LETTER TO HANSON BALDWIN FROM ALLEN W. DULLES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74-00297R000200030058-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 2013
• Sequence Number: 58
• Publication Date: June 28, 1954
• Content Type: LETTER

Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/11/08: CIA-RDP74-00297R000200030058-7
0
28 June 1954
HansoxLj Esquire
THE TIMES
New York, New York
Dear Hanson:
. As you know, I welcome constructive criticism, particularly
from one like yourself, who has a deep and abiding interest in intelli-
gence and is sincerely working to see that the government gets better
intelligence. And it is in this light that I have studied your article
in THE TIMES of 3 June 1954. Thesei comments, which I would like to
supplement when we next get together, are intended merely as friendly
comments.
As regards the Mansfield Bill, I have not adopted an attitude
of opposition and the only statement I have made on the subject is in
the attached interview in U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT (March 19, 1954).
I am convinced that Senator. Mansfield, whom I know well and respect,
has at heart the desire to improve our intelligence and to protect it
from destructive attack. It does not seem to me, however, that the
analogy with the Atomic Energy Commission is particularlyapt. The
Commission has to deal-with a somewhat unusual situation where a
government Agency is directly involved in a major business enterprise
involving large scale operations in the United States and the expenditure
here of many, many times the funds allocated to CIA. Also, the AEC,
as the present situation discloses, has frequent and complicated legis-
lative problems whereas we have relatively few questions of this nature.
In fact in the three years and more that I have been here, we have only
sought one very minor and uncontested piece of legislation to establish
the position of Deputy Director. I have also felt that it was wise to
build up the existing relations between this Agency and the/ Armed
Services and Appropriations Committees. Their roles are more than
"cursory." Here we have established secure and satisfactory relation-
ships. Naturikly I recognize the great importance of having sponsor?
in the Congress to protect us from unwarranted attack.
The reference to our intelligence estimates on Indo-China in
your article are not substantially accurate. While there was no formal
estimate when Dien Bien Phu would fall, our current appraisals as to
that situation, viewed now from hindsight, were reasonably accurate.
While the first estimate made sometime before the fall of Dien Bien Phu
as to the time required for redeployment to the Delta, may have been
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/11/08: CIA-RDP74-00297R000200030058-7
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/11/08: CIA-RDP74-00297R000200030058-7
-2-
off by a couple of weeks, the estimates made immediataly after the ?
fall and when the matter became an important problem, were "right
on the nose." Since the attack on the Delta has probably been. held
up for political reasons, we may never know with complete accuracy
the exact date when that redeployment was completed.
- The most serious and frankly damaging misstatement in your
article relates to our annual budget. The figure of approximately
a billion 0, dollars for CIA expenditure which you have implied has
been widely repeated in THE NEW YORK TINES and elsewhere. We do not
propose.to disclose this figure, but the total you have given is.so
many times out of line as to be thoroughly damaging. I realize that
you did not intend this and that as long as our figures are secret we
will continue to be the victims of guesswork in an age when millions.
too easily become billions.
It is only because I respect your judgment and enjoy and profit
by your writings that I have felt justified in commenting on your
article in this detail. Naturally, it ts purely personal, as I do not
wish to get into public print on the subject.
Sincerely yours,
(Signed) ALLEN W. DULLES
Allen W. Dulles
Director
AWD:hea
Distribution:
Addressee - Orig
DCI file - 1 cc
ER - 1 cc
Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2013/11/08 : CIA-RDP74-00297R000200030058-7