Jackson Committee

Presidential committee established in 1953 to assess the Cold War activities of the Soviet Union and to evaluate the United States information campaign against communism. Originally known as the U.S. President's Committee on International Information Activities, the Jackson Committee was created by recently elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the suggestion of his former military adviser, Charles Douglas Jackson (better known as C. D. Jackson).

Jackson was a psychological warfare expert who advised then President-Elect Eisenhower of his concern for the status of the U.S. psychological warfare program and that of the Soviet Union. Just four days after his inauguration, President Eisenhower officially mandated the President's Committee on International Information Activities, with the mission of assessing U.S. information efforts and policies related to national security and foreign policy.

The President's Committee became known as the Jackson Committee not because of C. D. Jackson, but because the former deputy director of central intelligence, William H. Jackson, was appointed the committee's chair. Given its mandate, the Jackson Committee interviewed several hundred government representatives, including members of Congress, and evaluated classified documents to arrive at its conclusions and recommendations.

Among its conclusions, the committee report described Soviet ambitions for world domination and a communist world led by the Soviet Union. Given this pessimistic analysis, the Jackson Committee recommended continued military buildup until the Soviet Union was no longer considered a significant threat. The committee's recommendations for U.S. information programs spurred the establishment of the United States Information Agency in 1953.

The Jackson Committee's mission to assess Soviet activities came at the dawn of the Cold War, and its findings reflected the distrust of Soviet and communist intentions that pervaded the time period.