BEHIND THE CIA CRISIS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100160043-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2000
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: December 3, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGT
AND TIMES
Behind the CIA Crisis CPYRGHT
DEC 3 1965
0
~v g Fo ~ `4000191 ~GI RflP790~b~14 9 ('I S Robert Novak-
sanr
aemana
tor
a congres-
Agency has become a top; s~ ~y xn~
concern among Johnson Ad ~ sional watchdog - spawned
t i partly by the Raborn-in
ministration officials who duced CIA crisis.
deal with the Nation's secu- y # '
rity. YET, the real problem is
Stated bluntly, the, crisis not Congress. it is the use-
, fulness of the CIA itself.
r is one of confidence in the
'avg
.
s
head of the CIA appointed After the Bay of Pigs, the
st in intelligence reports his remarkably warm and.
rom the field-the heart of friendly relations with Con- ,
he CIA operation. Display- gress during Polaris, days.
ng little curiosity about the . With popular "Red" Raborn
ntelligence craft himself, at the helm, it'was thought,-
$RM
t o LR,ed ree dent=d'*n We' &watchdog e?mmittee over,
ary element of his job. CIA would:. lessen. It _hi
a
Army, Navy and Air Force his Polaris experiences.
intelligence units. ALTHOUGH these events
SO LONG AS a strong occurred several months {
personality-old Intelligence ago, those concerned with
hand Allen Dulles or indus. ?. the future of the CIA be-
trialist John McCone--ran lieve the situation Is little i
the CIA, its world-wide in- improved today. The decline
telligence reports had prior- in. the agency's morale in'
ity over sometimes less re- Washington hasn't hampered .~
liable DIA studies. Further- 'operations in the field yet,
ore, a right-wing element but some Intelligence ex-
in DIA was kept under tight perts are deeply worried,
ontrol by the influence of For Instance, if CIA's
Dulles and McCoone in the' place in Washington cone
President's highest councils. tinues to give'. way to DIA,
But the President, surpris- the absolutely essential in-
ingly enough, has not even terchange ' of intelligence
alled Raborn in to,see him with friendly foreign powers
Since his gall bladder 'opera- (sometimes as many as 30,
ion two months ago. Ac- 000 documents a month with
ordingly, what ought to be Britain's famous ? MI-6) con-.
he relentless impact of CIA ceivably could be compro
hinking on the President mised.
voiced by the chief of the -' Why did President John
agency) has been absent. son select Raborn in the
Furthermore, Raborn is first place? Partly as a care
either intimate with Inter- taker to calm the agency's
ational politics nor familiar often stormy 'relations with
William F. Raborn, who de Novak Evans agonizing crisis of confi-
serves his reputation as the. dence but recovered with a
Navy's hero in the develop- In addition, a lack of sensi- brilliant performance (based
ment of the vital Polaris tivity has shown up In Ra- on expert interpretation of%
missile. i born 's dealings outside the U-2 spy-plane pictures of
But developing the Polaris CIA. In Congress, some of Soviet missiles) during the
has nothing those briefed by Raborn October, 1962, Cuba affair.
ang the gato do do s, with run- - after the Dominican inter- But the newest crisis in
h
faceted* ling t vcrno ''s vention were shocked when, ? the agency Is internal, not
largest, intelligence appa- he Indelicately suggested 'external (like the Bay of
the possibility of "14 or Pigs). For that reason, it
ratus. Unfortunately Ra- 15 Dominican Republics" may fie harder to cure. `
horn's administration has, throughout Latin America t m iod~, Pbu.perf NeWSP40.te7ndiest
raised fears about the CIA's before the problem of Com
future. By gradually losing munist subversion could be
its high place in the Wash-,
solved. ington bureaucratic struc- On another occasion, Ra- :_
ture, there Is question wheth- born was supposed to be",
er the CIA will recover any-. briefed by high Government,;,
time soon after Raborn officials on how to deal with
leaves, the Interlocking community N
Indeed, right, now the CIA of U.S. intelligence agencies.
Is losing influence to !the . However,' he showed little.'
,Pentagon's DIA (Defense.In- interest in this basic prob-.,
telligence Agency); a #{enhe- lem and instead gave a
dy Administration merger of ' lengthy. irrelevant recital of
he vital, enthusiastic inter- Supporting ' this idea was
ith the business of Intel- Congress, to leave after a,
igence.. This inevitably relatively short period.
cans that Raborn lacks
Approved