Editorial Note
On January 24, President Eisenhower created a Committee on International Information Activities and directed it to “make a survey and evaluation of the international information policies and activities of the Executive Branch of Government and of policies and activities related thereto, with particular reference to the international relations and the national security of this country.” The Committee was composed of the following individuals: William H. Jackson (chairman), Robert Cutler, Gordon Gray, Barklie McKee Henry, John C. Hughes, CD. Jackson, Roger M. Kyes, and Sigurd Larmon.
The “Jackson Committee”, as it soon came to be known, interpreted its mandate very broadly and, after some months of closed door hearings and testimony by various government officials, submitted a 125-page report on June 30, 1953 which dealt in detail with such diverse topics as the nature of the Soviet threat, overt and covert operations against the Soviet system, propaganda and information activities in the United States and throughout the “Free World”, and recommendations for a more unified effort in the broad fields of national security policy and international information activities. For the text of this report, see page 1795.