Office of the Historian

128. National Security Action Memorandum No. 631

Washington, July 24, 1961.

TO

  • The Secretary of State
  • The Secretary of Defense
  • Director, U.S. Information Agency
  • Director of Central Intelligence

SUBJECT

  • Policy Guidance and Preemption of U.S. Government-Controlled Broadcasting After consultation with the heads of Departments and agencies concerned, the President has approved the following:
1.
The Department of State shall provide foreign policy guidance to all international radio broadcasting and television stations controlled by U.S. Government agencies. This includes stations of the Armed [Page 246] Forces Radio and Television Service and the Voice of the United Nations Command in Korea, operated by the Department of Defense, and those stations [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] influenced or financed by the Central Intelligence Agency.
2.
This guidance shall be relayed through the U.S. Information Agency, which will provide supplemental information policy guidance as required. The Director, U.S. Information Agency shall establish appropriate procedures for conveying guidance.
3.
The Director, U.S. Information Agency is authorized to preempt time on any of these radio and television stations for special programs when he deems it to be in the national interest. The Director, U.S. Information Agency shall establish appropriate procedures for arranging for such special programs.
4.
Every effort shall be made to avoid public awareness of the relationship between the various ostensibly non-governmental broadcasting stations and the U.S. Government.
McGeorge Bundy2
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, Arthur M. Schlesinger Papers, White House Subject Files, Classified Subject File, USIA, Box 48. Top Secret. Copies were sent to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretaries of the armed services, and to the President’s Special Counsel, Military Representative, and Military Aide. Copies were also passed to Arthur Schlesinger, Evelyn Lincoln, McGeorge Bundy, and Bromley Smith/Charles E. Johnson.↩
  2. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩