RABORN HAPPY CHOICE TO HEAD SPRAWLING INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100070019-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 25, 2000
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: April 13, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

ruIHD_iD
THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN
Approved For Release 200Q/30/'~ ~~ASRD
John Causten Currey
Raborn Happy Choice to Head:,
Sprawling Intelligence Agency
have been sure that the aid to
education bill would be the most sig-
nificant act of his presidency when
he signed it Sunday, as he said for
the record. Such is the world we live
in, however, that the second an-
nouncement made at the LBJ Ranch
press conference could prove more
important to history's assessment of
.the Johnson era.
William Francis Raborn jr., new
chief of the Central Intelligence
Agency, is no ordinary man, and the
agency occupies an extraordinary
role in government. Like Gen. Hoyt
Vandenburg and Allen Dulles,,,who
.were uncommonly suited t. p. direct
its activities when appointed, "Red"
Raborn is an exceptionally happy
choice.
He has shown he is able to handle
great responsibility, to make quick.
and correct 'decisions,. and to win
and retain they, confidence. of con-
gress. He is respected in the profes-
sional ranks of the military and gov-
ernment services, and in the busi-
ness, technical, and. academic
worlds. The CIA will put all those
assets to use.
Every president needs his own
man as chief of CIA. Truman groped
for a man who had all the right
qualities, but the agency was new
and unsure of its course, and even
Vandenburg did not.fill the bill in all
respects. Eisenhower was more for-
tunate. Dulles was a real, profession-
al in the intelligence community, as.
his brother was in diplomacy. Even
before his inauguration, Kennedy ex-
pressed his confidence. in Dulles,
whose resignation came much later,
after. the CIA. had weathered the
storm of criticism over the. Cuban
fiasco and several other crises.
CPYRGHT
e
Central Intelligence unit in Januar
1946, he envisioned a very sma 1
Washington correlation and evalu -
tion staff, and a flexible operatio
abroad. By the time the statutor
authorization came along, ' in the d -
fense reorganization of 1947, it w
evident a fairly large Washingto
contingent would be inevitable. B
the time Eisenhower expressed r
grets that the new building near M
Lean, Va., would only house 10,000 f
the headquarters people, it seeme
to many that things 'had got cle
out of hand.
Raborn is the ideal administrat
to bring efficiency to this sprawlin .
but vital service. His work as pro -
ect officer on the complex and hurr -
ed Polaris missile-and-submarin .
system is legendary, but is the o -
vious step that led to his new post.
From his 1924 appointment to A -
napolis from Marlow, Okla., hi
long-delayed graduation as a nay 1
aviator10 years later, his service i
World War II (he was at Pearl Ha -
bor on Dec.\ 7, 1941), and his eme
gence as a space , age . leader wit
broad technical competence,. hi
whole career has been preparatio
for this new responsibility.
An intelligence maxim is that
man's judgment is no better tha
the information on which it is base
When the, man is president of th
United States, the information o
which many critical judgments ar
based comes from, or is measure
against data from, the CIA. That i
why "a dusty dry kid with`, sand i
his hair"' who became a sailor 1
quest of adventure 'is -now- embarke
on his greatest adventure; `"
So to Adm. Raborn, a confiders
"Bon Voyage "
Approved For Release 2000/06/13 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100070019-0