President Approves 1950 Psychological Warfare Plan
By Theo Marchetti ·
State Department and CIA officials integrated overt and covert psychological warfare, censorship, and domestic information to ensure a rapid transition to wartime operations.
The document is a report from the National Security Council, designated NSC 59/1 and dated March 9, 1950. It is titled "THE FOREIGN INFORMATION PROGRAM AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE PLANNING." The text establishes a formal bridge between the activities of a government at peace and its conduct during a "national emergency or war."
According to the record, foreign information programs in peacetime and psychological warfare programs in wartime are not separate endeavors but are "established instruments of national policy." The objective of the report is to ensure continuity between the two. The document argues that the activities conducted by various departments and agencies of the U.S. Government during peace form the "essential nucleus" for the psychological warfare required in the initial stages of a conflict.
Overt Psychological Warfare
The report places the Secretary of State at the center of this operation. The Secretary is tasked with the "formulation of policies and plans" for the national foreign information program during peacetime. However, the role expands during a national emergency, where the Secretary becomes responsible for the "formulation of national psychological warfare policy."
To implement this, the document orders the establishment of an organization within the Department of State. This entity is designed to initiate interdepartmental plans and advise the Secretary. When it comes to "overt psychological warfare," the organization must coordinate its plans with the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. If these plans have a "direct impact on war plans," they require the concurrence of the Joint Chiefs.
The record is specific about the boundaries of execution. The Department of Defense is to control the execution of approved plans within "theaters of military operations," while the Department of State maintains control in "areas other than theaters of military operations."
Censorship and Domestic Information
Paragraph 4 of NSC 59/1 details the necessary coordination for overt psychological warfare during an emergency. The record explicitly states that these overt operations must be coordinated with three other areas: "Covert psychological warfare," "Censorship," and "Domestic information."
This coordination is intended to ensure a "rapid transition" from peacetime information gathering and dissemination to active wartime operations. While the document does not detail the specific methods of the "covert" side of the operation, it points toward the "NSC-10 series" for related planning. The public record establishes that the Central Intelligence Agency has, at various times and under various directives, attempted to influence public opinion both domestically and abroad. This report provides the organizational framework for how those efforts would interface with overt State Department activities.
The staffing of the new State Department organization reflects this interagency overlap. The Director is appointed by the Secretary of State, but the office is populated by policy consultants representing the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the National Security Resources Board. Crucially, it includes a consultant representing the Director of Central Intelligence and a staff composed of full-time personnel from the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
March 10, 1950
The document concludes by rescinding the NSC-4 and NSC-43 series, the latter of which had dealt with "Planning for Wartime Conduct of Overt Psychlogical Warfare."
The record provides a clear timeline of its own validation. The Council approved NSC 59 as amended on March 9. It was circulated as NSC 59/1 under a note from Lay and submitted to the President for consideration. Related files on these subjects exist in the NSArchive (GWU), including various Ambassadorial series and dissent channel messages, as well as the FRUS (State Dept) editorial notes on the intelligence community between 1950 and 1955. Other relevant records are held in the US National Archives under the "Representative on Internal Security Records" (NAID 16997758) and "Chronological Files" (NAID 2124177).
A memorandum from Lay to the National Security Council, dated March 10, indicates that the President approved NSC 59/1 on March 10.