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THE NRO STAFF December 2, 1969 

HANDLE VIA 

MEMORANDUM FOR DR. McLUCAS 

SUBJECT: The National Intelligence Resources Board (NIRB) 

Mr. Helms organized the NIRB in May of 1968. It is chaired by 

the Deputy Director, CIA, and the original membership consisted of 

the Director, DIA and the Director of Intelligence and Research, 

Department of State. You will recall, however, that Mr. Froehlke 

was recently appointed as a member of the NIRB in lieu of the Director, 

DIA. We understand that Admiral Bowen will become the permanent 

member from Mr. Froehlke's office. 

The purpose of the Board is to assist the DCI in developing judgments concerning the need for resources to support the foreign intelligence effort. In this role, the NIRB: 

1. Evaluates the responsiveness of individual projects and activities 

to the intelligence objectives, requirements and priorities established by 

USIB; 

2. Provides recommendations to the DCI concerning the level of 

funding generally appropriate for such projects and activities; 

3. Advises the DCI in connection with questions which arise during 

the course of the review of the four major national intelligence programs 

(the CCP, NRP, CIP and CIAP) concerning needs for the procurement, 

development or utilization of resources; 

4. Examines the interrelationship of intelligence programs and 

determines relative needs for coverage of particular intelligence_ objectives 

as between different sources or systems. 

Attached are the minutes of the November 26 meeting of the Board. 

TOP SEGRET 

FREDERICK L. HOFMANN 

Major, USAF 

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26 November 1969 

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE RESOURCES BOARD 

·Minutes of the Sixteenth Meeting, at 1200, Zl November 1969 

DCI Conference Room 

l. Lt. General Robert E. Cushman, Jr., Deputy Director of 

Central Intelligence, presiding, and Mr. Ray S. Cline, Director of 

Intelligence and Research, Department of State, and Mr. Robert F. 

Froehlke, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Administration and 

Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, were 

present. O.thers present included Vi~e Admiral Noel Gayl~r, 

Director, National Security Agency, Mr. John A. Bross, D/DCI/NIPE, 

Mr. Stephen A. Loftus of the Department of State, Mai. Gen. Tack E. 

Thomas, USAF, Ret., consultant to the NIRB, andl I 

Special Assistant to the DDGI. 

2. CIRIS-70: The primary matter before the NIRB at this meeting was the participation of NSA in CIRIS-70 and the nature of the data 

required from NSA. Mr. Froehlke observed that he needed to be able 

to place a dollar value on intelligence products and saw the dollar 

cost data as a useful common denominator for his task of resource 

management in the Department of Defense. The Chairman noted the 

DCI' s need for the CIRIS as a tool for his coordi_nating role in resource 

allocation and saw further requirements and uses for the CIRIS in 

relation to Mr. Froehll<e Is responsibilities in Def ens~, the data 

required for the studies called for by NSSM's 51 (Thailand) and 77 

{Certain Country Program Budgets), the needs of the Bureau of the 

Budget, and the necessity for the intelligence community to be able 

to define the worth of the intelli..gence product. 

Mr. Nathan C. Fitts of the NIPE Staff opened a presentation on 

the CIRIS and its background and purposes, stressing that the purpose 

of the CIRIS was to show in a variety .o! ways the operating elements 

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of the intelligence community, what they do and the main targets they 

work against. 

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Admiral Ga ylcr' s position in the discussion that followed was 

that perhaps a CIRIS for 1970 covering FY 1971 and 1972 was not 

:1cccs sary, . that FY ~ 971 figu~es were too near in time to be handled 

1n an cxpcnn1cntal way, that rnore time was needed to develop a 

depc11dable and meaningful machine system in NSA for developing 

data for the CIRIS, and that cost figures per· position versus target 

could be meaningless or misleading because of the variety of targets 

covered by COMINT positions such as wideband or those on commonuser circuits. He indicated his concern that data in the CIRIS could 

be misused to rrmanage 11 NSA and expressed his feeling that there 

was no real requirement for data on allocations of activity within 

stations since these could vary from time to time. 

Members of the Board attempted to reassure Admiral Gayler 

that there was no intent to flmanage 11 NSA but noted that the DCI, 

Mr. Froehlke and the ·Department of State needed data on resource 

allocation and the targets cover~d by those resources to carry out 

their responsibilities. · Board members recalled that they had agreed 

at the preceding meeting to request data from NSA in CIRIS-70 on a 

station-by-;station breakdown and to look in:to ways to. report allocations of effort within stations as an alternative to a position-by-position 

basis. Board members pressed for data from NSA on broad task 

al:ocations within stations and within NSA and SCA Headquarters, 

noting that such data was essential for systematizing assessments of 

the scale of community efforts toward various objectives and for 

determining possibilities for resource trade-offs across pl"ogram 

lines. In addition, the requirements on the Board to respond to 

certain NSSM's made such data even more needed. 

After considerable discussion, Admiral Gayler accepted the 

charge from the Board to examine how NSA could respond to CIRIS 

needs on a station/HQ main element breakdown.and how levels of 

effort on major intelligence objectives within stations and Headquarters 

could be identified. He requested the Board to define its needs in 

terms of the problems it was charged to deal with and to confine its 

requirements on NSA to elements of information really essential to 

the Board's purposes without trying to obtain too much detail. 

Admiral Gayler indicated he could have an answer for the Board in 

two or three weeks and that if the Board did not seek too fine a level 

of reporting, he might be able to provide data fairly promptly thereafter. 

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3. The Board adjourned at 1430 hours with its next meeting 

set for sometime in the week of 15 December • 

.....__,,Executive Secretary 

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