SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS ON OTR HISTORY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-03087A000100030067-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 1, 2002
• Sequence Number: 67
• Publication Date: December 16, 1969
• Content Type: MF

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16 December 1969
FROM
SUBJECT
: Some Random Thoughts on OTR History
1. This memorandum is personal, informal, and unofficial
and probably should never be found dead in anybody's files. It is not
Eyes Only, but I leave it to your discretion to keep it away from eyes
that might glaze at the sight of It. Actually, I'm just passing along
to you some more-or-less random thoughts that have come to me
during my first two weeks as OTR Historian and suggesting that after
you've had time to consider them, we get together and kick them
around -- or bounce them off the walls, if you prefer the handball
approach, which I'm sure you do. I realize that OTR is only one of
many unruly children for whom you are acting in loco parentis, but
perhaps some of the others are having similar problems of maturation.
In any event, 111 be grateful for your comments on my hindsights,
of which there will be several, and my proposals, of which there will
be two,
2. First the hindsight department. I'm not an habitual cryer
over spilled milk, but I do feel that we should know how much has
been spilled where, so we won't slip in it and spoil it for the cat. And
there's always the chance that we can scoop some of it up and put it
back into the bottle:. However that may be, these items bn%ii g . at
least a few tears to my aged eyes:
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a. As far as I can determine, no one in OTR ever sat down and
thought about the whole history of Agency training before various
people began to write bits and pieces of it. Nowhere can I find a
plan, a concept, a philosophy that serves as a framework within
which the bits and pieces should fit. There has been no determination
of a logical segmentation of the historical narrative. There has been
no clear decision on which phases of training are to be given the
monograph treatment, and there are no guidelines on. how the mono-
graphed phases are to be covered in the overall narrative. In short,
we have here a sort of bastard child that, like Topsy, has just grown.
And Topsy's a p?e t :big girl now.
b. One result of this OTR, Spocklessness is paper 25X1
on the Richardson reign, a paper that has to be completely rewritten.
It isn't Bob's fault. He was directed to do it as his first paper and
ordered to finish it before Richardson vacated the throne. The result
was that the paper not only turned out to be an exercise in hagiography
but also raised storms of protest from all the School and Staff Chiefs
in OTR. There's an interesting technicality here -- Richardson
officially approved the paper before he left; in accordance with official
procedures, after DTR approval the paper should have gone to the
DDS Historical Board; it didn't and it won't,:but who takes the rap
if Richardson raises hell about it at some time in the future? Need-
less to say, I'm not worried, but some guys around here have chronic
cases of culpaphobia.
c. The title of per, History of the Office of
Trail= 1945 1949 -- published as SS Historical Paper No. OTR-2 --
is technically a misnomer. The Office of Training didn't exist until
July of 1951. Of course there may have been some agreement that
"The Office of Training" would be used generically and would include
antecedent organizations. If there was, then we can't change the title
of the paper covering the 1949 - 1951 period. If we do change that
title -- and I think we should -- then we come up with an inconsistency
that is, professionally, more than just the bugaboo of a small mind.
Perhaps, after all, title inconsistencies at the level of Directorate
papers are unimportant.
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3. Now the department of proposals. As I've suggested, at this
point I don't seek Olympian decisions. I offer these ideas for kicking-
around purposes, with the full knowledge that counter proposals
may be more productive:
a. First the problem of segmentation. After considerable
feet-on-desk contemplation, I have concluded that although
had no master plan and little guidance, his instincts for segmentation
were sound. The 1945-49 years do constitute a logical segment of
training history -- a carry-over period from OSS to CIA. Likewise,
the 1949-51 years constitute a logical segment -- a transitional period
during which OSS training became CIA training. The Baird years,
from 1951 to 1966, constituted a period of growth and development,
and the Vi chardson reign, from 1966 to 1969, was a distinctive
period -- I haven't yet determined a suitable and permissible nomen-
clature for it. I propose that we stick with that plan -- which means,
of course, that I'm suggesting that you and Messrs Ehrmann
reconsider your decision to treat the 1949 - 1951
paper as a
background paper or a research aid of some kind an , nstead, let me
1I
go ahead with the editing and revision that will make it acceptable as
an official SS Historical Paper. I would have to do the additional
research anyway, and I think that in the long run my time will be saved
and Bob's effort will be somewhat salvaged if I do the major revision
job, keep the 1949 - 51 segment intact, and then go on with the
1951 - 66 segment. I'm attaching a draft of a possible introduction
to the 1949 - 51 paper, suitable should it become a separate segment.
b. As for the monograph problem, I propose that I -- and
perhaps you -- get together with the DTR, and any other OTR, charac
ters he may wish to have present, and come to a definite agreement
about monographs. Thus far there is one on Maritime Training, and
it has been agreed that there will be monographs
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the JOT/CT Program, and the language training
program. But should there be others? How about II paramilitary
training; "black" training, management training, component training? 25X1 A
I think that we should know the answers as soon as possible -- both
for guidance to depth of coverage in the narrative history segments and
for preventing capricious and expensive monograph projects in the future.
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4. In summary, both my hindsighting and my proposing are
efforts to get this OTR history-writing project on track and in focus,
so that we'll know where were going and will recognize the mileposts
when we pass them. Because you were crazy enough to desert me
for that neck-out DDS Historical Officer job, I'm asking you to do your
duty and give some guidance to a poor perspiring peon.
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