[Executive Orders]

Executive Order No. 8381

Defining Certain Vital Military and Naval Installations and Equipment

Whereas section 1, of the act of January 12, 1938, 52 Stat. 3, provides:

  "That, whenever, in the interests of the national defense, the President
shall define certain vital military and naval installations or equipment or
requiring protection against the general dissemination of information relative
thereto, it shall be unlawful to make any photograph, sketch, picture, drawing,
map, or graphical representation of such vital military and naval installations
or equipment without first obtaining permission of the commanding officer of
the military or naval post, camp, or station concerned, or higher authority,
and promptly submitting the product obtained to such commanding officer or
higher authority for censorship or such other action as he may deem necessary.
Any person found guilty of a violation of this section shall upon conviction
be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment for not more
than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment."

  Now therefore by the virtue of the authority vested in me by the foregoing
statutory provisions, and in effectuation of the purposes of the said act of
January 12, 1938, I hereby define the following as vital military and naval
installations or equipment requiring protection against the general
dissemination of information relative thereto:

  1. All military or naval installations and equipment which are now
classified, designated and marked under the authority or at the direction of
the Secretary of War or the Secretary of the Navy as "secret", "confidential",
or "restricted", and all military or naval installations and equipment which
may hereafter be so classified designated, and marked with the approval or at
the direction of the President and located within:


  (a) Any military or naval reservation, post, arsenal, proving ground, range,
mine field, camp, fort, yard, station, district or area.

  (b) Any defensive sea area heretofore or hereafter established and existing
under authority of section 44 of the United States Criminal Code, as amended
by the act of March 4, 1917, 39 Stat. 1194 (U.S.C., title 18, sec. 96).

  (c) Any airspace reservation heretofore or hereafter established and existing
under authority of section 4 of the Air Commerce Act of 1926 (44 Stat. 570,
U.S.C., title 49, sec . 174).

  (d)  Any naval harbor closed to foreign vessels.

  (e)  Any area required for fleet purposes.

  (f)  Any commercial establishment engaged in the development or manufacture
of military or naval arms munitions, equipment, designs, ships, or vessels
for the United States Army or Navy.


  2.  All military or naval aircraft, weapons, ammunition vehicles, ships,
vessels, instruments, engines, manufacturing machinery, tools, devices, or any
other equipment whatsoever, in the possession of the Army or Navy, or in the
course of experimentation, development, manufacture, or delivery for the Army
or Navy, which are now classified, designated, and marked under the authority
or at the direction of the Secretary of War or the Secretary of the Navy as
"secret", confidential", or "restricted", and all such articles, materials or
equipment which may hereafter be so classified, designated, and marked with the
approval or at the direction of the President.

  3.  All official military or naval books, pamphlets, documents, reports,
drawings, photographs, contracts or specifications, which are now marked under
the authority or at the direction of the Secretary of War or the Secretary of
the Navy as "secret", "confidential", or "restricted", and all such articles or
equipment which may hereafter be so marked with the approval or at the
direction of the President.


Franklin D. Roosevelt
The White House
March 22, 1940
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