LETTER TO THE HONORABLE WILLIAM E. COLBY FROM STANSFIELD TURNER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• 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
• Publication Date: May 2, 1979
• Content Type: LETTER

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