25. Editorial Note

On January 15, 1960, Manning H. Williams, on behalf of Robert M. McKisson, Chairman of the Operations Coordinating Board’s Working Group on Soviet-Dominated Nations in Eastern Europe, sent two memoranda to the Executive Officer of the Board. One memorandum noted briefly that the agencies represented on the Working Group “have reappraised the validity and evaluated the implementation of the U.S. Policy Toward the Soviet-Dominated Nations in Eastern Europe (NSC 5811/1) in the light of operating experience and believe there is no need for the National Security Council to review the policy at this time and that there are no developments of such significance as to warrant sending a report to the National Security Council.” The other memorandum indicated that the Working Group had reviewed the Operations Plan for the Soviet-Dominated Nations in Eastern Europe, dated January 23, 1959, and revised on July 2, 1959, and considered the plan “adequate for the present time.”

In separate memoranda attached to each of these memoranda, Bromley Smith, Executive Officer of the Board, noted that the Board Assistants at their meeting on Jaunary 15 had concurred on behalf of their principals in the judgments made by the Working Group. Copies of all these memoranda are in Department of State, OCB Files: Lot 61 D 385, USSR & Satellites—Documents—1959–60. NSC 5811/1, the OCB Report, and the Operations Plan, as revised on July 2, 1959, are printed as Documents 6, 19, and 18, respectively.