Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945–1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment

330. Memorandum From the Director of the Policy Planning Staff (Kennan) to the Under Secretary of State (Lovett)⁰

Washington, November 18, 1947.

The National Security Council has instructed Hillenkoetter to present by November 26 a draft of a permanent directive for the CIA.¹

He has prepared such a draft and has sent it for comment to Armstrong, who heads up these activities in this Department.

Armstrong has rather important objections to it. He has brought it to me and inquired whether he could state these objections in the name of the Department. I told him that I would wish to have the Staff study the matter carefully and that I would then submit my recommendations to you as to the position the Department should take. It is a complicated matter, involving the whole pattern of relations between the various departments and the CIA in intelligence matters.

Provided you have no objections, we will make this the subject of a Staff study.²

George F. Kennan

0. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Policy Planning Staff Files, 1947–53: Lot 64 D 563, Box 10, Intelligence. No classification marking. The Policy Planning Staff minutes for November 18 indicate that Kennan would recommend to Lovett that the Policy Planning Staff go over the draft NIA directives sent to the Department for comment. (Ibid., Box 32)
1. Reference is to NSC Action No. 3, taken at the Council’s first meeting on September 26, instructing the Director of Central Intelligence to submit within 60 days “proposed authorizations supplanting the former directives of the National Intelligence Authority and specifying his functions and those of the Central Intelligence Agency in accordance with the provisions of the National Security Act of 1947.” (National Security Council, Policies of the Government of the United States of America Relating to the National Security, vol. 1, 1947–48, p. 53)
2. In the margin next to this paragraph there is a handwritten “OK” with Lovett’s initial. On November 20 the Policy Planning Staff suspended work on the study until an interagency working group had revised the draft directives. (Minutes of the 88th meeting, November 20; National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Policy Planning Staff Files, 1947–1953: Lot 64 D 563, Box 32) This presumably was the result of action taken by the IAB at its meeting on November 20; see Document 332.