184. Editorial Note
In July 1953 Congress created the Commission on the Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government to look into the organization of the Executive Branch and report back to the Congress. (P.L. 108, approved July 10, 1953; 67 Stat. 142) On July 24, 1953, President Eisenhower named former President Herbert Hoover as chairman of the commission. (Public Papers: Eisenhower, 1953, page 516) The Hoover Commission, [Page 510] as it was called, delegated a small sub-group, or task force, under General Mark W. Clark to review the relationship of the intelligence organizations to the executive.
President Eisenhower, wanting a separate report on the CIA’s Directorate of Plans to be presented to him personally and not to Congress, asked General James H. Doolittle to conduct a special study. See Document 185. For the Doolittle report, See Document 192.
The Doolittle report was made available to General Clark’s task force, which completed classified and unclassified reports in May 1955. A May 4, 1955, memorandum from the Secretary of State’s Acting Special Assistant for Intelligence and Research Fisher Howe to Under Secretary of State Hoover described the work of the Clark task force, its members’ contacts with Department of State officials, and the Department’s views on areas needing improvement. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1955–60, 711.5200/5–455) The classified version of the Clark report is Document 220; the unclassified version is Document 221.