CHAPTER IV Classified Information Protection

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04007A001100040012-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 18
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2001
• Sequence Number: 12
• Content Type: REPORT

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Classified Information Protection
In a certain sense, the fundamental basis for physical security
regulations, procedures, and practices is expressed in the following
statements in Executive Order No. 10501 on Safeguarding Official In-
formation in the Interests of the Defense of the United States:
The possession or use of classified defense information
or material shall be limited to locations where facilities
for secure storage or protection thereof are available
by means of which unauthorized persons are prevented
from gaining access thereto.
Knowledge or possession of classified defense inform-
ation shall be permitted only to persons whose official
duties require such access in the interest of promoting
national defense and only if they have been determined
to be trustworthy.
These statements are taken from the Executive Order (E. O. )
No. 10501 which was issued in November 1953. This superseded
E. O. 10290 of September 1951. Until this latter date there had been
no rules concerning classified material which applied to all govern-
ment departments and agencies. Previous to World War II the
volume of what came to be called classified material was relatively
very small, existing principally in the War Department, the Navy,
and at State Department. There were no standards for its protection,
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IWO, Now
no government-wide rules applying to its handling. The three de-
partments made their own regulations, although they compared them
with one another and they generally were in agreement. The Coordi-
nator of Information (COI) was an Army officer, and while COI was
a civilain agency, it shortly became the Office of Strategic Services
(OSS), a part of the military under the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the
rules under which it worked naturally followed those of the Army.
The War Department had its Army Regulations (AR) No. 380-5 on
"Safeguarding Military Information." These were the basis for the
development of the rules on Classified Information Protection.
1. Classification Categories.
The current E. 0. 10501 in defining classified information
attempts to give an explanation of why it is necessary. As an intro-
duction, it is stated that the people have an essential right to be in-
formed concerning the activities of their government. But the defense
of the nation requires the ability of the government to protect itself
against hostile or destructive action by other countries. The pro-
tection must be against overt or covert action by others and must be
against espionage as well as military action. Some information con-
cerning or affecting national defense must be protected from disclosure
to others than those the government au orito have it.
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This might be stated in other ways. The government does
things or plans things in the interest of the national defense which
would lose some or all of their value if information concerning them
were available to, or got in to the hand of, persons who do not need
to have knowledge of it, or are not authorized to have it. The docu-
ment s or material containing the information that requires protection,
must be used, sent places, and stored safely when not in use. So it
is necessary to have an apparatus or system protecting it from un-
authorized persons wherever it is. These rules are published so they may
be available to the personnel at the places where the information is
kept or handled. This is what the E. 0. does, sets out the rules for
handling the classified material.
All the material requiring protection in the interests of
national defense is not of the same nature. Some of it is of greater
importance or of higher sensitivity than others. There are degrees
of harm or of damage that would result to the national interest, or
to the defense of the nation, .though its disclosure to hostile or un-
authorized persons. So the material or information is placed in
several categories or classes. It is "classified" into these categories,
and this is whence the term "classified information or material."
Previous to World War II there was no "Top Secret" category.
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The highest category was "Secret." The other categories, in de-
scending order, were "Confidential" and "Restricted." At the time
in July 1941 that COI was created the AR 380-5 in effect was that
which the War Department had issued on 18 June 1941. Under this
issuance the definitions of the classification categories were:
Secret - that material the unauthorized disclosure of
which "might endanger national security, cause serious
injury to the interest or prestige of the nation or any
governmental activity, or would be of great advantage
to a foreign nation." Examples given were war plans;
documents relating to the design ew materials requiring
protection; codes, cyphers, and cryptographic devices
used for Secret information; certain maps and photographs;
and information or material classified as such by a Chief
of an Arm or Service
Confidential - that material the unauthroized disclosure
of which would not endanger national security, but might
be prejudicial to the interest or prestige of the United
States, a government activity, or an individual, or might
be of advantage to a foreign nation. Examples given were
regulations governing joint action of the Army and Navy;
documents relating to mobilization; information on the
strength of garrisons in overseas departments; certain
reports, orders, or instructions pertaining to investi-
gations and special assignments of individuals; certain
maps and photographs which were not Secret; and codes,
etc. , used to transmit Confidential material.
Restricted - material for official use only, or deter-
mined as necessary to deny to the general public because
of administrative privacy. 1 /
COI started the conduct of its intelligence activities using
these AR 380-5 categories for its "Classified Matter." Influenced
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by the British services who convinced their American counterparts
in the beginning of joint intelligence activities, COI adopted the
British practice of placing material of the highest sensitivity into a
higer category of classified mater called "Most Secret." 2 / For
itself, COI in its Security Regulations of 20 December 1941 listed
"Classified Matter," as differentiated from "Free Matter," in the
following simple terms:
Most Secret: Intended only for the use of Coordi-
nator of Information.
Secret: Of such nature that its disclosure might en-
danger the national security, or cause serious injury
to the interest or prestige of the Nation or any govern-
ment activity thereof.
Confidential: Of such nature that its disclosure,
while not endangering the national security, would be
prejudicial to the interest or prestige of the Nation
or any government activity thereof.
Restricted: Of such nature that its disclosure should
be limited for reasons of administrative privacy; or is
matter not classified as confidential because the bene-
fits to be gained by a lower classification outweigh the
value of the additional security obtainable from the
higher classification. 3 /
COI continued the use of as the top classification
for documents, mentioning this in the Special Instructions issued by
the Security Office in May 1942. The Army did not adopt that category,
and the new issuance of AR 380-5 in September 1942 still had "Secret"
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as its top category. When OSS started in June 1942 it must have had the
"Most Secret" documents that there had been in COI, but this category
was not mentioned in the first Security Regulations issued on 23
February 1943. Such Regulations stated nothing further than that
the safekeeping of Secret, Confidential, and Restricted documents was
of prime importance. OSS apparently was keeping in accordance
with AR 380-5.
The new issuance of AR 380-5 on 15 March 1944 was the first
to set forth the classification category of Top Secret. It described
this classification as follows:
Certain secret documents, information, and material,
the security aspect of which is paramount, and whose
unauthorized disclosure would cause exceptionally grave
damage to the nation shall be classified TOP SECRET.
Among the examples given of matter which "normally will be graded
Top Secret," was the following:
Information of the methods used or success obtained
by our Intelligence Services and Counterintelligence
Service or which would imperil agents.
See Chapter II, Pg. 27.
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The addition of this higher category did not change the definition
of Secret, which still was material the unauthorized disclosure of
which "would endanger national security." 4 /
OSS followed along with AR 380-5. Its Security Orde
was revised on that same date of 15 March 1944 to include under
classified material the category of Top Secret.
Under CIG the first proposed security regulations were drafted
Security Branch in the Central Planning Staff,
and these were called "Special Security Instructions For CIG,"
intended to be read by incoming employees at the time they exe-
cuted their secrecy agreements? This 15-page draft dated 22 April
1946 included regulations on handling Classified Matter, defining Top
Secret in the same wording as in AR 380-5 of March 1944 and stated:
. All classified documents will be handled in strict ac-
cordance with paragraphs 25-29, AR 380-5,99 para-
graphs (14) - (17), Article 76, US Navy Regulations,
1920, which are the same in substance. All personnel
connected with the transmission of documents must
thoroughly familiarize themselves with the above cited
paragraphs of either the Army or Navy regulations,
and will be tested on same at a future date. 5 /
See Chapter II, Pg. 28.
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Although such draft of Security Instructions for CIG was not
adopted, a shorter one with a similar heading was, and each new
employee entering on duty signed one to acknowledge having read
it. One such form executed on 24 March 1947 contained the fol-
lowing:
Army Regulations No. 380-5 (6 March 1946) and
Article 76, U. S. Navy Regulations, 1920, as amended,
contain detailed regulations for the safeguarding of
information affecting the National Security. The pro-
visions of these regulations, which are the same in sub-
stance, are applicable to the Central Intelligence Group
and will govern security procedures therein. 6 /
The War Department, following its AR 380-5 of March 1946,
referred to in these CIG Special Security Instructions, published
a new issuance of AR-380-5 dated 15 August 1946. This booklet
of 43 pages on "Safeguarding Military Information" was the first
to go into considerable detail to explain, define, and attempt to
regulate classified material. It contained the following relevant
provisions:
Sec. 1, General, Par. 3, Definitions -
e. Classified military information. - Classified
military information is military information which re-
quires grading to indicate the degree of precaution neces-
sary for its safeguarding.
Par. 4 Categories. - Official matter requiring
classification shall be examined, graded, and marked
top secret, secret, confidential, or restricted. Top
secret is a special grading given to certain secret matter.
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Par. 5. Top secret matter. - a. When classified
top secret. - Certain secret documents, information,
and material, the security aspect of which is paramount,
and whose unauthorized disclosure would cause exception-
ally grave damage to the Nation shall be classified TOP
SECRET.
There followed seven examples of matter which it said normally
would be graded Top Secret. Six of these concerned war, military,
or political documents, but one of them specifically mentioned in-
telligence material as an example of Top Secret in these words:
(4) Certain information of the methods used or suc-
cess obtained by our Intelligence Services and Counter-
intelligence Services or information which would im-
peril secret agents.
The definition given for Secret matters was of material the
unauthorized disclosure of which would "endanger national security"
or injure the interests or prestige of the nation, or would be of
"great advantage" to a foreign nation. There were seventeen ex-
amples of what should be graded Secret but none of these men-
tioned or particularly apply to intelligence material.
The definition of Confidential was matter whose unauthorized
disclosure would not endanger the national security, but would be
"prejudicial" to the interests or prestige of the Nation, or would
cause "administrative embarrassment." It is noteworthy that,
among the many examples of matter to be graded Confidential, there
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was listed "Routine intelligence reports."
The definition of Restricted was matter which had not been
given one of the three higher classification, but should not be pub-
lished except for official purposes. None of the examples cited
refer to intelligence material. 7 /
It was at this point that the Security Advisory Board (SAB) of
the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee (SWNCC) picked up
the further development of rules and regulations concerning classi-
fied material. The details of the relations between CIG and SAB
have been given in a previous Chapter. * Beginning in April 1946
SAB started to draft regulations which the State, War, and Navy
departments were attempting to impose upon the other departments
and agencies of the Government. Those three departments claimed
they were the largest producers of classified information, and were
drafting the rules for the "non-military" other parts of the govern-
ment, in which latter class they said CIG belonged. CIG protested
against this, itself being a substantial producer of classified inform-
ation, and some of its people wanted to participate in the forming
See Ch. II, Section D, Subsection 2, Pgs. 67-84.
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of the rules. While neither this particular effort of SAB, nor the de-
sires of CIG, went through at the time, SAB did prepare a draft
of rules for other agencies on the classification of materials. 8/
This SAB draft proposal gave the following definitions of the
listed classification categories, without the citing of examples:
TOP SECRET information is information, the security
aspect of which is paramount, and the unauthorized
disclosure of which would cause exceptionally grave
damage to the nation.
SECRET information is information, the unauthorized
disclosure of which would endanger national security,
or cause serious injury to the interests or prestige
of the nation or any governmental activity thereof.
CONFIDENTIAL information is information the un-
authorized disclosure of which, although not endanger-
ing the national security, would be prejudicial to the
interests or prestige of the nation, any governmental
activity thereof, an individual, or would cause admin-
istrative embarrassment or difficulty.
RESTRICTED information is information which should
not be published or communicated to anyone except for
official purposes.
This particular effort of SAB was not effective, but in March
1947 it was authorized by an E. 0. to draft rules for the handling
of classified information applicable to all the departments and
agencies of the government, not just those who were not repre-
sented on SWNCC. This would result in E.O. No. 10290 in
September 1951. Before such latter time, CIG went ahead and made
up its own rules.
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There was prepared and issued in CIG as of 15 August 1947 a
printed booklet entitled "Security Regulations - Central Intelligence
Group." This rather comprehensive and carefully prepared set of
security regulations was quite a while in preparation. Its Section
IV on "Security of Classified Documents" was the first time the
Agency itself had set out rules for classified material, instead of
relying on those issued by the War Department. These security
regulations, in other matters as well as on classified materials,
remaim d in effect and general use, with minor amendments,
under CIA until April 1951. 9 /
Definitions on categories of classified material given in such
1947 CIG regulations were as follows:
TOP SECRET: Only that material or information,
the unauthorized disclosure of which might cause ex-
ceptionally grave damage to the Nation, will be classi-
fied TOP SECRET. As a general rule, TOP SECRET
matter in time of peace will be limited to that which,
if disclosed without authorization, would reasonably
be expected toad directly to a definite break in
diplomatic relations, or to a war, or have other ex-
ceptionally grave consequences.
Examples: Information . . . regarding . . .
negotiations with foreign governments on matters of
great delicacy. Information or intelligence material
containing indications of sources of intelligence which
the United States must protect. Information . . .
of new devices or methods of warfare . . . .
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SECRET: Information or material, the unauthorized
disclosure of which might endanger national security,
seriously jeopardize the international relations of the
United States, or endangerthe effectiveness of a program
or policy of great importance to this Government, will
be classified SECRET.
Examples: . . . Certain highly important intelli-
gence reports, including reports on subversive activities
CONFIDENTIAL: Information or material, the un-
authorized disclosure of which would not endanger national
security, but which might prejudice the national in-
terest or the work of any U. S. Government agency by in-
terfering with the development or carrying out of im-
portant policy, or by hampering negotiations in progress;
might cause serious administrative difficulties; or
might result in unwarranted embarrassment of individ-
uals, will be classified CONFIDENTIAL.
Examples: Important intelligence reports . . . .
RESTRICTED: Information or material which does
not fall within higher categories, but which should not
be communicated outside the Government of the United
States without adequate clearance, will be classified
RESTRICTED.
Examples: . . . Routine internal reports . . . .
The culmination of the work of SAB in developing rules to apply
for the protection of classified material was E.O. 10290 of 24 Sep-
tember 1951. The press release accompanying it stated that it
provided, for the first time, uniform standards for classifying
and protecting security information throughout the Government.
The Order did not , however, give any specific definition of the
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categories. The existing categories were continued, with the addi-
tional provision that the words "Security Information" had to be added
to the classification marking. Relevant provisions of the E.O. were:
2. Categories of Classified Security Information -
There shall be four categories of classified security in-
formation which, in descending order of importance to
national security, shall carry one of the following desig-
nations: "Top Secret"; "Secret',?'; "Confidential"; and
"Restricted"; in addition to being specifically identified
as "Security Information." No other classification or
classifications shall be used to designate classified
security information.
15. Security Classification - The term "security
classification."as used herein means the category into
which information falls as specified in paragraph 2
of Part I hereof. Extreme care should be exercised
to insure that a particular security classification is
assigned only to such information as requires the
degree of protection made applicable by these regula-
tions to that classification.
25. General Classification Principles -
b. Use of Lowest Consistent Classification.
Use of the classification "Top Secret" combined
with the identification "Security Information," shall
be held to an absolute minimum. Such classification
shall be given only to information which plainly re-
quires the highest degree of protection in the interest
of national security. The major criterion for the assign-
ment of this classification shall be recognition of the
fact that unauthorized disclosure of information so
classified would or could cause exceptionally grave
danger to the national security. The classification
"Secret" combined with the identification "Security
Information" shall be given only to information which
requires extraordinary protection in the interest of
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national security. The classification "Confidential"
combined with the identification "Security Information"
shall be given to such information as requires careful
protection in order to prevent disclosures which might
harm national security. The classification "Restricted"
combined with the identification "Security Information"
shall be applied to information having such bearing
upon national security as to require protection against
unauthorized use or disclosure, particularly inform-
ation which should be limited to official use. 10/
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Chapter IV - Classified Material Protection
Source References
1. Memorandum dated 11 February 1971 giving infor-
mation resulting from examination of the files on Army
Regulation 380-5 at the Army Library, the Pentagon. U.
2. Memorandum of interview with
CIA Historical Staff, on 28 October 1970, on subject of
the Origin of Classified Materials Controls. S.
3. COI Administrative Order_ Revised, on the
subject of Security Regulations, dated 20 December
1941, Pg. 39a. U.
4. Op. cit. , No. 1, examination of files at Army Library
on AR 380-5. U.
5. Draft of Memorandum by the Acting Chief, Central
Planning Staff CIG for the DCI, attaching a draft of Special
Security Instructions For CIG, dated 22 April 1946. C.
6. Special Security Instructions for Personnel Assigned to or
Attached for Duty With the Central Intelligence Group, taken
from a personnel file which notes its signed acknowledge-
ment of having read on 24 March 1947. C.
7. Army Regulations No. 380-5 issued by the War Depart-
ment, dated 15 August 1946. U.
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8. Memorandum by Secretary of Security Advisory Board
to CIG dated 24 December 1946, on subject of Classifica-
tion, Declassification, and Downgrading Procedures,
with attachment. U.
9. Security Regulations, Central Intelligence Group,
issued on 15 August 1947. R.
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