"The Hoover Commission's Clark Committee, set up in 1954 to study the structure and administration of the CIA, reported to Congress in 1955 that: 'The National Intelligence Survey [NIS] is an invaluable publication which provides the essential elements of basic intelligence on all areas of the world. There will always be a continuing requirement for keeping the Survey up-to-date.' The Factbook was created as an annual summary and update to the encyclopedic NIS studies. The first classified Factbook was published in August 1962, and the first unclassified version was published in June 1971. The NIS program was terminated in 1973 except for the Factbook, map, and gazetteer components. The 1975 Factbook was the first to be made available to the public with sales through the US Government Printing Office (GPO). The Factbook was first made available on the Internet in June 1997. The year 2009 marks the 62nd anniversary of the establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency and the 66th year of continuous basic intelligence support to the US Government by The World Factbook and its two predecessor programs."
"History: A Brief History of Basic Intelligence and The World Factbook," www.cia.gov, Apr. 16, 2009
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