Office of the Historian

84. Memorandum From Secretary of State Byrnes to the Assistant Secretary of State for Administration (Russell)0

Washington, January 5, 1946.

Referring to your memorandum of December 29,1 the proposal of the Special Assistant for Research and Intelligence involves fundamental changes in the organization of the Department.

Your memorandum states that the interim organization must terminate immediately. Because it is necessary for me to leave on Monday2 to attend the UNO meeting in London it is impossible for me to give to the subject the consideration it should receive before reaching a decision making permanent the proposed change in organization.

Therefore I am adopting the third solution suggested by you, with one slight change.

I wish the organization proposed by the Special Assistant to be adopted temporarily upon the express understanding that a final decision on the ultimate location of the Office of Research and Intelligence will be made on or before March 1st.

James F. Byrnes
  1. Source: Truman Library, Papers of J. Anthony Panuch, State Department, Research and Intelligence, #1. No classification marking. A handwritten notation on the source text reads: “To General Nelson—For implementation and action. D.R.”↩
  2. Document 82.↩
  3. January 7.↩