GUIDELINES FOR HISTORICAL WRITING IN THE CLANDESTINE SERVICES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00764R000300090021-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2000
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: October 14, 1964
• Content Type: MFR

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MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Guidelines for Historical Writing in the Clandestine
Services
There is need fob a more systematic effort to record
historically the development of the Agency, its contributions
to national policy and national strength, its experiences
with organizational and methodological innovations, and its
relations with policy authorities, other agencies, and other
intelligence services:. Any writing at all along these lines
that can be done in the divisions and staffs, from available
administrative and operational papers, to undocumented in-
dividual memoirs, andieven to a tracing of T/0 changes, will
be of value to Agency: historians of this and future genera-
tions. The following suggestions, however, are offered as
a guide toward the most useful contributions per effort
expended.
1. Subject Matter
Functional development: how did we get --as an
agency, or its program in some particular country-- to
the present point from the low of 1946? What were the
biggest steps, and how did they emerge one from another or 25X1A
from external prompting? Have we sometimes been diverted
from our proper function (overt programs in Korea and Viet-
nam) ?
Operations:: What have the major programs been?
How successful was each? How much a contribution to ful-
fillment of the Agency's job? To national objectives?
What went wrong in the failures? What individual operations
have been particularly significant, or instructive?
Organization: How have organizational problems
(OSO-OPC; overt-covert support functions; the play between
geographical and functional units) been solved, or not
solved? What experiments failed to work, and why?
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Problems and methods: ,What innovations have been
made in methods (agent communications, proprietary enter-
prises, the extension of deep cover)? What problems were
they intended to solve? How well have they worked, or why
didn't they work? What administrative or support problems
have been particularly significant?
Relationships of all kinds: What effect have ups
and downs of policy guidance (NSC/White House, OCB/Special
Group) had? What have been the relations with State and
Defense at Headquarters? With ambassadors, armed service
commanders, and other U.S. agencies in the field? With
"friendly" foreign services? How did the closer working
relationships with D]I components evolve?
2. Matters of Form and Method
Presentation: Normally these facets of subject
matter should be woven into a chronological narrative, not
separated out in analytical fashion, though sometimes it
is desirable to interrupt the narrative to trace the history
of a particular problem. A table summarizing the chronology
is useful for quick reference. Style: the simpler and
less pretentious the better.
Audience: The history is for ourselves, that is
DDP/Agency. The more unglossed and unabridged it is the
more useful it will be. But matters of particular sensitivity
from the viewpoint of the security of current operations
can be treated by reference to closely held annexes, and the
cryptonym/pseudonym cloak may be imposed when necessary.
Actors: It should not be impersonal; it is people
that make history. But it should not be cluttered with
names that are just names. Bring the main characters to
life if you can without fictionalizing.
Documentation: Assemble copies of the most
important documents in an appendix. Cite other documentary
authority in footnotes, indicating in whose files and under
what heading the papars can be found.
Sources: The historian usually begins by getting
all he can out of documentary records and then tries to go
behind the documents,: as well as fill in between them, with
carefully chosen questions posed to witnesses. Such inter-
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views should be recorded and cited like other documents.
The historian of recent events can reverse this procedure,
getting the story from eye-witnesses first and then checking
and supplementing it with documents, if he has too little
first-hand knowledge of the subject to get started or if
the people are better] available than the papers. Sometimes
periodic reports (to 'the NSC, the President's Board, the DCI,
or others) are useful as summaries pointing to other sources.
for further information.
Historical Staff, O/DCI
Room 1D27
Phone 5963
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