85. Memorandum of Discussion at the 375th NSC Meeting1
SUBJECT
- Discussion at the 375th Meeting of the National Security Council, Thursday, August 7, 1958
Present at the 375th NSC Meeting were the President of the United States, presiding; the Vice President of the United States; the Acting Secretary of State; the Secretary of Defense; and the Director, Office of Defense and Civilian Mobilization. Also present were the Secretary of the Treasury; the Attorney General (participating in Item 6); the Director, Bureau of the Budget; the Chairman, Council on Foreign Economic Policy (participating in Item 5); General Thomas D. White for the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Director of Central Intelligence; the Deputy Secretary of Defense; the Director of Guided Missiles (for Item 3); The Assistant to the President; the Deputy Assistant to the President; the Director, U.S. Information Agency; the Director, International Cooperation Administration; the Special Assistant to the President for Atomic Energy (for Items 1, 2 and 3); the Special Assistants to the President for the Atoms for Peace Program, for Information Projects, for National Security Affairs, and for Security Operations Coordination; the White House Staff Secretary; Mr. Howard Furnas, Department of State; Assistant Secretary of Defense Sprague; Dr. George B. Kistiakowsky, President’s Science Advisory Committee (for Item 3); the Acting NSC Representative on Internal Security (for Item 6); the Executive Secretary, NSC; and the Director, NSC Secretariat.
There follows a summary of the discussion at the meeting and the main points taken.
[Omitted here are agenda items 1–5.]
[Facsimile Page 2]6. TECHNICAL SURVEILLANCE COUNTERMEASURES
(NSC Action No. 1640; NSC 5618; Memos for NSC, same subject, dated July 22 and August 8, 1957, and June 24, 1958; NSC Action No. 1774)
Mr. Gray presented the Annual Report of the NSC Special Committee on Technical Surveillance Countermeasures. (A copy of Mr. Gray’s briefing note is filed in the minutes of the meeting, and another is attached to this memorandum.)
The President asked whether there was any possibility of placing electronic “jamming” devices in such rooms as the Cabinet Room to [Typeset Page 286] make clandestine listening devices ineffective. Mr. Ash said that the NSC Committee had this defensive measure under consideration, and that State Department technicians were experimenting with a prototype “jamming” device which, however, required excessive voltage for operation. Mr. Allen Dulles commented that one object of searches is to tune in on the wave-length of the opposition device. The President understood that this type of search applied to radio-type devices.
The President then asked whether the United States tried to exploit devices that had been discovered in a kind of “double-agent” way. Mr. Dulles said attempts were made to exploit discovered devices, but that such exploitation was rendered difficult because of the tendency to rip out the device immediately upon its discovery. He felt that discovery of a device should be reported but the device should be left in place.
The President felt that experts should be available at foreign posts to exploit clandestine devices when they are discovered. He asked how often important offices and conference rooms were checked for clandestine listening devices, and recalled from his experience in World War I that induction principles could be used for listening without actual connection with a telephone line. Mr. Ash said that periodic technical examinations were made of White House and NSC offices. He added that the technicians could, through examining impedences on the lines, detect listening by induction.
The Vice President said he had been told that it was possible, through the medium of metal venetian blinds, for a man across the street to hear what was going on in a room.
[Facsimile Page 3]The President remarked that the great ingenuity being displayed in connection with communications devices pointed to the need for the services of experts in this field.
Mr. Allen Dulles said CIA was engaged in a major research effort in the technical surveillance countermeasures field. Mr. Gray said that a panel of the Science Advisory Committee was engaged in basic research on passive (“room within a room”) and active countermeasures.
The President observed that if clandestine listening devices continued to improve, it might eventually be necessary to stop talking and start writing instead.
The Vice President asked if there were not measures which could be taken to prevent the use of a telephone instrument as a listening point. Mr. Ash said that telephones such as those in the White House and other important offices can be equipped with a mercury switch to knock out the tap.
The National Security Council:
Noted and discussed the Annual Report of the NSC Special Committee on Technical Surveillance Countermeasures, prepared pursuant to paragraph 7 of NSC 5618 and transmitted by the reference memorandum of June 24, 1958.
[Typeset Page 287]7. U.S. POLICY ON ANTARCTICA
(NSC 5804/1; OCB Report on NSC 5804/1, dated June 25, 1958)
Mr. Harr briefed the Council on the reference OCB Report on the subject. (A copy of Mr. Harr’s briefing note is filed in the minutes of the meeting, and another is attached to this memorandum.) There was no discussion.
The National Security Council:
Noted the reference Report on the subject by the Operations Coordinating Board.
Director
NSC Secretariat
- Source: Agenda item 6: Technical Surveillance Countermeasures; Agenda item 7: U.S. Policy on Antarctica. Top Secret; Eyes Only. Extracts—3 pp. Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records. Drafted on August 8.↩