REDRAFT OF LETTERS TO UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00985R000300150037-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 2, 2001
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: January 30, 1978
• Content Type: LETTER

30 JAN 15
Approved For-Release 20Q4/03/06 : CIA-RDP86BOO985ROO 00150037-4
REDRAFT OF LETTERS TO UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS
Since its inception the Central Intelligence Agency has sought
to maintain effective relationships with scholars and academic
institutions throughout the United States. Over the years these
relationships have been of inestimable value to the intelligence
community. I hope and believe that the relationship has been of
mutual benefit. In the wake of the considerable public criticism
over the past several years of our nation's intelligence operations,
this relationship has become somewhat tender. I would like to ask
your help and advice in determining how best to restore a useful
but proper connection between academia and the world of intelligence.
Clearly there are limits beyond which we in the intelligence
world should not go in dealing with members of the academic community.
I do have very express rules with respect to that today, but how we
are operating within these rules is not always clear to others. Today
there are also many now opportunities to use unclassified information
derived through the collection of intelligence for the benefit of
academic research. I do not believe that we have the proper mechanisms
today to insure the adequate provision of such information to academic
institutions.
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Accordingly, I would like to ask you to join with several other
university presidents and\,w ~,_
here at the Central Intelligence
Agency Headquarters on the 10th of March. The objective would be
to have a free-flowing exchange of ideas on how to reestablish the
academic-intelligence relationship on a sound and proper basis for
mutual advantage. This will be a quiet, private meeting of ten to
twelve of us, during which we will take the opportunity of asking
you to visit our CIA facilities and meet with a variety of our Agency
officers representing a diverse group of intellectual disciplines.
OVA 91 (i T cnr5 lr'S
My hope would be that in your spending a day with us yr might
attitudes of the present.
I would be most grateful if you could take the time to do this.
I am asking , the chief of our office in
to deliver this letter personally so that he can be available to discuss
my invitation further with you and help to make arrangements if, as I
hope, you are able to accept.f (Standard letter except to Wes Posvar & Wiesner
send new last paragraph.* Don't send Posvar's letter by messenger;
send in regular mail.)
Yours sincerely,
STANSFIELD TURNER
* I hope you will bring Millie with you and be our house guests
(Posvar only)
at A~a Quarters. We would love to see you both again privately and
(WiesneApproWU*o of~cq@i and my60tha 1)Onpso~o'rait [S`~a~E5?~F l~~~d' 5 t4
only)
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Since its inception, the Central Intelligence Agency has sought
and benefited from extensive relationships with scholars and academic
institutions throughout the United States. Leading academics and some
of their best students filled the top ranks of the American intelli-
gence community during its formative years, and have been succeeded by
equally vital and skilled analysts from later academic generations.
They have brought a high degree of intellectual energy, curiosity, and
integrity to our profession and have made sure that our research and
analytical efforts take account of the best work of the same character
available in the private sector. Indeed, they have organized many of
the components and practices of the Central Intelligence Agency on
models they brought or have subsequently adopted from academia.
In recent years, however, the Agency and the foreign intelligence
profession have been subject to intense criticism in academia. Although
much of it was generated by false allegations and by practices and
isolated abuses that have been prohibited by the reforms of the last few
years, doubts about CIA's mission, standards, and record remain. A
climate of suspicion and mistrust now all too often clouds our relations
with the academic community.
One of my principal objectives as Director of Central Intelligence
is to restore a high degree of mutual respect and understanding between
the academic and intelligence communities. My own experience is filled
with examples where cooperation between professionals in the two fields
has been mutually beneficial both to the individuals and the communities
at large. CIA desires the freest possible access to the intellectual
resources of America's institutions of higher education to enhance our
research and analytical efforts. Conversely, the academic community can
gain unique insights, conclusions, and data about foreign areas and
international affairs from open exchanges with the Agency. I look forward
to the day when a cooperative spirit between the two communities thrives
once again.
In pursuit of that objective, I am writing to invite you to be my,
guest at CIA Headquarters on March 10. I would like you to join me and
several other university presidents to visit CIA facilities, meet with
officers from a variety of the disciplines and functions that constitute
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our profession today, and to hear about some of the new analytical
techniques we have developed. We want to be as candid as we possibly
can in describing the Agency and its work and in responding to questions
STATINTL
discuss my invitation further with you and to help make arrangements if,
as I hope, you will be able to accept.
Yours,
STANSFIELD TURNER
Martin D. Woodin, President
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
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