LETTER TO GENERAL VERNON WALTERS FROM PHILIP C. CLARKE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R002100010012-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 29
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 28, 2006
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: July 30, 1975
• Content Type: LETTER

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AMERICAN SECURITY COUNCIL
1101 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
John M. Fisher
President
NATIONAL STRATEGY COMMITTEE
(Partial Listing)
Admiral John J. Bergen, USN (Rat.)
The Honorable Elbridge Durbrow
Former Ambassador
Robert W. Galvin Chairmen of the Board,
Motorola, Inc.
The Honorable Loy W. Henderson
Former Ambassador
General Bruce K. Holloway, USAF (Rat.)
Former Commander-in-Chief
Strategic Air-Command
General Lyman L. Lemnltzer, USA (Ref.)
Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs-of-Stall
John A. Mulcahy
President, The Quigley Co.
General Bernard A. Schriever, USAF (Rat.)
Former Commanding General,
Air Force Systems Command
Dr. William J. Thaler
Chairman, Physics Department,
Georgetown University
General Nathan F. Twining, USAF (Rat.)
Former Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs-of-Staff
General Earle G. Wheeler
Former Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs-of-Stall
Loyd Wright Past President
The American Bar Association
General Paul D. Adams, USA (Rat.)
Former Commander-In-Chief,
U.S. Strike Commend
Lt. General Edward M. Almond, USA (Ref.)
Former Chief of Staff to
General Douglas MacArthur
Bennett Archambault
Chairman of the Board,
Stewart-Warner Corp.
Professor James D. Atkinson
Department of Government,
Georgetown University
G. Duncan Bauman Publisher
St, Louis Globe-Democrat
Admiral Robert L. Dennison, USN (Rat.)
Former Supreme Allied Commander,
Atlantic
General Paul D. Harkins, USA (Rat.)
Former Commanding General,
U.S. Military Assistance Command,
Vietnam
Clifford F. Hood Former President,
United States Steel Corporation
James S. Kemper, Jr. President,
Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co.
Vice Admiral Fitzhugh Lee, USN (Rat.)
Former Commandant of the
National War College
The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce
Former Ambassador
A. B. McKee, Jr. President,
Forest Lumber Company end
Imperial Valley Lumber Company
Dr. Robert Morris President,
University of Piano
Dr. Nicholas Nyaradi Director,
School of International Studies
Bradley University
Dr. Stefan T. Poesony
Dlrecto r of International Studies,
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
General Maxwell D. Taylor, USA (Rat.)
Former Chairman of the
Joint Chlets-of-Stall
Dr. Edward Teller Nuclear Scientist
General Lewis W. Wait, USMC (Pet.)
Former Assistant Commandant
United States Marine Corps
Rear Admiral Chester C. Ward, USN (Rat.)
Former Judge Advocate General,
U.S. Navy
General Albert C. Wedemeyer, USA (Rat.)
Chief U.S. Strategist, World War II
Dr. Eugene P. Wigner Physicist,
Princeton University
Major General W. A. Worton, USMC (Rat.)
Retired President
American Library of Information
July 30, 1975
General Vernon Walters
Deputy Director,
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC 20505
Under separate cover, we are sending you a tape
recording of your remarks on the CIA, contained
in the WASHINGTON REPORT of the air program.
We thought you would like to have this for
your files.
You are featured on the WASHINGTON REPORT Wednesday,
August 6, 1975, broadcast over the Mutual Radio
Network at 10:45 a.m. and 5:25 p.m. and heard
locally over WAVA-FM, (105.1) 9:40 p.m. the same
day.
Thank you again for your cooperation and interest.
Cordially,
C_A3~~t~
Philip C. Clarke
Capital Editor
Washington Report of the Air
Separate Cover - Mail
19
'C aces 15 thru
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REPORTER: Philip C. Clarke - with - 1101 - 17th Street, NW
General Vernon Walters, Washington, DC 20036
Deputy Director, CIA
INDEX: US - CIA
FOR BROADCAST: Wednesday, August 6, 1975
THE CIA AND THE SOVIET THREAT
In their eagerness to tear down the CIA, headline-hungry critics have conveniently
ignored the question of how the United States would fare without an effective
intelligence service.
In attacking the occasional excesses or lapses of the Central Intelligence Agency,
the critics also fail to note some vitally important information the Agency has
turned up in recent months.
This information concerns the Soviet Union's massive military buildup -- a buildup
that, in the words of CIA Deputy Director Vernon Walters, poses the greatest
potential threat to the US since Valley Forge.
Addressing an American Security Council luncheon in Washington the other day, General
Walters said:
GENERAL VERNON WALTERS: "We can't help seeing the Soviet Union deploying four new,
different types of ICBM's -- signs of the fifth on the horizon. They're third
generation missiles; they're not anything they've just cooked up. We see them
building larger and more powerful submarines; we see them increasing the number
of tanks; we see -- in all areas -- a tremendous military effort being made to
modernize and improve the Soviet forces beyond -- what seems to me -- to be neces-
sary for either deterrence or defense. The inevitable question which faces the
United States government is: What use will they make of these capabilities? And
that is the question for which the United States government must look to the intel-
ligence community -- to the CIA -- for answers."
General Walters says the Soviet military buildup is accompanied by an unprecedented
attack on the CIA and on its information-gathering resources:
GENERAL WALTERS: "There is a great effort abroad to make you believe that intelli-
gence is immoral, un-American, unworthy and everything else. And that everybody
should know all the secrets that are running around. President Truman, in 1956,
he was asked about this. He said it matters not to the United States whether its
secrets become known through publication in the media or through the activities
of spies. The damage to the United States is the same in both cases. And he added,
'I, for one, do not believe that the best interest of our country is so served by
going on the principle that everybody has the right to know everything.' And that
extends for also long period of American history."
General Walters says investigations of the CIA may be useful, but they should be
responsible:
GENERAL WALTERS: "Right now we're engaged in a number of inquiries to determine
whether any great nation can operate its secret intelligence service, so to speak,
in a goldfish bowl. Now we may succeed because we're a very unusual people. But
if we do, it'll be just like going to the moon -- we'll have been the only ones
who ever succeeded in doing it. Now, I think these investigations can be healthy,
they can be helpful to us in the future, providing they're conducted in a positive,
constructive and responsible sense, and are not operated in some sort of a political
football. Because the security of the United States is far too precious to be kicked
around as a football."
General Vernon Walters, Deputy Director of the CIA.
* * *
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WASHINGTON REPORT OF THE AIR AMERICAN SECURITY COUNCIL
REPORTER: Philip C. Clarke - with - 1101 - 17th Street, NW
General Vernon A. Walters Washington, DC 20036
Deputy Director of CIA
INDEX: US - CIA
FOR BROADCAST: Tuesday, August 12, 1975
THE CIA: TELLING IT LIKE IT IS
One of the most unfortunate aspects of the seemingly endless uproar over the
Central Intelligence Agency is that the CIA, by its very nature, is unable to
answer back.
Recently, however, the CIA's Deputy Director, General Vernon Walters, spoke out
in defense of the Agency and of its role in protecting the security of our country
at a news media luncheon sponsored by the American Security Council.
During a question-and-answer period, General Walters defended the CIA's support of
anti-Communist elements in Chile:
GENERAL VERNON A. WALTERS: "If you consider helping democratic forces to survive
a hostile environment, I'm not sure that I would agree that's a dirty trick. That
happened in Chile, specifically.
"One thing about rightist dictatorships that differs from Communist dictatorships
is that, eventually, the rightist dictatorships fizzle out, and there is chance
and hope for change.
"There is no case where the Communists have achieved power where they have ever
transferred it by any means whatsoever with one single exception, and that is the
Communist regime in Budapest.
"With a rightist dictatorship you may have to wait, but eventually it's going to
go. With a Communist dictatorship and the Brezhnev doctrine -- that the Soviet
Union has the right to intervene to protect the achievements of the socialist
regime -- there's not much hope for any transfer of power."
On the domestic front, General Walters said certain so-called "American Wrongers"
would like to eliminate the CIA and its intelligence functions:
GENERAL WALTERS: "I think the United States would be irretrievably damaged. The
agency's future or existence is of small import. What is of import is the existence
of the United States as a free and democratic society. And if the United States had
no intelligence service, I would have serious doubts about its ability to survive
as a free and democratic society."
Asked if the CIA had been hurt by attacks against its credibility, General Walters
replied:
"I wouldn't say we've been badly hurt. In fact, I marvel at how relatively little;
but yes, we have been hurt. People that used to give us whole reports are giving
us summaries; and people who used to give us summaries are now shaking hands with
us; and people who used to voluntarily help us say, 'Ah, don't come near me.' This,
I'm sure, must be a delight to the American "wrongers." But to the people who believe
that the United States represents the best hope of mankind for freedom in the world,
it is not an encouraging factor."
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THE CIA: TELLING IT LIKE IT IS
Page Two
GENERAL WALTERS: "We are not in existence to influence American opinion. We are
there to serve the elected officials who have been chosen by the United States
Government. We tell the Congress, we tell the President. If they choose to
reveal it to the American people, that's their right. But we do not feel that
we should use our intelligence to sway American public opinion one way or the
other. We are not a policy-making agency. That is up to our masters. If they
wish to make that information public; if the Congress wishes to make it public,
they can. We brief them, we tell them everything we know."
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AMERICAN SECURITY COUNCIL
1101 - 17TH STREET, N. W. WASHINGTON, 0. C. 20036
7j F A U
D C
97
Mr. Angus Thuermer
Assistant to the Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC 20505
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Executive Registry
ugus ,
Lt. General Vernon A. Walters
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
quotation from the Chinese gentleman. But yt.
what's the old geezer's name? - --- `~
You gave a splendid presentation in
defense of the agency. Most of your audience,
including me, appreciated it very much.
With best wishes,
Victor Lasky
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PHILIP C. CLARKE
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AMERICAN SECURITY COUNCIL
1101 17th Street, N. W.
Washington, D. C. 20036
Phone [phone]
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The Deputy Director of CIA, Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters,
recently responed to a question by this reporter about
alleged Soviet attempts to prevent the U.S. from obtaining
telementry data on mirved ICBM test flights, saying that
"tradionally" the USSR seeks to mash it weapon tests. He
added, however, that he wouldn't want to say how successful
the Soviets are in those endeavors.
From Ed Ulsamer
Air Force Magazine
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