Evening star., 1953-02-19
State Department Security


The American voter has indicated
that he feels that every effort
should be made to insure the 10y
atty and security of employees of the
Foreign Service and the State Depart
ment and that this matter should re-
ceive early attention. Although the
department is not riddled with Com
munlSts, Sober-minded people know
that by its very nature it is a primary
target of Soviet penetration attempts
and will continue to be as long as the
Communists control the Soviet Union.
Presumably, the new Undersecretary
OF State for Administration, Donold B.
Lourie, will be responsible for. the lad
ministration and organization" of the
department. Under past practices this
would give Mr.. Lourie responsibility for
the administrative and service organi-
cations in State such as personnel ad-
ministrative services, budget and fiscal
matters, security, etc. If Mr.. Lourie
continues the existing organization Of
the Department of State then he would
delegate to the Director of the Bureau
of Security and Consular Affairs re-
SponSibility, among other things, for
direction of the security program. This
official would then in turn delegate to
the Director of the Office of Security
responsibility for security affairs.
If we are really interested in a vigor-
Gus, positive security program in the
State Department it should readily be
apparent what this type of delegation
means. Who is really responsible for
the security of the State Department?
The bureau director? Obviously not,
as he has responsibility for munitions,
protective services, passports and other
related or unrelated matters. The
UnderSecretary for Administration?
Certainly not-he runs the entire de-
partment. Then it must be the Direc-
tor of the Office of Security. But here
the answer will be mo" also, because
the Director of the Office of Security
makes no final decisions and must look
to the bureau director and the Under
secretary for Administration for policy
and guidance.
If the new administration really
wants to do security job in the State
Department it should appoint highly
competent person who would report
only to the Undersecretary and who
would be required to know his busi-
ness" That is, he should know the
intelligence Observation-Disclosures the
techniques. strategies, attitudes and
aims of Communist agents, keep abreast
of Communist world strategy and he
permitted to run his own show. The
actual firing of security risks could be
left to the Undersecretary and to his
Security Board. The protection of civil
rights could be assured by and be the
responsibility of the Undersecretary
on the advice of his Security Board.
But it should be clearly understood
that the top security official is respon-
sible for the security program and that
he is giving to the American people the
best possible protection in their foreign
Office and in foreign missions. Then
if congressional committees or citi-
zens' groups wished to discuss the Sc
curity program of the State Depart
ment every one would know who was
responsible. 49,
There has been a great deal of howl
ing all over the country about Com
munists in the State Department. Some
members of Congress have said there
are a number of them. The depart
ment has taken a very defensive atti-
tude and has indicated that this is q