67. Memorandum From the Secretary of State’s Special Assistant for Research and Intelligence (McCormack) to Secretary of State Byrnes0
The following five further modifications of the War Department plan are suggested:
- (1)
- Secret intelligence and counter-intelligence. The War Department is in a hurry to unload the 2500 people that it has in these activities. A central [Page 165] agency would be greatly handicapped by having to take over these units immediately. Also there are a number of knotty problems to be solved, such as the future of the FBI in South America. It is recommended that the function be not taken over until a complete operating plan has been worked out and approved by the Authority. Such a plan would involve basic decisions as to the extent to which, and the limitations under which, this Government proposes to engage in clandestine operations in foreign countries, including matters which may require Presidential approval.
- (2)
- “Evaluation of intelligence on a national level.” This broad function is given to the central agency without any definition of its meaning.1 Insofar as it pertains to the submission of information to the President, the function is now performed by the State Department, by the Joint Intelligence Committee and by other departments. Before the central intelligence agency actually begins to act under this sweeping grant of authority the meaning of “evaluation on a national level” should be carefully defined and the scope of the agency’s duties approved by the Authority.
- (3)
- Functions of National Intelligence Authority. The War Department plan contains a wholly inadequate statement of the missions of the Authority. The statement of missions as set forth in the State Department plan (to which no objection has been made) should be adopted.
- (4)
- Committees. The Director should be authorized to form interdepartmental committees (including members outside State, War and Navy) as provided in the State Department plan, eliminating, however, the statement that these committees will be the “primary means by which the Authority will carry out its missions.”
- (5)
- Bringing additional Department and Agency heads into the Authority. The War Department plan requires approval of the President to the bringing in of additional Department and Agency heads as members of the Authority on matters of interest to them. The provision of the State Department plan in this respect should be adopted, namely that the Authority itself may bring such additional members.
Comment
With the above modifications the plan would still be, in my opinion, unworkable because of the impossible position in which it puts the Director. He will be circumscribed on all sides by the Intelligence Board, consisting primarily of the intelligence heads of the armed services. He can take no “important action” without consulting them; he cannot even entertain a request for an estimate except through a Board member; he [Page 166] can make no estimate for a departmental head without passing it formally through the Board members; he can get no personnel except by their favor; and therefore he would be virtually impotent in discharging his “coordinating” functions.
The one thing that might save him—control of the intelligence machinery and resources of the State Department—is also taken from him by insistence of the War and Navy Departments.