DCI'S UNCLASSIFIED MONOGRAPHS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M00165A000300190009-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 10, 2004
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: May 3, 1977
• Content Type: MF

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3 MAY 1977
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
FROM : Paul V. Walsh
Acting Deputy Director for Intelligence
SUBJECT : DCI's Unclassified Monographs
1. This memorandum provides the DDI's views for your
use in discussing with Admiral Turner his proposals for a
program of unclassified monographs.
2. Before such a program is officially launched, Agency
management should give careful consideration to a number of
issues.
a. Should the program be driven by a force
of its on or flow from the classified work we
are doing?
b. How will the program impact upon CIA's
analytical and support resources?
c. Will the program put at risk our efforts
to protect sources and methods?
d. Will the program make a contribution over
and above that made by literature already available
on many of the proposed topics?
e. Will.the unclassified monographs make a
positive contribution to the needs of policy-
makers?
f. Will press and public interpretations
of CIA motivation in "going public" make the
program counterproductive in terms of improving
CIA's image?
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g. Can we count on Executive and Legislative
Branch support for such a large program?
3. In the context of the above questions, I have several
concerns:
a. An immediate, even if bureaucratic, concern
for the resource implications of the proposal. The
type of monograph Admiral Turner has in mind simply
is not something that falls out of our existing re-
search and policy support programs. Most of them
would require a very different approach and. demand
new research and analysis. I cannot, at this time,
give any estimate of the manpower implications, but I
feel certain they are substantial. Our resources
are presently stretched so thin that adding this
burden would have a resource impact which becomes
critical. I am also concerned about the impact of
this program on our cartographic resources. As you
know, this very small staff has been working extreme
amounts of overtime simply to keep up with current
demands. The kinds of slick publications the Admiral
has in mind would, I think, create a situation with
which the Cartographic Division could not cope.
b. Another concern is the extent to which the
monographs would really make a contribution to public
understanding. On some issues such as strategic
forces, for example, there is a great deal of informed
comment in open literature. I think a case might be
made that we cannot advance the state of public under-
standing very much on an unclassified basis. In other
words, the real impact and significance of what the
Agency has to say is determined greatly by our
sensitive sources which must be protected. If, in
fact, our monographs do not make a measurable contribu-
tion to public understanding, then I believe the
program would be regarded as both redundant and marginal.
c. Another concern with serious implication is
outside perception of what the Agency is up to. I
realize that this can be resolved partly by the manner
-2-
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in which these reports are released--through the
Congress, for example--but the odds are much. better
than even that the reports will be viewed by many as
policy advocacy. Or, the reports may become debating
aids for both sides of an argument, including those
opposed to the Administration's foreign policy
initiatives. I also anticipate that we would have
to tread a very careful line if we are to avoid feelings
on the part of State and Defense that we are inserting
ourselves into their policymaking functions.. In some
cases, I believe we also would get adverse reactions
from foreign countries.
d. The proposal may also seem to many observers to
be inconsistent with the mission and charter of CIA and
might be viewed in the OMB and Congress, for example,
as a marked departure from our primary role of collecting
and producing classified intelligence.
4. All of this said, I am personally sympathetic to and have
encouraged the unclassified release of CIA intelligence when I
believe that it represented quality research and analysis on subjects
for which the Agency has a responsibility to produce intelligence.
I have also tried to ensure that we did produce unclassified re-
ports which might not be perceived as public relations gimmicks or
as CIA intrusions into foreign policy debates.
5. Since we entered the DOCEX program, for example, we have
declassified well over 300 of our finished intelligence reports,
and we have also cooperated with the Congress in declassifying a
large number of studies on the communist countries, particularly
through the Joint Economic Committee. Although our program may
appear to be modest, it has had the important advantage of being
a natural fall-out of executing our statutory responsibilities in
the national security field. This means that it has been a cost
effective program-carried out with minimum disruption to
established activities.
6. I believe that we can, with only slight additional effort,
make notable increases in our unclassified release of materials
we produce for use within the Government. The extent to which we
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do this depends upon the audience we are trying to reach and the
purpose of the program, weighed against our available resources
and our intelligence production priorities. I would recommend
that you urge Admiral Turner to decide these questions before we
move hastily into a program which may be simply too costly in
terms of resources and risks.
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2 0 APR 1977
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MEMORANDUM MEMORANDUM FOR : Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
FROM : Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT : Unclassified Monographs
1. I would like to begin producing a series of
short, unclassified monographs along the same lines
as the one we have just done on Civil Defense. Their
major objective would be to lay out the criteria for judging/
assessing some complex, current problem rather than
trying to provide all the answers. For example, in
the strategic area, articles in the press and in journals
usually concentrate on one weapon characteristic as
being the most significant: throw weight, or accuracy,
or warhead size, etc. Our monograph would lay out all
the prime determinants of strategic capability, emphasizing
that one cannot be taken in isolation but all must
be considered together as part of the problem. Then
we would go on to succinctly assess the current situation
based on the criteria we have established. We should
also include enough fundamental/rule of thumb/generic
"information to make tree monograph a good primary source.
My hope is that these monographs will help to simplify
and explain a complex issue, and be a useful tool for
the Congress and general public.alike.
2. Start with the following topics, but let's
solicit suggestions for other areas of interest.
Economics Agriculture/crops
Civil Rights Technological
Growth/Application
Strategic Arms Fishing/Ocean Commerce
Conventional Arms Raw Materials
Population
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