228. Memorandum for the Record1

1.
During the course of a conversation with General Carroll on 23 June, General Carroll discussed certain aspects of the new Defense Attaché System.2 General Carroll said that he is at work on a plan to arrange for a joint collection plan which would put an end to the practice of individual collection plans for Army, Navy, and Air Force attachés. He hopes to be able to coordinate collection plans for the attachés with theater collection plans such as those of USARPAC, for example.
2.
After some of his current planning has ripened, General Carroll hopes to get together with us to see what might be done to make attachés and CIA collection plans more “compatible and mutually supporting.”
3.
General Carroll said he hopes in time that a closer relationship can be promoted and developed between the Defense Attaché and the CIA Station Chief in missions abroad. He said he thought that the CIA Station Chiefs will find a new system more simplified in that the Station Chief will have to deal primarily with one rather than three separate individuals.

[Omitted here is a discussion of other intelligence issues.]

Richard Helms 3
Deputy Director
  1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, DDO/IMS Files, Job 78–3805, US Govt-Dept. of Defense. Secret.
  2. A member of CIA’s Departmental Coordination Group advised the Assistant Deputy Director of Plans in a May 11 memorandum that the new Defense Attaché System (DAS) plan, phased to be completely effective by June 30, “calls for a single integrated attaché system to handle intelligence requirements and relationships with foreign defense establishments, directly responsive to the needs of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.” At each post “service attachés will be under the direction and control of the Defense Attaché,” who “will be the military advisor to the Ambassador on intelligence and coordinate all DAS intelligence activities with other U.S. governmental agencies.” (Ibid.)
  3. Printed from a copy that indicates Helms signed the original.