Evening star., 1946-01-13
Foreign Intelligence Plan
Provides Divided Control
State Departments Program Falls Short of
Unified Authority and Completeness Urged
by Donovan and Arnold
By Raym mond p. Brandt.


departments for submission to Presi-
dent Truman early next month. Al.
though the details of the plans have
not been made public, it has beer
learned that they lack the complete
ness of Maj. Gen. William j. Donovan's
proposal for utilizing the best features
of the disbanded Office of Strategic
Services in an overall agency. They
also fall short of the recommendations
of such experienced officials as Secre-
tary of the Navy Forrestal, Gen. H. H
Arnold of the Army Air Forces and the
suggestions of Ferdinand Eberstadt
who made a voluminous report to For
restal on national security.
The inadequacies of the present plans
are not due primarily to the State De-
partment officials who had the respon-
sibility of carrying out Truman's in
structions in September, calling for con-
solidation of existing agencies rather
than the creation of an independent Or
ganization competent to collect, analyZe
and distribute the information necessary
to formulate and maintain our foreign
policy. The President hastily abolished
the OSS and directed the State De-
partment to prepare plans for an or
ganization to take its place.
The more comprehensive plans sought
a focal point of information" to permit
focal point of decision,' whether the
ultimate decision was to be made by
the White House, the State Department
or other governmental groups. The
present plans, unless changed or ad-
ministered by an energetic, far-sighted
and courageous official, will have many
of the Implications, omissions, time
lags and superfcialities of the slipshod
efforts before the war.
3-Man Authority" Provided.
Instead of focal point of informa-
tion," headed by broad-visioned in
dividual, present plans call for ma
tional intelligence authority, composed
of the Secretaries of State, War and
Navy Departments, with the Secretary
of State the presiding officer. Other
heads of departments and agencies
would be brought in when problems con-
cerning them are up for discussion.
Instead of single director of inter-
national intelligence, who would report
directly to the President, there probably
will be a special assistant to the Secre-
tary of State, similar to Col. Alfred
Mccormick, the present head of the
interim research and intelligence serv-
ice of the State Department, who is
expected to continue with the perma-
nent agency.
Some of the details of the present
plans, which were worked out by Col.
Mccormack, former director of military
intelligence of the War Department,
were announced in recent radio broad
cast. Mccormack, while. advocating
unified intelligence denounced the
idea of lone big intelligence agency"
as unrealstic because the subject mat
ter of intelligence is too varied and too
complicated"
Explaining his opposition to single
agency, Mccormack said:
81 am against the idea that there be
one .place into which all information
flows. To me that seems impracticable.
In the first place, you would have to
have a perfectly enormous organization,
and second, you cannot and should not
remove the intelligence operation from
the agencies where day-to-day policies
and decisions have been made.
Everybody Else's Customer"
81 would set up mechanism to make
sure that any one in Government who
needs intelligence, gets it. The nature
of this business is that everybody is
everybody else's customer. want to
see that intelligence flow easily from
one department to another. I think
the collection and basic analysis in each
field of intelligence should be assigned
to the agency having the responsibility
in that field. But it should collect and
analyze the information in that field
required by all other agencies and should
make it available to all agencies that
have need for it. Once an intelligence
agency becomes aware of the fact that
it has another agency as customer, ii
generally does good job of tailoring
its work to the needs of that customer
Mccormack seemed proud that his
proposed organization would cost only
about $6,000,000 year but conceded
that "this country can afford to spend
for good foreign intelligence a great
deal more money than good intelligence
will ever cost"
What Mccormack did not tell his
radio audience was that his plans con-
templated only 40 Or SO persons in the
secretariat of the National Intelligence
Authority for the direction of the col
lecting of information, for analyzing the
findings of the existing agencies and fol
distributing it to the proper persons
including the public.
This is the crux of the criticism OF
those who favor "unification" over "co-
ordination" Experience has shown that
valuable information has been collected
by individuals and agencies and that ii
has reposed in pigeon holes of a single
agency when it was vitality necessary
for decision in another agency. Gen
Donovan's rejected 'unification" plan
would have used the existing agencies
for its raw material of information. It's
pertinence was in its proposal to see that
this material, "processed" and fitted into
the whole picture. would reach the
proper people at the proper time for the
proper use.
Lack of Intelligence Felt.
Secretary Forrestal has argued that
as part of the immediate integration'
of the State, War and Navy Depart
ments under national security council