Another department within the CIA, the Directorate of Operations (DO), formerly known as the Directorate for Plans or Clandestine Services, has never released information about its internal organization. However, a memoir published by Duane R. Clarridge, chief of operations for the DO from 1973 to 1975, indicates that by 1957, the DO had a Near East and South Asia division, more frequently called the Near East division. Judging from information mentioned in Clarridge’s memoir, the DO’s Near East division probably corresponded to the State Department’s post-1974 Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.

Source: Duane R. Clarridge (with Digby Diehl), A Spy for All Seasons: My Life in the CIA (New York: Scribner, 1997).