TOP SPOOK CALLING IT QUITS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660066-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 66
• Publication Date: May 12, 1991
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sl Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23 :CIA-RDP99-014488000401660066-0
The Waahin~ton Post
Ths New York Times
TM Washlnpton Times
The Wall Strset Journal _
The Christian Solence Monitor
New York Dally News
USA Today
T~ Chicago Tribune
T
STAT
Oats l~ ~~f/ /~Ip~i ~
Top spook calling it quits
T~rlliam Webster can
THE 188UE: 1~r claim an accomplish?
wsestsr nt1-? ment that is becoming
Ing hom CIA notable in this agge of pro-
secutorial conftrmation
OUR VIEW: hearings and ascandal-
AJoe wsNdons mongering press: After
13 years in high office in
Washington, he is retiring as CIA director
amid deserved bipartisan praise
A former U.S. attorney and federal appel?
late judge in St. Louis, Webster was chosen
by Democratic President Jimmy Carter to
head the Federal Bureau of Investigation in
1978 even though he was a Republican. The
judge's knowledge of law and reputation for
rectitude brought the FBI renewed credibil-
ity in what were still the post-Watergate
years.
President Rea kept Webster on at the
bureau unfit snot scandal created great-
er need elseivttere. Central Intelligence
Agedcy director William Casey died in
1987. Reagan's firi:i nominee to replace
him, CIA deputy director Robert Gates, was
sttadced as tainted by the agen~-'i;'a'
role in the Iran-Contra affair; Gates with
drew his name under fire.
Reagan turned to straight-arrow Web-
ster, who easily won confirmation from the
Senate. Again Webster performed the func-
lion of restoring ~ peace and morale to a
sensitive agency. He managed the CIA suc-
cessfullyduring the historic periods of com-
munism'sfall and of the Gulf war.
President Bush must now find a successor
of equal integrity -and, id ,greater
experience in foreign affairs. 'J'he CIA's
mission will be redefined in coming years, as
the Soviet threat recedes and problems of
arms-treaty verification. nuclear prolifera?
lion in the Third World, terrorism and drug
traf5clung move to the fore.
Gates, now deputy national security ad-
viser, is widely mentioned as a possible
nominee and is well qualified. But 8us6 may
prefer to avoid a potentially bitter repeat of
the confirmation controversy of 1987.
Gates might be less lucky than William
Webster ~ seems to have emerged from
'-- -
Hof faithful pnbfic service bearing
.F.:... i
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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23 :CIA-RDP99-014488000401660066-0