Letters from Former President Harry S. Truman to Senator Wayne Morse

February 22, 1963 stayned TRUMAN NARA Dear Wayne: I ran across an article in one of the newspapers, in which it was quoted that you are in favor of turning the Central Intelligence Agency over to the Congress. In 1945, on April 12th, I found that the information available to the President was usually incomplete and sometimes not reliable, so I proceeded to call in Allen Dulles, and one or two other people who were familiar with the situation, and set up an Intelligence Agency for the President, which included representatives from each of the Departments who were familiar with what I wanted. The agency was run strictly for intelligence purposes. Finally, the Congress decided to pass a law forcing me to use, in the agency, some people who were not familiar with what was wanted and who were very anxious to help those who were opposed to what I was trying to do and upset the applecart, and they suc- ceeded admirably. Allen Dulles did a wonderful job but 1, through the State Depart- ment, had representatives in the Government of Iran and other Near Eastern Governments who were not for giving me, as President of the United States, the information I needed. That was true also in Central and South America and several other places. The President, as you know, must have information on which he can rely as to what is going on in the various countries. That is what the State Department is suppose to do, but there were a large number of people in the State Department when I took over, who were certain I did not know what was going on in the world and they tried to keep me from finding out. That was the reason for the Central Intelligence Agency being set up. It was set up as an arm of the government under the dir- ect control of the President.