108. Editorial Note

On March 13, 1963, Director of Central Intelligence John McCone and Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric signed an agreement on the “Management of the National Reconnaissance Program,” which designated the Secretary of Defense as the Executive Agent for the NRP. In order to carry out his responsibilities, the Secretary of Defense would “establish as a separate operating agency of the Department of Defense a National Reconnaissance Office under the direction, authority and control of the Secretary of Defense.” The agreement strengthened the authority of the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office who would report directly to the Secretary of Defense and would be responsible for the “management of all aspects of the NRP,” including developing all projects for intelligence collection by “collection systems exclusive of normal peripheral operations, responding “directly and solely” to the requirements and priorities of the U.S. Intelligence Board, scheduling all overflight missions, processing initial imagery and producing and delivering intelligence to users, planning and conducting research and development of future NRP projects, and directing and managing all funds made available for the NRP. The NRO Director was also given authority to assign all project tasks to appropriate elements of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense. (National Reconnaissance Office, NRO Office of Policy Files) The text of the agreement is available on the Internet, National Security Archive (www.gwu.edu/-~-nsarchiv), Electronic Briefing Book No. 35, “The NRO Declassified,” Document 7.

The agreement superseded the agreement of May 2, 1962; see footnote 2, Document 90. In March 1963 Brockway McMillan succeeded Joseph Charyk as Director of the National Reconnaissance Office.