KISSINGER AND THE SPOOKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000300300013-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2000
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: September 29, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Releasg ~OO'1/6f04 : CIA-RDP80-01601 RO
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tigious Central Intelligence.
I'-ency, which employs a va-
rieLy of experts ranging from
beauticians to nuclear scientists,
is also expected to bite the eco-
?norny bullet, albeit with a cer-
tain amount of kicking an 'd
screaming.
But the Pentagon will suffer
most fro m the axe, for the sinl-
ple reason that its intelligence
community is the biggest and
costliest--and possibly the least
efficient. Laird presides over an
establishment which includes.
the Defense Intelligence Agen-
cy, intelligence divisions of the
three services and, the super
hush-1, ush National Security
Agency, the nation's cod:-rmtk-
i na and code-breaking appara-
tus. It is an establishment that
employs some 150,000 people
and spends all estimated $3-bll-
lion a year.
Laird's Spies are in trouble
with Pr?esiderlt Nixon. Ile has
been !ullling the defense Secre-
tary for months that the mili-
tary S',)y factory is "too damn
big," and that its bigness ap-
parently breeds inefficiency.
Specifically, although he boast-
ed of both operations in public,
Nixon was unhappy with the in-
telligence planning for the South
Vietnamese incursion into Laos
and the abortive prisoner-of,.
WASHINGTON--Shortly after
'he took over his post as Presi-
dent Nixon's top adviser on na-
tional security affairs, Dr.
Henry - Kissinger complained
wryly to an aide that "These
spooks really tell me more than
I want to know about the birth
rate in Cambodia."
Kissinger's reference was to
the Republic's vast espionage
empire, with its nearly 20,000
employes, its "kecret" $5-billio n
annual budget, and its penchant
for overwhelming the White
House with every scrap of inci-
dental intelligence it c an gather.
The story is timely because
at long last it appears' that
something will be done to re-
duce the size ? and cost of this
empire.. Sen. Allen Ellender, D
La., chail?nian of the Senate
Appropriations C o in in i t tee,
wants to cut $500 nlillicn frorn
the total ? intelligence budget,
thereby eliminating. 50,00.0 jobs.
Defense Secretary P.Iclvin Laird
already is engaged in a rcor-
ganization plan to whittle down
,the size of the enormous mili-
tary spy shop.
Laird got moving shortly after
President Nixon, early this
year, ordered ?a study of all in-
telligence operations. The pres-
ed"--as he told Lairci-vrjth in-
telligence on Viet Cong hit-and-
run attacks in South Vietnam.
Loth the Pentagon and the CIA
got a scolding from the Presi-
dent when they failed to dis-
cover Soviet missile installations
near the Suez Canal during th
summer of 1970.
cracked down on. so-called "po-
litico-sociological" studies con-
ducted within friendly foreign
countries by Army Intelligence,
or G-2. After complaints from
Secretary of State William Rog-
ers, Nixon in July ordered the
Pentagon to?r-ecall a research
group dispatched to Czechoslo-'
vakia to prepare all estimate of
the chances of a people's revolt.
Rogers is said to. have de-
scribed. the project as represent-
ing a ".`dangerous 'amble" that
could. .get the U.S. in serious
trouble. He compared it with the
notorious 1?S5, "C melot'' proj-
ect set up to ltetcrillille the fac-
tors involved in promoting an d
inhibiting . revolution in Chile.
That operation was cancelled
after a strong protest by the
Chilean government, but by then
it already had cost the taxpay-
ems $1-million.
Unfortunately, there is no
guarantee that any administra-
tion by itself can reform our
swollen intelligence community.
J ike all bureaucratic b, conics,
it is a powerful lobby within the
administration. No . President
wants to be accused of restrain-
ing, for budgetary reasons, a
spy who might discover tolx;or-
row that Red China has invented
a new bomb. Eventually; if any
realized, Congress will have to
Step in with its power of tile)
But the Nixon. administration
is indeed making the first mcan-
iugfirl progress in intelligence
reform since harry Truman
established the CIA. Even if
Congress again shirks its re-
sponsibilities, the cast of spying
almost surely will be reduced
in the next year or two. re Richard
Nixon has a record for frugality.
Approved For Release 2001/03/04 :. CIA-RDP80-01601 R000300300013-5