Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945–1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment

186. Memorandum From the Secretary of State’s Special Assistant for Research and Intelligence (Eddy) to Secretary of State Marshall⁰

Washington, February 15, 1947.

SUBJECT

• Comment on the Central Intelligence Group

I

A central agency for national intelligence under civilian control is needed continuously in time of peace in addition to intelligence services in the several Departments. Its functions should include the following:

A. Interdepartmental intelligence required by interdepartmental agencies such as the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee, and other agencies and commissions of the national Government whose responsibilities extend beyond the province of any one Department.

B. Intelligence on matters which may be of secondary interest to any one Department, and which would, therefore, otherwise be neglected, but which may be of prime interest for national policy.

C. Under-cover intelligence and espionage abroad which should not compromise the official representatives of the United States of America. Espionage, which is certainly needed, and which involves the employment of unofficial agents, both American and foreign, should be operated by an agency outside the Departments and with funds not subject to departmental accounting.

II

The Central Intelligence Group (CIG), with the passage of requested legislation, should be able to perform the valuable services described above since:

A. The CIG operates under the National Intelligence Authority (NIA) which reports directly to the President. The NIA is composed of the Secretary of State, as Chairman, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and a personal representative of the President, thus representing a balance between civilian and military needs.

B. The NIA, controlling as it does both its executive agency, the CIG, and through its individual members, the intelligence services of the Departments represented, is well constituted to promote the efficient coordination of all national intelligence.

III

The CIG has already made a good beginning and should be directed to confine itself to the following fields:

A. Interdepartmental intelligence and other special assignments made by the NIA.

B. Coordination of intelligence reports produced by the several Departments and by its own special operations to make the total available intelligence accessible to those who guide our national policy.

C. Avoid entering the field of departmental intelligence where duplication would be wasteful. Only the Army and the Navy are technically equipped to direct their operational intelligence services; and only the Department of State, through its Foreign Service, attempts to cover the world with expert political and economic reports for its daily political and economic operations.

D. Operate an under-cover espionage service with freedom to use for this purpose special agents and special funds. Of all the great nations of the world, the United States of America has lacked an efficient espionage service which, in many critical parts of the world, is the only way to acquire indispensable information.

IV

The CIG budget. The present plans of the CIG contemplate a total budget of something less than $40,000,000. for the fiscal year 1948. With the extent of CIG’s operations at present unpredictable, it is not practicable to verify or deny their need for such a sum, with the single exception, however, of the Office of Reports and Estimates, for which it is believed a total personnel of 500 would be more than adequate, instead of the 852 requested. The budget appears to be a reasonable request on the understanding that it is a permissive maximum, to be used on projects expressly approved in each case by the NIA.

It would seem the part of wisdom to publish only the administrative budget for the CIG and to have the funds required for secret and special operations segregated in a special fund entrusted to the President, or, if that is inadvisable, to the Secretary of State, with knowledge of that fund and an accounting of it confined to a very few Congressional leaders.

William A. Eddy

0. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Decimal File 1945–49, 101.61/2–1547. Top Secret. Marshall annotated this memorandum “Hold. G.C.M.”