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Harry Truman
Harry S Truman
President Truman
Political Figure
Person
Politician
President
Israel
Pendergast
NationalSecurityAct
CentralIntelligenceAgency
PsychologicalStrategyBoard
OperationPaperclip
KoreanWar
CampaignOfTruth
ColdWar
UAP
1884-05-08 1972-12-26 33rd U.S. President who recognized Israel on May 14, 1948, approved the National Security Act of 1947 that created the Central Intelligence Agency, and relieved General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951. Lamar, Missouri 2026-05-27 2026-10-12
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partner_of Eddie Jacobson 1919 haberdashery partner, Kansas City 5
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founded Central Intelligence Group 1946-01-22 17
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appointed Sidney W. Souers 1946-01 first Director of Central Intelligence 18
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appointed Hoyt Vandenberg 1946 Director of Central Intelligence 19
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founded Psychological Strategy Board 1951-04-04 22
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founded NSA 1952-10-24 memorandum on communications intelligence; NSA established November 4, 1952 36
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appointed Matthew B. Ridgway 1951-04-11 successor to Douglas MacArthur as Far East commander 29

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. He entered public office in Jackson County, Missouri, as a candidate of the Thomas Pendergast machine in Kansas City. His administration approved the National Security Act of 1947, which created the Central Intelligence Agency, established the Psychological Strategy Board and the NSA, and recognized Israel.1

Pendergast machine and the Jackson County court

In 1922 Truman won election as eastern Jackson County judge as a candidate of the Pendergast faction of the Democratic party. He lost his reelection bid in 1924. In 1926 he won the presiding judgeship, a post he held for eight years, dividing his time between the county courthouses in Independence, Missouri and Kansas City, Missouri.1

Pendergast was found guilty of income tax evasion in 1939. The court commitment record in his Leavenworth Penitentiary inmate file (No. 55295) is dated May 29, 1939 and records a sentence of 15 months and an early release in May 1940.2 Otto P. Higgins, the former director of the Kansas City Police Department, entered a plea of guilty to counts 3 and 4 of an income tax indictment and was sentenced to two years at Leavenworth on count 3 and five years probation on count 4.3

In the Democratic primary of August 1946 for Missouri's Fifth Congressional District, Truman backed Enos Axtell against the incumbent Roger C. Slaughter, a critic of the administration. A Tampa Daily Times article of July 17, 1947, inserted in the Congressional Record, reported that Truman entered the campaign personally, that the revived Pendergast machine lined up behind Axtell, that four Kansas City wards gave Axtell 12,104 votes to 2,072 for Slaughter, that a grand jury indicted 71 persons for election irregularities and stated that Slaughter was deprived of the nomination by a fraudulent miscount of votes and other types of fraud, and that the vault holding the ballots was blown open on May 28 and the ballots removed. The same insertion quoted Senator James P. Kem of Missouri as charging that Attorney General Tom C. Clark "limited the scope of the (original FBI) inquiry to a field in which no evidence of conspiracy could be detected, and then closed the files because no evidence of conspiracy was found," and recorded that Clark had written Kem on January 27 that the FBI had "conducted a full investigation into the charges of fraud in this primary."4

Eddie Jacobson and the recognition of Israel

Truman's friendship with Eddie Jacobson began in Kansas City when both were young men. The two served together in the 129th Field Artillery during World War I and ran the regimental canteen at Camp Doniphan in Oklahoma. After returning from Europe following the Armistice, they decided to go into business together, and opened a haberdashery in Kansas City under the name Truman & Jacobson. The business failed. The Truman Library's finding aid to Jacobson's papers describes the friendship as surviving the failure and continuing through the 1930s and 1940s, and records that Truman once wrote that Jacobson was "as fine a man as ever walked."5

The papers describe Jacobson as a Kansas City haberdasher who lobbied the President to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a refuge for survivors of the Nazi Holocaust in Europe.6 A handwritten chronology in his personal file describes his role in events surrounding the recognition of Israel. Jacobson visited the new state in 1949.7 A. J. Granoff, a Kansas City lawyer, worked with Jacobson in the effort to persuade Truman to support the partition of Palestine and to recognize Israel. The Truman Library holds an oral history interview with Granoff, conducted in 1969.8

On May 14, 1948 Truman issued a statement on recognition. It reads in full: "THIS GOVERNMENT has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel."9 The Library's online recognition collection covers documents from 1943 through 1974. It includes a January 31, 1949 item filed under the Department of State file Palestine, Israel - Jewish State, 1948-1949, OF 204-D.10

Abraham Feinberg, a business executive and philanthropist, is described in the Truman Library's catalogue of his 1973 oral history interview as active in immigration to Palestine and in the creation of the State of Israel, 1945 to 1948, and as a friend of the President. The interview was conducted by Richard D. McKinzie on August 23, 1973.11

Seymour Hersh wrote that David Ben-Gurion secretly offered to send Israeli troops to fight alongside United Nations forces in South Korea, and that Truman declined the offer, reportedly fearing it would back him into a security arrangement with Israel.12 A State Department telegram of December 8, 1951 to the embassy in France reported that the Israeli ambassador Abba Eban, calling on John D. Hickerson of the State Department on December 6, referred to the representations of the American ambassador, Davis, to the Israeli foreign office on a possible offer of troops for Korea, listed Israel's difficulties (hostile surrounding Arab states, delicate relations with the Soviet Union, and the economic cost of sustaining such a contingent) and said Israel had not decided whether to make an offer. The telegram added that Teddy Kollek, counselor at the Israeli embassy, had indicated informally on December 5 that Ben-Gurion was disposed to consider an offer of troops providing a number of other countries also offered troops and the United Nations made a public appeal, and that Hickerson told Eban that troops were definitely needed for a long time to come and that the Department hoped other countries would contribute.13

Office of Strategic Services, Central Intelligence Group and the Directors of Central Intelligence

On September 19, 1945 the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked the Secretaries of War and the Navy to forward to the President a memorandum on the establishment of a central intelligence service upon the liquidation of the Office of Strategic Services.14 Truman's Executive Order 9621 of September 20, 1945 transferred the functions of the Research and Analysis Branch and the Presentation Branch of the OSS to an Interim Research and Intelligence Service in the Department of State, to be abolished at the close of business December 31, 1945. All other OSS functions, personnel, records and funds went to the Department of War, and the Office, including the Office of the Director of Strategic Services, was terminated. The order took effect October 1, 1945.15 A Bureau of the Budget memorandum to Truman of October 31, 1945 described the readjustment of the Government's intelligence activities to a post-war basis.16

On January 22, 1946 Truman addressed a directive to the Secretaries of State, War and the Navy designating them, with a personal representative of the President, as the National Intelligence Authority. Under it the departments assigned persons and facilities to form a Central Intelligence Group under a Director of Central Intelligence, who was to be designated by the President, to be responsible to the Authority and to sit as a non-voting member. Paragraph 4 reads: "No police, law enforcement or internal security functions shall be exercised under this directive."17

Sidney W. Souers, the first Director of Central Intelligence, wrote Truman on April 17, 1946 that a three million dollar item in the Federal Bureau of Investigation appropriation had been eliminated because the congressional committee believed it did not meet the President's desire that the FBI not engage in activities beyond the continental limits.18 Hoyt Vandenberg was Director by July 3, 1946, when he wrote to J. Edgar Hoover on cooperation; on August 12, 1946 Truman's chief of staff William D. Leahy sent Vandenberg a memorandum on relieving FBI agents then serving in Latin America, recording that the Attorney General wished the provision of replacements expedited and that the President wished the Group to comply.19

Truman approved the National Security Act of 1947 on July 26, 1947, as Public Law 80-253. Section 101 established the National Security Council. Section 102 established the Central Intelligence Agency under the council, headed by a Director of Central Intelligence.20

On December 17, 1947 the National Security Council issued NSC 4-A, directing the Director of Central Intelligence, then Roscoe Hillenkoetter, to conduct covert psychological operations within available funds against Soviet and Soviet-inspired activities.21

Psychological Strategy Board

On April 4, 1951 Truman addressed a directive to the Secretaries of State and Defense and to the Director of Central Intelligence establishing the Psychological Strategy Board. The directive's stated goal was "more effective" planning, coordination and conduct of psychological operations within approved national policies. Gordon Gray served as the board's first director.22

Campaign of Truth, 1950

On March 1, 1950 Truman wrote to Dean Acheson after a conversation with David Sarnoff, chairman of the Radio Corporation of America, who had suggested a committee to examine the Voice of America. Truman asked Acheson to consider the proposal: "I wish you would consider that, and we will discuss it when you come over tomorrow."23

On March 6 Edward W. Barrett proposed "a new high-level committee of Sarnoff, etc., to look for added means of getting the truth behind the Iron Curtain." His memorandum added that the committee "would not confine itself to radio but would look into such proposals as the hardy perennial of utilizing balloons to drop leaflets."24 Daniel Bessner wrote that Barrett later claimed to have helped Truman prepare the speech of April 20, 1950 that became known as the Campaign of Truth, drawing in part on the conclusions of an April 1950 symposium.25

In the April 20 address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Truman described the challenge posed by "imperialistic communism" as "a struggle, above all else, for the minds of men." He called for "a great campaign of truth" to make the United States heard around the world.26

Point Four and NSC 68

In his inaugural address of January 20, 1949 Truman set out as his fourth point: "we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas." The program became known as Point Four Program.27

On January 31, 1950 Truman directed the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense to undertake a reexamination of the objectives of the United States in peace and war and their effect on strategic plans, in light of the probable fission bomb capability and possible thermonuclear bomb capability of the Soviet Union. The resulting report to the President, dated April 7, 1950, was transmitted to the National Security Council on April 14, 1950 as NSC-68, with a covering letter from Truman stating his desire that no publicity be given to the report or its contents without his approval.28

Korean War and the relief of MacArthur

On April 11, 1951 Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his commands in the Far East. The statement issued with the order read in part: "With deep regret I have concluded that General of the Army Douglas MacArthur is unable to give his wholehearted support to the policies of the United States Government and of the United Nations in matters pertaining to his official duties."29 The order named Matthew B. Ridgway as his successor: "You will turn over your commands, effective at once, to Lt. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway."29

The White House released the same day a Presidential memorandum dated December 5, 1950, transmitted to MacArthur by a Joint Chiefs message of December 6. The memorandum directed that no speech, press release or other public statement concerning foreign or military policy be released until cleared by the State Department or the Department of Defense. A Joint Chiefs message of March 20, 1951, also released that day, told MacArthur that the President was about to announce that the United Nations was prepared to discuss conditions of settlement in Korea.29

Hiroshima and the Soviet test

On August 6, 1945 Truman's statement opened: "SIXTEEN HOURS AGO an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base." It described the atomic bomb as "a harnessing of the basic power of the universe."30 On September 23, 1949 he announced: "We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R."31

Operation Paperclip

On August 30, 1946 Acting Secretary of State Acheson sent Truman a memorandum, "Interim Exploitation of German and Austrian Specialists in the United States," presenting a statement of policy on the exploitation of selected German and Austrian specialists. It stated that since shortly after V-E Day the War Department had operated a project known as "Paperclip," under which selected German scientists had been brought to the United States under military custody, and that the statement provided for expanding Paperclip to include up to 1,000 specialists. It stated: "The War Department would be responsible for custody and for excluding from the program persons with Nazi or militaristic records." Truman initialed the memorandum with the notation "approved 9/3/46."32 A War Department memorandum to the President dated September 4, 1946 urged approval of the policy, citing contracts of specialists already in the United States that were expiring that month.33

The set of Truman Library documents released in 2009 also includes the screening terms of State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee 257/22, Appendix B, under which German specialists were to be brought to the United States. The commanding general of the United States Forces European Theater was to screen candidates on the basis of available records. A person found to have been a member of the Nazi Party and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazism or militarism, could not be brought over under the terms. Position or honors awarded under the Nazi regime solely on account of scientific or technical ability did not by themselves disqualify a specialist. In doubtful cases the commanding general could transport the specialist to the United States for further interrogation and screening.34

Annie Jacobsen wrote in 2014 that the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency altered the records of scientists whose backgrounds disqualified them, including Nazi Party or SS membership and wartime conduct, before the State Department and other agencies reviewed them for clearance. Jacobsen also wrote that Truman's initial directive barred the recruitment of ardent Nazis.35

National Security Agency

On October 24, 1952 Truman sent a memorandum to the Secretaries of State and Defense under the subject "Communications Intelligence Activities."36 It designated the two secretaries as a special committee of the National Security Council for communications intelligence, and designated the Department of Defense as executive agent of the government for producing communications intelligence information. It replaced the provisions of National Security Council Intelligence Directive No. 9 on the composition, responsibilities and procedures of the United States Communications Intelligence Board and reconstituted the board as a body acting for the special committee. The board's membership included the Director of the National Security Agency and a representative of the Central Intelligence Agency.36 The National Security Archive's index to the memorandum states that it, together with a Department of Defense directive, established NSA and that a revised NSCID 9 implementing it is dated December 29, 1952.37 The National Security Agency's history of its origins states that the President and the National Security Council issued a revised version of NSCID 9 on October 24, 1952 and that Major General Ralph J. Canine became the first Director of NSA on November 4, 1952.38

Washington sightings, July 1952

Gerald K. Haines, a CIA historian, wrote that a buildup of sightings over the United States in 1952, especially in July, "alarmed the Truman administration." Radar scopes at Washington National Airport and Andrews Air Force Base tracked unidentified blips on July 19 and 20, and the blips reappeared on July 27, when interceptor aircraft were scrambled and found nothing.39 Haines wrote: "The White House wanted to know what was happening, and the Air Force quickly offered the explanation that the radar blips might be the result of "temperature inversions."" He added that a later Civil Aeronautics Administration investigation confirmed that such radar blips were quite common and were caused by temperature inversions.39

Edward J. Ruppelt, the head of the Air Force's Project Blue Book, wrote that after the first Washington sighting he flew to Washington and that on the following day, about 10:00 A.M., the President's air aide, Brigadier General Robert B. Landry, called Air Force intelligence at President Truman's request to find out what was going on. Ruppelt took the call and told Landry that the radar target could have been caused by weather but that there was no proof.4041 Ruppelt wrote that on Tuesday, July 29, Major General John A. Samford, Director of Air Force Intelligence, held a press conference at 4:00 P.M., the largest and longest the Air Force had held since World War II; that a captain's answers on the possibility of temperature inversions were construed by the press as the Air Force's answer "even though today the twin sightings are still carried as unknowns"; and that on each night of a Washington sighting there was a temperature inversion, "but it was never strong enough to affect the radar the way inversions normally do."3942

Haines recorded that the Central Intelligence Agency formed a special study group within its Office of Scientific Intelligence and Office of Current Intelligence in response, and that H. Marshall Chadwell briefed Walter Bedell Smith, the Director of Central Intelligence, in December 1952.39 The sequence led to the Robertson Panel of January 1953.

Haines also addressed documents that surfaced around 1984 and that some UFOlogists said proved Truman created a top secret committee in 1947, Majestic-12. He wrote: "Most if not all of these documents have proved to be fabrications." He added: "Yet the controversy persists."43

Limit CIA Role to Intelligence, 1963

On December 22, 1963 the Washington Post published "Limit CIA Role to Intelligence," an article by Truman datelined Independence, Missouri, December 21; the syndicated article also appeared in The Detroit News on December 22, 1963 and in the Lafayette, Indiana, Journal and Courier on December 21, 1963.44 In it Truman wrote: "For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the government." He wrote: "I never had any thought when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak and dagger operations." He asked that the agency "be restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the President" and that "its operational duties be terminated or properly used elsewhere."44 The former CIA analyst Ray McGovern wrote in 2013 that the article named "the first temporary director of the CIA, Adm. Souers, and the later permanent directors of the CIA, Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg and Allen Dulles" as men of "the highest character, patriotism and integrity"; he also wrote that the Post ran the article in its early edition of December 22 and removed it from later editions; that Truman's handwritten notes in the Truman Library, made nine days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, recorded that the CIA had worked as he intended only "when I had control"; and that on December 27, 1963 Souers sent Truman a "Dear Boss" letter blaming Allen Dulles for making the CIA "a different animal than the one I tried to set up for you" and criticizing the invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. McGovern also wrote that Dulles visited Truman in Independence on the afternoon of April 17, 1964 and asked him to retract the article; that Dulles's memorandum of the conversation, written four days later for CIA general counsel Lawrence Houston, recorded Truman as saying the Post article was "all wrong" and that he "seemed quite astounded at it"; and that Truman's letter of June 10, 1964 to the managing editor of Look magazine restated his criticism, saying he never intended the CIA to be involved in "strange activities."45

Footnotes

  1. Harry S. Truman Library, "Jackson County Courthouse, Independence," place record. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/places/in21-22.htm ↩︎

  2. National Archives at College Park, "Tom Pendergast Inmate File: Record of Court Commitment" (Notorious Offenders Files, NARA ID 580698, Leavenworth inmate no. 55295, created May 29, 1939), Pendergast Years collection, Kansas City Public Library. https://pendergastkc.org/collection/national-archives-college-park-maryland/naracp-580698-0004-0003/tom-pendergast-inmate-file-record-court-commitment ↩︎

  3. National Archives at College Park, "U.S. vs. Otto P. Higgins: Judgment and Commitment," Criminal Case No. 14653, Pendergast Years collection, Kansas City Public Library. https://pendergastkc.org/owning-organization/national-archives-college-park-maryland ↩︎

  4. Congressional Record, July 21, 1947, p. 9516, reprinting "Justice Department's Kansas City Brush White?," Tampa (Fla.) Daily Times, July 17, 1947, and remarks on the charges of Senator Kem. https://www.congress.gov/80/crecb/1947/07/21/GPO-CRECB-1947-pt8-1-2.pdf ↩︎

  5. Harry S. Truman Library, "Jacobson, Edward Papers," finding aid, summary and Correspondence File description. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/hstpaper/jacobson.htm ↩︎

  6. Harry S. Truman Library, "Jacobson, Edward Papers," finding aid, summary. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/hstpaper/jacobson.htm ↩︎

  7. Harry S. Truman Library, "Jacobson, Edward Papers," finding aid, Personal File series description (autobiographical sketch and handwritten chronology of Jacobson's role in the recognition of Israel). https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/hstpaper/jacobson.htm ↩︎

  8. Harry S. Truman Library, "Granoff, A. J. Papers," finding aid, including the reference to the Granoff oral history, OH #68, conducted in 1969. https://trumanlibrary.gov/granoff.htm ↩︎

  9. Harry S. Truman, "Statement by the President Announcing Recognition of the State of Israel," May 14, 1948, Public Papers, Harry S. Truman Library. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/100/statement-president-announcing-recognition-state-israel ↩︎

  10. Harry S. Truman Library, "Recognition of the State of Israel," online collection, document listing for Palestine, Israel - Jewish State, 1948-1949, OF 204-D (item dated January 31, 1949). https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/online-collections/recognition-of-state-of-israel ↩︎

  11. Harry S. Truman Library, "Abraham Feinberg Oral History Interview," interview of August 23, 1973 by Richard D. McKinzie, biographical note. https://trumanlibrary.gov/oralhist/feinberg.htm ↩︎

  12. Seymour M. Hersh, The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy (Random House, 1991), chapter 2. ↩︎

  13. Telegram from the Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in France (Gadel 391), December 8, 1951, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, volume V, The Near East and Africa, document 546 (file 320/12-851). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1951v05/d546 ↩︎

  14. Memorandum from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Secretary of War Stimson and Secretary of the Navy Forrestal, September 19, 1945, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, document 13. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d13 ↩︎

  15. Executive Order 9621, "Termination of the Office of Strategic Services and Disposition of Its Functions," September 20, 1945, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, document 14, paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 6. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d14 ↩︎

  16. Memorandum from the Director of the Bureau of the Budget (Smith) to President Truman, October 31, 1945, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, document 38. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d38 ↩︎

  17. Presidential Directive on Coordination of Foreign Intelligence Activities, January 22, 1946, paragraphs 1, 2 and 4, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, document 71 (printed from Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman, 1946, pp. 88-89). https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d71 ↩︎

  18. Memorandum from the Director of Central Intelligence (Souers) to President Truman, April 17, 1946, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, document 109. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d109 ↩︎

  19. Letter from the Director of Central Intelligence (Vandenberg) to the Director of the FBI (Hoover), July 3, 1946, document 113; Memorandum from the President's Chief of Staff (Leahy) to the Director of Central Intelligence (Vandenberg), August 12, 1946, document 125, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d125 ↩︎

  20. National Security Act of July 26, 1947, Public Law 80-253, 61 Stat. 495, sections 101 and 102. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-61/pdf/STATUTE-61-Pg495.pdf ↩︎

  21. Memorandum from the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Souers) to Director of Central Intelligence Hillenkoetter, December 17, 1947 (editorial note on NSC 4-A), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950, Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, document 257. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d257 ↩︎

  22. Editorial note on the directive of April 4, 1951 establishing the Psychological Strategy Board, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950-1955, The Intelligence Community, document 60. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950-55Intel/d60 ↩︎

  23. Truman to Acheson, March 1, 1950, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, volume IV, document 127. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v04/d127 ↩︎

  24. Barrett to Acheson, March 6, 1950, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, volume IV, document 131. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v04/d131 ↩︎

  25. Daniel Bessner, "The Night Watchman," pp. 229 and 237 with note 38 (Barrett's later claim). ↩︎

  26. Harry S. Truman, "Address on Foreign Policy at a Luncheon of the American Society of Newspaper Editors," April 20, 1950, Public Papers, Harry S. Truman Library. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/92/address-foreign-policy-luncheon-american-society-newspaper-editors ↩︎

  27. Harry S. Truman, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1949, Public Papers, Harry S. Truman Library. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/19/inaugural-address ↩︎

  28. Report to the National Security Council by the Executive Secretary (Lay), NSC 68, April 14, 1950, enclosing the President's letter and the Report to the President pursuant to the Presidential directive of January 31, 1950 (April 7, 1950), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, volume I, document 85. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v01/d85 ↩︎

  29. Harry S. Truman, "Statement and Order by the President on Relieving General MacArthur of His Commands," April 11, 1951, Public Papers, Harry S. Truman Library, including the note listing the Presidential memorandum of December 5, 1950 and the Joint Chiefs message of March 20, 1951. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/77/statement-and-order-president-relieving-general-macarthur-his-commands ↩︎

  30. Harry S. Truman, "Statement by the President Announcing the Use of the A-Bomb at Hiroshima," August 6, 1945, American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/231158 ↩︎

  31. Harry S. Truman, "Statement by the President Announcing the First Atomic Explosion in the U.S.S.R.," September 23, 1949, Public Papers, Harry S. Truman Library. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/216/statement-president-announcing-first-atomic-explosion-ussr ↩︎

  32. Memorandum for the President from Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson, "Interim Exploitation of German and Austrian Specialists in the United States," received August 30, 1946, with the notation "approved 9/3/46," Harry S. Truman Library document set on Operation Paperclip (FOIA release printed April 21, 2009), page 6 of 10 of the second group. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/trumanlibrary-paperclip.pdf ↩︎

  33. Memorandum for the President, War Department, September 4, 1946, Harry S. Truman Library document set on Operation Paperclip (FOIA release printed April 21, 2009), page 5 of 10 of the second group. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/trumanlibrary-paperclip.pdf ↩︎

  34. Harry S. Truman Library document set on Operation Paperclip (FOIA release printed April 21, 2009), SWNCC 257/22, Appendix B, paragraph 5, copy hosted by The Black Vault. https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/trumanlibrary-paperclip.pdf ↩︎

  35. Annie Jacobsen, Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America (Little, Brown, 2014). ↩︎

  36. Memorandum to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, "Communications Intelligence Activities," October 24, 1952, National Security Agency declassified documents, National Security Archive copy. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB23/docs/doc02.pdf ↩︎

  37. National Security Archive, "Declassified - The National Security Agency," Electronic Briefing Book 23, entries for Documents 2a (Truman memorandum, October 24, 1952) and 2b (NSCID No. 9, December 29, 1952). https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB23/ ↩︎

  38. National Security Agency, "Origins of NSA" (history adapted from the Senate Select Committee on Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence, Book I, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, April 26, 1976). https://irp.fas.org/nsa/oldind.html ↩︎

  39. Gerald K. Haines, "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90," Studies in Intelligence (1997), sections "Early CIA Concerns, 1947-52" and "The Robertson Panel, 1952-53." https://sgp.fas.org/library/ciaufo.html ↩︎

  40. Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Doubleday, 1956), chapter 12, "The Washington Merry-Go-Round." https://nicap.org/rufo/rufo-12.htm ↩︎

  41. Harry S. Truman Library, "Landry, Robert B. Papers," finding aid (Landry as Air Force Aide to the President, 1948-1953). https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/personal-papers/robert-b-landry-papers ↩︎

  42. Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Doubleday, 1956), chapter 12. https://nicap.org/rufo/rufo-12.htm ↩︎

  43. Gerald K. Haines, "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90," Studies in Intelligence (1997), section "The 1980s." https://sgp.fas.org/library/ciaufo.html ↩︎

  44. Harry S. Truman, "Limit CIA Role to Intelligence," Washington Post, December 22, 1963, datelined Independence, Missouri, December 21. The syndicated article was printed in The Detroit News, December 22, 1963, p. 16, under the subhead "CIA Diverted" (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1382512360/), and in the Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Indiana), December 21, 1963, p. 8. ↩︎

  45. Ray McGovern, "Truman's True Warning on the CIA," Consortium News, December 22, 2013. https://consortiumnews.com/2013/12/22/trumans-true-warning-on-the-cia/ ↩︎