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National Security Council Directive on Covert Operations
The following comes from "The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War, Part I,
1945-1961," prepared for the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate,
by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, printed by the
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1984. Declassified in 1977,
NSC 5412 is located at the National Archives, RG 273. Also important to
note here is the wording that defined "covert operations."
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NSC 5412, "National Security Council Directive on Covert Operations,"
which continued to be the U.S. Government's basic directive on covert
activities until the Nixon administration's NSC 40 in 1970, began with
this statement of purpose:
The National Security Council, taking cognizance of the vicious
covert activities of the USSR and Communist China and the
governments, parties and groups dominated by them . . . to
discredit and defeat the aims and activities of the United States
and other powers of the free world, determined, as set forth in
NSC directives 10/2 and 10/5 [of the Truman administration], that,
in the interests of world peace and U.S. national security, the
overt foreign activities of the U.S. Government should be
supplemented by covert operations. . . .
The NSC has determined that such covert operations shall to the
greatest extent practicable, in the light of U.S. and Soviet
capabilities and taking into account the risk of war, be designed to
a. Create and exploit troublesome problems for International
Communism, impair relations between the USSR and Communist
China and between them and their satellites, complicate
control within the USSR, Communist China and their satellites,
and retard the growth of the milltary and economic potential
of the Soviet bloc.
b. Discredit the prestige and ideology of International
Communism, and reduce the streneth of its parties and other
elements.
c. Counter any threat of a party or individuals directly or
indirectly responsive to Communist control to achieve dominant
Power in a free worid country.
d. Reduce International Communist control over any areas of
the world.
e. Strengthen the orientation toward the United States of
the peoples and nations of the free world, accentuate,
wherever possible, the identity of interest between such
peoples and nations and the United States as well as favoring,
where appropriate, those groups genuinely advocating or
believing in the advancement of such mutual interests, and
increase the capacity and will of such peoples and nations to
resist International Communism.
f. In accordance with established policies and to the extent
practicable in areas dominated or threatened by International
Communism, develop underground resistance and facilitate
covert and guerrilla operations and ensure availability of
those forces in the event of war, including wherever
practicable provisions of a base upon which the military may
expand these forces in time of war within active theaters of
operations as well as provision for stay-behind assets and
escape and evasion facilities.
NSC 5412 defined "covert operations" as ". . . all activities
conducted pursuant to this directive which are so planned and executed
that any U.S. Government responsibility for them is not evident to
unauthorized persons and that if uncovered the U.S. Government can
plausibly disclaim any responsibility for them. Specifically, such
operations shall include any covert activities related to: propaganda,
political action; economic warfare; preventive direct action,
including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition; escape and evasion and
evacuation measures; subversion against hostile states or groups
including assistance to underground resistance movements, guerrillias
and refugee liberation groups; support of indigenous and
anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world;
deceptive plans and operations; and all activities compatible with
this directive necessary to accomplish the foregoing. Such operations
shall not include: armed conflict by recognized military forces,
espionage and counterespionage, nor cover and deception for military
operations."
To approve and coordinate most covert operations, (some were
required to be approved by the President) NSC 5412 established what
became known as the 5412 Committee, also given the nonspecific title,
the Special Group, to reduce chances of exposure. (In 1964, after
the term "Special Group" became known, the Group was called the 303
Committee. In 1970, it was renamed the 40 Committee.) The 5412
Committee and its successors consisted of the Deputy Under Secretary
of State, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the President's Special
Assistant for National Security Affairs, and the Director of the CIA,
with the latter serving as the Group's "action officer." In 1957,
the Chairman of the JCS also became a member.
[2] Section 403, paragraph d of the National Security Act of 1947, which
defined the powers and duties of the CIA:
Section 403. Central Intelligence Agency
(d) Powers and Duties
For the purpose of coordinating the intelligence activities
of the several Government departments and agencies in the
interest of national security, it shall be the duty of the
Agency, under the direction of the National Security Council--
(1) to advise the National Security Council in matters
concerning such intelligence activities of the
Government departments and agencies as relate to
national security;
(2) to make recommendations to the National Security
Council for the coordination of such intelligence
activities of the departments and agencies of the
Government as relate to the national security;
(3) to correlate and evaluate intelligence relating to
the national security, and provide for the
appropriate dissemination of such intelligence within
the Government using where appropriate existing
agencies and facilities: PROVIDED, That the Agency
shall have no police, subpoena, law-enforcement
powers, or internal-security functions: PROVIDED
FURTHER, That the departments and other agencies of
the Government shall continue to collect, evaluate,
correlate, and disseminate departmental intelligence:
AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That the Director of Central
Intelligence shall be responsible for protecting
intelligence sources and methods from unauthorized
disclosure;
(4) to perform, for the benefit of the existing
intelligence agencies, such additional services of
common concern as the National Security Council
determines can be more efficiently accomplished
centrally;
(5) to perform such other functions and duties related
to intelligence affecting the national security as
the National Security Council may from time to time
direct.
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