MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT FROM [MCG. B.]
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP85-00664R000300110012-4
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
2
Document Creation Date:
December 21, 2016
Document Release Date:
June 20, 2008
Sequence Number:
12
Case Number:
Publication Date:
February 25, 1961
Content Type:
MF
File:
Attachment | Size |
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CIA-RDP85-00664R000300110012-4.pdf | 71.37 KB |
Body:
STAT
Approved For Release 2008/06/20: CIA-RDP85-00664R000300110012-4
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON STAT
February 25, 1961
The more I see of ,the developing pattern of responsibility in
the Department of State, the more I am inclined to share the
view of Dean Rusk and Chester Bowles that the key job over'
there will be the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political
Affairs. This has not been so in the past, but in the pattern
which is now developing this officer will necessarily be a point
of responsible action and coordination for many of the things
in which State must take the lead, and must also work in close
cooperation with the Defense Department and CIA. The man
who fills this job will have to be an active and decisive person,
quite different from the ordinary foreign service type.
equally clearly it will not be easy to find anyone else who has the
style and quality to succeed Allen Dulles. But here's a possible
solution: 1) Bissell as Deputy Under Secretary for Political
Affairs in the State Department could in fact keep a sharp eye on
the covert operations for which he is, now responsible in CIA;
2) the broadest responsibilities in CIA are quite adequately
carried now by Allen Dulles, and on the side of collection and
analysis it seems to me quite likely that Bob Amory would be
a first-rate successor. (Bob Lovett, who knows as much about
our intelligence operation as any one man, thinks Amory would
be better than Bissell for intelligence as distinct from covert
The first choice of all concerned for this job, as you know, was
Dick Bissell, but in the light of your own feelings about the
future of CIA, you urged him to stay where he is, and he of
course followed your advice. What I now wonder is whether
you might find it wise to reconsider that decision.
Of course, Bissell's work in CIA is extremely important, and
operations.)
State Dept. review completed.
Approved For Release 2008/06/20: CIA-RDP85-00664R000300110012-4
STAT
STAT
Approved For Release 2008/06/20: CIA-RDP85-00664R000300110012-4
Awl~
Precisely because we are putting more and more responsibility
on the Department of State, this post of operating executive
officer is really crucial. Neither the Secretary nor the Under
Secretary can do this intense day-to-day interdepartmental
job. There are very few men in town who meet the specifica-
tions, and none that I have heard of would be in Bissell's
class.
One final argument in favor of this shift is that Bissell and the
State Department would be very good for each other: if Dick
has a fault it is that he does not look at all sides of the question,
and of course the State Department's trouble is that it is
usually doing exactly that and not much else.
.McG. B.
Approved For Release 2008/06/20: CIA-RDP85-00664R000300110012-4