Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945–1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment

173. Memorandum From the Secretary of State’s Special Assistant for Research and Intelligence (Eddy) and the Assistant Secretary of State for Administration (Russell) to Secretary of State Byrnes⁰

Washington, October 30, 1946.

SUBJECT

• Request from the Director of the Central Intelligence for State Department Policy Statements

In the attached letter dated October 24, 1946,¹ to Mr. Eddy, General Vandenberg, Director of Central Intelligence, has requested that CIG be furnished with the Department’s Quarterly Policy and Information Statements.

The reasons given by General Vandenberg for desiring to receive the Policy and Information Statements are that CIG feels intelligence requirements cannot be developed without full knowledge of pertinent national policy and that he considers the Department’s policy statements to come within the category of material included in the phrase “necessary facilities, intelligence, and information in the possession of our respective departments” as used in paragraph 7 of NIA Directive No. 1, copy attached, to describe the material which CIG is authorized to receive in the performance of its mission. General Vandenberg appears to desire the Department’s policy statements for the purpose of including them in Part I of documents on “National Intelligence Requirements,” pertaining to various countries, to be distributed by CIG.

We, therefore, recommend that General Vandenberg’s request be denied. Objective foreign intelligence is critically essential in the formulation of our foreign policy. The procural of this intelligence, its correlation and coordination is the function of CIG as the operating arm of the National Intelligence Authority. This process cannot be unbiased and objective if it is colored or affected by policy pronouncements which are based on intelligence derived from sources with which CIG is unfamiliar and which it is in no position to evaluate. It is believed that General Vandenberg’s requirements in the field of policy orientation can be met by specific directives furnished him by the State Department’s representative on the Intelligence Advisory Board after such directives have been considered and cleared by the Department’s Advisory Committee on Intelligence (ACI).

Incidentally, the policy statements requested by General Vandenberg would appear not to be covered in the phrase “strategic and national policy intelligence” which paragraph 2 of NIA Directive No. 1 charges CIG with responsibility for furnishing to the President, the State, War, and Navy Departments, and to others.

• William Eddy
• Donald Russell

0. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Decimal File 1945–49, 101.5/10–2446. Secret. The source text bears the handwritten annotation: “I approve. James F. Byrnes.”
1. Not printed. See the Supplement.