Office of the Historian

315. Memorandum From Director of Central Intelligence Hillenkoetter to Secretary of Defense Johnson0

Washington, October 18, 1949.

SUBJECT

  • Support of Covert Operations of CIA

REFERENCE

  • Memorandum from the Secretary of Defense, above subject, 6 October 19491
1.
The reference memorandum reduces to four basic principles the supply support of CIA covert operations by the Department of Defense:
a.
The Department will expect reimbursement from CIA for the costs of supplies and their storage and transportation when additional or extraordinary costs to the Department are involved, unless such expenses are unmistakably associated with particular operations requested or embraced by the Department of Defense in covert support of specific military missions.
b.
Operations should be consistent with U.S. military policies and approved by the Department of Defense prior to implementation in time of peace, support details to be arranged with the local U.S. military commander concerned.
c.
Precautions should be taken to insure against identification of the Department of Defense with operations in process.
d.
Operations, planned to be conducted in military theaters in time of war, should be in accordance with plans integrated in the war plans of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and should have local coordination and agreement in the theater concerned.
2.
These principles are generally agreeable to this Agency and are accepted subject to:
a.
Any deviations which may be directed by the President or the National Security Council.
b.
Any modifications agreed to in specific instances between the Department and CIA. (For example, at this time, the presence of additional conventional American equipment in China and on the Greek frontier would create no security risk.)
3.
It would appear that the best hope for the smooth, prompt, and, where necessary, flexible implementation of the arrangements you detail lies in the creation of the “military organization to work with the CIA on covert operations,” to which you refer in the next to the last paragraph on page 4 of the reference memorandum. I, therefore, urge that this organization be brought into being as soon as possible and recommend that it be vested with such discretionary power as will contribute to smooth relations between CIA and the Department of Defense.
R.H. Hillenkoetter 2

Rear Admiral, USN
  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 273, Records of the National Security Council, NSC 10/2. Top Secret. The source text indicates that a copy was sent to the Executive Secretary of the NSC.↩
  2. Document 312.↩
  3. Printed from a copy that indicates Hillenkoetter signed the original.↩