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

191. Director of Central Intelligence Directive 15/1¹

Washington, September 14, 1954.

PRODUCTION AND COORDINATION OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC INTELLIGENCE

Pursuant to the provisions of NSCID Nos. 1, 3, and 15,² and for the purpose of strengthening the over-all governmental intelligence structure for the production and coordination of foreign economic intelligence relating to the national security, the following policies and operating procedures are hereby established:

1. Policies

In carrying out their foreign economic intelligence activities and responsibilities, and in order to effect a better coordination in the production and exchange of foreign economic intelligence, the interested departments and agencies will apply the following basic principles:

a. No complete separation of interests is possible or necessarily desirable in economic intelligence activities.

b. Full and free interchange of all pertinent information, finished intelligence, and schedules of research programs, including external research, between all agencies concerned is essential.

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

d. Each agency will be responsible for fulfilling its departmental requirements for economic intelligence; it will give full recognition to the finished intelligence produced by other agencies, but any agency may make such studies as it believes necessary to supplement the intelligence produced by other agencies. However, basic research studies should not normally be undertaken or disseminated outside the producing agency without 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 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 economic 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. Allocation of Primary Production Responsibilities

a. Production of military-economic intelligence on all foreign countries, including by way of illustration intelligence on military requirements, military materiel production, shipbuilding and ship movements, logistic capabilities, economic vulnerabilities to all forms of military attack, and target system analysis (including specific location, physical vulnerability, and supplementary studies as required), is the responsibility of the departments of the Department of Defense.

b. Production of intelligence on all foreign countries on economic doctrines, political and social aspects of economic organizations and institutions such as trade unions, and on the relationships between political and economic policies, is the responsibility of the Department of State.

c. Production of all economic intelligence on the Soviet Bloc³ is the responsibility of the Central Intelligence Agency except as indicated herein. In addition, it will supplement the intelligence produced by other agencies by conducting such independent analyses and studies as may be necessary to produce integrated economic intelligence on the Bloc.

d. Production of all economic intelligence on foreign countries outside the Soviet Bloc is the responsibility of the Department of State except as indicated in paragraph 2.a.

e. Despite the above mentioned allocations of primary production responsibilities, there will be areas of common or overlapping interest (including, for example, Soviet Bloc economic policies, East-West trade, and inland transportation) which will require continuing interagency liaison and cooperation.

f. The existing allocations of production responsibility for National Intelligence Surveys (NIS) are not changed by this directive even though such allocations may, in some instances, be at variance with agency responsibilities specified in paragraphs 2.a., b., c., and d. However, the EIC will from time to time examine such allocations and after consulting with the NIS Committee will make appropriate recommendations.

3. Responsibility for Economic Intelligence Coordination

a. To assist the Central Intelligence Agency in carrying out its responsibilities with respect to coordination, the Economic Intelligence Committee (EIC) will continue to perform the functions outlined in IAC–D–22/1 (Revised), 29 May 1951.⁴ Further, the EIC will be responsible for (1) reviewing from time to time the allocations of responsibility assigned herein; (2) determining how the provisions of this directive apply, particularly in areas of common or overlapping interest; and (3) recommending to the IAC appropriate changes in the allocations of responsibility assigned herein.

b. In order to minimize the duplication of effort and expense: (1) the EIC will prepare and circulate consolidated periodic lists of the economic research being conducted within the intelligence agencies; and (2) agencies sponsoring external research projects, involving more than $5,000, in support of economic intelligence production will submit descriptions of the scope of such projects to the EIC for review. The EIC will endeavor to present its recommendations in advance of final approval by the contracting agency. In its periodic reports to the IAC the EIC will include a summary of actions on these projects.

Allen W. Dulles

⁵
Director of Central Intelligence

1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, History Staff, Job 84–B00389R, Box 4, Folder 43. Confidential. This directive is an updated text of Document 169.
2. For NSCID No. 1 Revised, see Document 256; for NSCID No. 3, see Foreign Relations, 1945–1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, Document 426; for NSCID No. 15, See Document 254.
3. As used herein, “Soviet Bloc” includes USSR, Communist China, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Albania, Soviet occupied portions of Germany and Austria, and Communist dominated portions of Korea and Indo-China. [Footnote in the original.]
4. Document 72.
5. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.