INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS ON COUNTRY-LEVEL APPROACH TO THE HISTORY OF THE CLANDESTINE SERVICES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00764R000300090020-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2000
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: October 13, 1964
• Content Type: MF

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13 October. 1964
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, Historical Staff
SUBJECT: Introductory Comments on Country-level
Approach to the History of the Clan-
destine Services
1. Preparation of the history of any segment of the
organization or functions of the CS is at once a creative
and a tedious job. The identification of. the stages or
phases of our program as it parallels shifts in US policy,
the vicissitudes of a. foreign government or the movement
of key staff officersbecomes an intriguing exercise. To
develop such a story; into a factual and fluid account is
a stimulating challenge. One must surely be an inventor
of no mean proportions to develop the means and create
the tools to cope with the many aspects of each CS activity.
In any sense of the word this would be a constructive task
of real benefit to the Agency and in particular the offi-
cers of the DD/P.
2. The Clandestine. Services have relied too heavily
and too long on the word-of-mouth technique for passing
along contributing experiences and valuable lessons
learned. The shifting of priorities, with a build-up in
one area while there is a balancing decrescendo elsewhere,
carries with it a natural lag in the transfer of our ex-
periences, if indeed the transfer occurs at all. Also the
growth of the Clandestine Services, even with our present
well-organized and numerous training courses, makes the
informal and sporadic reporting on our activities an in-
adequate method for reviewing the past and shaping the
future fulfillment of our responsibilities.
3. Therefore it is incumbent upon us to apply more
systematic procedures in recording that which is now un-
documented or which is obscured by the transfers of our
officers or the meandering shifts in their operational
assignment. Between,'assignments each officer should pre-
pare a brief paper, of not more than a few pages, covering
the work which he has just left. This statement should
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include at least a general critique of his activities,
non-Agency individuals with whom he worked (agents by
cryptonym), effectiveness of his operations, unusual
problems faced and how solved, accomplishments, and sub-
ject, date and control number of studies, recommendations
or "think pieces" of any type (other than intelligence
and project reporting) which the officer has prepared.
Critiques of this type would go a long way toward filling
the enormous gaps in the pattern of experience within the
Clandestine Services, which appear in the record.
4. Each country desk should maintain a project
folder. Such a folder can provide invaluable continuity
as well as catalog all operations previously attempted,
with their purposes and the ultimate reasons for termina-
tion. Active projects can always be found at the desk,
but terminated projects are either not brought to the
attention of new officers or if informally discussed are
usually not recalled from the document center for careful
review. The project outline, project approval and project
termination, an outline of major changes -- policy, pur-
pose, substance and support -- if such pertain, and a
listing of agent assets involved in the project should
compose the packet of five to ten pages on each project.
The only analyticalieffort would be in preparing the out-
line of major changes. It is conceived that this might
be prepared most efficiently by the headquarters case
officer, after the sign-off on the project termination,
when he forwards the project to the officer responsible
for its release to the document center. The desk's
master project folder should hold a running list of all
projects with purpose, date of approval, primary or sub-
projects, and date of termination (when terminated).
5. We should know what officers have been respon-
sible for or assisted in carrying out our program at any
period in history and in any part of the world. The DD/P
desk should systematically maintain a chronological set
of all approved tables of organization, and personnel
assigned to that desk and the country supported. Today
it would be impossible, without the examination of thou-
sands of 201 folders, to definitively list those officers
who have served the Agency in Greece, Vietnam, Italy or
any other country. ;When it becomes necessary for us to
call for such information in order to quickly compose a
specialized task force to cover an emergency situation
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our files are found wanting. (Payroll records, with name
and field allotment only, are not in any geographical
order and are filed under covering vouchers which would
have to be individually identified after tracking down
the covering field dispatch. These payroll records, if
they could be located pay period by pay period, would
have to be manually, reviewed and extracted. They do not
carry the grade or position of the individual. The Central
Processing lists, prep..red at -irregular intervals, carry
name, grade, country o tiestin ition, general job title
(ops officer), career ;!signat:ion, and ETA. These only
go back to 1959 in the Master File in Central Processing.)
6. It can be been that with a minimum of effort the
individual desks can plug many of the'present holes. This
action should make possible the orderly review
and
proces-
sing of parts and eventually a full round-up of
our
activi-
ties in a particular country. Special studies
and
reviews
of unique and isolated segments of our program
are
of
value and should belocated and brought together by
the
officer on the branch or desk who has the task of assem-
bling the historical material for the country.
7. Steps will have to be taken which will permit a
more orderly resurrection and use of our archival material.
Against taking such 'steps it may be argued that:
a. "Maintenance of post facto records and
copies of reports which have long since served their pur-
pose takes too much time and borders on wastefulness."
Actually this consolidation of such information builds a
continuity at the desk level and saves a tremendous amount
of. time for new officers -- station chiefs and desk chiefs
on down -- who are attempting to get read into their new
responsibilities. Also there is a satisfaction in the
thoroughness which is reflected in records thus assembled
and systematized; ail of this actually saves time and
builds confidence in our officer corps.
b. "These new responsibilities will place an
additional and unwarranted workload on the desks." The
largest effort, namely that of summarizing terminated
projects, will be spread rather thinly across the desks
of all headquarters case officers, probably averaging
only four or five per year per officer. These men who
have the greatest knowledge of project activities are
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best qualified for this task. The only other new obliga-
tion which this system would b -ing is the preparation of
the personal critiques Dn the o') just left. Since these
will be prepared betwe(i -.)ssig