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

400. Memorandum From Director of Central Intelligence Hillenkoetter to the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Souers)⁰

Washington, October 7, 1949.

SUBJECT

• Progress Report to NSC on NSC 50, Section 6 “Organization of CIA”¹

REFERENCE

(a)

Memorandum of 8 July 1949 from Executive Secretary of the NSC²

1. Paragraph 2 of the above mentioned reference³ and Section 6 of NSC 50 call for a report to the NSC in 90 days on progress toward implementation of the recommendations on Organization in Section 6 of NSC 50.

2. I am now able to report on these recommendations as follows:

(1) A plan for integrating OSO, OPC, and Contact Branch of OO under single overall direction in an Operations Division has already been drawn up and submitted for review to the Departments of Defense and State, prior to submission to the NSC. Due to the changes entailed in NSC 10/2, the State Department has requested some time to study this matter before implementation.

(2) With reference to the second factor in the organization about creating a small Estimates Division and a Research and Reports Division for recognized fields of common interest, it is believed that other methods of organization will accomplish the same concept and objectives. It is thought that good estimates can be obtained only when closely tied in with research. Plans for some reorganization within ORE are now being drawn up with this view in mind.

(3) When the plans for a Combined Operations Division (paragraph (1) above) are approved, the Foreign Documents Branch will be relocated in an appropriate place in the Agency.

(4) As recommended in the NSC 50 report, the Foreign Broadcast Information Branch will not be included in the proposed Operations Division.

(5) The Interdepartmental Coordinating and Planning Staff is a joint staff responsible only to the Director of Central Intelligence devoted to the interdepartmental coordination of intelligence activities. I plan to strengthen it by giving it more internal CIA duties to better enable it to plan and coordinate intelligence activities on the policy level. The Office of Collection and Dissemination, however, will remain an independent “housekeeping” office performing many centralized services for the various sections of CIA with regard to collection and dissemination. It is thought to be neither necessary nor desirable to combine such operations with policy planning.

R.H. Hillenkoetter ⁴

Rear Admiral, USN

0. Source: Truman Library, Papers of Harry S. Truman, President’s Secretary’s Files. Top Secret. Transmitted to the NSC under an October 10 memorandum from Souers. See the Supplement.
1. Not found.
2. See Document 385.
3. Memo for the Director of Central Intelligence, transmitting NSC Action No. 231. [Footnote in the source text; see footnote 2, Document 385.]
4. Printed from a copy that indicates Hillenkoetter signed the original.