lly began operating 18 September 1947. Effective 1 October
1947, the Director of Central Intelligence assumed operational
responsibility for JANIS. On 13 January 1948, the National Security
Council issued Intelligence Directive (NSCID) No. 3, which officially
authorized the National Intelligence Survey (NIS) program as a
peacetime replacement for the wartime JANIS program. Before adequate
NIS sections could be produced, it was necessary to develop gazetteers
and maps for an accurate presentation of intelligence by the
contributing agencies. The US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) compiled
the names, the Department of the Interior produced the gazetteers, and
CIA produced the maps.

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 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 except for the Factbook and gazetteers in 1973.
The 1975 Factbook was the first to be made available to the public
with sales through the US Government Printing Office (GPO). The 1996
edition was the first to be printed by GPO. The year 1997 marks the
50th anniversary of the establishment of the Central Intelligence
Agency and the 54th year of continuous basic intelligence support to
the US Government by The World Factbook and its two predecessor
programs.

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NOTES AND DEFINITIONS

There have been some significant changes in this edition. A schema or
Guide to Country Profiles has been added. The new maps and flags
accompanying each country profile are in color. The country name Zaire
has been officially changed to Democratic Republic of the Congo. Congo
is now referred to as Republic of the Congo. New reference maps of the
United States, Ethnolinguistic Groups in Afghanistan, and Central
Africa have been included. Introduction is a new category with two
entries--Current issues and Historical perspective that now appear in
only a few country profiles, but