INFORMAL REMARKS OF WILLIAM F. RABORN ATTENDING THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE JAMES FORRESTAL MEMORIAL AWARD TO THE NATIONAL SECRURITY INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION 24 MARCH 1966 SHERATON PARK HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100120033-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 18, 1999
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: March 24, 1966
• Content Type: SPEECH

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INFORMAL REMARKS
OF
WILLIAM F, RABORN
ATTENDING THE ACCEPTANCE OF
THE JAMES FORRESTAL MEMORIAL AWARD
TO
THE NATIONAL SECURITY INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION
24 MARCH 1966
SHERATON PARK HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D. Ca
I am deeply moved by the honor you have paid me tonight
with the 1965 James Forrestal Memorial Award. It is a most
rewarding experience to join the privileged few who have been
honored in this way, and I will always remember it.
I was in the operating forces of the Navy when Mr. Forrestal
was Secretary of the Navy, and later when he became our first
Secretary of Defense. I knew him as a man who had great faith in
people. The vision he displayed in bringing industry and Defense
closer together contributed to the development of the Polaris system.
This involved the products and efforts of more than 11, 000
contractors and government agencies from coast to coast. It was
truly a national effort, and a testimonial to James Forrestal's belief
that inside and outside government, people should, could, and
would work together in the national interest.
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This occasion has given me the opportunity to meet and talk
with many of you who are close friends and former associates.
I hope to meet more of you later, so I will try to keep my remarks
short and to the point.
Tonight I want to talk briefly about one of the continuing great
challenges which faces all of us in this rapidly changing world.
Fortunately, it is one of the aspects of intelligence that I can
talk about. I wish that we could tell you more. I can assure you
that we deserve the confidence and the support of the public,
and it is gratifying and helpful to have it. But the nature of intelligence
is such that we have to operate under very tight restrictions.
It has been said that, "Your successes are unheralded -- your
failures are trumpeted."
The matter I want to talk about, simply stated, is long-range
planning to assimilate new technology, innovation, and change into
our many activities.
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Every one of us, on a daily basis, has to face the fact that
change is not only inevitable -- it is continuous. Defense and
space matters have made us very conscious of how fast this
rate of change can be. We recognize that we have always to think ahead,
that there will always be a need for improving our management systems
with which we can plan ahead on a continuous basis and cope with a rapid
rate of change.
The most important asset in any organization is people.
Certainly this is true in my present job. The enhancement of their
collective value is the primary goal of any management procedure.
Accordingly, these improved management principles are in full use
in the U. S. intelligence business. We, too, have introduced
new planning and programming systems which encourage innovation.
The new and promising ideas of our people are more easily brought
to the front for mature decisions, again emphasizing the human aspect.
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Old and largely obsolescent programs have been cut out or
replaced. New and more urgent ones have been highlighted and
justified. We have thus established a suitable climate
in which people can get involved and committed to the concept of
progressive improvement through continuous change. Uncertainties
are being brought under scrutiny, and we are operating under
full realization that our business, like yours, is a dynamic one.
We want to make the most effective use of resources, --- that is,
people, money and facilities.
Secondly, by systematic long and short range planning we have
reduced to a minimum the unknowns in our business. Thus the key
to my job, as I see it, is to assure that we have the system ---
both today and in the future --- which will best serve our country.
We want to ensure that full, accurate and timely knowledge is in the
hands of our policy makers on all foreign matters of interest and
concern.
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No discussion of management can be complete without reference
to the vital role which information plays in an organization.
Timely and reliable information is one of the essential ingredients
for responsible decision-making. A manager without access
to factual information can neither control his organization nor plan
for its continued growth. This is a truism in industry, and is applicable
to other fields of endeavor.
Our highly complex modern society places on us all demands to
digest more and more information, in less and less time.
It is quite apparent that the time gap between deliberation and action
is shrinking fast. With no two points on the earth's surface more than
thirty minutes apart, we must now be able to make decisions quickly,
or run the risk of having them go by default. Therefore, our country
is critically dependent on information processing to ensure that all
pertinent information collected is analyzed by talented and competent
people, with dissemination as swiftly as pbssible. With the technical
equipment now available from industry, we can continue to stay ahead
in this field.
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I do not want to leave the impression that intelligence is
entering a mechanical, push-button age. Naturally we have a
breadth of many skills in our people. We are blessed with an
exceptionally high level of human resources in the Intelligence
Community and "man" is going to remain the master of the machine
as long as the word "intelligence, " by any definition, remains a
function of the human mind. The load, and the pressure, and the
responsibilities, however, are such that we are calling on machines
to accelerate the synthesization, and thus to multiply the capabilities
of our human resources.
The concept of information gathering and forward planning is
not new. The improvements to the management of intelligence, however,
are opening new vistas. As good as our methods are today -- and
we believe that in many respects they are way out in front of
most industrial and institutional applications -- they are already
five years old. We are sure that there are ideas on the drawing boards
now which will replace them.
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While I am not at liberty to go into a whole array of the very
satisfying specifics and accomplishments, I can say that
a comparison of the forward goals and projected plans and methods
of today with those existing ten years ago is like comparing
the horse and buggy to the SATURN boosted space vehicle.
In our open society, with its free enterprise system, the
dreams and the desires of the people have always been the
controlling factor. This is what has given us our position of
world leadership today. We all have been working hard on our dreams
for many years, and we have come a long, long way.
For my part, I want to assure you that you can be proud
of your Intelligence Community and of the fine, loyal and dedicated
men and women who so unselfishly devote their lives to your service.
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