SANITIZED VERSIONS OF NIE 11-8-73, ' SOVIET FORCES FOR INTERCONTINENTAL ATTACK'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01720R000900080061-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 61
• Publication Date: April 30, 1974
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 200E/EI-RDP80R01720R000900080061-4
SP-51/74
30 April 1974
MEMORANDUM FOR: D/DCI/NIO
SUBJECT : Sanitized Versions of NIE 11-8-73,
"Soviet Forces for Intercontinental Attack"
1. We have completed preparation of a sanitized
codeword version of NIE 11-8-73
2. According to past procedures, the next step would
be to prepare a top secret version of the Estimate. Indeed,
the preparation of such a version was placed on the USIB
agenda by the Secretariat as a reminder because this was
consistent with past practice. The top secret version of
NIE 11-8 was devised many years ago to convey findings in
the Estimate to a larger audience at-a time when we were
more inhibited about the use of photographic intelligence
in briefing Congress and more restrictive with respect to
the number of codeword clearances in the government.
3. I suggest that the requirement for a top secret
version of NIE 11-8 may now be anachronistic. For example,
in the more than three months that have passed since issuance
of the codeword Estimate, there have been extensive briefings
of Congress by the DCI, as well as JCS and other elements of
the Department of Defense without any apparent difficulty or
expressions of discomfiture related to the lack of a top
secret version. These circumstances lead me to conclude that
it would be desirable for USIB to re-examine the need for a
top secret version of NIE 11-8, with an eye toward dis-
continuing it in the absence of a demonstrable need.
n
25X1
National Intelligence O f'&cer
for Strategic Programs
Approved For Release 20Q 9/ .: clA-RDP80R01720R000900080061-4