CS HISTORICAL OFFICERS AND WRITERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00764R000300110058-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 19, 2001
• Sequence Number: 58
• Publication Date: December 3, 1969
• Content Type: LIST

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TAB
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S E C R E
8 December 1969
CS HISTORICAL OFFICERS AND WRITERS
S E C R E T
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S E C R E T
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291A
Glossary
HO - Historical Officer
HW Historical Writer
HA - Historical Assistant
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:2 December 1963
MEMORANDUM FO : Deputy Director for Plans
THROUGH Chairman, CS Historical Board
SUBJECT The CIA Historical Program
1. The attached statement is sent you pursuant to your
request for the "ground rules" of the CIA Historical Program.
It is routed through the Chairman of the CS Historical Board,
who participated in our disucssion of the Program, on 23 October,
so that any comments he may wish to make can reach you at
the same time as the attached document.
2. The statement emphasized the all-Agency and unified
character of the CIA Historical Program. It is viewed as
one program, in which the parts - over-all history and direc-
torate history - are brought together in, the CIA Historical
Staff, with the Chief of the Historical Staff charged with
the responsibility for the achievement of the Program, and
with Chief and Deputy Chief giving direction and guidance to
the entire effort, Within a directorate day-to-day management
of the program is the responsibility of the directorate.
Dissemination of the histories is controlled by the components
that produced them.
It. M. Ehrmann
Chief, CIA Historical Staff
Distribution:
Orig & 1,' Addressee
- Chairman, CS Historical Board
Deputy Chief, CIA Historical Staff
sill
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10 December 1969
The CIA Historical Program
The CIA Historical Program is an all-Agency
program under the direction of the CIA Historical
Staff. It includes an overall program and a program
for each of the four directorates.
The overall program is concerned with the role
of the
DCI
in the intelligence community and as
head of
the
Central Intelligence Agency, with the
history
of
the Office of the DCI and of components
of the
DCI
Area, and with the overall history of
each directorate. The directorate programs deal
with the components of each directorate, with their
structure, organization, activities, and operations;
and emphasize policy decisions, methods and tech-
niques, and causes and significance of what occurred.
While the treatment is mainly historical and stresses
change over time, it includes also analysis and
description.
Currently, the Historical Program consists of
a catch-up task and 4.n ongoing, continuing effort, in
which 1965 marks the approximate dividing line between
the two. Completion of the overtaking part of the
program has been set'for the end of the calendar year
1971, by the Executive Director-Comptroller., There-
after the time lag between the latest events men-
tioned in a history and the date of publication is
to be kept at three or four years.
The Chief of the Historical Staff is responsible
to the Executive Director-Comptroller for the achieve-
ment of the program as a whole. The realization of
the overall or.top level history is the direct re-
sponsibility of the Chief and Deputy Chief. For the
programs within the directorates, the Chief and Deputy
Chief share responsibility with the historical of-
ficers 'and the historical boards of the directorates.
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The historical effort in the directorates is
subject to the direction and guidance of the Chief
and Deputy Chief of the Historical Staff with re-
spect to adequacy of coverage, the contribution
that directorate histories make to the writing of
overall history, and the quality of the product.
The Chief and Deputy Chief have dirrct access to
records of the directorttessential to the
writing of overall and directorate history, to the
histories produced in the directorate programs, and
to the historical officers and writers in all parts
of the Historical Program. In directing the. pro-
gram, the Chief and Deputy Chief provide guidance
to historical officers and writers, and examine out-
lines, chronologies, and drafts of writings, when-
ever this is requested or seems desirable for the
establishment and maintenance of good historical
standards.
Day-to-day management of the historical. pro-
gram in each directorate is the responsibility of
that directorate, and in the case of the Directorate
for Plans is achieved through the efforts of its
Historical Officer under the guidance of the CS
Historical-Board. The historical officer of a di-
rectorate is chosen by agreement between the Chief
of the Historical Staff and the Deputy Director,
with assignment to the Historical Staff and a posi-
tion in its Table of Organization. In all the
directorates except the Directorate for Plans, it
is intended that the historical officer will write
the overall history of his directorate. The sub-
stantial historical past of the DDP necessitates
the separation of the management of the program
from the writing of its history. As in the selec-
tion of a historical officer, the choice of a writer
for the history of a directorate is made by agree-
ment between the Deputy Director and the Chief of
the Historical Staff. As a member of the Historical
Staff, the historical officer reports on the status
of the directorate program to the Chief of the His-
torical Staff. The Historical Officer also assists
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the Chief in the work of the Staff. He brings the
point of view of the Historical Staff to his direc-
torate. Likewise, he brings the point of view of
his directorate to the Historical Staff. This
function of serving as a channel of communication
between Historical Staff and directorate he shares
with the chairman of the historical board.
Writers of the overall history of the Agency
have access to DDP records necessary for their work
through the Chairman of the CS Historical Board.
This procedure applies also to permission to inter-
view and debrief DDP personnel.
In addition to the historical officers, the
Historical Staff includes a Documents Officer, who
is in charge of the Master Source Index, and counsels
historical writers on the records and literature re-
lated to their assignments. The Documents Officer is
aided in the development and maintenance of this In-
dex and in giving advice and guidance by two assis-
tants, who are general intelligence officers. The
Documents Officer also maintains a collection of
finished overall histories of the Agency, a small
working collection of basic Agency documents required
for reference purposes, and a selected number of his-
torical sources which other Agency components have
not chosen to,preserve in their own records manage-
ment programs.
The Master Source Index was originally a Clan-
destine Service Index. It is now being expanded in-
to an all-Agency Index. Access to it is limited to
the Chief, Deputy Chief, Documents Officer, and the
assistants of the Documents Officer. Historical
officers and other members of the Historical Staff
not included in the above list do not have access
to the Index. The Documents Officer, because of
the sensitivity of many of the materials in his In-
dex, must be acceptable to all four directorates.
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ECRET NWOW
There is also on the Historical Staff, a Senior
Editor, who is responsible for the development of a
uniform publication format and for the maintenance
of editorial standards. He is senior to other ed-
itors in the Program and is available to counsel
and assist them. He has access to the work of his-
torical writers in both the overall and directorate
programs, except that in the case of highly sensi-
tive materials in a directorate program, access will
require the permission of the chairman of the his-
torical board of the relevant directorate.
Until recently there were two editors in the
Clandestine Service program. At present there is
but one, and a second editor is needed. So far
the other directorates have not had their own full-
time editors.
A history is regarded as complete when it is
accepted by the producing component, the responsible
directorate, and the Historical Staff. Thus a his-
tory in the program of one of the directorates must
be approved by the historical officer of the com-
ponent, its operating official, the directorate
historical'officer and the Chief of the Historical
Staff. The historical officer of the component re-
views the study chiefly for its accuracy and ade-
quacy as a history of the component. The historical
officer of the directorate compares the study with
other histories in the directorate program and also
reviews the study as a contribution to the history
of the directorate and for its potential contribution
to the overall history of the Agency. The Chief of
the Historical Staff evaluates the project for the
adequacy with which it recounts the history of the
subject, as well as for its contribution to the his-
tory of the directorate and the Agency. He also re-
views the history for organization, clarity, gaps in
reporting, emphasis on the significant, and adequacy
of documentation.
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S E C R E T
While the primary concern of the Historical
Staff is with the writing and publication of histories
in an all-Agency program that includes overall and
directorate histories, this is not all that concerns
it. The Historical Staff is interested also in the
identification of records having a historical value,
and in their retention, preservation, and speedy
retrieval. To this end it works with records man-
agement officers and historical officers of compon-
ents to ensure that valuable historical records are
not destroyed. The Historical Staff serves as the
adviser and counsellor to the Agency on historical
subjects, and as requested, provides support on
historical matters of interest to the Agency.
Howard M. Ehrmann
Chief, CIA Historical Staff
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SECRET .?
18 December 1969
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, Historical Staff, O/DCI
a us Re
pV1 t on the CS Historical
~
Program-
1. Progress continues to be made in implementing
the CS Historical Program since the last report submitted
to the Executive Director-Comptroller. In this interval
considerable effort has been, and continues to be, made to
refine the Historical Program Outlines previously submitted
by the various components of the Clandestine Service. As
production of specific histories has progressed, various
gaps and areas of duplication and overlap have been identi-
fied. This experience highlighted the need for refinement
of the overall CS Program and has facilitated such progress
as has been made to date in this regard. Efforts will
continue along these lines, and further refinements will
undoubtedly be made as we go along and discussions are held
with writers in the preparation of outlines for new historical
papers.
2. At the present time, the CS Program calls for a
total of 396 specific chronological histories' or operational
monographs. Emphasis and priorities have been set for the
preparation of histories of the CS stations and bases overseas.
These are not only essential elements of the overall CS history
but are currently valuable for training and indoctrinating
personnel being assigned to overseas posts.
3. To date, 128 CS histories have been published, of
which 21 have been completed since the progress report sub-
mitted on 14 April. Histories published since that date
are listed in Tab DDP-1.
4. Of the remaining 268 histories required to complete
the CS. program as presently envisaged, 81 are in various
stages of research or writing and 187 have no writers. The
status of these elements of the program is shown in Tab DDP-2.
S E C R E T
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S E C R E. T
5. Tab DDP-3 summarizes numerically the status of
the CS Historical Program to date.
.6. The unavailability of qualified, experienced
writers, however, continues to be the major obstacle to
the completion of the "catch-up" (1945-1965) phase of
the CS Historical Program.
Executive Sec; etary
CS Historical Board
Attachments:
1 - List of histories, published since 14 April 1969
2 - Histories in process or to be written by component
3 - Numerical summary of Tabs 1 and 2
Distribution:
Orig & 1 - addressee
S E C R E T
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