LEGISLATIVE PROBLEMS OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STRATEGY BOARD.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP58-00597A000100070131-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 3, 2003
• Sequence Number: 131
• Publication Date: January 15, 1952
• Content Type: MFR

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MEMORANDU THE RI.CL
Subject:
Reference:
15 January 1952
erjslstiv' Problems of the
?logical Strategy Board.
ad= dated 5 January 1952 from Mr.
Char Norberg, Office of Coordination,
Psychological Strategy Board, to Mr. Houston;
CIA General Counsel, mbject: Liaison with
Congressmen.
1. In response t their suggestion,Houston and Mr.
Pforsheimer met with the Leputy Director of the PS/5, Mr. Tracy
Barnes, and Messrs. Morgan, Johnson and Norberg of his staff on
14 January 1952 to discuss their legislative problems.
2. The Board's legislative problems may be divided into
three categories: (a) budget; (b) personnel; (c) substantive.
3. The Board is financed by equal contributions from the
budgets of the State and Defense Departments and CIA
apiece). Mr. Johnson, who serves as their administrative officer
on detail from the State D:zportment, considers it preferable for
the Board to make one appearaace before each Appropriation Com-
mittee instead of defending its budget three times in each House;
once before the State -.ppropriotion Subcommittee, once before the
Armed Services Appropriati4n Stbcommittee, and once before the
Subcommittee which hears CIA. Mr. Johnson further stated his
preference that the Board defend it* entire budget before the same
Subcommittee which hears the CI.- budget. Mr. Johnson attempted
to pry to some extent into the manner in which CIA was financed and
before whom we appeared to justify our budget, but we did not make
this information available to him.
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S. Insofar as Congressional personnel inquiries are concerned,
PSB appears to receive very few of these and can consistently point
out that it has a very small staff of high level specialists and is not
in the recruiting field.
4. A major problem which the Board has not yet solved, and
on which they seek guidance, is the question as to what information
of a substantive or operational nature they should release to the
Congress and to what members should such release be made. Prob-
ably inquiries of a substantive nature would come from three major
sources. One source is the foreign affairs committees of the Con-
gress who are interested in the problems of the Voice of -,merica,
over which the Board exercises some guidance. These Committees
would also be interested in broad psychological strategy programs.
One particular problem on which the Board's advice may possibly be
sought will be during the hearings by the McMahon Subcommittee of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Benton resolution for
placing the State Department information programs in an independent
agency. The second interested group would be the .trmed Services
Committees of the two houses which might have some interest, par-
ticularly in the Senate where the Senate Armed Services Committee
has a joint responsibility with the ..ienate Foreign Relations Committee
on the workings of the Mutual Security Agency and foreign military
aid programs. The third group of problems include general questions
in the field of psychological strategy which will be raised by various
members of Congress who do not basically understand the problem
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La being done in the field and who tend to throw the term
rather loosely. Some of these queries will be bona fide, some
resent problems of the scope of the Kersten amendment to the
Mutual Security Act of 1951, and some will be of a needling or explora-
tory nature. In say event, the answers to many of these questions
could involve operational inforrnati Ai regarding the activities of the
Central Intelligence Agency and therefore such questions should not
be answered independently by the Board as it might serve to disclose
certain covert CIA activities which we have gone to great lengths to
maintain in a highly classified status.
7. Over and beyond these problems. Mr. Houston pointed out
that there must be a firm determination as to the status of the Board,
and whether it should be considered as a coordinating committee or
as an independent agency. He further explained that Mr. Edwin L.
Fisher, General Counsel of the Ceneral Accounting Office, is of the
opinion that the Board is rapidly becoming an independent agency and
had the characteristics of one; therefore it would be necessary to
secure some Congressional recognition of the Board either through
the means of an enebling statute or at least a recognition of its exis-
tence through the means of appropriation of funds for its activities.
A further question left unresolved was what would happen if a Con-
gressional committee requested testimony on short notice on a given
point. Should such testimony be given by the Board's Chairman or
by the Board's Director If it were to be given by the Board's Direc-
tor, what would he be empowered to say? Would his position be
circumscribed by the Board; or if not, would he be speaking as any-
thing but a private citizen?
S. At the present time and pending further resolutions reg
lug the status of the B there appear to be three possible solutions
to the PSIS's legislative problem. The first solution would be to allow
the Board to handle its legislative activities completely independently.
This solution could Iced to great difficulties as many of their answers
could not be made without detailed clearance with CIA. The second
solution would be to rk fer all legislative problems to the Chairman of
the Board, under whose policy guidance they could be handled by the
Legislative Counsel of CIA. This solution could well be temporary in
nature pending a final determination on the position of the Director of
PSB in the Government hierarchy. The present legislative work-load
at PSIS is so light that this solution would not unduly burden the Legis
lative Counsel at CIA ontil such time as the Board's status is finally
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determined. However, it should probably be considered a stop-gep
measure until a third possibility is considered which should in all
probability be the ultimate solution, namely, that PS Il should have
a man handling their own legislative affairs who must coordinate his
work with the top legislative officers of the State and Defense Depart-
ments and the Legislative Counsel, CIA. In the event of any question
arising which involves the disclosure of CIA activities, the deciska2
as to the release of such informs.tion would rest with CIA.
Lwrence R. Houston
General Counsel
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