CIA Influence On Public Opinion - Authority For Psychological Operations - CIA Authority To Perform Psychological Operations

CIA Authority To Perform Psychological Operations

Psychological operations was assigned to the pre-CIA Office of Policy Coordination, with oversight by the Department of State. The overall psychological operations of the United States, overt and covert, were to be under the policy direction of the Department of State during peacetime and the early stages of war:

The Secretary of State shall be responsible for:

(1)The formulation of policies and plans for a national foreign information program in time of peace. This program shall include all foreign information activities conducted by departments and agencies of the U. S. Government.

(2)The formulation of national psychological warfare policy in time of national emergency and the initial stages of war.

(3) The coordination of policies and plans for the national foreign information program and for overt psychological warfare with the Department of Defense, with other appropriate departments and agencies of the U.S. Government, and with related planning...

(4)Plans prepared by this organization for overt psychological warfare in time of national emergency or the initial stages of war shall provide for:

a. Coordination of overt psychological warfare with:

  1. Covert psychological warfare.
  2. Censorship.
  3. Domestic information.

b. The employment and expansion, insofar as is feasible, of the activities and facilities which compose the national foreign information program in time of peace, in order to assure rapid transition to operations in time of national emergency or war.

c. Control of the execution of approved plans and policies by: (1) the Department of Defense in theaters of military operations; (2) the Department of State in areas other than theaters of military operations.

d. Transmittal of approved psychological warfare plans and policies to theater commanders through the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

After the OPC was consolidated into the CIA, there has been a psychological operations staff, under various names, in what has variously been named the Deputy Directorate of Plans, the Directorate of Operations, or the National Clandestine Service.

Read more about this topic:  CIA Influence On Public Opinion, Authority For Psychological Operations

Famous quotes containing the words cia, authority, perform and/or operations:

    And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
    —Bible: New Testament John 8:32.

    These words of Jesus are inscribed on the wall of the main lobby at the CIA headquarters, Langley, Virginia.

    Establishing limits, structure, rules, and expectations takes self-confidence on the part of parents. Parents need to recognize that they are the legitimate authority figures in their households and feel secure in that role.
    Karen Levine (20th century)

    Man must vanquish himself, must do himself violence, in order to perform the slightest action untainted by evil.
    E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)

    A sociosphere of contact, control, persuasion and dissuasion, of exhibitions of inhibitions in massive or homeopathic doses...: this is obscenity. All structures turned inside out and exhibited, all operations rendered visible. In America this goes all the way from the bewildering network of aerial telephone and electric wires ... to the concrete multiplication of all the bodily functions in the home, the litany of ingredients on the tiniest can of food, the exhibition of income or IQ.
    Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)