LETTER TO THE HONORABLE WILLIAM E. COLBY FROM STANSFIELD TURNER

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP80B01554R003300260050-7
Release Decision: 
RIFPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 16, 2016
Document Release Date: 
February 23, 2005
Sequence Number: 
50
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
May 2, 1979
Content Type: 
LETTER
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PDF icon CIA-RDP80B01554R003300260050-7.pdf56.72 KB
Body: 
Approved For Relse 2005Q$it1&r &FIB@F?i?@IQA?54RaO3300260050-7 Washington, D. C. 20505 Dear Bill, 2 May 1979 Thanks very much for sending me your article from Worldview on verification of SALT. I find it very much to the point and helpfully stimulating. As is already obvious, I am right in the middle of the problem you bring out so.poignantly--overreliance on the forecasts of the intelligence community as to whether we can adequately verify SALT II. You make the case eloquently for expanding the scope of the debate. I hope I can induce others to see it your way. The point you make that.if we do not do that in the ratification process we will also faillto take these other factors into account when looking at potential violations in the future is most telling. The only portion of your paper that I have problems with is attempting to inform the American public adequately to permit it to participate in the verification process. I am concerned that releasing reconnaissance photographs may disillusion the public because they probably believe they are even better than they are, and when reproduced in newspapers and on television tubes they won't look very good anyway. I am concerned that in so many instances the photograph is only one element of a number which permit us to monitor the Soviet activity, and that those other forms of monitoring frequently cannot be discussed. Clearly you are as aware as any of us of these issues and from your perspective see them differently. I will try to keep an open mind to your argument as time goes by, but at the.moment I cannot subscribe to i t. Again,'thanks for keeping me posted and for the strong and helpful. support that your position in'this article gives to me. All the best. Yo urs, STANSFIELD TURNER. The Honorable William E. Colby Colby, Miller & Hanes .Suite 915-916 1625 I Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006 Approved For Release 2005/03/16 : CIA-RDP80BO1554R003300260050-7