Ifr 4EOIATE RELEASE AUGUST 2 1961 DPARTNENT OF DEFENSE ANNOUNCES NEW DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY NO 777—61 OXford 53201 Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell L Gilpatric today announced the establishment of a new military intelligence organization the Defense Intelligence Agency COlA This new Defense Agency will report through the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Secretary of Defense and will combine a number of intelligence functions heretofore carried out Independently by the separate military departments Consolidation of certain intelligence functions under the Joint Chiefs of Staff Is in full consonance with the concepts embodied in the National Security Act of 1947 as amended and particularly the provisions of the Defense Reorganization Aàt of 195$ Kr Cilpatric emphasized that this significant change in the organization and management of Defense intelligence functions has been made with the approval of President’s roreign Intelligence Advisory Board Mr Gilpatric characterized the principal objectives in establishing the LIlA as obtaining greater unity of effort among all components of the Department of Defense in developlngmilitary intelligence and as strengthening the over all capacity of the Department for collection production and dissiination of Defense intelligence Information Mr Gilpatric also stated that Secretary of Defense McNamara and he expected that this new Defense Agency would result in more efficient allocation of critical intelligence resources more effective management of all Department of Defense intelligence activities and the elimination of duplicating facilities organizations and tasks The establishment of the Defense Intelligence Agency was based primarily on a concept and plan developed by the joint Chiefs of Staff at the request of Secretary McNamara It represents the culmination of intensive studies on Defense intelligence activities conducted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and ether components of the DoD over the last six months Mr Gilpatric said that the new Defense Intelligence Agency will follow a carefully planned time-phased schedule of 1mplementation and that it would take a period of time to become fully operational He emphasized that the implementation schedule will be carefully arranged so that there will be no disruption of vital DoD intelligence activities or capabilities during the activation period It is anticipated that the Director of the new agency will be a three star general or flag officer on active duty His term of office will be for four years and his appointment will be announced shortly END