10. Memorandum From the Director’s Assistant (Tamm) to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Hoover)0
Pursuant to your instructions I called upon Mr. Tom Clark on Thursday evening, September 13th and advised him that you had received information from a confidential but thoroughly reliable source indicating that the President allegedly had expressed the opinion that the FBI should act only as a domestic agency. Mr. Clark was informed that according to your source of information, Colonel Frank McCarthy at the State Department had indicated to Dean Acheson that he, McCarthy, had received information from the Bureau of the Budget with reference to the SIS program that the President has “definitely expressed in positive terms” his views that the FBI should be only a domestic agency. Mr. Clark was informed that McCarthy received his information from the Bureau of the Budget and that he had asked Don Stone to furnish more details concerning the President’s statement. In view of this fact, McCarthy had [Page 34] suggested to Acheson that any action on Mr. Clark’s letters1 concerning the State Department’s wishes with reference to SIS be held in abeyance until the first of the week.
While I was talking to Mr. Clark, Dean Acheson called him from the State Department and Clark asked Acheson when he was going to receive an answer to his letters about SIS and Acheson stated “in a few days, that Colonel McCarthy was looking into the matter”.
Mr. Clark stated that he would personally speak to the President about the SIS situation on Monday.