48. Minutes of the 168th Meeting of the Secretary of State’s Staff Committee0
PARTICIPANTS
- Present
- The Secretary (presiding)
- The Under Secretary
- The Counselor
- Mr. Braden
- Mr. Clayton
- Mr. Hackworth
- Mr. McCormack
- Mr. Pasvolsky
- Mr. Russell, Donald
- Mr. Hiss, SPA
- Mr. Kindleberger, GA (part of meeting)
- Mr. Gange
- Mr. Lewis
- Mr. Rothwell
- Absent
- Mr. Benton
- Mr. Dunn
[Here follows discussion of subjects unrelated to intelligence.]
(The Secretary left the meeting at this point.)
Development of a National Intelligence Program (Document SC–172, Agenda Item 4)
Mr. McCormack discussed document SC–172,1 making recommendations regarding the development of an interdepartmental intelligence program. He called attention to Annex III2 of the document in which a comparison was made between a plan which had been proposed by him, and one prepared in the War Department. He said the principal point of difference between the two plans was with respect to the position of the Department of State with relation to the proposed intelligence organization. Mr. McCormack said he understood that at the first interdepartmental meeting on the subject, it had been understood that the Department of State would take the lead in developing the intelligence program.3 He said the Budget Bureau had agreed that whatever agency [Page 119] was given responsibility for the program should not have to go to Congress for appropriations and that the Executive Secretary of the Intelligence Coordinating Authority should be appointed by the Secretary of State. Mr. McCormack said the armed services were not too pleased with this latter proposal.
Mr. Braden said that on the basis of his experience in Latin America, he felt strongly that the Department should direct and control foreign intelligence operations. He said that in Latin America the duplication of effort by Army and Navy attachés (and for a time by FBI representatives) had been very unfortunate. He said the training of military and naval people does not fit them for this kind of work and their functions should be limited to those of advisers in their own fields. The Counselor said he agreed that the intelligence service should not be under the control of the armed services. He said, however, that the criticism was sometimes made of other intelligence services (the British service during the Chamberlain regime, for example) that intelligence reporting was often colored to justify previously determined foreign policy. He asked what the answer was to this argument.
Mr. McCormack said the only solution was to have a sound research and analysis organization in Washington which would be able to detect this sort of reporting. The Counselor asked Mr. McCormack whether he envisaged a considerable amount of autonomy for the intelligence agency. In other words, he said, while parts of the agency would be located in the Department, it would not be part of any operating branch of the Department. Mr. McCormack said this was correct. He also said the intelligence service would have to have its own means of communication.
Mr. Braden said there was an immediate problem in connection with FBI personnel in Latin America. He said FBI representatives were shortly to be withdrawn from all Latin American countries, leaving us without any organization there for security intelligence. He said these officers had been very effective and had established a very valuable organization which should be retained if possible. Mr. McCormack said he understood the President had stated flatly that the FBI was not to operate outside the United States. Mr. McCormack said the only Department which had the funds to take over the FBI personnel was the War Department. He asked Mr. Braden to give him full information regarding the FBI personnel (including names of persons, locations, etc.) which he might use as a basis for opening discussions with the War Department regarding the matter.
Mr. McCormack also referred to the compilation of strategic estimates which had been prepared during the war for the President and other high officers. The principal agency for producing such estimates was the Joint Intelligence Committee on which were represented the [Page 120] State and War Departments, the Foreign Economic Administration, and the Office of Strategic Services. The Committee was related closely to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The estimates prepared by the Joint Intelligence Committee varied greatly in value, depending on the accident of the choice of the person or agency to prepare them. In the Department of State, for example, no personnel was available to devote sufficient time to working on such estimates, and Mr. McCormack said he was now in the position, as Department of State member of the Joint Intelligence Committee, of having to inform the Committee, when a request was made for a report to be prepared in the Department, that personnel was not available for this work. He said the War Department plan places the responsibility for the preparation of such estimates in a joint agency and in his plan, the responsibility is placed in the Department of State. Mr. McCormack asked whether the Committee considered this to be the right approach. Mr. Braden said that on the basis of his Latin American experience, he felt that it was the right approach.
Mr. Pasvolsky said there appeared to be three problems involved: First, the problem of obtaining the information in the field; second, the problem of making sure that there is in Washington a place where all such information is available; and, third, the problem of making it available to all persons who need it. Mr. McCormack said he would agree with Mr. Pasvolsky if the second problem were restated to read “the problem of taking all incoming information and placing it into the proper form for use”.
The Committee agreed that further consideration of the document should be deferred until the meeting of Tuesday, November 27th.
Next Meeting
The Committee agreed that the next meeting should be on Saturday, November 24th, for the purpose of disposing of the items remaining on the Agenda and any other items to be presented.
The meeting adjourned at 10:55.
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 353, Records of Interdepartmental and Intradepartmental Committees—State Department, Lot File No. 122, Records of the Secretary’s Staff Committee 1944–47. Top Secret. Drafted by James H. Lewis. The meeting was held in the Secretary’s office.↩
- Document 46.↩
- See footnote 7, Document 46.↩
- It is not clear to which meeting McCormack was referring.↩