SOME 'MELANCHOLY TIMES' INSIDER'S DEFENSE OF CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100040037-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2000
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: July 26, 1969
• Content Type: NSPR

San Franciaco Echronicle
Approved For Release 2000/05/36:-&OP75-00001
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
J
By Elmonr mange
inc U1111.11al Intelligence
Agency has had 'iis "mel-
ancholy times," but s t i l l
is the best organization of
Its kind in the world, one
of ' its former executives,
Sherman Kent, said h e r e
yesterday.
Kent, who retired in ?1967
as chairman of CIA's Board
of National Estimates, spoke
at a luncheon meeting of. the
Commonwealth Club of Cali-
fornia at the Sheraton-Palace
'hotel.
Amoltg CIA's "melancholy
.times," Kent listed the U-2
incident', the U.S.spy plane
'downed in the era of. the
President Eisenhower; the
ores recent Pueblo captor
by North Koreans; and, tut-
der the late President Kenne- I
dy, the abortive Bay of Pi s
b
f C
i
i
a.
nvas
on o
u
APPLAUSE
Still, he told his applauding
audience, "I rate United
States Intelligence as the
best In the world."
It; does this job, he said, by
"keeping almost every cor-
nor of the world under con-
stant `watch," .by checking
radio transmissions, newspa-
pers 'and other publications,
by much research and,' of
course, by spying.
in its early days after \\'o-'d
Bay of Pigs fiasco? "The an-
;wrr,is an uneciuivocal yes."
lttiteci States from `Russia if CHANGES
he Soviet Union's No. 1 boss The major c h a n g e s, he,,
pushed the red button -- but said, have been in "the toch
we do.know a lot of facts and ologic'al;,collection of infor-7
to
i
ion. sensitive ma-.
can make an estimate.
tat.
INTELLIGENCE chines. " .
By the phrase. "Unite "A lot' of things have
States Intelligence," he said 'hanged since the Bay of
he. meant the joint efforts of t lie added. But he said,
the GIA, plus intelligent it w wa as sad to relate that'
agencjes of the Deingenn some of the changes involved',
of D e f e n s e , State Depart putting 'new faces in the
CIA's
meet, Atomic Energy, Com topmost positions
e
mission' and the FBI --t.h among other swrit;ches, the
latter limited to work withi replacement of the forme.-,
CIA chief,Allen Dulles.
continental boundaries on're ,
i o n a g The Bay,-of figs invasion,.
ei
n a s-
orted fo
r
g
p
p
I-low good a job is being here. Kent said ,"wasn't c9oked up
done 'now? "The answer,' w in the CIA director's office --
from' this highly prejudiced The total cost? I haven'
, it f o l l o w e d discdssioni to
source, is I a;.very good; job the foggiest notion . President Kennedy's; office,;