303 Committee
U.S. National Security Council covert-action oversight subcommittee (1964–1970)
Not to be confused with
Majestic 12
.
The 303 Committee was the Johnson-administration designation of the National Security Council (NSC) subcommittee responsible for approving CIA covert operations. It was created on 2 June 1964 when the Special Group was renamed under National Security Action Memorandum 303, after the older name and charter had been exposed in the press; an NSC staffer had recommended that the replacement be "something utterly drab and innocuous" to deflect attention, and the number was simply that of the authorizing memorandum.
Function and continuity
The 303 Committee inherited unchanged the charter of its predecessor: it received advance notice of major CIA covert programs and was "the normal channel for giving policy approval for such programs," sitting at the apex of the covert-action approval chain beneath the President. Its standing members were the designated representatives of the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, a representative of the President (typically the National Security Advisor), the Director of Central Intelligence, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The body was the direct successor of the 5412 Committee and the direct predecessor of the 40 Committee, into which it was renamed under National Security Decision Memorandum 40 in February 1970 after the "303" label in turn surfaced publicly. Like its sibling designations it reported to the President through the NSC.
The committee oversaw covert action during the height of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the early agency operations in Chile later examined by the Church Committee.
Alleged role in the UFO cover-up
William Cooper held that the 303 Committee was a public cover designation for the secret committee he said actually managed the alien presence, the body he called Majesty Twelve or MJ-12. In his account the committee "became the 303 Committee" under Johnson "because the name 5412 had been compromised in the book The Secret Government," and across administrations "only the name changed." The fuller form of this renaming theory is set out in the account of the alleged Majestic 12 committee.
Cooper's identification rests on his testimony alone. The declassified record and the Church Committee's reconstruction describe the 303 Committee's remit as Cold War covert action, with no documented connection to crash-recovery or extraterrestrial matters; the one verifiable element of his claim is the uncontroversial fact that the committee genuinely was a single renamed body whose label changed once each public exposure forced it.
See also
References
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