13 December 2018

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) today released the fifth of six sets of declassified daily intelligence reports President Harry Truman received from CIA and its predecessor organization, the Central Intelligence Group. Known then as the Daily Summary, the product continues now as the President’s Daily Brief.

Today’s release totals 403 pages of Daily Summary reports from 1949—the year the long-running Chinese civil war came to an end with Mao Zedong’s Communist forces taking control of the country over the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek. Following the steadily weakening political and military position of the Nationalists throughout the year, Chiang and his supporters left China for Taiwan in December, where he served as President of the Republic of China until his death in 1975.

In addition, this release includes reports about the Berlin crisis, negotiations involving the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Soviet efforts to isolate Marshal Tito’s Yugoslavia.

For a brief history of the Daily Summary, refer to this story.

To read more of these declassified intelligence reports, check out the four previous installments.

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