DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN:

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP64B00346R000100250010-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 2, 2004
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: March 7, 1962
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2004/03/18 : CIA-RDP64B00346R000100250010-7
THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington
March 7, 1962
This is in reply to your letter of last month inquiring gen-
erally about the practice this Administration will follow in
invoking the doctrine of executive privilege in withholding
certain information from the Congress.
As your letter indicated, my letter of February 8 to Secretary
McNamara made it perfectly clear that the directive to refuse
to make certain specific information available to a special sub-
committee of the Senate Armed Services Committee was limited
to that specific request and that "each case must be judged on
its merits".
As you know, this Administration has gone to great lengths to
achieve full cooperation with the Congress in making available
to it all appropriate documents, correspondence and informa-
tion. That is the basic policy of this Administration, and it will
continue to be so. Executive privilege can be invoked only by
the President and will not be used without specific Presidential
approval. Your own interest in assuring the widest public ac-
cessibility to governmental information is, of course, well
known, and I can assure you this Administration will continue
to cooperate with your subcommittee and the entire Congress
in achieving this objective.
Sincerely,
/s/ John F. Kennedy
Honorable John E. Moss
Chairman
Special Government Information
Subcommittee of the Committee
on Government Operations
House of Representatives
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 Approved For Release 2004/03/18 : CIA-RDP64B00346R000100250010-7
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SPECIAL GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SUBCOMMITTEE
March 16, 1962
NOTE TO COUNSELS:
The most recent presidential statement on the question of "executive
privilege" is a letter from president John F. Kennedy to Congressman John E.
Moss, Chairman of the Special Subcommittee on Government Information.
President Kennedy's letter of March 7, 1962 to Congressman Moss
clarifies his earlier letter to Secretary McNamara directing him to refuse
certain information to a Senate subcommittee. Because there have been a
number of requests for the President's letter, copies of the correspondence
between the President and Congressman Moss are enclosed.
Approved For Release 2004/03/18 : CIA-RDP64B00346R000100250010-7