In January 1950, the National Security Council (NSC) issued Intelligence Directive No. 13, entitled "Exploitation of Soviet and Satellite Defectors Outside the United States." This directive specifically defined defectors as,
· Individuals who escape from the control of the USSR or countries in the Soviet orbit, or who, being outside such jurisdiction or authority, are unwilling to return to it, and who are of particular interest to the U.S. Government because:
o They are able to add valuable new or confirmatory information to existing U.S. knowledge of the Soviet world, and
o Their defection can be exploited in the psychological field.
NSC authorized and directed that "The Central Intelligence Agency shall be responsible for the covert exploitation of defectors, and shall … coordinate all matters concerned with the handling and disposition of declared defectors from the Soviet Union and the satellite states in order to assure the effective exploitation of all defectors for operational, intelligence, or psychological purposes by the U.S. Government."
NSC Directive No. 13 included these points:
Subject to the overall direction of the Chief of Mission, CIA representatives in the field shall have operating responsibility outside the U.S. occupied areas for:
a. Providing secure facilities and preliminary assessment of a defector’s bona fides and his intelligence or other potential value to the U.S. Government.
b. Assuring that the other IAC (International Advisory Committee) agencies have adequate opportunity to exploit a defector for intelligence or operational purposes, including immediate access to the defector in the field.
c. Arranging secure movement of defectors as required.
Project HARVARD was activated initially in 1948 to provide safe-house and Operational aid facilities for all CIA activities in Germany. HARVARD was expanded in 1952 when the CIA set up the "Defector Reception Center" (DRC) near Frankfurt and Kaiserslautern. The objectives of the Project were changed when HARVARD was assigned
responsibility for the rehabilitation and resettlement of defectors, agents, and agent-trainees as their usefulness to the CIA is exhausted. In this latter capacity, HARVARD strives, insofar as possible, to resettle some of these individuals with an eye to their future usefulness for defector inducement and Psychological warfare purposes. In effect, HARVARD handles the resettlement aspects of the Defector Program, to which, under NSCID No. 13, the CIA is firmly committed.
CIA had another defector project at the Frankfurt, cryptonym CABEZONE, which was financially separately supported by HARVARD. Actual debriefing and interrogation of defectors and potential defectors, including the use of the lie detector, was the responsibility of the CABEZONE officers. Afterward, if approved by CABEZONE, the defectors would be turned over to HARVARD for relocation and resettlement. The number of resettlements from 1953 through 1961:
1953 95
1954 182
1955 61
1956 114
1957 194
1958 90
1959 93
1960 56
1961 74
For example, during the fiscal year 1953, HARVARD successfully resettled 95 defectors, of which 55 were resettled between 1 January and 1 July 1953. HARVARD provided for,
· immediate housing and subsistence on the local economy,
· arranges for documentation and legal status in Germany,
· takes care of personal needs, welfare, and morale problems,
· arranges for physical examinations and medical and dental care when indicated,
· arranges for language instruction and apprenticeship training,
· handles official formalities involving births, weddings, name changes, European travel, etc., and
· arranges for transportation to resettlement destination
