11. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to Director of Central Intelligence Turner1

SUBJECT

  • NSC/CIA Liaison on Information/Intelligence

Now that the Administration is nearly three months old, it has occurred to us that it might be valuable to have a working-level meeting between the NSC staff and people at CIA who direct preparation of intelligence and other materials which we use.

There have been a number of conversations between individual NSC and CIA people about information flow, along the lines of the following questions:

  • —What kinds of information/intelligence are most useful to the NSC, and in what format?
  • —What kinds of information have proved to be most useful, and what could usefully be revised or eliminated?
  • —How can CIA officers best learn of the needs of NSC personnel on a timely basis, so that analyses will be ready before decisions/problems are upon us?
  • —How can CIA best communicate a sense of impending problems/issues, so that NSC can best use CIA analyses and judgments?

If you agree with the value of a meeting to discuss these questions, I would propose that the NSC staff meet with people whom you designate—perhaps half a dozen—for an hour or two sometime in the near future.

I would welcome your comments.

Zbigniew Brzezinski2
  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Agency File, Box 2, Central Intelligence Agency, 1–8/77. Confidential.
  2. Brzezinski initialed above this typed signature.