MEETING WITH OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS ON HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89G00643R001300040002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 14, 2011
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 14, 1987
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/14: CIA-RDP89G00643R001300040002-7
EXA/
Deputy Director DDA 87-0780
for Administration 14 April 1987
NOTE FOR: C/CPD/DA
SUBJEC'T': Meeting with Outside Consultants
on Historical Review Program
Thanks for your memo. Please proceed
to schedule a meeting with the outside
consultants during May. But in advance
of that meeting, please schedule an
internal Agency meeting so that we can
be sure we have our collective acts
together.
STAT
Att:
DDA 87-0733x
STAT
STAT
ORIG:EXA/DDA
Distribution:
Original - Addressee w/atts
1 - DDA Subject Watts
1 - DDA Chrono wo/atts
1 - EXA/DDA Chrono, Watts
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/14: CIA-RDP89G00643R001300040002-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/14: CIA-RDP89GO0643R001300040002-7
1DD/A Re
3 April 1987
VIA EXA/DDA
FROM Chief, Classification Review Division
SUBJECT Recommendation to Hold a Meeting with Outside Consultants on
the Historical Review Program.
1. In Section 3(a) of the CIA Information Act, which President Reagan
signed into law on 15 October 1984, Congress mandated that the DCI, in
consultation with the Archivist of the United States, the Librarian of
Congress, and representatives of the historical community, report to Congress
by 1 June 1985 on the feasibility of conducting a program to systematically
review CIA information of historical value for release to the public. The
consultations with the Archivist, a representative of the Librarian of
Congress, and three distinguished historians took place at CIA on 18-19 March
1985. One of their recommendations was that the DCI reassemble the
consultants or a comparable group in two or three years to assess progress in
the proposed program and to make further recommendations as seen necessary.
In his 29 May 1985 report to Congress the DCI endorsed this recommendation.
2. It has now been about two years since that report. C/CRD, has
discussed the advisability of calling a new meeting with Dr. Kenneth McDonald,
Chief of the DCI's History Staff (C/DCI/HS) and we would like to suggest that
a second consultative meeting be called now. The reasons for this are:
a. We are. following through on the DCI's endorsement of the earlier
consultants' recommendations;
b. We believe that our progress in the Historical Review Program
(HRP) has been sufficient that it will elicit esssentially
positive reactions;
c. If there are problems they will be at an early stage of
development and should be easier to resolve;
d. An early follow-through on the consultants' recommendation
should hit a responsive chord in the historical community;
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/14: CIA-RDP89GO0643R001300040002-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/14: CIA-RDP89GO0643R001300040002-7
e. Now, with the problems currently facing the Agency, would be a
particularly good time to do something positive.
3. If you approve we will make the formal arrangements and try to hold a
one-day meeting in late May 1987 around the end of the school year. We
suggest that, as in the original meeting, this meeting be chaired by the
C/DCI/HS and that he be responsible along with C/CRD to provide the briefings
on the HRP. Participation by other Agency components will be solicited and
welcomed. Since this meeting, like the 1985 meeting, should be formally at
the innvitation of the DCI it would be highly useful if the DCI could invite
the consultants to lunch (as in 1985) or otherwise meet briefly with them to
show his support for this program. The CIA, as in the original meeting, would
pay expenses of the historian consultants.
4. Attached to provide some background is the DCI's memorandum to all
employees on the HRP dated 18 June 1985.
5. Your approval is requested.
zb~
Disapproved
Q
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/14: CIA-RDP89GO0643R001300040002-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/14: CIA-RDP89GO0643R001300040002-7
Central Intelligence Agency
18 June 1985
1. In October 1983, when the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
took up a bill to permit the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to
exempt certain CIA files from search under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA), Senator David Durenberger wrote to me about an issue highlighted by
the Agency's work with the Committee. This issue was the need to make more
declassified Agency materials available to historians. As historians write
the definitive works on the post-World War II era,' Senator Durenberger
wrote, it is terribly important that their studies be based on as full a
record as possible, consistent with the need to protect our national
security." He therefore urged me to establish procedures for reviewing and
declassifying some of the material in files not covered by the bill's
exemptions. Recognizing that such a program would be a burden for the
Agency, he offered to lead the effort to provide budgetary support for new
positions to be devoted to this project.
2. I share Senator Durenberger's views on the need for an accurate
historical record, and on 4 October 1983 I wrote him stating, "If Congress
is willing to provide the resources, I am prepared to institute a new
program of selective declassification review of those materials we believe
would be of greatest historical interest and most likely to result in
declassification of useful information."
3. The agreement by this exchange of letters envisioned an Agency
Historical Review Program organized after the passage of the prospective
CIA Information Act and using additional resources Congress would provide
for this purpose. I had already asked the Chief of the History Staff,
however, to explore a program to release historical materials from the
World War II period. As a result of this initiative, the Agency took steps
to transfer to the National Archives its entire holdings of declassified
World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) permanent records, a large
collection of major historical importance. This transfer began a year ago
and up to now the National Archives has received and opened to public
research approximately 800 cubic feet of these declassified OSS records.
As I wrote to Senator Durenberger in June 1984, this transfer constitutes
"an important first step in implementing the selective declassification
program I promised to initiate last October."
4. In October 1984 Congress passed the CIA Information Act, which
relieves the Agency from the burden of searching certain designated files
in response to FOIA requests. The Agency's commitment to a Historical
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/14: CIA-RDP89GO0643R001300040002-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/14: CIA-RDP89G00643R001300040002-7
Review Program and its release of OSS records played an important role in
the passage of this new Act by reassuring Congress and the public that, in
light of the Act's FOIA exemptions, the Agency will undertake new efforts
to declassify and transfer to the National Archives historically significant
CIA records. Continuing Congressional interest in historians having access
to CIA records is evident in the AA's requirement that the DCI, after
consulting with the Archivist of the United States, the Librarian of
Congress, and representative historians, submit a report to"four
Congressional committees by 1 June 1985 on the feasibility of conducting a
program for the systematic review, declassification, and release to the
public of CIA information of historical value.
.5. In my report to Congress of 29 May 1985 on the Historical Review
Program, I stated that this kind of review is feasible, and described the
program that we have established to carry it out. The Agency's consulta-
tions with those officials and historians specified by the CIA Information
Act proved extraordinarily helpful, and their findings are appended to my
report to Congress. Balancing the Agency's statutory duty to protect
intelligence sources and methods with legitimate public interest in CIA
records, this new program is designed to make significant historical
information available without risking damage to national security. As I
reported to Congress, this program has my strong support and we are
determined to make it succeed.
6. As Senator Durenberger promised, Congress has provided CIA with
ten additional positions to support the Historical Review Program which
will be described in a forthcoming headquarters regulation. I have assigned
principal responsibility for the program to the office of Information
Services (OIS) in the Directorate of Administration, with advice and support
from the History Staff in the Office of the DCI. The Classification Review
Division of OIS will coordinate closely with Agency components in reviewing
documents of historical significance in order to declassify those that no
longer require protection. The program is beginning with the review of the
Agency's oldest records, which with the transfer of our declassified OSS
records are those of CIA's postwar predecessor organizations, namely, the
Strategic Services Unit (SSU) of 1945-1946 and the Central Intelligence
Group (CIG) of 1946-1947.
7. Although some time will be needed to find out how well the
Historical Review Program will work in practice, I believe that it has been
established on a sound footing. I am hopeful that this program will make
possible a more accurate record and fuller understanding of our Nation's
history since World War II.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/14: CIA-RDP89G00643R001300040002-7