STATUS REPORT ON PROGRESS IN APPOINTING AN NIO FOR ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01720R000900100036-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: February 6, 1974
• Content Type: MF

SECRET
Approved For ReJ,ase 2004/09/23 : CIA-RDP80R01720R000900100036-9
K
a
Office of the Director of Central Intelligence
6 February 1974
SUBJECT Status Report on Progress in Appointing
an NIO for Economic Affairs
1. At your 7 February appearance before the PFIAB,
you may want to (or be asked to) report on the status
of our 'search for an Economic NIO. Outlined below is
some information for you to draw on if this topic arises.
2. The short answer is that we have not yet found
an Economic NIO, but we have been looking intensively
for almost three months. The principal reasons we have not
found him are that the position itself is a new one, and
the kind of person likely to discharge it well should have
a broad range of qualities hard to find in any single in-
dividual, particularly in an individual temptable by this
assignment.
3. The whole concept of the National Intelligence
Officer is a new one which all involved in its execution
have to develop and articulate in the process of imple-
menting it. This will be especially true in the economic
field, since our perception of what ought to be meant by
the term "economic intelligence" and our perception of
what the intelligence community's approach to economic
problems ought to be are two concepts which themselves
are in the process of evolutionary refinement. Hence --
though this may sound self-contradictory -- one aspect of
the first Economic NIO's responsibilities will entail
perceiving what the scope and range of those responsibilities
ought to be.
25X1
Approved For Release 200 4 91'x'3 `~IA-RDP8 )R01720R000900100036-9
 Approved For Relwe 2004/098E1 jRTP80R01720ROQ900100036-9
4. Among the qualities clearly needed in a
prospective Economic NIO are the following;
a. Professional expertise and experience suf-
ficient to command the immediate respect of others
who work in the economic intelligence field and of
the policy-level consumers of such intelligence.
Furthermore, as with all the other NIOs, the NIO for
economic affairs must be capable of doing personally
any analytic task levied by the President or one of
the President's designees which is so sensitive and
important that security considerations require this
task's being carried out by only one person.
b. The ability to operate in a fluid and
frequently changing policy-level environment, an abil-
ity which encompasses the ability to ascertain just what
that environment is and who within it plays what role
at any given moment. In the economic field, the policy-
deciding environment is much less structured than is the
case in other foreign affairs or national security areas,
and also much more subject to marked change within a short
time span. An effective Economic NIO will have to be able
to ascertain, almost by instinct, who the consumers are,
what inputs they make and what is the current status of
their interacting inter-relationship.
c. An effective Economic NIO will also have to
have the ability to function as an energizer and co-
ordinator (i.e., an effective bureaucrat diplomat) within
the analytic components of the intelligence community and
also within that community's collection components.
5. Above all, an effective Economic NIO will have to
have a rare degree of creative imagination and perception.
He must be able to perceive the needs of policy level con-
sumers, including needs the latter themselves do not
entirely comprehend or articulate very clearly. He must
be able to perceive how the analytic responses of the
community should be focused - both generically and on
specific problems - to service these needs of our primary
customers in the economic area. In another important sphere,
he must be able to perceive the opportunities and true
Approved For Release 2004/09/ ftt80R01720R000900100036-9
 25X1 Approved For Release 2004/09/23 : CIA-RDP80RO172OR000900100036-9
Approved For Release 2004/09/23 : CIA-RDP80RO172OR000900100036-9
 MEMORANDUM APOPYeAFeorA , o2PO4/09/23: CIA-RDP8
Attached is a package of two
items for your PFIAB session. One
is on our search for an Economic NIO
and the other on Energy.
George A. Carver, Jr.
D/DCI/NIO
6 February 1974
(DATE)
FORM GN 54 IOI WHICH RELACES
MAY BE FORM
1 AU
USED.
~01720R040900100036-9
Approved For Release 2004/09/23 : CIA-RDP80RO172OR000900100036-9
 Approved For Release 18U4F9/23 ' CIA-*RDP8OK01720R00090s01,036-9
of Central inteliigenc
is a two-part package
h
ed
Attac
dealing with the energy items flagged
in paragraph six of 31
January memorandum to YOU UZ& L,.- ers
7 February
likely to arrise at your
PFIAD session.
These responses deal with the
in
questions specifically flagged
paragraph fix. These
suggeste answers reflect the combined
and the
E
er
n
gy
work of the NIO for
Office of Economic Research.
25X1
25X1
pproved
National
Intelligence
officers
co: D/DCI/IC
1720R000900106019