LETTER TO DR. RICHARD PIPES FROM LEO CHERNE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85B00134R000200030009-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2009
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: December 9, 1976
• Content Type: LETTER

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PRESIDENT'S FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY BOARD
December 10, 1976
Dear Mr. Bush:
At our meeting last week, Dr. Pipes sought
the Board's opinion on getting the unclassified
"B" team material into the public domain.
We were concerned that he did not get an
adequate answer, and have therefore sent
him the attached letter.
Sincerely,
Wheaton B. Byers
The Honorable George Bush
Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D. C. 20505
Enclosure: Copy of Mr. Cherne's ltr
to Dr. Pipes, dtd 12/9/76
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THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
PRESIDENT'S FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE ADVISORY BOARD
December 9, 1976
Dear Dr. Pipes:
On behalf of the members, I want to express our deep appreciation
to you, Mr. Nitze, and General Graham for meeting with us last
Thursday and for the diligent effort which clearly you and your
colleagues have put into the competitive analysis experiment.
While the judgment is obviously tentative pending completion of the
exercise, the presentations last Thursday do seem to support the
notion of competitive analysis in some form. We will continue to
track the current experiment, and it may be that Bob Galvin's
committee will want to meet with you again at a later date. The
Board's future membership is of course uncertain, but I am hopeful
that in one way or another, Bob Galvin, Johnny Foster, Edward
Teller, and Bill Casey will be able to continue their work in this area.
In the course of our meeting, you noted that much of the material on
which the "B" team judgments were based is unclassified, and asked
for our opinion as to whether there would be any objection to pub-
lishing it. If memory serves, we agreed that nothing should be done
until the experiment is over, but this was not a complete answer, nor
can we give you one. Since the experiment is being conducted under
the aegis of the DCI, you should solicit his judgment.
Our principal concern in this case is in protecting the circumstances
under which the information has been pulled together and the purposes
which we hope to achieve. If outside judgments on key intelligence
issues are to be sought and are to contribute to .improving our national
estimates, they cannot at the same time be used in any way which is
publicly critical of the intelligence community. We see great merit
in involving the experience and expertise found in academia and else-
where outside the Government, but if this involvement is to be con-
structive, it requires a fiduciary relationship. Regardless of whether
criticism of the National Intelligence Estimates is justified or unjustified,
fOrZ OF_ x AL USE ONN `
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we cannot in this circumstance improve the estimating process by
public discussion, when one of the participants is compelled to
be mute.
We look forward to receiving your written comments, and regret
that your meeting with us necessitated a change in your personal
plans. Please do not hesitate to write if there are questions, or if
I can be of help to you in any way. '
Leo Cherne
Chairman
Dr. Richard Pipes
FOR OF -'1.~1A~. U5
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