LIST OF SELECTED HISTORICAL RECORDS IN NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL RELATING TO CIA, 1953-56

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00161R000100140005-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2001
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: April 23, 1957
• Content Type: MFR

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23 April 1957
M. P. C.
SUBJECTS List of Selected Historical Records in National Security
Council Relating to CIA, 1953-56
1. Since CIA is directly an arm of the NSC (both by legisla-
tive statutes and by executive directives), the NSC's relations tirith
CIA between 1953 and 1956 are of obvious importance to any historical
understanding of CIA durin that period. Both (a) the records kept
by the NSC itself and (b) those records kept in CIA. that relate to
NSC affairs would seem to be of unquestioned value for historical
evidence that might contribute to such understanding.
2. The main body of NSC records was in the custody of the
NSC :executive Secretary as of August 1954. (Seeinventory below,
based on a survey in August 1954 by the DD/A's cords Management
Staff, which serves along with other DD/A and later DD/S offices
as a "housekeeping" service to the NSC and its staffs.) Presumably
that situation still prevails today. At the same time there axe
several major series of NSC-related records -ithin CIA. (See
especially the Historical Staff's inventories, previously prepared
by Sze in recent days, of the records of the O/DCI, of the O/DDI,
and of ONE.) Of these two major categories, the NSC's own records
are probably most useful for understanding CIA in the larger context
of the U. S. Government's national security organization as a whole;
ILLEGIB
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while CIA's records bearing on NSC affairs are of special significance
for understanding intra-CIA and IAC activities for narshalling intelli-
gence support for the NSC's deliberations and policy actions between
1953 and 1956. (There are doubtless also, finally, still other N,50-
related records in the DD/! group for this period, relating to CIA's
operational support to N6C policy actions. The latter records have
not, however, been surveyed by the Historical Staff, although schedules
for some of them are on file in the Records Management Staff, DD/S. )
3. The records desctibed below are limited to those in the
custody of the Executive Secretary's office and other staffs of the
NSC, and they are further limited to those particular series (12 out
of ])series maintained by the NZ'-')C) which appear to me to contain
useful historical evidence for the CIF history for 1953-56, as it
is outlined in the plan as recently approved by Colonel Grogan. The
listincTs below are based, not on a direct examination of the records
themselves (access to which would doubtless involve further preliminary
interviews and staff assistance from higher authority), but solely on
an examination of the DD/A Records Management Staff's routine survey
of those files, made in inventory form in August 1954 and inspected
by me today. Thus survey, although it was made more than two years
before the cut-off date (December 1956) for the projected 1953-56
history, is nevertheless highly valid for the factual descriptions
of the records that it contains, as of 1954, and it is probably
valid to a certain extent for 10,55 and 1956 as well.
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t.. The Records Management Staff serves, like other DD/A and
(later) DD/S offices and staffs, as one of CIA's "housekeeping"
offices for the NSC, in accordance with long standing administrative
arrangements between CIA/CIG first with NIA and then with the NSC.
(See the 1950-53 history, Chapter X, for detail. Parenthetically
it is interesting to note that, while the NSC depends routinely on
CIA for a variety of administrative services, including the care
of its current and historical records, it has no corresponding
arrangement with CIA for historical-research and historical-analysis
service.) Under these administrative-services agreements, the RM
Staff performs two kinds of housekeeping functions for the NSC that
directly concern the Historical Staff's use of the NBC Is historical
records: (1) it provides "management-improvement" service to the
NSC by assisting them in "scheduling," discarding, and otherwise
disposing of so-called "useless" records of the NSC; and (2) it
provides storage space and reference service to the NSC, at the CIA
Records Center, on any non-current records that N6C may rfrom time
to time decide torretire to that Center. Whether the NIX has,
indeed, actually transferred any of its non-current records to the
Records Center for the period 1953-56 is not revealed in the RM
Staff's records control schedule, cited above. This information
will be forthcoming when the Historical staff undertakes a preliminary
survey of the holdings at the Records Center.
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(as of August 1954)
1. "NSC Reports (Studies) File," undated. Volume not indicated.
Consists of three sub-series: (1) the "regularly numbered" NSC series,
numerically arranged; (2) the "Hill Papers," that is N;C studies in
process of preparation, also numerically arranged; and (3) "Unrnzm-
bered NSC Papers," arranged alphabetically by "title of paper." This
apparently comprehensive file contains "finished reports and studies,
amendments, annexes, implementation instructions.,,Za nd] progress
reports," all presumably prepared by the NSC staf s, a- 'Long with
"background papers," the latter consisting of "staff studies, state-
ments of policy, contributions of participating agencies, drafts,
correspondence, and other related material." All of these records
relate broadly to "the policies of the Government of the United
States relating to National Security."
2. "Cumulative Index," undated. Volume not indicated. Bound
volume (volumes?), comprising an index to NSC reports and studies
(presumably an index to series no. 1 above), entitled, "Policies of
the Government of the United States Relating to the National Security."
3. "Status of Pro jects," undated. Volume not indicated.
Chronologically organiryed "formal reports of status of current NSC
studies."
14. "Annual Progress Reports," undated. Volume not indicated.
These also are "bound volumes," prepared annually, and contain (among
other items?) texts of Council decisions during a given calendar
year.
5. "NSCID File," undated. (Probably goes back to 1947, when
NSC was established.) Volume not indicated. These are the National
Security Council's "Intelligence Directives" (not to be confused
with its policy and action directives addressed to policy and opera-
tional agencies of the U. S. Government), together with "correspond-
ence and related material." Arranged by Directive number. (No
reference is made to any corresponding pre-19117 files relating to
the NIA's intelligence directives, which the NSC staff presumably
inherited when the NIA was liquidated in 1947. The latter files
may by now have been retired to the CIA Records Center, or possibly
to the DCI's Executive Registry.--N. P. C.)
6. "N6C Determinations," undated. Volume not indicated.
This is apparently a special file, relating to "special studies on
trade between various countries and the Soviet Bloc in the light of
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Section 1302 of the Third Supplemental Appropriation Act of 1951."
(Since the file was still regarded, in August 1954, as an "active"
file, the file probably extends quite beyond Fiscal Year 1951 and
probably contains implementing records dating as late as 1954.--M.P.C.)
The file, as described, contains "final reports and supplements,
background material, and correspondence." Arranged by "report
comber. tt
7. "Council Meetings File," undated. Volume not indicated.
This file consists of "agenda, records of action, notices of?7
cancellations of NSC meetings, .nd7 drafts of records of action."
8. "Planning Board Meetings File," undated. Volume not
indicated. This file contains "formal announcements and records
of action of the NSC Planning Board, with related correspondence."
Arranged "by subject," W
I
9. "Senior Staff Meetings File," undated. Volume not indi-
cated. Like series no. 8, this file contains "formal announcements
and records of actions," in this case of the NSC Senior Staff,
along with "related correspondence." Arranged by subject.
10. "Subject Files," undated. Volume not indicated. These
files, arranged by subject, relate to the internal operation and
administration of the NSC and its staff and committee organizations.
Included are "correspondence, surveys, organization charts, legal
documents, and related material"; also housekeeping records such
as "requisitions for equipment and sup lies, *applications for
employment, telephone toll slips, ...papers on/ charitable fund-
raisirg drives, and related administrative material." (Financial
matters are apparently excluded; see series no. 11, below.)
11. "Budget Files, It undated. Volume not indicated. Contains
budget estimates, statements prepared for the Senate Appropriations
Committee (and probably also for other Congressional Committees,
as well as for the U. S. Bureau of the Budget), and "related correspond-
ence." Arranged "by date" (probable meaning: by fiscal year?).
14. "Source Files," undated. Volume not indicated. These
files consist of ttreference copies of documents forwarded to the
NSC for informational purposes and on which no official action has
been taken." These files are scheduled to be destroyed "when obso-
lete or when the information...therein is of no further interest
to the NSC."
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Records in CIA Relating to NSC Affairs
(as of 1956)
There was probably not a single office in CIA between 1953
and 1956 that was not influenced by the NSC or that did not influence
the NSC' directly or indirectly, during that period. On that assump-
tion, therefore, there are probably some records, at least, in every
single office in CIA that bear, directly or indirectly, on CIA's
numerous and complicated relationships with the NSC. No attempt
is made here to list all such records, if only because the Historical
Staff's surveys to date are not completed. However, there are suggested
below some of the major series of CIA records of certain offices (in
particular) which had direct relationships with the NSC, the NSC
Senior Staff, the NSC Planning Board, the OCB, or (up to the summer
of 1953) the PSB. See especially the following Historical Staff
memos for record:
1. List of Selected Historical Records in 0 DCI, 1953-56
(memo dated April 12, 1957), especially (but not exc usively) series
nos. 1, I., 5 (NSC Planning Board), 10 (OCB); and supplementary lists
on p. 6 (PSB) and p. 7 (OCB).
2. List of Selected Historical Records in Q DDI, 1953-56
(memo dated April 11, 1957), especially series nos. 1, 13, and 19.
3. List of Selected Historical Records in ONE, 1953-56
(memo dated April 23, 1957), especially (but not exclusively)
series no. 16.
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