As of Jan. 28, 1952, Secretary of State Acheson set up a dual system of staff meetings: small meetings held Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9:30 a.m. in his office attended by Department of State personnel he specifically designated to be present at that particular meeting (usually from 7 to 15 persons) and large staff meetings, held Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30 a.m., at which a regular group of principal officers of the Department of State (about 25 in number) or their deputies were present.

This system replaced daily meetings with the Secretary of State as well as the Under Secretary’s meetings, both of which had proved unsatisfactory. The same persons who had attended the Under Secretary’s meeting now attended the Tuesday and Thursday meetings, which were officially designated “Secretary’s Staff Meetings”.

After the small meetings in the Secretary’s office, the Executive Secretariat prepared short memoranda of conversation (of which the source text is one) in summary form with extremely limited distribution. The Executive Secretariat also prepared informal summary notes of the large staff meetings, which had no official status and no directive authority. These notes, often more informative than the short summaries of the small meetings, were given wider distribution.