Released in Full: JFK's 'CIA Reorganization' That Never Was

A 1961 memo on CIA, fully released on Trump's order, reveals proposals for reining in the agency's power and privilege

President John F. Kennedy speaks about Laos at a press conference on Mar. 23, 1961. The “Schlesinger Memo” uses Laos as an example of the CIA’s chief of station pursuing “a different policy from that of the Ambassador.” (Credit: Cecil Stoughton/JFK Library)

With the release of 63,400 pages of assassination related files on Tuesday evening in response to President Trump’s Executive Order 14176 came a long-awaited White House memo on reorganizing the CIA. A page and a half of this document, presented to President Kennedy in June 1961, had remained fully redacted until three days ago. It illuminates the origins of policy tension between Kennedy and the CIA that would last the rest of his administration.