120.4382/5–151
The Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (Dulles) to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs (Berry)
My Dear Mr. Berry: We have read with interest and appreciation the report of the Conference of the Middle East Chiefs of Mission1 which you forwarded to General Smith on 14 March 1951.
In accordance with your request I am transmitting our comments upon those recommendations of the Conference which relate to the Central Intelligence Agency. These recommendations appear in Section XIB of the report.
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It goes without saying that we are in hearty sympathy with the sentiment expressed in recommendation 2 (on the same page). We feel, as I understand you do, that great progress has been made in this direction during recent months.
As to recommendation 4, our representatives have always been instructed to cooperate fully with the Chief of Mission and to be guided by the advice received from him. If there are any specific comments on this matter we should like to be informed so that we may be able to take remedial action.
Concerning recommendation 5, it is, as you know, our intention that the senior CIA representatives assigned to stations where there is a recognized need for coordination should have substantive responsibility for all CIA operations in their area and be authorized to deal [Page 113] accordingly with the Chief of Mission and other properly concerned officials.2
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- Reference is to the Agreed Conclusions and Recommendations of the Istanbul Conference, p. 50.↩
- Mr. Berry acknowledged receipt, of Mr. Dulles’ letter in a note to the Deputy Director of the CIA dated May 29. Mr. Berry expressed pleasure “that there is such a large area of agreement in our point of view” and stated his intention to send copies of Mr. Dulles’ letter to those Chiefs of Mission who were present at Istanbul in order to inform them of CIA concurrence with the conclusions of the Conference (120.4382/5–151).↩