COMMUNITY REACTION TO THE STRATEGIC WARNING STAFF'S FIRST MONTHLY REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01133A000800050005-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 18, 2004
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: April 15, 1975
• Content Type: MF

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Approved For Release 2004/10/28: CIA-RDP80M01133AO
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT: Community Reaction to the Strategic
Warning Staff's First Monthly Report
1. Informal reaction of NSA, DIA, INR, and OCI to the SWS's
first Monthly Report was generally favorable. NSA and INR were
pleasantly surprised to note that the SWS appeared to be interpreting
its charter rather broadly, i.e., covering some topics that some
elements of the community would consider as falling within the
small-w area. In spite of bias in favor of the broad interpretation,
INR wondered whether the Monthly Report had not gone too far into
the small-w area.
2. DIA also thought it was a good effort but hoped that "subsequent
issues will result in less items of a current intelligence /background
nature. "
3. The OCI consensus was that the Monthly Report "... by and
large covers the areas it is supposed to cover... " and "... is an
improvement over the old weekly Watch Report. " They noted, hovr-
ever, that "... the report does step a bit beyond its charter in some
instances.... " (Dick Lehman said that Ed Proctor might have other
views to offer later. )
4. Our own view is that the SWS has gone considerably beyond
its charter as defined in DCID 1/5. * The items on Brezhnev's health,
for example, appear
to us to have no perceivable relationship to the possible resort by the
Soviets to military action and thus fall outside the big-W area.
*Paragraph 2, "Definition, " of DCID 1/5: "Strategic warning is
defined as the earliest possible warning that the Soviet Union, the
Warsaw Pact, the PRC, or North Korea is considering military action
by its armed forces beyond its borders, or is employing its military
capabilities beyond its borders in ways that might threaten military
confrontation with the U. S. "
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5. There is clearly no way of defining exactly what international
issues the SWS should and should not address. And general discussion
of the problem.-as we discovered in the meetings of the Ad Hoc Con-
mittee-.?is unlikely to lead to its resolution. We believe, however,
that steady pressure should be maintained on the SWS to refine the
focus of its publications. This can probably best be accomplished
by urging the SWS to indicate more explicitly than they have done in
the Monthly Report the relevance of each of its articles to the subject
of strategic warning.
6. Attached is a proposed letter from you to General Faurer
on this subject.
25X1
ue . Wilson
Lie enant General, USA
D/DCI/IC
Attachment:
Letter to Gen. Faurer
Distribution:
Orig - DCI
I..DDCI
1 -ER
D/DCI/IC
(V- IC Registry
25X11
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