238. Editorial Note

On October 8, 1965, Henry Koren, the newly appointed Deputy Director for Coordination (DDC) of the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, held his first staff meeting. In a memorandum for the record prepared on October 11, [text not declassified] of the Covert Action Staff of the Central Intelligence Agency reported that Koren said “he felt there could be no exception to the complete knowledge of an Ambassador in the field concerning any CIA activity being run in or into his country. If DDC is aware of such an activity of which the Ambassador is unaware, it is DDC’s responsibility to see to it that he is made witting; Koren indicated that he would depend upon us and specifically on the undersigned to assure that DDC was not itself uninformed.” (Central Intelligence Agency, DDO/IMS Files, Job 78–3805, US Govt-Dept of State)

At a meeting with Koren on October 15, CIA’s Acting Deputy Director for Plans Karamessines raised the issue of the Crockett-McGhee letter (Document 28). “I mentioned the misunderstandings it was causing at various places overseas. I told him of our having raised the matter with Mr. Barrett and later with Mr. Cox earlier this year. I explained how Mr. Crockett’s letter was inconsistent with our written and oral agreements with the department. I then solicited Ambassador Koren’s assistance in taking whatever action would be appropriate to eliminate these misunderstandings and the problems they are causing.” Koren promised to review the issue, continued Karamessines. “He feels strongly about the full authority of an ambassador overseas, but he also volunteered that he did not think that this necessarily meant that an ambassador would want or need to know the names of sensitive agents and sources.” (Memorandum for the Record, October 15; ibid.)