Office of the Historian

41. Memorandum for Information0

Washington, November 2, 1945.
1.
On Wednesday 31 October, I was seated next to Alfred McCormack (in charge of State Department’s portion of OSS), at a formal luncheon. He told me that:
(A)
He does not believe in a Central Intelligence Agency.
(B)
He believes each department should have its own unfettered intelligence service.
(C)
He is not worried about duplication of effort. Competition is healthy.
(D)
He thinks the fields covered by the various services should be examined and any gaps in their coverage filled in.
(E)
A committee composed of the Secretaries of State, War, and Navy might well act in a consulting capacity for shaping broad policies and coordination.
(F)
The Army and Navy should retain communication intelligence as at present.
2.
I raised the question of what agency should operate secret agents, but got no specific answer.

Respectfully,

Thos. B. Inglis 1

Commodore, U.S. Navy
  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 263, Records of the Central Intelligence Agency, Troy Papers, Nov. 1945. Secret. The date is handwritten on the source text.↩
  2. Printed from a copy that indicates Inglis signed the original.↩