Documents / FOIA release
This Top Secret study by the Interdepartmental Coordinating Group on Germany and Berlin, dated July 12, 1961, and released by the Central Intelligence Agency, answers NSC Directive No. 58 of June 30, 1961. It sets out courses of action for the Berlin crisis but does not judge their merits. It covers imminent presidential decisions, a three-phase timetable running to January 1, military preparations and mobilization, covert action, economic sanctions, public information, negotiating positions and checkpoint procedures for East German personnel.
“The Advance”7 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
security emergencies delcared by him should include the following: (a) A separate, simple and short authorization for the President to institute a temporary freeze on all wages, salaries, prices, and rents, pending passage of more detailed legislation for emergency economic stabilization by direct controls. This is necessary because the anticipation of a coming system of direct controls may lead to substantial price increases in the hope of establishing a favorable base, and to excessive accumulation of inventories in the expectation of later shortages. (b) Enabling legislation for comprehensive price, rent, wage and salary controls, for controls over consumer and real estate credit, for the settlement of labor disputes, for requisitioning and for general voluntary credit restraints. All these were contained in the sections of the Defense Production Act which were allowed to lapse in 1953. (c) Discretionary authority to the President to sell excess materials from strategic stockpiles for counterspeculative purposes. The present authorization for the Secretary of Agriculture to sell from Commodity Credit Corporation stockpiles at 105 percent of parity should be changed to permit sales at 100 percent of parity. (d) Authority for the President to meet shifting revenue and economic stabilization needs by raising or lowering the first-bracket personal income tax rate within five percentage points of its statutory level. ## B. Procedural 1. The Problem of Timing of the Request for Statutory Authority to Institute Direct Controls A major decision will have to be made with respect to the timing of the announcement that the President will seek from Congress enabling legislation for price, wage, and rent controls. Once the announcement is made, it is agreed that the President should immediately submit the necessary draft legislation to Congress. One view is that the announcement should be made as soon as the public becomes aware, through a Presidential message or otherwise, of the military preparedness measures which are to be taken. The other
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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. 163 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.