SCIENTIFIC MIND AT WORK ON INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100080118-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 14, 1999
• Sequence Number: 118
• Publication Date: April 14, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

LONDON TIMES
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA
LONDON, EN
S CIEN T'IEI`c MIN u AT WORK ON
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
CPYRGHT From Our WashingtonCorrespondent
experience. con no
have much helped President Johnson in
the selection of a new Director of the
Central Intelligence~Agency. Mr. Allen
.Dulles was a professional spy and the
departing Director, Mr. John McCone,
was a Republican member of the Ameri-
can industrial-Administration establish-
ment. Vice-Admiral William Raborn, a
retired officer of the United States Navy,
whose appointment was announced this
Week, is a Texan, but one would like
to think that he was chosen by Mr.
,'Johnson,:who apart from being a Texan
is something of a traditionalist, because
of the connexion between sailors and
intelligence.
The Zimmermann
.the most important
gcnce history, was
deciphered in 1917
in the British
Admiralty. The
mysterious M, who
directs James Bond,
007, and` other
agents, of her
Majesty's secret
service, is also a
former naval per-
son. Thus in fact
and fiction the
telegram, perhaps
victory in intelli-,
established. It is to be hoped that the
British experienc ; will well serve the
President and the C.I.A.
Admiral Raborn, who is 59, appears
of to have had any intelligence
xperience. A naval flying officer of
cientific inclination who graduated from
knnapolis in 1928, he 'spent many of
s serve a years on' board aircraft
arriers and retired in 1962 as Deputy
thief of Naval Operations. He also
served ,as director of the Fleet Ballistic
Iissild System, acid in developing the
olaris submarine was responsible for
roviding ,a new strategic role for the
nited States Navy and now the Royal
avy,
His moment of glory came when the first
olaris submarine went on station years
e o e the scheduled tints, There can be
no doubt that scientific background, drive
and administrative ability were responsible,
for this remarkable feat, and perhaps for,
the dismay of a former British Defencei
Minister. It must be assumed that the luck-'
less Skybolt would not- have been chosen
instead of the Polaris for Britain's mains
strategic weapon if the talents of Admiral,
Raborn had been better known.
He moves from the Aeroict-General Cor-~
poration, where he was vice-president and
programme manager, to the palatial office
complex at McLean, Virginia,. at a time
when the C.I.A. is not under fire. It is not;
always so. The agency's dismal role in the
1961 Cuban invasion is well known. Sus-
picion remains not only because the agency'
is secret and expensive but because of the!
criticism that an agency responsible for col-
lecting and assessing intelligence should not
also be responsible for clandestine opera-
tions.-
SUCCESS ESSENTIAL
There is little opposition to these opera-i
tions. If a Latin American government has;
to be toppled, there will be little objection
to the C.I.A. doing the toppling, aS it'has'
done in.the past, on the condition that it is
successful. Perhaps it could be argued that
this acceptance of covert interference in the
affairs of other nations is more unhealthy
than the absence of any division of function,
but the argument will not be, listened to
here. Lesser nations must accept that the
United States retains the right to interfere
as the Soviet Union and China support. so-
This is the murky framework within
which Admiral Raborn is now to work. His"
new Deputy Director, Mr. Richard Helms,
was deputy director for planning in the
agency. Thus President Johnson has not
only maintained the balance between the i
civil and the military within the C.I.A.'
ana'icbntinued l j?l practice of promoting
deserving professionals to offices normallyj
reserved for political appointments; he has;
also given the admiral an experienced tech-i
nician in clandestine operations:
Admiral Raborn is certainly well placed,
because of his service background, to
achieve a larger measure of coordination.,
Since the passage of the National Security
Act of 1947, which set up the C.I.A., a
new intelligence empire has emerged, thec
Defence Intelligence Agency
and the link
,
s
between the two are,said to be tenuous.
FOIAb3b
Sanitized - App~l oved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100080118-9