Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950–1955, The Intelligence Community, 1950–1955

126. Director of Central Intelligence Directive No. 3/4¹

Washington, August 14, 1952.

PRODUCTION OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE

Pursuant to the provisions of NSCID No. 3,² and for the purpose of strengthening the over-all governmental intelligence structure for the production of scientific and technical intelligence, the following policies and operating procedures are hereby established:

1. Policies

In discharging allocated responsibilities and effecting integration of intelligence, the interested departments and agencies will apply the following basic principles:

a. No complete separation of areas of interest is possible or necessarily desirable in scientific and technical intelligence activities.

b. Full and free interchange of all intelligence information and finished intelligence between all agencies concerned is essential.

c. No one agency is considered to be the final authority in any field; conclusions may be questioned by other IAC agencies and dissents recorded.

d. Any agency may make such studies as it believes necessary to supplement intelligence obtained from other agencies in order to fulfill its agency functions, but such studies should not normally be disseminated outside the producing agency without advance consultation with the agency having primary responsibility for the subject-matter involved.

e. An agency charged with primary responsibility in a particular field will develop special competence in that field and will normally carry out all or most of the research in that field.

f. Each intelligence agency will endeavor to coordinate the intelligence activities of its Technical Services and its other facilities having intelligence production capabilities with the work of the IAC intelligence agencies and to make available to those agencies the intelligence produced by such Services and facilities.

2. Procedures:

a. Delineation of Dominant Interests. The general field of scientific and technical intelligence production is subdivided into three basic major areas, and allocation of primary production responsibilities therein is made as follows:

(1) Intelligence on all weapons, weapons systems, military equipment and techniques, plus intelligence on pertinent research and development leading to new military material and techniques—primary production responsibility of the departments of the Department of Defense, as exemplified in Annex A.

(2) Intelligence on fundamental research in the basic sciences, on scientific resources, and on medicine (other than military medicine) plus intelligence on pertinent applied research and development—primary production responsibility of Central Intelligence Agency, as exemplified in Annex B.

(3) Intelligence on Atomic Energy—production responsibility of all interested agencies.

b. It is recognized that despite the above-mentioned specific allocations of primary production responsibilities to the Military Services and CIA, the Military Services will also require intelligence indicating trends from fundamental research in basic sciencies, which they normally will obtain from CIA. Conversely, CIA will also require intelligence on applied research relating to weapons, weapons systems, military equipment and techniques, and the technical characteristics of existing equipment, which it normally will obtain from the Military Services. Accordingly, there continue to exist areas of common or overlapping interest which require continuing inter-agency liaison and such working-level conferences as may be appropriate.

c. Coordinating Mechanisms

(1) The Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee is hereby reconstituted as a permanent interdepartmental committee with the same structure and functions as before.

(2) Subject to the foregoing, there is hereby established the Scientific Estimates Committee, a permanent interdepartmental committee, to integrate scientific and technical intelligence, as and when required for the production of national intelligence, to stimulate and guide inter-agency liaison and such working-level conferences as may be appropriate, and to coordinate the production of Chapter VII of the NIS.

(3) The Scientific Estimates Committee shall be composed of designated representatives as members from CIA, the Joint Staff, the Departments of State, Army, Navy, and Air Force, the Atomic Energy Commission, and such other ad hoc representatives as may be determined necessary by the regular committee members. In order to maintain continuity and stability, each department and agency mentioned above will designate a regular member and, if desired, an alternate by transmitting names and titles to the Director of Central Intelligence. This action will not preclude the designation of such additional persons as may be technically and otherwise qualified to discuss or report on a particular subject under consideration by the Committee. The Chairman will be elected annually. The Committee will establish its methods of procedure. The Central Intelligence Agency shall provide an executive secretary and secretariat as required.

(4) It is recommended that the SEC concentrate on the integration of intelligence opinion (other than that for which the JAEIC is responsible) as and when required for the purposes of national intelligence, and only incidentally assist in the coordination of production of other intelligence in scientific and technical fields. The principal occasion for activity on the part of the committee will arise when contributions are required for national intelligence purposes. The Committee’s activities will be directed to synthesizing departmental intelligence, and while so doing to bring to light any inconsistencies resulting from the production activities of the respective departments and agencies, each operating within its assigned sphere of responsibility, and to resolve conflicting conclusions, or have appropriate dissenting views registered for the benefit of the national intelligence production organization.

(5) The SEC can best assist in the coordination of production of intelligence in scientific and technical fields by stimulating and guiding inter-agency liaison and working-level conferences.

3. Director of Central Intelligence Directive 3/3³ is herewith rescinded.

Walter B. Smith

⁴
Director of Central Intelligence

1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, History Staff, Job 84–00022R, Box 3. Secret; Security Information. The Ad Hoc Committee to Survey Existing Arrangements Relating to the Production of Scientific and Technical Intelligence produced a lengthy interagency report that formed the basis for DCID 3/4. The report is ibid. Annexes A and B are attached but not printed.
2. For NSCID No. 3, see Foreign Relations, 1945–1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, Document 426.
3. Not printed. (Central Intelligence Agency, History Staff, Job 84–T00389R, Box 4)
4. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.