Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXXVIII, Part 2, Organization and Management of Foreign Policy; Public Diplomacy, 1973–1976

75. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Scowcroft) to President Ford¹

Washington, May 13, 1976.

SUBJECT

• Defense Intelligence Reorganization

The Department of Defense will announce today a reorganization of Defense Intelligence aimed at establishing improved oversight and clearer lines of accountability. There will be a new Director of Defense Intelligence (DDI), subordinate to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Bob Ellsworth. In addition, the Defense Intelligence Agency, which formerly reported to both the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, will report only through the civilian side. The Joint Chiefs, however, will retain the authority to levy intelligence requirements on DIA.

The key features of the reorganization are as follows:

—A new Inspector General for Defense Intelligence will exercise oversight over all aspects of Defense intelligence operations.

—The Assistant Secretary of Defense (Intelligence) will also serve as Director of Defense Intelligence; the Directors of DIA, NSA and the National Reconnaissance Office will report through him to the Deputy Secretary of Defense (Ellsworth) and to the Secretary; this implements the Blue Ribbon Panel report of 1970 that recommended clearer lines of authority.²

—DIA will be reorganized into two main components, one for production and one for plans and operations, in place of 12 sub-units.

—A second deputy in DIA will take over responsibility for budget management and for Intelligence Community affairs.

—As an experiment, a Defense Intelligence Board will be created to provide a better relationship between the consumers in Defense and the intelligence producers in Defense.

The only one potential problem in this plan is whether the JSC will feel adequately served after having lost direct authority over DIA. Jack Marsh, Phil Buchen and I were briefed by Secretary Ellsworth, and he believes that General Brown is satisfied with the new plan. It is possible that Congressional Committee members (Armed Services), who have been briefed, might have some reservations about the loss of military control over DIA, but we have heard no such complaints so far.

1. Source: Ford Library, National Security Adviser, Presidential Agency Files, Box 8, Defense, 5/7/76–6/27/76. Secret. Ford initialed the memorandum, which bears a stamped notation indicating that he saw it.
2. The findings of the Blue Ribbon Defense Panel are summarized in Document 211, Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. II, Organization and Management of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1969–1972.