Memorandum Concerning the Intelligence Services of the US Armed Forces

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Secret

Copy Nº 4

MEMO

concerning the intelligence services of the US armed forces

The US armed forces have three groups of intelligence services:

- the Defense Intelligence Agency, which includes: the Army Intelligence and Security Branch, Navy Intelligence, and Air Force Intelligence;

- the system of radiotechnical intelligence and cryptanalysis headed by the National Security Agency (NSA);

- special forces designed for subversion and insurgency and intelligence activity on enemy territory in case of war.

the Defense Intelligence Agency was created in October 1961 by order of the US Secretary of Defense based on the liquidated Joint Intelligence Committee, which engaged in the coordination of the activity of US military intelligence agencies.

In 1960 a specially-created commission conducted a study and inspection of the organization of the activities in the subunits of US military intelligence. The inspection showed that in the system of the intelligence committee there were instances of a duplication of work, tardy solutions of individual problems in connection with existing interdepartmental barriers, etc.

The commission prepared suggestions about the creation of a military intelligence body which would be capable of coordinating the intelligence work of the three branches of the armed forces and concentrate in itself all the intelligence information of a military nature which was received. The Defense Intelligence Agency was created as a result of the realization of these suggestions. The formation of this body was basically completed in 1965.

DIA has the status of an autonomous agency of the Defense Department. Its chief, Lieutenant-General JOSPEH F. CARROLL, is subordinate to the Secretary of Defense through the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In addition, DIA is the coordinating link between the Defense Department and the Intelligence departments of the three branches of the US armed forces. The coordination of the intelligence activity of the three branches of the armed forces is exercised with the aid of an Intelligence Council attached to DIA. The Director of DIA chairs the Council. The leaders of the military intelligence agencies are its members.

DIA exercises supervision and planning of the activity of the Intelligence directorates in the collection of information, determines the range of questions on which it is desired to obtain information of a military nature, and organizes the assessment of the military information acquired.

The intelligence organizations of the headquarters of the joint and specialized commands (in Europe, in the Pacific, in Alaska, in Central and South America), and the Strategic Air Command, which conducts active aerial reconnaissance, are subordinate to DIA. DIA is responsible for the results of the operation of military space reconnaissance and the defense, naval, and air attaches abroad.

The Defense Intelligence Agency of the Defense Department pursues work in close contact with the US Central Intelligence Agency. The DIA director is a member of the US Intelligence Council.

The US Army Intelligence and Security Branch organizes the collection of information about the armed forces of foreign countries, obtains information in the area of geodesy and cartography, develops assignments for military attaches operating abroad, and also for the intelligence departments of the operational subunits of the US Army, and ensures the security and safety of military secrets in the Army. The CIC (Counterintelligence Corps) service is subordinate to the Branch.

Naval Intelligence is part of the main staff of the naval forces. Rear Admiral VERNON L. LAWRENCE is chief of naval intelligence and Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence. He is subordinate to the Chief of Naval Operations.

Its functions include the collection of intelligence information about the fleets, ports, and the coastal fortifications of foreign countries, and also about areas of possible future amphibious operations.

Intelligence builds a dossier on naval facilities, and classifies and evaluates the intelligence information obtained. Naval intelligence is also entrusted with counterintelligence functions in the US Navy system.

Naval intelligence includes: the naval attaché staffs accredited in foreign countries; the intelligence departments of the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, the 6^th and 7^th operational Fleets, and other formations of the American Navy, the intelligence departments of naval bases abroad, and the naval regions and districts in the US.

Air Force Intelligence engages in intelligence with respect to aviation, missiles forces, and spacecraft. The chief has the position of Assistant Chief of Staff of the USAF.

Air Force Intelligence is also entrusted with the missions of collecting information about the strength, deployment, weaponry, and equipment of the air forces, the strategic rocket forces, and the equipment of air defense and space defense of foreign countries. Another important task of Air Force Intelligence is the identification of strategic bombing targets.

It also has powerful equipment (including special reconnaissance aircraft) and radioelectronic reconnaissance services. The Air Forces controls the use of satellites for intelligence purposes.

[Air Force Intelligence] has a service for the collection and distribution of intelligence information and an evaluation service which analyzes information which has been received, issues a daily intelligence summary and an aerial reconnaissance digest, and works out long-range assessments and forecasts.

It also has a department to study facilities which are strategic bombing targets. The department keeps a “bombing encyclopedia” in which materials about bombing targets are collected.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is the main body of US radiotechnical reconnaissance and cryptanalysis. The Agency was founded in 1952 as an independent agency [upravlenie] of the Defense Department, and is headed by a Director, Lieutenant-General [MARSHALL] S. CARTER who, just like the DIA Director, is subordinate to the Secretary of Defense though the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The functions of NSA include: the interception and decryption of the ciphers and codes used by foreign countries in international and domestic communications, conducting radiotechnical intelligence with the goal of detecting important military and industrial facilities, ensuring the security of communications in government institutions and the US armed forces, and the creation of ciphers for the needs of the Defense Department and other departments and agencies.

The headquarters staff of NSA is located at Fort Meade, Maryland. The Agency has organized more than 2,000 fixed peripheral radiotechnical intelligence posts located along the borders of the socialist countries. In addition, NSA uses mobile intelligence posts on ships and aircraft.

The Agency engages in the interception and decryption of the ciphers of foreign countries, including [those] of US allies in military blocs.

The Agency includes four main directorates: the Operations Directorate, which deals with the interception of ciphers and their decryption; the Scientific Research Directorate, which attacks the problems of cryptanalysis, the use of computers, and radio intercept equipment; the Directorate to Protect the Security of Communications Services, which develops codes and ciphers and measures to keep them secret; and the Security Directorate, which verifies the political trustworthiness of NSA employees, and manages the security services of the Army, Navy, and Air Forces.

Special Forces

The sabotage and reconnaissance formations of the US armed forces are designed to organize “partisan warfare” on enemy territory in the event of a military conflict or sharp escalation of an international situation, to conduct tactical reconnaissance, and to commit acts of sabotage and terrorism.

Acts of sabotage and reconnaissance are planned on a scale of the US armed forces and they are overseen by a Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Defense Department for Special Operations and Counterinsurgency.

Unlike the intelligence services headed by DIA and the security services of national security, the sabotage and reconnaissance formations do not have a strictly centralized organization on the scale of the Defense Department. They are subordinate either to the chief of staff of a specific branch of the armed forces or a joint command of the US armed forces in the corresponding zone.

The training of the special forces is done both in the Navy and Air Forces, where special detachments of several thousand men have already been formed.

[handwritten: “9 February 1970”]

30 December 1969

Nº 153/10208