Dear Jim:

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78Z02997A000100200020-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 1999
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: August 19, 1975
• Content Type: LETTER

SERE
Approved For R se 2001/08/25: CIA-RDP78ZO2997A0001002 f3Bz~ ----~-
THE '?RECTOR OF CENTRAL,. INTELLIGENCr
WASHINGTON, D. C. 20505
National Intelligence Officers
19 August 1975
FOIAb3d
Brigadier General
Deputy Director for Estimates
Defense Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20301
Dear Jim:
With regard to your letter of 30 July, the concerns you
expressed on behalf of Ambassador Ellsworth and the Joint.
Staff are ones we share and certainly consider warranted.
We have, therefore, given careful attention to the suggested
project outlined in.your letter's enclosure and the National
Intelligence Officer for the Middle East is incorporating
your specific questions into his. already initiated work
program on the Middle East military.balance over the next
decade.
As you doubtless realize, there has been insufficient
research and analysis of the present balance of power and
.this will slow our effort to develop sound conclusions about
the balance of power in the 1980s. The NIO for the Middle
East believes that work already underway should soon yield
some properly researched'and carefully analyzed conclusions
concerning the near-term balance and we should be able to
develop some community studies on the long-term balance
within a few months.
Our immediate efforts are devoted to the definition of
the problem and developing a work program that will allow
an orderly progression of analytical tasks to involve the
elements of the Intelligence Community best qualified to
work on the various parts of the problem. The tentative plan
is for the NIO to chair an interagency committee that will
organize into interagency working groups. These working
groups should develop sufficient material for one or two
interagency memoranda by mid- to late fall. We then envision
drafting a National Intelligence Estimate based on the
results of the interagency study.
Approved For ReleaQ5 : CIA-RDP
CLASSIFIED BY
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OF;- (2). (j) AUIU,: s i lam' ALLY tii,L..J Ito Ci
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(unless impnssslrlt, insert data or trtnt)
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The NIO for the Middle East,
will be in contact with you and the Defense Intelligence
Officer to work out the details of the project. It would
be helpful if you would consider what DIA can do in funding
some outside analytical effort and the related work programs
you plan within your DE and DI elements.
Sincerely yours,
25X1A9a
O/D/DCI/NIO:-
Di'stribution
Oriz - Addresse
1 -
1 - D/DCI/IC
1 NIO/ME
1 = D%NIO Chrono
1 - NIO/ME "Soft" file
1 - NIO/RI
George/A. Carver, Jr.
:Deputy for National Intelligence Officers
GACarver/mee
25X1A9a
Approved For Release 2001/08/25 : CIA-RDP78ZO2997A000100200020-5
SECRET