCID's
and the former commented that Section 102 of the Act was included
as a citation of authority. It was agreed to cite 101 and 102.
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER read the revised preamble and para-
graph 1 and asked for cor,iuaents.
ADIIRA,L INGLIS said he considered USCIB's function, with
relation to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to include
more than merely advising him regarding the "protection of the
source" of CO11INT,
GENERAL CHJ Vil3ERLIN and ADMIRAL INGLIS discussed this aspect
of the problem and the former maintained that:
1) "protection of sources" is all that is
authorized by the NSA of 191+7,
2) this fact does not operate to exclude all
other types of advice concerning COMINT.
In reply, AM,11IRALS HILLENKOETTER and INGLIS expressed the view
that the NSA prescribes a number of functions other than "pro-
tection of sources" for the DCI. ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER mentioned
the functions of "collecting" and "coordinating" the nation's
intelligence as examples.
GENERAL CHAMvBERLIN expressed the view that, if the DCI is to
take a hand in the collection of C011INT, the scope and nature of
such a plan should be defined and examined by the CO?1INT authori-
ties and an appropriate provision therefore should be included in
the NSCID establishing USCIB. He added his belief that while the
other functions enumerated by ADNIREL IILLENKOETTER might apply
to the general field of intelligence, the DCI's relationship with
respect to COMINT is limited to the protection of sources.
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ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER observed that the law makes no
exceptions.
GENERAL CHAMBERLIN reiterated his belief that if COMINT is to
be subject to the mentioned, additional functions of the DCI, re-
sulting relationship should be minutely defined by the document
formally establishing USCIB.
ADMIRAL INGLIS commented that these added functions are al-
ready in operation since the CIA "collects" COMINT from the pro-
ducing agencies and "coordinates" COMINT,.so received, with the
rest of intelligence. He added that the COMINT producing
agencies constitute one of the DCI's "sources." He added that the
broader, simpler wording of the Navy's paragraph 1 made it de-
sirable as an opening statement of the provisions of the NSCID.
ADMIR'.L STONE asked whether it might be beneficial to insert
the word "th.ose" before the word "matters" and thus delimit the
field of tl_:: DCI's jurisdiction over COMINT more clearly.
GENERAL CHAMBERLIN said he believes that the DCI has no re-
sponsibility with respect to COMINT except that of "coordination."
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER said that the Navy's proposed paragraph
1 would have to be accepted if such was the General's belief.
GENERAL CHAMBERLIN replied that he had no wish to delay pro-
ceedings, though he would prefer the Navy's paragraph 1 as amended
thus far.
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER said he would accept this version, as
amended, and added that the word "those" would be inserted as
suggested by ADMIRAL STONE.
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER then invited attention to paragraphs 2,
3, and 4 in that order.
MEMBERS present APPROVED these paragraphs as they appeared in
the CIA's draft.
Proceeding to paragraph 5, ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER commented
that the only changes over the same statements as they appeared
in the Executive Order proposed by USCIB was the substitution of
the NSC for the appelate body of four (Under Secretary. of State
and three Chiefs of Staff) proposed by USCIB.
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GENERAL CHARIB.iPRLIN said if he were Secretary of the Army he
would reject this paragraph because it has the effect of making
a perfunctory organ out of the NSC since two of its members would
have no vote on any matters pertaining to COMINT.
During the succeeding discussion of this view, GENERAL
CHAMBERLIN took the position that the Secretary ofDefense's ex-
ercise of his privilege of securing unity of opinion within the
armed services might result in two of the Secretaries attending
an NSC meeting (for consideration of COMINT problems) and. being
under orders to vote aparticular way. ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER
and ADMIRAL INGLIS opposed this position, maintaining that by re-
wording of paragraph 5, by the intent and provisions of the NSA
of 1947, and by precedent, occurrence of the situation foreseen by
GENERAL-CHAMBERLIN becomes highly improbable. With respect to the
precedent aspect of the matter, they cited the Secretary of
Defense's handling of the recently settled "dominant interest"
problem. In connection with ADMIRAL INGLIS' comment that the
Secretary of Defense "adjudicates" differences between the heads
of the Services rather than silences the expressions of such
differing opinions, GENERAL CHAr11BERI,IN stated his belief that if
the Secretary of Defense takes a disputed question under advise-
ment the best settlement obtainable should be worked out at
Secretary level rather than to have the problem referred up to
the NSC since it would seem pointless for two of the disputants
to go to the NSC meeting powerless to vote as they desire. To
this ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER replied that the Secretary of Defense
might not always desire to force conformity at Secretary level
but, on the contrary, might desire to refer the matter up to
NSC after merely having received expressions of the varying
opinions of Service Secretaries.
GENERAL CHAMBERLIN observed that he hoped Mr.' Forrestal
would not take any such differences of opinion to the NSC, and
ADMIRAL INGLIS agreed, adding that it would seem desirable to
settle any such difficulties "within the family."
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER asked for additional comments and there
there were none. ALL MEMBERS AGREED to go on to paragraph 6.
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER commented that paragraph 6 had been in-
cluded because under the present plan no Executive Order is to be
obtained.
ADMIRAL STONF suggested adding the phrase "not inconsistent
with the National Security Act of 1947."
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GENERAL CHAMBERLIN recomm ' ded that paragraph 6 be omitted.
He said he hoped-that no unrealistic concepts would be permitted
to sha=pe parts of the NSCID, adding that the Army has COMINT
activities which are now'exclus ively under the jurisdiction of
the theater commander. He said that inclusion of paragraph 6
would thus conflict with, and might destroy, one part of the
internal organization of the Army.
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTEER observed that exclusion of the para-
graph Vould leave the door open to non-USCIB agencies entering
the'COMIINT field.
GENERAL CH~U1B1 LIN said that if the
was to
l
purpose
of paragraph 6
exc
ude such an eventuality, the
specifically so worded.
paragraph
should be
COLONEL HAYES asked whether this latter point was not covered
by paragraphs 7, 8,and 9 of the draft, and ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER
agreed that these paragraphs did so, and in some detail.
GENERAL McDONALD asked whether the NSC controls the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER replied that he knew of no pertinent
exceptions to the NSC's jurisdiction over the executive and
administrative branches of the government, adding that in any
event the President is the common superior of both the NSC and
the FBI.
MEVrB RS discussed this item briefly and GENERAL CHAMBERLIN
suggested that paragraph 6 be by-passed for the moment and that
paragraphs 7, 8, and 9 be checked to see whether they cover the
same concepts as 6.
ALL MEMBERS AGREED and ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER noted that both
paragraph 7 and 8 were identical with the corresponding paragraphs
in the Charter which had been approved by USCIB.
MEMBERS AGREED to accept paragraphs 7 and 8 and to delete
paragraph 6.
Turning to paragraph 9, ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTEM said that, ex-
cept for the first sentence, the paragraph was identical with the
one that appeared in the old draft of the USCIB Charter.
GENERAL CHAMBERLIN asked for a definition of the phrase
"competent authority in the COMINT field" and ADMIRAL HILLENKOETTER
replied that, to him, this phrase meant Captain Wenger and Colonel
Hayes; i.e., the heads of the COMINT operating agencies.
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