CIA releases declassified material from Truman era
By Loren Blinde
August 16, 2018
On August 15, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released the first set of declassified material in a series of six releases of the daily intelligence report President Harry Truman received from the CIA and its predecessor organization, the Central Intelligence Group, between 1946 and 1951. Known then as “The Daily Summary,” the product continues today in the form of the President’s Daily Brief (PDB).
Today’s release, available here, includes:
- The first 20 Daily Summary reports, which highlight the intelligence President Truman received to help address the challenges the U.S. faced in the immediate aftermath of World War II;
- A 1973 CIA report, “Keeping the President Informed,” about the evolution of the Daily Summary; and
- A chapter titled, “The First ‘First Customer:’ Harry Truman,” from a forthcoming history of the PDB by CIA Chief Historian David Robarge.
The next mid-monthly installment of “The Daily Summary: Informing President Truman” will be available this September with a subsequent release each month through January 2019. The entire collection totals more than 3,000 pages and includes intelligence President Truman received regarding topics spanning the Berlin Airlift, the Chinese Revolution, and the Korean War.
For a brief history of the Daily Summary, refer to this story.
Source: CIA
