Little known and scarcely mentioned outside the FBI, the Executives’ Conference materials span decades, from 1936 to the 1990s, and probably later. These papers provide a unique window into the history and culture of the FBI, and shed light on many interesting events.
According to historian Athan Theoharis, who made a career out of studying the FBI and its impact on society, the Executive Conference originally consisted of all the FBI assistant directors at the Washington DC Headquarters of the FBI[1]. The Conference met regularly to review and recommend changes in current programs and procedures.[2]
A description from the 1950s reported that the Conference met nearly every morning (or at minimum, every Monday and Wednesday[3]) at 10:30 with Associate Director Clyde Tolson as chairman, for sessions that often lasted 2 or 3 hours, discussing every major problem facing the FBI.[4] A typical meeting included issues of budget, strategy, administration and law.[5] It served as a sort of Board of Directors for the FBI in matters of policy and administration. Every executive present acts primarily as a member of the FBI strategy board, and only secondarily as a specialist from a particular division.[6]
The Conference minutes documented the discussions, the recommendations and the FBI director’s controlling decision. Theoharis writes: “The subjects ranged from the mundane – whether to invite certain local police officers to attend the FBI National Academy—to changes in FBI records policy, reassessment of important investigations and cases, and proposed changes in how “national security” investigations were to be conducted.”[7]
Records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) have been archived below. In addition, one researcher donated their past release, which may hold some repeated pages.
This case is ongoing with the FBI, and likely will have a price tag to get the remaining files. This page will be updated when that becomes available.
[1] Athan Theoharis, The FBI and the American Legion Contact Program, 1940-1966, Political Science Quarterly, Vol 100, No. 2 (Summer 1985), pp 271-286.
[2] Athan G. Theoharis, Chasing Spies: How the FBI failed in counterintelligence but promoted the Policies of McCarthyism in the Cold War years, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee (2002), pp 12-13
[3] Don Whitehead, The FBI Story, Pocket Books, 1966, p 142
[4] Louis Cassels, Meet the FBI Chief of Staff, Nation’s Business, December 1954, Vol 42, No. 12, pp. 28-29, 83-85
[5] Cassels
[6] Cassels
[7] Theoharis, Chasing Spies.
Here is a breakdown of the various sections released on this file, totaling 13,027 pages.
Note: Not all sections have been released, hence why the numbering skips certain sections. Each PDF file is searchable, within the limitations of the OCR process on older documents (meaning, it isn’t perfect), but offers a little help when searching through).
1511466-0 - File 1, Section 1.pdf 5.5M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 2.pdf 16M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 3.pdf 8.1M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 4.pdf 11M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 10.pdf 49M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 11.pdf 35M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 12.pdf 49M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 13.pdf 24M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 14.pdf 29M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 15.pdf 35M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 16.pdf 45M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 17.pdf 48M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 18.pdf 21M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 19.pdf 20M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 20.pdf 20M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 21.pdf 40M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 22.pdf 28M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 23.pdf 47M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 24.pdf 27M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 25.pdf 40M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 26.pdf 41M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 27.pdf 39M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 28.pdf 26M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 29.pdf 42M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 30.pdf 34M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 31.pdf 20M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 32.pdf 19M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 33.pdf 22M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 34.pdf 28M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 35.pdf 25M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 36.pdf 19M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 37.pdf 22M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 38.pdf 34M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 39.pdf 32M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 40.pdf 20M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 41.pdf 27M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 42.pdf 26M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 43.pdf 21M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 44.pdf 21M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 45.pdf 18M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 46.pdf 20M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 47.pdf 18M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 48.pdf 27M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 49.pdf 19M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 50.pdf 15M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 51.pdf 47M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 52.pdf 30M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 53.pdf 31M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 54.pdf 29M 1511466-0 - File 1, Section 55.pdf 17M
This post was published on September 4, 2022 5:43 pm
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