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

92. Memorandum From the Under Secretary of State (Webb) to the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Lay)¹

Washington, November 8, 1951.

SUBJECT

• Third Progress Report on NSC 59/1, “The Foreign Information Program and Psychological Warfare Planning”

1. NSC 59/1 was approved as governmental policy on March 10, 1950. It is requested that this Progress Report, as of October 17, 1951, be circulated to the members of the Council for their information.

2. The activities described in this report were undertaken in implementation of NSC

3. The Interdepartmental Foreign Information Organization was redesignated the Psychological Operations Coordinating Committee² following the issuance of the Presidential Directive of April 4, 1951, establishing a Psychological Strategy Board.³ It will therefore be referred to hereafter in this report as the “Committee.” Formal announcement of the redesignation is being withheld pending decision on certain organizational details.

4. In addition to the Chairman, representatives of the following agencies regularly attend the weekly meetings: Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Executive Office of the President, Department of State, Economic Cooperation Administration, and Central Intelligence Agency. The Army, Navy and Air Force chiefs of psychological warfare attend when matters of interest to their respective services are before the Committee.

5. On the Committee’s recommendation, a survey team was sent to Tokyo and Korea in October 1950 to study psychological warfare activities there. The findings of this group were reviewed by the Committee at its meeting November 13, 1950. The Committee has subsequently made periodic reviews of psychological warfare activities in Korea in order to help implement the recommendations of the survey team.

6. A National Psychological Warfare Plan for General War⁴ was prepared by the Interdepartmental Foreign Information Staff (now the Secretariat of the Committee) under the provisions of NSC 59/1. This Plan was approved by the Committee and forwarded to the National Security Council. The National Security Council has since received comments on the Plan from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which were referred to the Psychological Strategy Board. The Department of State has also submitted a version of the Plan to the Psychological Strategy Board.

7. Psychological warfare plans for Russia, Korea and Indochina have been developed and approved. Plans for Germany, the Middle East and the Satellite areas are being prepared in the Department of State. A China plan is also being prepared on the basis of comments from the field on the Interim Plan for China, approved by the Committee in March, 1951.

8. Project Troy ⁵

Under this project, thirty of the nation’s top scientists and other experts were assembled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under contract to the Department of State to explore all conventional and unconventional means of penetrating the Iron Curtain. Particular attention was given to the possibilities of utilizing in psychological warfare the new developments in the electro-magnetic field. The report submitted by the group calls for a substantial expansion of our radio facilities, which has already been undertaken. A vest-pocket radio is being developed along the lines recommended by the group, making use of the “transistor,” a remarkable device which increases battery-life several hundred times and makes it possible to build a radio set of this size.

Funds to complete the project, although requested, have not been appropriated by Congress.

9. Propaganda Balloons

There has been continued study of the possibility of using balloons to carry our propaganda to the people of Russia and her satellites. Following Committee approval, the appropriate government agency, in cooperation with private organizations including the Crusade for Freedom in New York, launched an experimental propaganda balloon project from Western Germany with Czechoslovakia as a target. This project was begun the week of August 12, 1951. Balloons were subsequently launched to Poland. Details of the project have since appeared in the press. The effectiveness of the project is currently being evaluated.

10. Defectors

At the Committee’s request, the Department of State prepared a detailed history of United States handling of Russian and Satellite defectors during and since World War II. This study was turned over to the Policy Advisory Staff of the Department of State for its use in treating information aspects of the defector question.

11. Exploitation of Economic Themes

The Committee has recommended that a full-time consultant be employed to study the problem of coordinating government output on economic matters and exploiting economic themes more fully.

Working with the Economic Cooperation Administration the Psychological Operations Coordinating Committee actively promoted several economic themes in psychological operations. One of the most important of these is the ECA Production-Productivity drive in Western Europe. This is a concerted effort to increase Western Europe’s gross production by $100 billion yearly. The project has become front-page news in most of Europe’s newspapers. By agreement between the Department of State and ECA the Production-Productivity drive is now a major U.S. project.

12. Prisoners-of-war

A study on propaganda exploitation of Chinese and North Korean Prisoners-of-war was approved by the Committee on August 13 and recommended as guidance to the Far East Command.

13. Contingency of Soviet Leaders’ Death

A contingency plan against the possible death of certain Soviet leaders has been prepared by an inter-agency working group at the request of the Committee and is in process of final coordination.

14. Current projects

Some of the more important current activities of the Committee or the Secretariat are as follows:

a) With the approval of the Psychological Strategy Board an interdepartmental working group has been established to study the broad range of psychological problems growing out of the presence of U.S. military units overseas.

b) A military working group charged with developing key themes for use in propaganda directed to Soviet and Satellite troops has made an interim report to the Committee.

c) On recommendation of the Committee an expanded program of on-the-job training has been undertaken in the State Department for military officers in psychological warfare. The military services have expressed their desire to continue participation in this program.

d) The Committee is considering a Navy Department study encompassing plans to exploit the psychological potential in Soviet submarine operations.

e) The Committee is engaged in making plans for the implementation of two Korean contingency plans which were prepared by the Psychological Strategy Board.

f) The Secretariat is developing stand-by psychological operations plans for implementation immediately following the outbreak of a possible general war. When completed and approved by the Committee, these plans will be forwarded to the Psychological Strategy Board for consideration.

James E. Webb

⁶

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, S/P–NSC Files: Lot 62 D 1, 1935–62, Box 115, no label. Secret; Security Information.
2. see Document 74.
3. see Document 60.
4. The plan, which was discussed at an October 25 meeting of the PSB, is in the National Archives, RG 59, S/S–NSC Files: Lot 62 D 333, PSB D–8, Box 1.
5. see Document 59.
6. Printed from a copy that indicates Webb signed the original.