WHETHER OR NOT TO INCREASE THE BIOGRAPHIC REGISTER T/O

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00951R000400010026-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 5, 2001
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: May 19, 1950
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Release 2002/06/18 : CIA-RDP84-00951 R000400010026-1
19 May 1950
INEI"JORANDUM FOR: DIRECTOR OF CENTR'.L INTELLIGENCE
FROM: Assistant Director, OCD
SUBJECT: Whether or not to increase the Biographic
Register T/0
1. The Special Research Center and OPC have been making demands
upon the Biographic Register which the small staff of the Register's
Regional Branch is quite unable to cope with.
2. The most crying need, from the Special Research Center, is
for a current and world-wide directory of diplomatic and consular
officials, .;.ttaches, and the like.
It may well be argued that it i.s the business of State Depart-
ment to provide such a directory, but it is totally useless for us to
ho-,)e that it will ever be able to do so. The State Department Biographic
Intelligence unit is an excellent one, it -turns out a very considerable
volume of work with a small staff, and it gives us every cooperation -
allowing our analysts to work in the State files almost as if they were
their ovn. But BI in State has no machine equipment v.'ith which to main-
tain a current directory, and it is overloaded with ti.,ork for the State
Department itself. In view of State's budgetary situation it is idle
to think that any insistence by the other agencies would effect a
sufficient strengthening of State's BI unit to accomplish the job which
we need done.
While it' is the Special Re;;eareh Center which most urgently
needs a directory of this sort, it is obvious that it would be of great
value to nearly all intelligence operations.
3. OPC has been making heavy demands on the Register, and informs
me that it will make still heavier demands in future. Their need is for
biographic reports on foreign educators, statesmen, lecturers, writers
and. of-.her personalities whom it might be profitable to attack by propa-
ganda or who, in other ways, might prove to be good. tarnots or tools for
OPC. It seems quite certain that OPC's success in its mission will depend
to a large degree upon the adequacy and up-to-dateness of its information
concerning; the people whom it e.t'tacks or uses.
l,. Both of the jobs described above fall upon the Regional Branch
of th,Biographic Register - the Branch which deals with all categories
kle
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of personalities except scientists and technicians.
Total strength of the Bre.nch, as now approved, is 19, com-
prising 14 professionals ranging from GS-5 to GS-13 and 5 clerical
hands.
The staff is a good one. Many of the senior professionals have
been working in biographic intelligence for years - with OSS, or State,
or G-2. They have a sufficient command of Slavic, Far Eastern, and Lost
European languages to do their own spade-work in source materials. We
require the junior professionals to do most of their own typing, thus
making them responsible for the accuracy of their final reports and thus
avoiding the need of tying up our authorized strength in typists.
It takes time to write a good biographic report - whether there
be many references or few to deal with. If there are many, then time is
needed to put them in coherent and logical order,.straining out duplica-
tions and errors: if there are few, then time is needed for detective
work both here and in the other agencies searching for leads. For this
reason the small staff has not been able to average more than about 200
formal biographic reports per month, and at the present time it has a
backlog of 80 requests which it has not yet been able to tackle.
5. By making a number of space readjustment? within OCll we could,
if authorized to do no, beef up the Regional Branch by a total of 1
hands. I do not dare promise that this would enable us to meet all
commitments, but it would certainly put us in a. much bettor position to
do so. '?;orking conditions would suffer because of the inevitable crowd-
ing, but I fool that this would be more than compensated by the knowledge
that the Branch was being given the strength to make its mission a good
deal closer of accomplishment.
6. The following are the present authorized and proposed T/O's for 25X1A
the Regional Branch:
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 Approved For Release 2002/06/18 : CIA-RJDP84-00951 R000400010026-1
25X1A
7. I do not wish to press too strongly for ap-;roval on this ;roposal,
because the consequences of disa _aroval would not have so far-reaching and
disastrous an effect upon Agency-wide o ;rations as would, for example, dis-
a,:proval of my concurrent request for additional hands in Liaison and
Library. If we do not get the hands we need in Liaison and Library, then
the whole flow of documents to all Offices will gradually bog down.
8. On the.other hand, I do believe that this is a sound proposal. I
believe the jobs which need. to be done are.real and urgent. Special ehesearch
Center and other units of CIA urgently need a current directory of diplo-
matic and consular people all over the world, and if tie can't get State to
do this job - and I know we can't - then we had better tackle it ourselves.
And if OPC requires more biographic data than we can provide, then it is
surely better to strengthen CIA's central biographic set-up than to oblige
OPC to make its people do their own biographic work.
9. If this proposal, as well as the concurrent request for additional
hands in Liaison and Library, is approved, the following will be the net
result:
Approved
Disapproved
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xecu eve Il "_.,prove
25X1A.
 UNCLASSIFIED
RESTRICTED CONFIDENTIAL SECR'T
(SENDER WILL CIRCLE CL' IFICATION TOP AND ROTT --
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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I shall instruct my people to
REMARKS:
write up their 1952 Budget state-
ments in accordance with your
approval or disapprove se
two requests.
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I FORM NO. SEP 1946 36 8
TRANSMITTAL SLIP
DATE
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REMARKS:,
Please return original to me
after Director has approved or
disapprovdd.
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EXTENSION
Approved For Release 2002/06/18 : CIA-RDP84-00951 R000400010026-1