Documents / FOIA release

(EST Pub Date) the Office of Scientific Intelligence, 1949-68- (Volume Three, Annexes Viii, Ix, and X)

Central Intelligence Agency · 1972-06-01 · 243 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This is Volume Three of the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology Historical Series on the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI), 1949 to 1968, written by Karl H. Weber in June 1972 and approved for release in 2008. It holds three annexes, on OSI publications, OSI's external assistance and contracting program, and OSI's interaction with the National Security Agency. The released text covers production planning, review boards, current intelligence periodicals and future threat forecasting. It does not discuss UFOs.

  • p. 12 # TOP SECRET By 1955, an OSI Research and Production Plan was in an advanced stage of…
  • p. 19 …Bloc capabilities in the scientific and technological frontier areas where unique advances of military or economic…
  • p. 22 …lead to new types of advanced weapons or otherwise affect the balance of power, was evident…
  • p. 34 …They now serve a 2-4 month period rather than the earlier 4-6 month period…
  • p. 47 …Chinese development of advanced weapons, much more space has been given in the Scientific Intelligence Digest…
  • p. 51 …of the Soviet satellite program had been reported and evaluated well in advance of the launching.
  • p. 86 …that the hope of emerging nations to attain advanced status hinged largely on the development of…
  • p. 141 …As scientific intelligence has become more involved in advanced technical detail, the use of consultants to…
  • p. 181 …funds too far in advance. XI. Administrative Problems By FY 1957, the OSI external support program…
  • p. 187 …systematically to information on the USSR to determine whether future advances in specific fields were probable…

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in estimates has generally averaged between 15 and 20 per year, with a substantial contribution made to about one-half of these.

Throughout the entire period of OSI participation in the preparation of national estimates, the Office has strongly supported this program while at the same time realizing that much of the intelligence provided by OSI did not find its way into national estimates. Many in OSI believed that the effect of science and technology on the economic and political postures of world powers was not sufficiently recognized by ONE and ONE did not recognize that the hope of emerging nations to attain advanced status hinged largely on the development of their technical strengths. In 1962, for example, the OSI annual report pointed out that "a previously operating factor -- the increasing community awareness of the relationship between scientific competence and politico-economic stability -- played a lesser role in that year because of ONE emphasis on shorter, politically-oriented NIEs, wherein the short-term relationship cannot usually be demonstrated." In an effort to improve this situation, OSI as early as 1953 pointed out that a competent scientific and technical representation on the Board of National Estimates

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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 243 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.