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The National Security Council:
a.
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Noted and discussed an oral briefing by the Director
of Central Intelligence on the subject, with specific
reference to the situations in Indonesia, the Middle
East, and France.
Noted the President's request that the Director of
Central Intelligence include in his oral briefing at
the next Council meeting a short discussion of the
topography of Sumatra.
NOTE:
4.
The action in b above, as approved by the President,
gubsequently transmitted to the Director of Central
Intelligence for appropriate implementation.
ESTIMATE OF THE WORLD SITUATION
(iis 100-58)
General Cutler briefed the Council on the relationship between the new estimate of the world situation and the problem of revising our basic national security policy, on which task the Ns¢c
Planning Board was already engaged.
(A copy of General Cutler's
briefing note is filed in the minutes of the meeting, end another
is attached to this memorandum. )
After pointing out the difficulty of preparing such an
estimate, which required the contributions of the entire intelligence community, Mr. Allen Dulles read a summary of what he considered the most significant changes between the present estimate and
the "Estimate of the World Situation” made last year. In the meantime, General Cutler had distributed a statement entitled "Important
Points in the Estimate of the World Situation pte 100-58)", which
had been selected by the NSC Planning Board.
(A covy of this statement is filed in the minutes of the meeting, and another is attached
to this memorandum.)
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points which the Planning Board had singled out.
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When Mr. Allen Dulles had finished his summary, General
Cutler explained that the statement he had just distributed represented an independent effort by the Planning Board to focus the
Council's attention on four or five major points in this very disturbing estimate of the world situation. There was not any difference, essentially, between what Mr. Dulles had just said that the
It wes the hope
of the Planning Board, through this device, to obtain some expression of opinion from the Council by way of guidance in the current
review of our basic national security policy.
General Cutler then summarized briefly the material in
the written Planning Board statement contained under the heading
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