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

187. Memorandum of Conversation⁰

Washington, February 19, 1947.

SUBJECT

• CIG Meeting, 19 February in General Vandenberg’s Office

PARTICIPANTS

• General Vandenberg
• Mr. Eddy
• Mr. Edgar
• Mr. Huddle
• Mr. Cullen
• Mr. Evans

Mr. Eddy and I met with Messrs. Edgar, Huddle, Cullen. The General indicated the need for agreement on the mutual functions of ORE and OIR in view, among other things, of budget. He pointed out that he and General Chamberlain had both faced the question “what do we know about Russian strength now and five years from now, etc., in case of war?” This involved questions of military strength, and in the course of developing his remarks he showed clearly that he did not think it affected us very much in the State Department and, therefore, was primarily a matter of CIG development. At this inconclusive point he asked if his colleagues had anything to say.

Edgar started off by saying there was one clear point of agreement which was that CIG should undertake the gathering and formulation for all consumers of basic intelligence. Mr. Eddy at once commented that we of course were concerned with the political, social, and economic sides of that enterprise and had responsibilities. In the course of discussion the following points were made:

The General spoke from time to time in terms of the Department’s contributing materials but CIG doing the compilation on these basic matters.

We presented the concept that the Departments prepared their contributions on these and other matters of joint interest while CIG coordinated in the sense of insuring the complementary nature of the outlines in advance and being equipped with overall experts and evaluators who would fuse the contributions and work them into a whole.

Edgar raised the familiar point that these evaluators could not evaluate without covering all the intelligence involved in the matter. We countered by saying that really high quality people could undoubtedly act as would our own Review Section in evaluating and appreciating intelligence through acquaintance with top-flight materials, through understanding of style, presentation, and internal evidence. Such top-flight evaluators and re-writers are what we most particularly hoped to find in CIG so that they might from a national point of view stimulate our own work and planning and help to point out oversights and omissions in our general plans. To this there was no objection and some appreciation by the General.

The conversation turned to the defense project.¹ The General made it clear that he was most anxious to secure control of the defense project. Edgar requested that we propose at the next opportunity that the project be transferred to CIG. It was, I think, agreed that Mr. Eddy would at least support the proposal, if not make it at the IAB.

In regard to timing the control of CIG over SID,² Mr. Eddy indicated that the contemplated date was 1 July. It was discussed whether, as the old SID were completed, CIG should not take over responsibility piecemeal for continuing the SID project under the new outline. I made it clear that the new SID outline was prepared and contributed to by us as an outline for the particular purposes of G–2 and not as a national outline; furthermore, that no commitments for the implementation of the outline had been made except in the old defense project agreement.

At one point Captain Cullen mentioned the great desirability of close contacts between ORE and OIR. Mr. Eddy emphasized the importance of this and proposed that Mr. Huddle and I should develop contacts at all working levels between our staffs. To this the General explicitly assented, while at the same time injecting a phrase to show that he thought ICAPS should participate in such contacts.

The General at one point indicated that his great desire to establish CIG control over the SID type of enterprise was to insure proper allocation of responsibilities among departments and notably allocation of political and economic responsibility of State. (I take this statement to be associated in the General’s mind with the problem of reporting from the field; it does not³ modify, I believe, the thought in his mind that all compilations of SID material shall be performed in CIG.)

Mr. Eddy explained in general terms the area of responsibility of the Department by pointing out that this area of responsibility was unchanged since the time before CIG existed and comprised essentially the processing and interpretation of reporting by Foreign Service officers from the field. Centering about this fundamental responsibility the division of appropriate functions properly related to the State Department’s concerns from those additional or nationally oriented concerns of CIG could be developed.

0. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Decimal File 1945–49, 101.5/2–1947. Drafted by Allan Evans. The memorandum was covered by a brief handwritten transmittal note from Evans to Eddy and had attached a paper, possibly a draft, entitled “Relations With Other Government Intelligence Agencies,” dated June 14, 1946. See the Supplement.
1. See footnote 3, Document 182.
2. Strategic Intelligence Digest, the publication in which the work of the Defense Project was issued.
3. The word “not” has been inserted by hand in the source text.