HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND DOCUMENTARY MATERIAL OF POTENTIAL UTILITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP02T06251R000900310012-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 14, 2012
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: November 18, 1980
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/15: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900310012-2
18 November 1980
MEMORANDUM FOR: Ambassador Laurence Silberman, Chairman,
and Other Members of the CIA Transition
Team
SUBJECT Historical Background and Documentary
Material of Potential Utility
I. Previous Transitions
1. None of the seven previous DCI/CIA "transitions"
with which I am personally familiar was or is directly analogous
to the transition we have been asked to facilitate. Nonetheless,
they may'contain some lessons we can profitably use. The
transitions in question are;:
(a) Dulles to McCone in November of 1961
(after a decent interval had lapsed following
the Bay of.Pigs). This transition occurred fairly
quickly during the course of President Kennedy's
first term, not during or concident with a change
in administration.
(b) McCone to Raborn, in the summer of 1965.
This shift also occurred fairly quickly during
the middle of a presidential term (Johnson's),
not at one's outset.
(c) Raborn to Helms in August/September of 1966.
Again, there was no presidential shift simultaneously
occurring. Furthermore, in this instance, little
"transitional" work was needed since Helms had already
been effectively running the Agency for some time
and did not even need to move his office. (He kept
what had been the DDCI's office, which he had occupied,
and simply made it the DCI's office).
(d) Helms to Schlesinger in February of 1973.
This move was made quite quickly, shortly after
President Nixon's second inauguration but not when
an administration was changing.
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(e) Schlesinger to Colby in the late spring
of 1973. This was another quick move made during
the course of a presidential term (Nixon). It also
had its unique features. Schlesinger was moved
quite quickly to the Defense Department after the firing
of Archibald Cox and shift of Elliot Richardson. Colby
was a life-long professional who, prior to becoming DCI,
was already the Agency's Executive Director-Comptroller
(then the number three position). There was little
formal transition, though things were made more than
a trifle complicated by the fact that Schlesinger
left in (if I remember correctly) May, President Nixon
named Colby as the designated successor almost imme-
diately, but he was not confirmed by the Senate until
the day before the. latter went into recess that summer,
and then (for some reason) he was not sworn in for
several weeks after that. As a result, Colby did not
actually assume the office until September of 1973.
This was quite a delicate period (which I remember
vividly since I was on the Agency's Executive/Management
Committee -at the time). Dick Walters (the DDCI) was
technically Acting Director after Schlesinger left and
until Colby formally took office. Bill was technically
Walters' subordinate, but was known to be the DCI-designate.
Most fortunately, all involved -- particularly both
Dick and Bill -- were consummate professionals and
gentlemen. As a result, a situation which could easily
have proved impossible was not, and actually worked rather
well.
(e) Colby to Bush in mid-1975. Once again,
this move did not precisely coincide with a shift in
presidential administration, though it did come
fairly soon after Vice President Ford moved into the
Oval Office as President Ford. This transition (in which
I was quite heavily involved) also occurred rather
quickly and under forced draft.
(f) Bush to Turner in 1977. This is the
closest parallel, but it too had its unique features.
,George Bush left the office of the DCI on 20 January 1977.
Turner was not named until some time later (after the
Sorensen quadrille) and did not take office until around
the end of March or early April. During this interim
period, Hank Knoche, the DDCI, bridged the gap by serving
as Acting Director.
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II. Information Requested and Being Obtained
2. I happen to know, and am privileged to count
as friends, all living former DCIs. I have contacted all
of them and am in the process of seeing or talking to each.
Recognizing the unique features of each one's own "transition",
I am asking each one the following three questions:
(a) What materials/analyses/briefings/etc.
did he find most useful to him as he assumed the
DCI's office.
(b) What such materials did he find of minimal use,
even though their preparation might have seemed (in
the abstract) a good idea at the time.
(c) In retrospect, what might have been done
.or prepared to support him in taking over the
DCI's office that was not done or prepared and which
would have helped had it'been.
Some interesting answers have already begun to emerge from
these queries, as summarized below. We will, I think, find
the individual answers of considerable interest; but will probably
find any patterns emerging from the totality of;these answers
even more potentially significant.
III. Documents We Should Obtain
3. In addition to touching base with all living
former DCIs, I have also talked with Hank Knoche.(who bridged
the gap between Bush and Turner) and with Leo Cherne (the last
Chairman of the PFIAB). From these gentlemen, I have learned
of the following documents which I think we should take steps
as quickly as possible to obtain:
(a) Hank tells me that a rather extensive file of
briefing materials was prepared to facilitate the
post-Bush transition. We can ask for these from
the Agency. From other private soundings, I know
where at least one set exists and could be obtained; but
I would much prefer to acquire them openly, for obvious
reasons. The outgoing (Ford) PFIAB prepared several
studies to facilitate the Carter transition. Of
particular interest will be a PFIAB-commissioned memoran-
dum entitled "Intelligence for the Future". Actually,
we are looking for three sets of documents: (1) an
unclassified notebook prepared for the incoming President;
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(2) a classified notebook assembled for similar
purposes; and (3) a PFIAB report to the incoming
President.
Leo told me that Lionel Ulmer (now with Motorola) had been the
PFIAB staff man on this exercise. Lionel tells me that these
documents are now in the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB)
files in the custody of a gentleman by the name of James Dick,
whose telephone number is
IV. Other Useful Documents
4. In addition to the materials outlined above,
there is another set of documents we should get hold of.
These pertain to the DCI's budgetary responsibilities and
authorities, and will be germane to our deliberations regardless
of where we may individually or collectively come out on the
"structural reorganization" issue (.the topic of a separate
memorandum). These documents are: (1) the "Taylor Report",
done in 1974 (to the best of my recollection), about which I have
already spoken to Mark; (2) the 1971 letter from President Nixon
to Dick Helms (which my current office suite-mate Jim Schlesinger
drafted); (3) the addendum to the Schlesinger letter given to
President Ford to (.I think) DCI Bush (possibly Colby); and
(4) the additional budgetary authorities and responsibilities
levied on DCI Turner by President Carter.
V. Further Action In Train or Suggested
5. I am preparing a separate memorandum on the responses
given to my queries by former DCIs. Also, Mr. McCone has told
me that he will be in New York on Friday, 21 November, and will be
happy to come to Washington to talk with our transition group
and/or its Chairman. Not being able to get hold of our Chairman,
I naturally did not extend any such invitation; but I do think
it would be useful for us to talk with McCone since he had a
number of concrete, practical suggestions and experience-based
observations I believe we would all find enlightening.
Geor a A. Carver, Jr.
STAT
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/15: CIA-RDP02T06251 R000900310012-2