PRESIDENTIAL BRIEFINGS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83B00100R000100050016-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2001
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: April 19, 1978
• Content Type: MF

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19 April 1978
MEMORANDUM FOR: Office Directors and NIOs
FROM : Associate Director-Substantive Support, NFAC
SUBJECT : Presidential Briefings
1. This memorandum updates my 17 November 1977 description of how
we prepare for the DCI's Presidential Briefings based on experience in
the five months intervening. The major change is lengthening the
briefings. Experience has shown that we.should strive to develop 20-30
minute long briefings.
2. The rotating scheme of topic submissions will continue. For
this purpose NIOs and Office Directors remain grouped as follows:
Group I Group II Group III Group IV
NIO CF NIO SP NIO PE NIO NP
SS USSR WE NESA
AF EAP CH LA
DIR OER DIR OGCR DIR OSR DIR ORPA
OSI OWI OIA OCR
3. Group I nominations are requested to be submitted to the
Presidential Briefing Coordinator (PBC) by COB Tuesday, 2 May. Other
Groups' nominations will be requested in order on succeeding Tuesdays.
4. In addition to a descriptive title of the proposed topic, a
short note on timing considerations for the briefing should be included
with each nomination. For example, a timing consideration might be to
brief the President prior to the visit of a certain head of state.
5. Topics for Presidential Briefings should be intelligence issues
of current interest, rather than current intelligence items per se.
They should be subjects on which you feel the Director should spend 20
to 30 minutes in his weekly briefing of the President. Therefore, they
should not be items which can be adequately addressed in the PDB.
Topics submitted normally should be suitable for briefing of the President
about a month after submission.
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6. Topics selected for development into Presidential Briefings
will be announced by memorandum each week. A one- or two-page outline
of the major points to be addressed in the briefing should be submitted
to the PBC within a week of selection. This outline will be submitted
to the DCI and the D/NFAC for comments and approval.
7. Attached are some desiderata for weekly Presidential briefing
topics.
8. Since November the character of the weekly DCI/NIO meetings
also has evolved. In the future I see these meetings functioning in one
of three ways.
--As a step in the preparation of a Presidential Briefing.
By one week before the scheduled briefing a topic will have been
developed more or less fully. At this point a DCI/NIO meeting
often will be useful, not to rehearse the briefing, but to explore
side issues and the general setting of the briefing topic.
--As a means for developing a briefing topic nomination. In
some cases a general area will be thought to be of possible
interest, but no individual can develop a satisfactory focus for
a briefing topic. Then a DCI/NIO meeting may be used to "brain
storm" the subject area.
--Outside of the Presidential Briefing preparation process,
DCI/NIO meetings may be used to explore areas of substantive
concern that arise for any reason. Any Office Director or NIO
who wishes to use a DCI/NIO meeting in this way should inform
the PBC.
The PBC is responsible for scheduling and preparing for DCI/NIO meetings.
The PBC will inform NIOs, Office Directors and other interested people
of the time, place and subject of the meetings about one week in advance.
Attachment
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Desiderata For Weekly Presidential Briefing Topics
The subjects which will receive extensive preparation are of two
kinds, substantive intelligence subjects and intelligence craft subjects.
The following criteria apply to the selection of subjects:
A. Criteria for all. topics
1. Timeliness. Subjects should not be ephemeral current
intelligence items. But they should be timely at the time
of the briefing.
2. Format. Subjects should be conducive to a 20 to 30 minute
oral presentation supported by about half a dozen 8"x10"
graphics.
3. Efficiency. Subjects should be ones on which we are already
working for other reasons.
B. Criteria for substantive intelligence topics
1. Purpose. Substantive intelligence topics should:
a. favor areas in which the President will have to make
decisions,
b. strive to provide the President tools to question the
assumptions underlying existing policies and proposals
for policy change and/or,
c. provide the President useful simplified mental models of
the world, frameworks to help him focus effectively amidst
the storm of bits and pieces of information he receives
each day.
2. Form. Sometimes the presentation of a substantive topic in
half an hour will not permit a thorough balanced discussion.
In such cases substantive topics can be covered by two
mutually supporting pieces. The first is a ten-to-twenty
page paper which will be a thorough balanced treatment of the
subject matter. The second is the topic of the discussion
itself which will not try to be balanced or thorough. Rather
it focuses on the aspect of the subject which can best be
illustrated by an oral face to face exchange. The briefing
itself emphasizes one of the following:
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a. Discussion of those aspects of the subject which are not
known pointing out the current range of uncertainty, the
degree to which further intelligence efforts can reduce
this range, and whether such efforts appear to be worth-
while.
b. Discussion of those aspects of the subject about which
there are significant differences of opinion pointing
out who believes what, and presenting a measured discussion
of the pros and cons of each.
c. Discussion of those aspects of the subject area which are
uniquely associated with the DCI's responsibility, e.g.
intelligence activities of a country in the context of its
overall foreign policy.
d. Discussion of examples of the overall model described in
the accompanying paper when presentation of an overview
is the primary purpose of the briefing.
When an Office Director or NIO recommends a subject he should indicate
whether it should be presented as a written paper plus a briefing or
simply as a briefing.
3. Intelligence Nature. The substantive subjects selected should
have a heavy intelligence flavor to avoid the appearance of
unwittingly straying into the policy arena.
C. Criteria for selecting intelligence craft subjects
1. Purpose. Discussions of the intelligence craft in this arena
should:
a. favor discussions of intelligence capabilities in areas
in which the President will have to make policy decisions.
b. strictly forgo areas in which the President will have to
make programmatic or other decisions in which the DCI
has a bureaucratic interest. In order to preserve the
sanctity of the briefing as the high point of objectivity
in an otherwise partisan week, subjects like these should
be addressed in separate sessions.
c. favor areas where the integrated capability of collection
and production can be clearly shown.
2. Form. Presentations of subjects in the intelligence craft
generally will not include delivery of a paper. When appro-
priate, they can include displays of hardware used or obtained,
audio visual displays, etc.
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D. Other Briefing Topics
1. Nu gets. Sometimes an informational item will appear which
should be presented to the President during the briefing
because it is of special significance and would be enhanced
by a face to face or special media presentation. Office
Directors and NIOs knowing of such items should nominate them.
2. Fillers. In addition offices will periodically be asked to
prepare short 5-10 minute briefings on topics which are more
or less timeless. These will be kept on file and used as
"fillers" on occasions when the major topic of the briefing
does not require 30 minutes.
3. Short Fuse Briefings. Although every effort is being made to
anticipate events so that briefings can be prepared in an
orderly way, circumstances will sometimes require the prepara-
tion of major briefings on substantive intelligence topics
quickly. Apart from the need to respond quickly when we must
(and we have done well on such occasions in the last five
months), our major effort here should be to minimize the need
for crash programs by anticipating needs based on NIOs' and
Officer Directors' knowledge of developments in their own areas
of expertise. Experience has shown that overall it is less
disruptive to prepare three briefings in an orderly fashion
even if only one of them is used than to prepare one briefing
on an SSN* basis.
*SSN: Saturdays, Sundays, and Nights
-3-
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