President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board

President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities by Executive Order 10656, issued on February 6, 1956, printed in the Federal Register on February 8 (21 Fed. Reg. 859) and effective from January 13, 1956. Its members were drawn from persons "outside government" chosen for their "ability, experience, and knowledge" in matters of national defense and security, and served without pay beyond travel and per diem. The order directed the board to review the foreign intelligence work of the government and the performance of the Central Intelligence Agency and to report to the President "twice yearly (or more often if needed)."¹²

Board of Consultants

A White House release of January 13, 1956, named the first members: James R. Killian, Jr., president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as chairman; Admiral Richard L. Conolly (retired); Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle; Benjamin F. Fairless of United States Steel; General John E. Hull (retired); Joseph P. Kennedy, former ambassador to Great Britain; Robert A. Lovett, former Secretary of Defense; and Edward L. Ryerson of Inland Steel.²

Kennedy and Johnson

President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10938 on May 4, 1961, "Establishing the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board," with the function "to advise the President with respect to the objectives and conduct of the foreign intelligence and related activities." The board was to "conduct a continuing review and assessment of all functions of the Central Intelligence Agency" and report twice a year. Section 4 revoked Executive Order 10656.³

The White House announcement of May 4 listed Killian as chairman, with William O. Baker of Bell Labs, Doolittle, William L. Langer of Harvard University, Robert D. Murphy, former Under Secretary of State, and General Maxwell D. Taylor (retired). J. Patrick Coyne continued as executive secretary. On May 15 two more members were added: Gordon Gray, former Secretary of the Army and Eisenhower's assistant for national security affairs, and Clark Clifford, special counsel to Harry S. Truman.²

On September 10, 1963, Richard Helms, the CIA's Deputy Director for Plans, briefed a panel of the board in a session recorded as "Board Panel on Covert Action Operations," classified Top Secret. The briefing covered operations in British Guiana, Haiti, Italy, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba and Vietnam. Operations against Cuba were described as shifting "from external raids to internal sabotage operations," at about ten such operations a month, and the record states that in British Guiana the agency had secretly financed, through the AFL-CIO, a 79-day general strike against the government of Cheddi Jagan.⁴

At a press conference on January 19, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson said of Clifford's chairmanship of the board: "when I became President... I continued him in that capacity as I did most of the men serving with President Kennedy."²

Nixon

President Richard Nixon reconstituted the board by Executive Order 11460 of March 20, 1969. Its members included Taylor, Admiral George W. Anderson (retired), Baker, Gray, Edwin H. Land, Franklin B. Lincoln Jr., Franklin D. Murphy, Robert D. Murphy, Frank Pace Jr. and Nelson A. Rockefeller. Taylor resigned as chairman effective April 30, 1970. Anderson, Chief of Naval Operations from 1961 to 1963 and ambassador to Portugal from 1963 to 1966, succeeded him as chairman effective May 1, 1970.²

Abolition and Re-establishment

President Jimmy Carter abolished the board on May 4, 1977, by Executive Order 11984, whose operative text reads in full: "Executive Order No. 11460 of March 20, 1969, is hereby revoked."⁵

Executive Order 12863, issued by President Bill Clinton, provided: "There is hereby established within the White House Office, Executive Office of the President, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB). The PFIAB shall consist of not more than 16 members, who shall serve at the pleasure of the President." One third of the members at any time were, "to the extent practicable," to serve terms of no more than two years, and the President was to designate a chairman and vice chairman from among them.⁶

2001 Appointments

On October 5, 2001, the White House announced that President George W. Bush intended to appoint members "for a term of two years": Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft as chairman, with Cresencio S. Arcos, Jim Barksdale, Robert Addison Day, Stephen Friedman, Alfred Lerner, Ray Lee Hunt, Rita E. Hauser, David E. Jeremiah, Arnold Lee Kanter, James Calhoun Langdon, Jr., Marie Elizabeth Pate-Cornell, John Harrison Streicker and Peter Barton Wilson.⁷