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EEL/VERY TEXT
For Release: Monday, August 29, 1960, at 10:00 A.M.
Address of C. Tracy Barnes, Washington, D. C., senior official of
the Central Intelligence Agency
Before Corporation, Banking and Business Law Section, American
Bar Association
Shoreham Hotel: Terrace Banquet Room
"Some Thoughts About Intelligence"
Gentlemen:
As a former practicing member?.of your profession, I am
particularly pleased to attend a gathering of the Bar Association
even if it is for the first time. I was unable to make it as a lawyer.
Any speaker on intelligence finds himself unavoidably confronted
with the maxim - "the golden word of intelligence is silence."
This sage admonition cannot be wholly disregarded, and may help
to clarify why any resemblance between my speech and Ian Fleming
will be purely coincidental.
Actually, I want to discuss several rather disparate topics
and, consequently, propose to adopt a patchwork quilt approach.
I hope that the additional coverage will compensate
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for the roughness of sequence.
Although intelligence may not be quite the oldest profession, it
runs its more glamorous rival a close race. The Trojan Horse, a
combined intelligence and paramilitary operation, was wheeled out
(or in) in 1200 B.C. and the Book of Numbers tells us that Moses before
occupying the Promised Land sent out "by commandment of the Lord" from
the wilderness of Paran ten men under the direction of Joshua to spy
out the land. I wish that our intelligence projects could claim as
distinguished an echelon of approval.
The intelligence business like the law, is active and continuous.
For example, on the opening day of one of our national conventions
Khrushchev rattled his rockets in support of Cuba, Castro spat at the
U.S. again and the Congo broke into Chaos. Also, like the law we
often work with varied and colorful clients. Yesterday we were
concerned about the health of the Imam of Yemen, the whereabouts of
NU% Malenkov, the safety of the Dalai Lama, the political life
expectancy of Syngman Rhee. Today Mr. Lumuniba, Major Castro and
Captain Kong Le occupy much of the time and energy of my colleagues.
And, then, of course we have our long-term retainers, Messrs. Khrushdhev
and Mho. Until we finally discover the best of all possible worlds,
the profession of collecting, analyzing and disseminating information
about actual or potential enemies is, like the profession of law,
here to stay.
The most spectacular intelligence successes throughout history
have occurred during wartime. Among these are some recently cited by
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Allen Dulles: "the highly competent Spies of Joshua, Who found shelter
in Jericho with Rehab, the harlot; the much more recent feat of British
intelligence in deciphering the Zimmerman telegram in 1917; and the
American intelligence prelude to the great victory in the Battle of
Midway."
The undramatic, more painstaking and less conspicuous function of
collecting information on an organized day-to-day basis during peacetime
is, as far as the United States is concerned, of very recent origin.
In fact, it has been a post World War II phenomenon. In these turbulent
times, intelligence has the vital missions of safeguarding our national
security through timely warning and guiding our policy-makers through
the provision of facts and judgments essential to wise planning or
decision.
We have learned much from the doleful lesson of Pearl Harbor.
But recent developments in the field of long-range high-powered
weapons systems make the horrendouR consequences that may ensue from
inadequate intelligence and tardy communication even more apparent.
Consider the eagerness with which civilization pours large
amounts of money, resources, skills and energy into the improvement
and production of these systems and the success already achieved.
The significance of governmental decisions that must be made and
the growing interrelationships of allied interests mean that
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readily usable and carefully evaluated indications of hostile
intent or action must be provided in the shortest possible
time to the highest echelons of Government -- and often to
those of several governments. Similar pressures, in perhaps
less urgent but equally demanding form, exist in the day-to
day intelligence business of keeping decision makers informed
of key political, scientific and economic developments
throughout the world. Like Lord Mansfield's "seamless web,"
global relationships are so interwoven that substantially no
area can be segregated or cut off as being without implication
or concern to others.
Against these modern demands even the most perfect
intelligence system would be hard pressed. Nevertheless,
the risk of failure or miscalculation can be reduced by
improvement of the intelligence machinery with respect to
existing methods of collection as well as the process by which
intelligence once collected is brought speedily and accurately
to the attention of those having the responsibility of decision.
I recognize the legal impotence of a self-serving declaration,
but I will assert that progress is being made in these areas.
Let me hasten to say, however, that we have not met the criteria
referred to by General Bedell Smith, a former Director of
Central Intelligence several years ago. He said, somewhat
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despondently, "America's people expect you to be on a communing
level with God and Joe Stalin ... they expect you to be able to
say that a war will start next Tuesday at 5:32 P.M."
The Central Intelligence Agency was officially born on September
18, 1947 when the National Security Act became effective. It was one
of a rather distinguished brood since the same statute sired the
Defense Department, provided for the unification of the military
services and established the National Security Council. The original
ancestor of CIA, the often maligned Office of Strategic Services,
perished after the war but in good phoenix-bird fashion, the Central
Intelligence Group sprang full-blown from the OSS ashes having been
created by an Executive Order signed by President Truman. This in
tarn was followed by the present CIA. Consequently, continuity
of a sort existed between General ronovan's wartime organization
and the present statutory agency.
The main responsibilities imposed on CIA by the National Security
Act (briefly summarized) are: to advise the National Security Council
in matters concerning such intelligence activities of the government
as relate to national security; to make recommendations to the NSC
for the coordination of these activities and to correlate and evaluate
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intelligence relating to the national security and provide for its
appropriate dissemination. The Agency has no police, subpoena or
law enforcement polders nor any responsibility for internal security.
Despite the CIA's broad responsibility for coorninAting the overall
intelligence effort, it does not supplant the work of other agencies.
In no sense was a unitary system created by the Act but rather a
coordinated, integrated system was intended and so it has developed.
Army
xxxN ONI and Air Fbrce Intelligence continue to perform their missions
although over the past decade their interrelationship and their response
to centralized coordination has steadily increased.
Coordination of our government's intelligence effort is effected
through the United States Intelligence Board. The USIB, chaired by
Mr. Dulles as Director of Central Intelligence, brings together each
(intelligence representatives of the)
week theirepartments of State and Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
the three Military Services and the National Security Agency. Other
collectors and intelligence analysts are also included. The FBI
contributes where domestic intelligence matters have international
implications and the Atomic Energy Commission provides its expertise
in the nuclear field. In addition, as you might suspect, the Board
and its membership receive on a consulting basis the benefit of the
great knowledge and wide experience Which exist in private organizations.
Moreover, the learning and wisdom of scholastic and educational institu-
tions are sought and generously provided.
In executing its responsibilities for analyzing all relevant intelligence
collected by, or available to, all agencies of government, the Board passes upon
the intelligence community's most thoroughly analyzed product, the National
Intelligence Estimates. These estimates cover the developing trends, military
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political and economic) which bear on the national security of the United
States.
The Estimates are issued as the papers of the Director of Central
Intelligence. Medbers of the Board may concur or dissent in whole or in
part. A dissent is inserted as a footnote to the appropriate paragraph
of the estimate. In this way no effort is required to find fuzzy,
ambiguous language fashioned to conceal or modify differences of view.
Instead both the text and any dissenting footnotes can maintain their
clarity and vigor of expression. The EStimates have a limited, high-level
circulation in the government. Regular customers are the White House,
the NSC and the Departments having Board membership.
Normally Estimates are worked on over a fairly substantial period of
time to allow for special collection efforts, thorough analysis of all
available data and uninhibited and full discussion. Sometimes, however,
urgencies are such as to require faster production. The Board machinery
is geared to service these needs through the speeding up of regular
production, the production of coordinated memoranda rather than formal
Board Ebtimates and the calling of extraordinary sessions.
Intelligence involving matters which endanger the security of the
United States is handled in such a way that its receipt compels rapid
attention. Watch Officers, representing all components of the Intelligence
Board are on duty 24 hours every day of the year so as to receive such
information without delay. If, in their judgment, a critical situation is
,presented, they call an immediate meeting of the USIB whether day or night.
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Consequently, a coordinated report can be in the hands of the NSC and the
President within a few hours of the time the intelligence was received.
In addition to the preparation and dissemination of Estimates and
memoranda, regular daily access to important customers is essential to the
proper functioning of the intelligence community. This access has recently
been described by Allen Dulles in the following terms:
"During the last ten years that I have been in Washington, I have
served under two Presidents of differing political parties. There never
has been a time when the Director of Central Intelligence has not been able
to get to the President in a matter of minutes on any issue that he considered
of immediate importance.
"Nor is this access limited to crises situations. On a daily basis, we
in the intelligence community have an opportunity to lay before the President
and the leading officials of the Department of State, the Department of
Defense and the National Security Council our appraisals of unfolding events
of policy significance. This is supplemented by weekly oral briefings which
I give to the National Security Council covering important current events or
dealing with the intelligence background of policy decisions that may be
before the Council. Issues in our foreign relations these days do not always
wait for the painstaking preparation of elaborate staff papers."
Congressional interest in the method and capability with which
CIA discharges its stewardship has been very active. Numerous bills
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have been introduced in both Houses proposing legislative machinery
for closer scrutiny and to establish a Joint Congressional Committee
on Central Intelligence.
Arguments, based on the need in the American system for checks
and balances, continue to be made in Congress by proponents of some
kind of a special CIA committee. Opponents point to the Executive
character of CIA's functions under the Constitutional doctrine of
separation of powers.
The significant fact, however, is that whatever view one may
take about a special committee, Congress has taken and continues to
take a very close look at CIA activities. This supervision, however,
has been recognized by few. For example, the Congressional attitude
In this respect has been erroneously described as "Trust in God and
Allen Dulles," an analogy to the description of Congressional
financial generosity during the war "Trust in God and General
Marshall." Such blind faith could be justified in each of these
eases by the caliber of both the Deity and his earthly partner.
The facts, however, do not establish so relaxed a Congressional
view.
The Armed Services Committees in the House and Senate are the
parent committees for the Agency. Each has established a CIA
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Sdbcommittee to Which the Agency reports on a periodic basis. The
House Subcommittee was reconstituted at the beginning of the first
session of our current Congress and its mission was stated to be a
thorough review of Agency activities. During the past year detailed
organization and activity briefings on all aspects of the Agency
have been presented.
The Agency also appears periodically before the Appropriations
Committee of both the House and Senate and again in each case a
special Subcommittee has been established.
In addition to these four committees, top Agency personnel,
almost always including Mr. Dulles, have appeared before such other
committees:
Senate breign Relations
Senate Oammittee on Astronautics and Space Sciences
Senate Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee of
Senate Armed Services
Senate Internal Security Sdbcommittee
Hbuse Fbreign Affairs
Hbuse Science and Astronautics Committee
Defense Subcommittee of ,use Appropriations
Joint Committee on Atomic Energy'
Joint Economic Committee
This is only a partial list but When considered together with
the fact that during the last three years, the Agency has appeared
before Congress on an average of between 25 and 30 times a year, the
need for greater Congressional supervision seems less urgent. At
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least we can affirm a statement made by General Cabell, Deputy
Director of CIA, "As far as we are able to determine; the present
CIA ties with Congress "are stronger than those 'which exist between
any other nation's intelligence service and its legislative body."
CIA also works closely with the Bureau of the Budget, consults
daily with other agencies of the Government, particularly State
and Defense, and makes a periodic activities report to the National
Security Council. In 1948 and 1955, two broad investigations were
made by Bbover Commission task forces. In 1949 and 1954, additional
special surveys were made by special committees at Presidential
request. The 1949 committee was headed by Allen Dulles, then a
practicing lawyer in New York. Be later revealed one of the most
significant results of his report. "We" (his committee) "had
committed the unpardonable sin of telling others how a job should
be done ... General Bedell Smith ... dusted off the report of our
little committee ... called the authors ... on the telephone and
told us in no uncertain terms that we should came down to Washington
for a few weeks and try to explain what we were trying to say ... we
could not fail to respond, and so about ten years ago I went to work
at the Central Intelligence Agency for a six weeks' tour of duty. I
have been there ever since."
Finally, an eight-man Board known as the President's Board of
Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities was created by
Bkecutive Order in February 1956 to look into all of the Government's
foreign intelligence activities, including, of course, the CIA. This
Board, still in very active existence, consists of senior, private
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citizens, who in most cases have served in other important government
positions.
Soviet space achievements, such as, Fmtnik, Lunik and the orbiting
canines, Belka and Streika, make Mata Hari seems infinitely more old-
fashioned that she already is. Science and technology quite obviously
have and will continue to play a major role in the finding, acquisition
and analysis of intelligence.
Nevertheless, current evidence dhows a continuing need in many cases
for the individual agent, personal access to the information desired and
the use of the time-worn tradecraft techniques. I cannot deny the
fascination which this hide-and-seek aspect of intelligence collection
has for me and, I think, for most. Perhaps movies and books have
artfully fostered the trench coat and black fedora conception and
hindered the advent of the slide rule and the well-stocked library.
On the other hand, there is no doubt that clandestine agent operations
provide only a part of the available intelligence. State Department,
Attache and other military reports, science and technology plus analyzes
of press, radio and published documents furnish collectively the remainder
of the intelligence raw material. The dimensions might be clearer
if / said that the number of pages of unclassified foreign documents
read annually are in the many millions, the words listened to from
radio broadcasts are also in the millions While many hundreds of
people are kept occupied examining scientific data.
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It is revealing to recognize that the Russians devote a
significant amount of effort in the U.S. to old-fashioned clandestine
collection despite the unfortunate ease with which they can quite
openly obtain information in this country. Only two weeks ago the
First Secretary of the Russian Ehabassy in Washington was ordered
out of the country for giving an individual $500 to obtain a
government job and wait for a chance to serve the Soviets. Only
three weeks before that another Russian diplomat, a Third Secretary
in the Washington Embassy, was discovered paying $1,000 to an American
for aerial photographs of U.S. naval bases. In the last ten years,
there have been 21 Russians similarly expelled for using their
official assignments in the United States as a cover for improper
espionage activities. These included members of the Russian
delegation to the U.N., assistant naval and military attaches
and members of the EMbassy staff and consular officers. Obviously,
therefore, the directed individual agent or the "sleeper" is
considered by the Russians to be something worth obtaining even at
the risk of "blowing" a senior official.
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Aside from agents in official jobs, the Soviets have paid agents
living discreetly as members of the non-official colanunity. The
famous case of Colonel Rudolph Ivanovich Abel is a good example.
Col. Abel, an officer in the Russian State Security system, the KGB,
was arrested in 1957, indicted, tried and convicted on charges of
operating a military and atomic espionage ring for the Kremlin.
Living in Brooklyn, using assumed names, Colonel Abel held himself
out as an artist and photographer and was unsuspected for almost ten
years. His information was transmitted to Russia by shortwave radio
from his apartment or by microdot or in containers cleverly fashioned
from nails, coins, cuff links, toothpaste tubes, dry cells with
threaded tops and hollow pencils -- to name a few.
Abel was and is an interesting human being -- a linguist with
flawless English, fluent German, French and Italian -- a trained
electronics engineer, an expert photographer. He sketches and
paints and has a students knowledge of the arts. He is versed in
nuclear physics, studies Einstein for pleasure and plays classical
Spanish guitar music in the fashion of Segovia. His reading favorites
are Pushkin, Macaulay, Hemingway, Tolstoi, Victor Hugo and he is a
very professional agent with thirty years' experience.
How Abel was apprehended and changed from an unknown into one of
the most publicized agents of our time deserves brief mention. In May
1957, a pudgy, harried Russian named Hayhanen walked into the U. S.
Embassy in Paris, showed his American passport and said that he was
a Soviet agent, a member of the KGB, that he was returning to Russia
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on home leave, that he was afraid to do so and that he wanted to defect.
At first he
Ma/seemed a charter member of the large fraternity of crackpots. A
brief association established that he was under great emotional stress
and had a disturbing habit of pausing in the middle of the Champs Elysee
holding up one hand as an aerial and tapping his chest with the other
as if it were a transmitter key. He explained that he was communicating
with his wife in the United States. Nevertheless, he made some state-
ments which being specific sounded genuine and were capable of being
checked. For example, he said that in the U.S. he used as message
banks such drops as a hole in a cement wall on Jerome Avenue, a bench
in Riverside Park, the space in a particular lamppost in Fort Tryon
Park, the iron fence on Macombs Dam Bridge. The places not only existed
but so did the details mentioned. He was, therefore, returned to the
United States where the FBI ably determined that Hayhanen dealt with a
superior called "Mark" who had a studio in Brooklyn, address unknown.
This Taus some details about the studio picked up by Hayhanen in conversa-
tions with "Mark," led, after a month's painstaking search, to Colonel
Abel, alias "Mark."
Abel's long and carefully retiring life is reminiscent of the
Dutch watchmaker whose detailed wartime reports from Scapa Flow on
British harbor defenses enabled the German Navy to slip a submarine
into the harbor and sink the battleship, Royal Oak, as she lay at
anchor on October 14, 1939. The watchmaker had been despatched to
Scapa Flow in 1927 and did not send his first report for twelve years.
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I would like to close with a few thoughts about the Soviet
nation whose leader has advertised that Communism will "bury" us.
Aggression short of all out war is a risky business but the
last decade and a half has shown a Communist willingness -- Russian
or Chinese -- to take the risk on numerous occasions where application
of pressure suited their purposes in pursuit of their remarkably
unchanged goal of imposed world domination.
Let me recall some examples: the Soviet menace against the
Iranian province of Azerbaijan; guerrilla war against Greece and
threats against Turkey; the subversion of Czechoslovakia; the
Berlin Blockade; the Communist takeover on the mainland of China;
the aggression in Korea; the Indo-China war; the brutal crushing of
the Biingarian revolt; the hostilities in the Taiwan Straits; the
lawless, deceptive overthrow of the Tibetan government and the
consequent genocide of the Tibetan race; the border attacks
against Nepal and the apparent support but actual take-over Czechoslovak-
style of Cuba.
The Soviets have given further recent evidence that they are not
of a mind to encourage for the present a sensible settlement of East-
Nest differences. Nr. Khrushchev's harsh attitude in Vienna including
threats to make a separate peace treaty with Edst Germany if the Nest
Germans hold their annual meeting of the Bundestag in Berlin this fall;
the rudely abrupt break-off of the ten-nation disarmament conference
In Geneva; the exploitation of the Congo and the clear Soviet intent to
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use the RB-47 incident to agitate the issue of U.S. overseas bases.
Also, consider in the RB-47 ease the Soviet vetoes in the U.N. of the U.S.
resolution for an impartial investigation and of the Italian resolution
for the International Red Cross to see the survivors.
UhdoUbtedli, without benefit of crystal ball, we can prophesy that
the Soviets will continue to increase their nuclear and other military
strength and emphasize their capacity to deliver appropriate warheads
to desired targets, particularly ICBM's.
'Xhe Soviets are aided in 'program by a number of
factors:
1. We believe that with a Gross National Product of about 45%
of ours, their military effort in terms of value is roily comparable to
our own. This means that the proportion of Gross National Product Which
the Soviets put into military purposes is twice the proportion so used
by the U.S. Mr. Khrushchev is more interested in Lunik and military
production than he is in producing creature comforts such as the
automobile or in making the plumbing work.
2. The rate of Soviet industrial growth annually since 1950 is
estimated at 9 to 10.5% which is an annual rate about twice that of
the United States. The Soviet progress is, of course, due to the fact
that they plow back into investment a large and growing share of their
total annual production. The Soviets direct about 30% of G.N.P. into
capital outlays, While we in the United States are satisfied with 17 to
20%. Aldramatic illustration of the role of investment in Soviet
economic growth is found in their Seven Year Plan 'which runs to 1965.
Capital investment in industry for 1959, the initial year of the plan,
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was approximately equal, measured in dollars, to industrial investment
in the United States. Mbreover, the Soviets' absolute volume of invest-
ment in productive areas such as the iron, steel and non-ferrous
industries as well as in machinery manufacturing was substantially
greater than that of the United States.
3. Externally, the Kremlin continues to push its massive propaganda
machinery seducing the newly-emerging countries with the example of the
rapid Soviet economic and military growth and with offers of aid if they
turn to Moscow. We see Soviet technical and economic aid targetted at
Asia, Africa and Latin America along with an increase in the same areas
of the world-wide Comnunist apparatus for subversion, Local Cbmmunist
parties, underground and overt) Ommuunist fronts and agitprop assets
are also being supported and directed to a high level of activity in
these troubled parts of the world.
The Soviets extensive efforts are further strengthened by their
real flair for organization, their ruthless belief in their goals and
the enthusiastic dedication of many of their people. Moreover, despite
certain growing ideological differences and political disputes, the
Soviets are vigorously supported by the Chinese.
We can safely conclude, therefore) that the West has its hands
full and that the competition is challenging and worthy of our most
informed and determined response over an extended period of years to
come. If we refuse to accept any alternative but success, there is
no doubt that we will be the winning contender. We cannot, however,
indulge in the luxury of relaxation.
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