Members of the United States Intelligence Board 1962-63

The United States Intelligence Board was set up by President Eisenhower in 1957. It’s purpose was to provide a consolidated channel for all intelligence chiefs across the various intelligence bodies in the United States government to provide advice to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI).

Its creation came on the recommendation of the Presidential Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities (later renamed the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, or PFIAB, by JFK), which was critical of the effectiveness of the Director of Central Intelligence, Allen Dulles, in coordinating the government’s intelligence efforts. A key part of the problem was that the Director of Central Intelligence was also the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; the latter competed with other intelligence agencies for resources and prestige.

The USIB was often referred to during the Cuban Missile Crisis, often as a short-hand way of implying consensus amongst the intelligence community.

Here’s a list of its members as of late-1962 through early-1963.¹

Name	Position
John McCone	Chairman / Director of Central Intelligence
Lieutenant General Marshall S. Carter	Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
Roger Hilsman	Director of Intelligence and Research, Department of State
Lieutenant General Joseph F. Carroll	Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense
Major General Alva R. Fitch	Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Department of the Army
Rear Admiral Vernon L. Lowrance	Assistant Chief of Naval Operations (Intelligence), Department of the Navy
Major General Robert A. Breitweiser	Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, United States Air Force
Lieutenant General Gordon A. Blake	Director, National Security Agency
Major General Richard Collins	Director for Intelligence, Joint Staff
Harry S. Traynor	Assistant General Manager, Atomic Energy Commission
Alan H. Belmont	Assistant to the Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation

USIB Members in 1965

If you’re looking for the membership of the board in April 1965, the National Security Archive has posted a posed group portrait from April 28, 1965, with the members identified in the caption.