8. Editorial Note
Following the discovery of audio surveillance devices or “bugs” in the Great Seal at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, along with the microwave bombardment of that Embassy, the U.S. Government increasingly sought methods to counter this threat to sensitive information. While an NSC subcommittee (NSC Special Committee on Technical Surveillance Countermeasures) had been in existence for many years, during the Kennedy administration the issue engaged the President, the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, the Director of Central Intelligence, and senior Department of State and Defense and FBI officials. A coordinated program was undertaken [Page 21] to install secure facilities in many overseas posts, and regular progress reports on the program were provided to the NSC. Details remain classified. Documents covering the issue are in the Johnson Library, National Security File, Intelligence File, Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Vol. 1, Box 5; ibid., Agency File, Central Intelligence Agency, Vol. II, Box 9; ibid., Subject File, President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Box 41; and ibid., Agency File, Central Intelligence Agency, Filed by LBJ Library, Box 10.