Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950–1955, The Intelligence Community, 1950–1955

86. Record of Action No. 543 of the National Security Council¹

Washington, August 30, 1951.

A Project To Provide a More Adequate Basis for Planning for the Security of the United States (Memos for NSC from Executive Secretary, same subject, dated June 5² and August 7, 1951;³NSC Action No. 519⁴)

Approved the draft directive on the subject prepared by the Director of Central Intelligence pursuant to NSC Action No. 519 and attached to the reference memorandum of August 7 on the subject, in lieu of the draft directive proposed by the Interdepartmental Committee on Internal Security in the enclosure to the reference memorandum of June 5. The Acting Attorney General approved with the following comment:

“Since the Interdepartmental Intelligence Conference deals only with the internal security aspects of the Nation’s security, it is presumably understood that the IIC should prepare the estimate provided for in paragraph 1 (b) of the draft directive only in so far as it pertains to the internal aspects of the capability of the USSR to conduct sabotage and otherwise disrupt internal U. S. activities. The foreign aspects of Russia’s ability to commit sabotage, of course, are not within the purview of the IIC, and would appear properly a matter of study by the CIA and the subject of a separate report.”

Note: The Acting Attorney General participated in the above action with the Council, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of Defense Mobilization. The approved directive and comment by the Acting Attorney General subsequently circulated for Council information and transmitted to the appropriate agencies for implementation.

1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of the Deputy Director for Intelligence, Job 80–R01440R, Box 3, Folder 10. Top Secret.
2. See footnote 9, Document 80.
3. Not found.
4. NSC Action No. 519, approved August 1, noted NSC discussion of the report by the Interdepartmental Committee on Internal Security (Document 79) and the views of Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of Central Intelligence, and agreed to the four points in the third paragraph of the Joint Chiefs of Staff memorandum (see Document 80), subject to the assignment of paragraph 3–b to the Interdepartmental Intelligence Conference and the integration and coordination of the resulting reports by representatives of the appropriate departments and agencies by the Director of Central Intelligence into a single report for the National Security Council; and noted that the Director of Central Intelligence would prepare a directive derived from the NSC guidelines. (National Archives, RG 59, S/S–NSC (Miscellaneous) Files: Lot 66 D 95, Records of Actions by the National Security Council)