109. Memorandum From the Under Secretary of State (Bruce) to the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Lay)1
SUBJECT
- Fourth Progress Report on NSC 59/1, “The Foreign Information Program and Psychological Warfare Planning”
1. NSC 59/12 was approved as governmental policy on March 10, 1950. It is requested that this progress report, as of April 15, 1952, of activities undertaken in implementation of NSC 59/1, be circulated to the members of the Council for their information.
2. The organization referred to in NSC 59/1 has been designated The Psychological Operations Coordinating Committee (POC). It will be referred to in this report as “the Committee.”
3. This report describes only those foreign information operations and plans which, being interdepartmental in nature, were coordinated through the Committee.
4. Consequent to a reorganization of foreign information activities within the Department of State, the Chairmanship of the Committee has been assumed by the Administrator, International Information Administration. The following are regularly represented at the weekly meetings of the Committee: Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Mutual Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of State, and the Army, Navy [Page 266] and Air Force chiefs of psychological warfare and the Psychological Strategy Board staff.
5. Troop Acceptability Program
An operational plan for handling psychological problems growing out of the presence of United States military personnel in Europe, has been approved by the Committee. The interdepartmental working group which prepared this plan is now preparing another for dealing with psychological problems connected with the presence of United States military personnel in other areas of the world.
6. Soviet-Dominated Military Personnel
A plan for conducting overt psychological operations vis-à-vis the armed forces of the Soviet-dominated world was prepared by an interdepartmental working group by direction of the Committee. The Committee also approved and referred to appropriate operating divisions a number of interdepartmentally-developed propaganda themes to be used in output directed towards military personnel of the USSR and its captive countries.
7. General Assembly
On the Committee’s recommendation qualified information specialists were obtained from the Department of Defense and another agency to support the public information staff of the United States Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in Paris in November, 1951. These officers provided valuable assistance to the Delegation in the conduct of its information operations.
8. NATO Anniversary
The Committee provided advice and support in the preparation of interdepartmental plans for a broad program of information activity of the U.S. and other NATO member countries to commemorate the third anniversary of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in April, 1952. The Committee and its staff participated in arrangements for the issuance of a special postage stamp commemorating the anniversary.
9. Television in Propaganda
An interdepartmental working group established by the Committee has laid the groundwork for interdepartmental cooperation in the further development of television as a propaganda medium.
10. Operations Newsletter
A “Psychological Operations Newsletter” is issued monthly by the Staff. The purpose of the newsletter is to keep appropriate officers of POC member agencies, both in Washington and in field establishments, informed of current activities in this field.
[Page 267]11. Training Program
In accordance with the Committee’s recommendation, an expanded program of on-the-job training is being conducted in the State Department for military officers assigned to psychological warfare organizations. Fourteen officers have completed the six-months course, or are now following the course.
12. Project Nobel
The Committee has approved and referred to the International Information Administration in the Department of State, for implementation, a project designed to associate the living recipients of the Nobel peace prize with the ideals of the Free World.
13. Current Activities
Some of the more significant current activities of the Committee or its staff, in conjunction with the appropriate operating agencies, are as follows:
- a.
- Considering overt psychological warfare operations plans for handling Communist charges that UN Forces are using bacteriological warfare in Korea.
- b.
- Coordination, at the request of the Psychological Strategy Board, of overt psychological warfare operations plans to exploit the success or failure of the Korean truce negotiations.
- c.
- Coordinating interdepartmental propaganda activity with respect to the Soviet note of March 10 dealing with a German peace treaty.
- d.
- Review of a proposed statement on Communist sabotage of peace negotiations in Korea, which could be issued by General Ridgway in event of failure of the negotiations.
- e.
- Interdepartmental planning for overt psychological warfare operations following possible outbreak of general war. Known as the “X-Day Project,” the plans will be forwarded to the Psychological Strategy Board when completed and approved by the Committee.
- f.
- Establishment of liaison arrangements between the Committee and the Information Liaison Group, a U.S. interdepartmental committee established in Paris to consider information and propaganda problems in the European area.
- g.
- Development of overt psychological operations plans to help maintain continued Yugoslav independence from Soviet domination.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Miscellaneous Lot Files: Lot 62 D 385, NSC 59, Box 56. Top Secret; Security Information. Forwarded to NSC members under cover of a memorandum from Lay, May 7. (Ibid.)↩
- Document 2.↩
- Printed from a copy that indicates Bruce signed the original.↩