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

44. Memorandum From Acting Director of Central Intelligence Jackson to the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Lay)¹

NSC 66/1

Washington, January 18, 1951.

SUBJECT

• Intelligence Support for the Voice of America with regard to Soviet Jamming

1. Reference is made to my memorandum of 7 September 1950 on the above subject,² forwarding the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Voice of America Jamming, and noting that Recommendation 3 of the Report regarding establishment of an additional monitoring facility would be referred to the United States Communications Intelligence Board.

2. The Chairman of USCIB has now forwarded to me the attached report³ which recommends, in brief, that an additional monitoring facility be established under the operational direction of AFSA and delineates the requirements in terms of facilities, personnel and equipment for the establishment of such a facility. This USCIB report and its recommendations have the unanimous approval of the IAC.

3. In the light of the USCIB report and further consideration of the problem, the IAC now submits, for the consideration of the Council in connection with NSC 66, the following final recommendations which incorporate the recommendations of the USCIB report and the recommendations of the earlier IAC report, appropriately revised:

a. That a readjustment of priorities among existing intelligence tasks or a reallocation of the use of existing intelligence facilities should not be undertaken.

b. That there should be established an additional monitoring activity to obtain and provide information on current Soviet jamming activities which will assist the VOA in its program and assist other U. S. Government communications services in combatting present and future Soviet radio interference, and that this additional monitoring activity be established, coordinated and operated as follows:

(1) The initial program for this activity should be undertaken along the lines suggested in Enclosure 2 of the USCIB Report of 28 November 1950.⁴

(2) This activity should monitor and locate Russian jamming signals and other interfering transmitters and should convey promptly and continuously to the VOA and other interested U. S. communications services such resulting information as will assist them to improve their reception.

(3) This activity should not interfere with existing monitoring programs, particularly from the standpoint of equipment and personnel.

(4) This activity will be coordinated by CIA with existing non-AFSA monitoring activities.

(5) In view of the COMINT aspects of this program, USCIB should be assigned the function of general coordination of this activity. In the performance of this function USCIB should be governed by the provisions of NSCID No. 9.⁵

(6) This activity should be placed under the operational direction of AFSA, and appropriate provision should be made for Service procurement of the necessary equipment and personnel.

c. That the CIA assume over-all responsibility to:

(1) Coordinate the collection of information concerning Russian jamming from all sources.

(2) Serve as the collection point for this information and assure that such of this information as will assist the VOA and other government communications services to improve their reception on a daily basis is passed promptly and continuously to these services. The CIA, with the assistance of the Special Assistant, Intelligence, Department of State, should determine and establish such security arrangements and channels of dissemination as may be required to pass this information to the VOA; these arrangements and channels to be determined in the light of materials made available.

(3) Undertake, in conjunction with the other intelligence agencies, a coordinated program for the collation, evaluation and dissemination of such information as will be useful in the long-range analysis of Russian radio interference and in the development of counter-measures.⁶

W. H. Jackson

⁷

1. Source: National Archives, RG 59, S/P–NSC Files: Lot 62 D 21, 1935–62, no label, Box 115. Secret.
2. Memo for NSC from Executive Secretary subject: “Support for the Voice of America in the Fields of Intelligence and of Research and Development,” dated September 11, 1950. [Footnote in the original. This memorandum has not been found.]
3. Not found.
4. Attached hereto. [Footnote in the original. Enclosure 2, IAC–D–11, is not attached.]
5. For text of NSCID No. 9, March 10, 1950, see Foreign Relations, 1945–1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, Document 435.
6. The President approved the recommendations on February 28. (Memorandum from Lay to the National Security Council, February 28; National Archives, RG 59, S/P–NSC Files: Lot 62 D 21, 1935–62, no label, Box 115)
7. Printed from a copy that indicates Jackson signed the original.