LETTER TO STANSFIELD TURNER FROM VINCENT DAVIS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP05S00620R000200480007-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 28, 2009
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: May 20, 1977
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05SO062OR000200480007-1
The University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky 40506 U.S.A.
[phone]
20 May 1977
Admiral Stansfield Turner, USN
Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20505
Vincent Davis, Director
Patterson Chair Professor
of International Studies
When two old mules try to get together in the vicinity of
the same plow, there's bound to be some head-knocking. Fortu-
nately, these two old mules are good friends, so the knocking
causes no serious harm. In other words, I greatly appreciated
your good letter of 12 May.
I may well see you in person before you see this letter,
but let me mention a few other matters before making a few com-
ments on your letter.
Programs of Professional Development, Research and Service in World Affairs for Kentucky, the Nation and the Global Community
STAT
Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05SO062OR000200480007-1
 Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05S00620R000200480007-1
Turner
5/20/77
Page 2
STAT
Switching to your 12 May letter, I am delighted to read that
two of your main goals include: (1) "setting a new tone of sensi-
tivity to the ethical issues" [and you could add constitutional
and legal issues, and get some publicity for this]; (2) "reorient-
ing the entire intelligence apparatus of the country from a series
of independent fiefdoms to a coordinated effort" [desperately
needed!].
You wrote: "In my view, the academic community has demon-
strated irresponsible lack of leadership in the last decade.
The leaders have been sheep. By the same token, if a few good
leaders would stand up now, the rest of the silly sheep would
follow..." My comments follow:
-- Sheep? I would have said goats--obstinate, independent
in obtuse ways, ornery, hard to herd, even sometimes a
bit smelly.
-- You are absolutely right that the academic community has
behaved very badly over much of the past decade and more.
One of the most disgusting thins that I ever saw was when
President Goheen of Princeton turned over large parts of
that campus to the crazies during the "Cambodian spring"
of 1970--provided them with a camp ground, soup kitchen,
even paint cans with which to deface the buildings, and
then wrote entirely different kinds of letters "ex,plaining"
all this to the faculty on the one hand and the alumni on
the other hand. (I got both letters, as both a visiting
faculty member and an alumnus.)
Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05S00620R000200480007-1
 Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05S00620R000200480007-1
Turner
5/20/77
Page 3
BUT, there are a few extenuating circumstances, as the
lawyers say. First, very few university and college
presidents were trained in counterinsurgency warfare,
and that's the kind of training that would have been
useful on many campuses around 1969-70-71. For decades
prior to the late 1960's, the most serious kind of dis-
turbance on most campuses was a panty raid.
AND, while I will strongly agree that much of the academic
community behaved very badly over the past 10-15 years,
it's important to key in mind that the U.S. government also
behaved rather badly over most of that same period. If you
want to look at one side of that equation, you have to look
at the other side too. If national political leadership
comes unglued, lots of other things in the society will
come unstuck too. So, before you rap the academics too
severely, talk a little bit about government behavior,
and tell me why academic people and other critics should
now assume that the government is suddenly staffed by saints.
When you say that the academic community "leaders have been
sheep," this suggests an almost total failure to understand
the academic community. THERE ARE NO ACADEMIC LEADERS.
There are prominent people in academic life, and some of
them have major administrative responsibilities on campus.
But if the definition of a leader is somebody with a faith-
ful following, we have no leaders. The academic community
is in some respects like Congress--a lot of individual
prima donnas, each with his/her little ballgame and perhaps
a small constituency, but nobody can really order anybody
else around. Nobody automatically jumps up in respect when
any other given person walks into the room. Professors are
free-thinking individuals. They may not think clearly, and
they are often ill-informed on important matters, but at
least they try to think for themselves. They are vulnerable
to fads and fashions, often conformists within the academic
community notwithstanding their claims to be independent
thinkers. But when they whore after fads and fashions, it's
not in response to any definable leadership element. It's
rather childlike, actually.
-- Since you define academic people as "silly sheep," how
come you are interested in developing better relations
with silly sheep?
Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05S00620R000200480007-1
 Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05S00620R000200480007-1
Turner
5/20/77
Page 4
On my comments about academic "leaders," I think you could
get any ten professors or university presidents of your choice,
persuade them to issue press releases or other comments strongly
supporting the CIA, etc.--and this would not significantly influ-
ence the opinions of any substantial number of people in academic
life.
You keep talking about the "Vince Davises and others who
know that the current wave of anti-CIA McCarthyism is wrong,
will not stand up and be counted..." And, "...if a few people
like yourself do [not] stand up..." This business about standing
up and being counted is a nice cliche, but it's also rubbish.
Since when is a willingness to work for the CIA some kind of
litmus-paper test of devotion to country? The fact of the matter
is that "the current wave of anti-CIA" thinking is not merely
current. It's a tide that has been running for at least 15 years,
and no single man--no matter how pure, no matter how highly dedi-
cated and motivated--is going to reverse the tide in a year or two.
A number of years will be required, along with many appropriate
actions, for the CIA to re-earn its good name. As I keep trying
to say, a long-range strategy and not blitzkrieg tactics is needed.
Simply getting a few well-known academic people to "stand up and
be counted" (i.e., work for the CIA for awhile) is imagery and
tokenism, like a company that hires a few women and blacks to
prove its commitment to equal opportunity in hiring. Even professors
are smart enough to see through this kind of gimmickry.
You say: "The academic community needs spine, not more shirk-
ing." Alas, here we go again--the academic community can get spine
and avoid shirking by working for the CIA. You won't sell this
solution, to the problem even among very many people at the CIA.
And then: "I would be ashamed to accept students who would
not apply to the Patterson School just becauseJiad been to the
CIA; ashamed to ask distinguished faculty to lecture at the Patter-
son School if they might decline because you had been to the CIA;
ashamed to be the least concerned about those who would not invite
you to lecture or not grant you funds if you had been at the CIA."
-- Ashamed! Ashamed! This is a self-indulgent form of
emotional hand-wringing which may accurately perceive a
problem, but which wholly fails to understand solutions
that might solve it. You want a solution that fits Stan
Turner. You need a solution that fits the problem.
Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05S00620R000200480007-1
 Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05S00620R000200480007-1
Turner
5/20/77
Page .5
-- This kind of "being ashamed" is also a form of moral
self-congratulation and assumed moral superiority.
It's not the ideal posture from which to tackle the
problem. Even if you are right in some of your diagnoses,
I'm reminded of something that I once heard Robert Frost
say: "The trouble with some people is that they can't be
right-without being self-righteous."
On your comments that my proposal to operate on some kind of
neutral turf for a year in Washington would be a devious cover-up
job under CIA sponsorship ("...the same kind of problem that the
CIA has come a cropper on in days past..."), you misunderstood me.
My point was that the CIA is not alone in-facing the problem of
re-earning public respect, particularly among academic people.
Other government agencies face the same problem, even if in less
degree, and my feeling is that the problem could best be solved
with an across-the-board approach rather than on an agency-specific
basis. But I can fully appreciate your desire not to try to spear-
head such an effort. I didn't really expect you to, and I didn't
want to work in Washington for anybody. But you asked me to elabo-
rate on my ideas for solving the problem, so I did. You will try
it your way, as always, and I can only wish you all success.
Finally, you said: "I hope I can call on you for advice and
consultation as a friend, and possibly an occasional short-term
consultant arrangement." YES on. the advice and consultation as
a friend, NO on a consultant arrangement. I do my best work for
free. I'll work hard for you, anytime, as a friend, for free.
I'll even be happy to publicize that I do so. I've never made a
secret of the fact that I have maintained strong relationships
with a number of CIA people over the years, still do, always will,
but not for pay. I have often defended CIA people and the Agency
as a whole, in academic gatherings, and I will continue to do so,
but the point would be lost if I earned money for it. Call on me
anytime for the same advice and consulting you would be willing to
pay for, but for free--it may be worth exactly what you pay for it,
and you may get some of it without even asking for it, but that's
a problem that you can solve with your wastebasket.
STAT
Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05S00620R000200480007-1
 Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05SO062OR000200480007-1
Turner
5/20/77
Page 6
a captain, USNR-R (1105). Great guy. He too is a member of our
Patterson Board... you may recall having met him here. Among other
things, I believe he is still a nationally ranked tennis player in
his age division. You would find him a lot less mulish than myself.
As you can see, I combine the worst qualities of a goat and a mule,
but I am not a silly sheep.
See you in a few days!
Fond personal regards,
Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05SO062OR000200480007-1
 Approved For Release 2009/08/28: CIA-RDP05SO062OR000200480007-1
. >>
a
~:
L
Lei
'Z L., rCj~ J
!1 M
.~.c~
3-~c?~r,--c.~cc
f
g- 14 ct L.
C- r~
C. c
t) C)
r t ---v cC''Z
3 ~Li c- JGUV0
b ~- .)v. - t' L r e G C L ~? W?O
r
v w p
n
:
G w
Y1
L W
u C .
--I
e Cu
.C
O .: O `.. L a)
s3a`n
? ~
0
4
~
E p O
J, I
Mi
u*4cc o v .L- =u.. f.c.~vL^v
wC i C
cd O CL Lctf C ?, G O v 7B
C ~?c s.m~^ C~27 ,
.yam ~C G G vim; s^ >~ G C
a;u~ti"5-v3>" -pcn~
W tt i CW >, i O U >-
~?ci-~O Cr.C_RLu~>L
W C' Q'
I:.LZ my
r r E
c: CZ V.
U0=
W CSC...
.
I
.
.
. .C L w V
v`'-asc~?=3wcs~
~v G v) O},v>C^J~~n >ti
C W G y .Lw ?'O >. O tVV ICJi
cv CL U . W C.) Cu Q w G v: CLw
C "' C4 C _~ 3 Lam. L .Oi ..~~ O v C C9 . i
U PO.. V" '. G.
0 C,'_C s^ . G CJ G) 3 W rr
Q ?.~~ J c ,r > C W O y
ct P7:
G'G' C w.. _ c'3 w.. /` .^..
C O
L
G%..