IAC-D-50/3, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE OBJECTIVES
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP85S00362R000400070004-6
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
S
Document Page Count:
13
Document Creation Date:
December 12, 2016
Document Release Date:
August 16, 2001
Sequence Number:
4
Case Number:
Publication Date:
December 3, 1954
Content Type:
MF
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Body:
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE A G E N C Y
OFFICE OF NATIONAL ESTIMATES
3 December 19514
DRAFT BRIEFING MEMORANDUM FOR THE DIRECTOR
SUBJECT: IAC-D-50/3, National Intelligence Objectives
REFERENCES: A, IAC-M?115, !t August 19539 item 7.
B. IAC?MM171, 5 October 1954,9 item 14b
C. Memorandum from the Board, 1 Dece ber 19514?
BACMROUND
1, IAC-D-5O/3 was prepared by the Board in consultation with
representatives of the IAC agencies and the IPC pursuant to IAC
direction (IAC?RMP.115, 14 August 1953).. Completion of the task was
delayed by the necessity for a thorough re-examination of the subject,
by the priority accorded to required estimates, and by difficulties in
coordination discussed in Reference C. However, if IAC D SO/3 is
adopted, the proposed annual review of priority national intelligence
objectives will not be so difficult and time-consuming a task.
2. The present text is fully agreed at the representatives level,
except for the footnote on page. 7. The issue presented is a matter of
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vital principle. Inasmuch as the text is that of a directive rather than
an estimate,, the issue must be resolved in one way or the other.
3. DCID.J4/2 ensures priority for any military intelligence collec-
tion requirement, regardless of its actual importance in relation to
the national security considered from an over-all, NSC point of view.
NSCID.L requires that appropriate priority be accorded to the important
non4militery intelligence requirements indicated in NSC 162/2 and other
NSC documents. The Service representatives have finally consented to
an expansion of DCID-4/2 as proposed in SAC-D?50/3, Appendix g. The
effect of their footnote on page 7, however, would be to perpetuate the
automatic priority for all matters of military interest over all other
security interests which is now derived from DCID- /2.
It. The Board holds that Category I (highest priority) should
be reserved for the three most critical intelligence problems: the like-
lihood of war, the Soviet capability to deliver a "knockout blow" against
the United States, and the Soviet capability to prevent the delivery of
such a blow against the USSR. To generalize the last two into an all.
inclusive reference to Soviet military capabilities, as is proposed by
the Service representatives, would violate the general principle of
discrimination between degrees of criticality in the determination of
priorities. It would also violate the IAC's explicit instruction to the
Board to formulate priority objectives in such a way as to enable the
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TAG to determine the priority of guided missiles in relation to other
topics (TAOJd-?171, 5 October 1954, item !tb).
5. The State Department representative supported the Board in
this matter,, but held that, if the Service representatives' proposes;
''ras adopted by the IAC, item should also be raised to Category I
The Service members of the IAC are likely to make this concession to
State in order to enlist its support for their proposed amendment.
The position which Mr. Armstrong would take in such circumstances is
uncertain.
(. The Board recommends that the Director adopt the Board's
position in this matter, and that he ccray the issue to the NSC, if
neCassary4 /The Assistant Directors for Current intelligence, Research
and Reports, and Scientific Intelligence concur in this reeommendation.J
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
OFFICE OP' NATIONAL F TIMATES
1 December 1954
MEMORANDUM FOR THE DIRECTOR
(Draft for Board consideration)
SUBJECT: National Intelligence Objectives
REFERENCE: IAC-D-50/3, 30 November 195
1. IAC?D?50/3, as submitted to the TAC, contains no analysis
supporting its recommendations. The draft adopted by the Board and
submitted to the IAC representatives did contain such an analysis
(attached hereto as Tab A) and two additional recommendations
derived therefroms
ao That the recommender annual review of priority national
intelligence objectives be conducted by the board of National
Estimates in conjunction with IAC representatives.
b. That your Special Assistant for Planning and Coordi-
nation, in conjunction with TAC representatives, be directed to
review existing provisions for the development and coordination
of specific information requirements and collection tasks in
conformity with established priority objectives and to submit
recommendations to the IAC.
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2a The Board found it impossible to secure general concurrence in
this analysis and these recommendations for reasons discussed in Tab. Bo
However, the IAC representatives have stated that they anticipate no
objection to the Director's adoption and implementation of the fore.
going recommendations on the Board's recommendation and his oven
authority.
3o The Board believes the implementation of these two additional
recommendations to be essential to the effective implementation of
the recommendations in IAC.D-50/3, Accordingly, the Board recommends
that, following the'adoption of IAC?D?50/3, the Director inform the IAC
that he hass
a. Designated the Board of National Estimates to conduct
the annual review of priority national estimates, in conjunction
with IAC representatives.
b. Instructed his Special Assistant for Planning and Coor-
dination, in conjunction with IAC representatives, to review
existing provisions for the development and coordination of
specific information requirements and collection tasks in conformity
with established priority national intelligence objectives and to
submit recommendations to the IAC.
4. The Board further recommends that discreet means be found to
impress upon individual members of the IAC the desirability of their
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being represented, in the review of priority national intelligence
objectives, by persons more broadly informed regarding substantive
intelligence problems and more deeply imbued with the community spirit
than those who have represented them hitherto. In the opinion of the
Board, such representatives can now be found only in the estimates
staffs of the several IAC agencies,
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DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS OMITTED FROM
IACcD?50/3
Text would consist of paragraphs 6?23 and 31-33 from the 20
October draft on national intelligence objectives, with an explanation
that paragraphs 2430 are in IAC_D-50/3 as Appendix C.
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TAB B
FACTORS AFFECTING THE COORDINATION OF IAC-D..5O/3
1* The problem presented in IAC-D-50/3 is, essentially, how to
provide long-term guidance from policy planners (the NSC Planning Board)
and intelligence estimators (the Board of National Estimates and the
IAC representatives with whom it normally collaborates) to intelligence
collection and research. It is axiomatic that collection and research
personnel need such guidance and are not in a position to supply it to
themselves. For year6 it has been their complaint that no effective
means have been devised to provide it for them, despite occasional
earnest efforts on the part of several full-time intelligence planning
staffs. Reference of the problem to the Board of National Estimates
implied an TAC desire for a radically new approach from a more compre-
hensive point of view than that of those who had hitherto failed to
solve it.
2, The Board reviewed the history of the subject, since 1946, ands
although not eager to add to its own burdens, concluded that estimates
personnel (itself and its colleagues in the departmental agencies)
were in the best position to translate planners' intelligence require-
ments into priority national intelligence objectives through the
identification of the critical substantive intelligence problems.
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At the same time, the Board recognized that intelligence objectives,
as thus determined, could not serve as the final formulation of
specific collection requiremsntso In the Board's concept, it would be
the function of estimates personnel to translate planners' requirements
into intelligence objectives, the function of research personnel to
translate such objectives into specific information requirements, and
the function of collection personnel to translate such requirements
into specific tasks of collection. Thus each would have his appropriate
function in the over-all plan -?. but it was essential to the concept
that the formulation of intelligence objectives is not a proper function
of collection personnel.
3c. The Service agencies, however, treated the formulation of
national intelligence objectives as though it were primarily a collectors'
problem, Although the Board communicated with them through their respec?
tive estimates staffs (its normal channel), the matter was referred
internally to their chiefs of collection, who initially appeared as agency
representatives, Subsequently the task of representation was transferred
from collection to front office personnel, but the collection element
continued to dominate consideration of the subject in the Service
.nciesa This circumstance had a severely adverse effect upon coor-
dination.
-6.
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L None of the IAC representatives with whom the Board had to
deal in this matter had ever acted with it before in the preparation
of a paper for IAC consideration. At the first meeting with them it
became shockingly apparent that the confilence in mutual good faith
which has beem developed among estimators since 1950 was altogether
lacking at the collectors' level. The atmosphere was like that which
prevailed generally before 1950: the Service representatives frankly
assumed that any proposal by an element of CIA must ipso facto be
designed to entrap them. The tone of discussion improved materially
when front office personnel replaced the collectors as IAC representatives
that change alone made possible such progress as was achieved with
respect to the subject 4- but by that time the Service agencies' position
had been strongly prejudiced., so that it was never possible to secure
candid consideration of the Hoard's draft in its entirety,
5. DCID-4/2, in effect,, assured priority to any collection
requirem nt proposed by a Service agency, regardless of its actual
importance in relation to national security considered from an NSC point
of view, Service collection personnel were naturally loath to impair
the monopolistic position which they thus enjoyed. However, any review
of DCID-4/2 in the light of NSCID-,19 and consequently of NSC 162/2,
necessarily entailed an expansion of priority national intelligence
objectives to assure apuropriate consideration for nonmilitary matters
of major importance in the broader view of national security. The Board
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understood that that was precisely what the IAC had directed it to do,
The original Service representatives9 however, emphatically refused to
make any significant change whatever in DCIDm1i/2, The front office
personnel who replaced them withdrew from that untenable position and
accepted the Board's draft of Appendix B as a basis for coordination,
but their footnote on item I(c) is a manifest attempt to maintain the
advantage enjoyed under DCIDO/2 while acknowledging that other matters
not mentioned in DCID-4/2 are worthy of some-secondary consideration,
6, The Service representatives were not well qualified to discuss
the relative importance of the items listed in Appendix B as substanq.
tive intelligence problems within the context of over-all national
security interest, Consequently their consideration of relative priority
was governed almost entirely by calculation of procedural advantage or
disadvantage for their separate agencies, and the over-all national
interest went by default except insofar as it could be maintained by
the Board with some support from State,
?, The Service representatives, in effect, refused to act on the
analysis presented by the Board in support of its recommendations,, except
that they accepted a portion of it as Appendix C. Their objections to
the remainder took the form of flat denial of demonstrable historical
fact and of questioning the relevance of matters which the Board supposed
the IAC would wish to know about in acting on the subject, The underlying
objection, however, was probably to the tendency of the analysis
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to demonstrate that the previous directives had been grossly inadequate,
that estimates personnel are best qualified to formulate priority
national intelligence objectives, and that procedures for the application
of established priority objectives should be thoroughly reviewedo The
Board considers the specific objections raised to have been ill-informed
and invalid, but deemed it expedient not to prejudice such constructive
action as was possible by prolonging a hopeless argument,
8o Although it may cover corresponding substantive objections,
the position taken by the Service representatives with respect to the
additional recommendations presented in the covering memorandum was
strictly legalistic: that it was inappropriate for TAC representatives
to make recommendations involving the assignment of tasks to component
elements of CIA. Having taken this position, they could not object to
the,Board's direct submission of these recommendations to the Director.
They anticipated no IAC objection to the Director's adoption and imple
mentation of them on his own authority,
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