LETTER TO MR. MORTIMER M. CAPLIN, PRESIDENT FROM W. E. COLBY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00313R000300040018-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 15, 2002
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: April 16, 1975
• Content Type: LETTER

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
16 April 1975
Mr. Mortimer M. Caplin, President
National Civil Service League
917 15th Street, N. W.
Washington, D. C. 20005
It is my great pleasure to nominate Dr. Edward W.
Proctor for the National Civil Service League's Career
Service Award.
As CIA's Deputy Director for Intelligence, Dr. Proctor
has the key role in our government with regard to foreign
intelligence analysis. He is the leader of those who pro-
duce the reports and assessments of events abroad which are
vital to the nation's decision makers. The ever increasing
demand for timely analyses in a rapidly changing atmosphere
has been a challenge which Dr. Proctor has met with courage
and unique ability. He has capped a career as a formidable
intelligence analyst by becoming a master of the business
of managing intelligence analysis.
I nominate Dr. Edward W. Proctor with the sincere
belief that his career accomplishments are deserving of
the recognition which the League's Awards Program provides
and that his selection would serve to strengthen the public
service by highlighting the true value. and contributions of
the intelligence profession.
Sincerely,
~~~6 -1976
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Name, Title & Grade . Dr. Edward W. Proctor, Deputy Director
for Intelligence, EP-04
Business Address . Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
Education & Degree Brown University, AB Economics
AM Economics
Harvard University, PhD Economics
Length of Service : 22 years
Date & Place of Birth: 30 December 1920, Providence, Rhode Island
Edward W. Proctor, who heads the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence,
can fairly be described as our government's senior foreign intelligence
analyst. For he. is the manager of that part of the Agency which pro-
duces the reports and assessments of events abroad and the man who
ultimately must answer when the President, or the National Security
Council, or for that matter the Congress asks what's going on overseas.
Mr. Proctor began his Agency career in 1953 as an intelligence
analyst in the Office of Research and Reports. In short order, he was
assigned to increasingly responsible positions within ORR, spearheading
the organization and management of several components, created to
develop integrated intelligence analyses of the Soviet Union's stra-
tegic weapons program--a program which represented an increasing threat
because of Russia's growing ability to apply rocket and space tech-
nology to the delivery of nuclear weapons.
In so doing, Mr. Proctor played a key role in the successful
determination by the United States of the true state of Soviet strategic
capabilities, thereby resolving the "missile gap" problem. More impor-
tant, this hard-won knowledge of Russian strength became critically
significant during the Cuban missile crisis when our leaders were forced
to confront the Soviet Union with the possibility of a nuclear exchange.
In July 1965 Mr. Proctor was named as one of the select few senior
intelligence officers who served on the Board of National Estimates.
His tour on the Board, however, was brief. Within a year he was called
to be Assistant Deputy Director for Intelligence and only five years later
was elevated to his present position as head of the Directorate.
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To understand the significance of Mr. Proctor's achievements as
"the DDI," it is important to note how much the intelligence profession
has had to change since he assumed the role of Assistant Deputy Director.
In the years since 1966, the sweep of international events has altered
radically the intelligence needs of the US Government and the demands
placed upon the Intelligence Community. At CIA, though our concern with
the military capabilities of the major Communist countries has not
lessened, we have had to develop the capacity to provide intelligence
support on a much wider range of equally complex problems.
To cope with this vastly increased demand for intelligence analy-
ses, the Intelligence Directorate of CIA had to grow--not in size--but
in sophistication. It had to expand its capabilities to answer the new
questions the President and his senior advisors were asking, chiefly
through the expanded and highly energized National Security Council
Staff under the direction of Dr. Kissinger. It was in meeting this
challenge, refashioning the Intelligence Directorate to meet its new
responsibilities, that Mr. Proctor has capped a career as a formidable
intelligence analyst by becoming a master of the business of managing
intelligence analysis.
When one confronts the task of summing up the career of this
exceptional civil servant--a career that seems certain to go on to even
more impressive achievements--two things leap to mind. First, is the
managerial ability which he has demonstrated in reorganizing and
revitalizing the extremely complex institution he heads. As his distin-
guished predecessors have shown, it takes a big man to run the Intel-
ligence Directorate; but it takes an even bigger one to change it.
Second, and perhaps ultimately more important, is the record of
intellectual excellence and personal integrity which Ed Proctor has
established in his 22 years of service with the Agency. In the hidden
world of intelligence analysis, what matters most is rigorous mental
effort, an ability to articulate one's findings with utmost clarity,
and the courage to communicate them--even when the news is bad. E /fIA'rL
Proctor, by his success in these difficult arts, has established a new
model for his fellow professionals.
Submitted by: ~
W. E. Colby
Director of Central Inteljf gence
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NOMINATION STATEMENT OF DR. EDWARD W. PROCTOR
FOR THE CAREER SERVICE AWARD
STATINTL
Early each morning, a CIA officer arrives at the White House.
His job is to brief the President of the United States on the latest
events abroad and on the Intelligence Community's assessments of what
these events mean for the United States.
Each morning the Secretaries of State, Defense, and Treasury,
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a limited number of other senior
officers find on their desks the National Intelligence Daily, a journal
reporting the latest developments in foreign countries--political,
economic, military, scientific--and their significance for our national
security.
At each National Security Council meeting, the Director of Central
Intelligence briefs the Council on the intelligence background of the
situation it is considering.
These activities are the most visible and among the most vital
products of CIA's Directorate of Intelligence. They typify the
central role it plays in our national security apparatus, and the
central role that Dr. Edward W. Proctor plays as the man who heads
this Directorate.
Mr. Proctor can fairly be described as our government's senior
foreign intelligence analyst. For--both as the manager of that part
of the Agency which provides the end product of the intelligence
business and as a highly regarded judge of international affairs in
his own right--it is Ed Proctor who must answer when the President,
or the National Security Council, or for that matter the Congress
asks what's going on overseas.
How long can the uneasy peace in the Middle East be maintained?
What is the state of Brezhnev's health? What is happening to the
Italian balance-of-payments? Is world oil consumption rising or
falling? How strong are the Soviet ground forces in Eastern. Europe?
What is the present depth of the Suez Canal? What is the latest report
on the military situation in South Vietnam? How will world food supply
and population balance off a decade hence? Who is who in the intri-
Can the Argentine government control terrorism?
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Providing timely answers to such questions as these is the
routine part of Mr. Proctor's job. To do it, he must combine the
skills of a corporate chieftain in managing a highly complex production
organization and the capabilities of a university president in master-
ing the intellectual disciplines involved. But it is when some
international crisis intrudes on this routine that the capabilities
of a Deputy Director for Intelligence are truly tested. For it is
in these situations--when the tension builds and the time is short--
that he must show the mastery of his arcane profession and the courage
of his convictions to say--to the Director of Central Intelligence or
to the President himself: "I think this is what's going to happen."
It is because Mr. Proctor bears these responsibilities that he
can be called the government's senior foreign intelligence analyst.
It is because he has succeeded so eminently in carrying these burdens
that he is nominated for this high honor.
Mr. Proctor was born on 30 December 1920 in Providence, Rhode
Island. He married Lois Elaine Pollon of Philadelphia; they have
two children, Suzanne and David.
In June 1942, Mr. Proctor received a BA in Economics with
highest honors from Brown University. He is a member of Phi Beta
Kappa. After working a few months as a statistical clerk in the
War Department, he entered the Army in late 1942 and served until
he was discharged in 1945 as a Technical Sergeant.
He then completed an MA in Economics at Brown and continued on
to Harvard, where he received a PhD in Economics. While working
on his advanced degrees, he served as an Economics Instructor at
Brown and a Teaching Fellow at Harvard. In 1950 he was appointed
Assistant Professor of Economics at Penn State University where he
taught economics and statistics until joining the Central Intelligence
Agency in 1953.
Mr. Proctor began his Agency career as an intelligence analyst
in the Office of Research and Reports. In short order, he was
assigned to increasingly responsible positions within ORR, becoming
a division chief, then Chief of the Guided Missile Task Force, and
eventually Chief of the Military-Economic Research Area.
During the late 1950's and early 1960's he spearheaded the
organization and management of several Agency components created
to develop integrated intelligence analyses of the Soviet Union's
strategic weapons program--a program which represented an increasing
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threat because of Russia's growing ability to apply rocket and
space technology to the delivery of nuclear weapons.
More specifically, in 1960 Mr. Proctor was designated Chief
of the Ad Hoc Task Force on the Production and Deployment of Soviet
Long-Range Missiles. In undertaking this assignment, Mr. Proctor
rapidly established program objectives, defined responsibilities
within the Task Force, and developed an excellent esprit de corps.
In the early days of its operation the Task Force was obliged to
exploit, intensively and systematically, the very limited amount
of information available and, in addition, was required to develop
new analytical approaches to the questions at hand. This team
research effort was carried out so successfully that its findings
and, somewhat later, those of his Military-Economic Area analysts,
became the underlying research documents for the National Intel-
ligence Estimates on Soviet long-range attack capabilities.
In so doing, Mr. Proctor played a key role in the successful
determination by the United States of the true state of Soviet
strategic missile forces, thereby finally resolving the "missile
gap" problem. As a consequence, during the "Cuban missile crisis"
of 1962 these estimates of Soviet strength provided a firm under-
pinning for the confidence with which the United States was able
to confront the USSR.
In July 1965 Mr. Proctor was named as one of the select few
senior intelligence officers who served on the Board of National
Estimates. Here he was responsible for the most important question
of them all, the assessment of Soviet strategic strength. His tour
on the Board, however, was brief. Within a year he was called to be
Assistant Deputy Director for Intelligence and only five years later
was elevated to his present position as head of the Directorate.
To understand the significance of Mr. Proctor's achievements
as "the DDI", it is important to note how much the intelligence
profession has had to change since he assumed the role of Assistant
Deputy Director. In the years since 1966, the sweep of international
events has altered radically the intelligence needs of the US
Government and the demands placed upon the Intelligence Community.
At CIA, though our concern with the military capabilities of the major
Communist countries has not lessened, we have had to develop the
capacity to provide intelligence support on a much wider range of
equally complex problems. To name but a few, these have included
the war in Indochina, the intense political--and periodically
military--conflict in the Mid-East, the historic changes taking
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1
place in international finance, the growing tension over oil and
other precious resources, and the emergence of the so-called
"third world" nations as a power with which the US must contend.
To cope with this vastly increased demand for intelligence
analyses, the Intelligence Directorate of CIA had to grow--not in
size--but in sophistication. It had to expand its capabilities to
answer the new questions the President and his senior advisors were
asking, chiefly through the expanded and highly energized National
Security Council Staff under the direction of Dr. Kissinger. It
was in meeting this challenge, refashioning the Intelligence
Directorate to meet its new responsibilities, that Mr. Proctor has
capped a career. as a formidable intelligence analyst by becoming
a master of the business of managing intelligence analysis.
The task required the hiring and cultivation of exceptionally
capable personnel. It demanded reorganization of some of the
established Offices of the Intelligence Directorate and the creation
of new ones. Most of all, it required the supervisory skills and
personal example to force the Directorate's corps of intelligence
analysts into thinking in new ways about new problems.
This revolution is still being accomplished, but the monuments
to Mr. Proctor's leadership are already evident. A new Office of
Political Research has been found to provide long-range insight into
the foreign policy problems the US will have to confront in the years
ahead. A Strategic Evaluation Center has been established in the
Directorate's military intelligence office to bring a new focus to bear
on the increasingly complex balance of forces between East and West
in an era of strategic arms negotiations and balanced force reductions.
Throughout every office of the Intelligence Directorate, Mr. Proctor
has nurtured the development of more sophisticated analytical techniques,
borrowing new methods developed in the academic world and harnessing
the power of the computer to thinking about international affairs. For
example, in the Offices of Current Intelligence and Economic Research,
staffs have been created whose chief function is to insure that
analysts are trained to use the latest techniques of data interpreta-
tion, statistical manipulation, model building and analytical
methodology.
For many years, one of the most severe limitations on an analyst's
capacity has been his inability--because of a lack of time and
space--to make use of all the reference material that could be
brought to bear on solving an intelligence problem. Today, under
Mr. Proctor's direction, the Agency is engaged in a bold effort to
make the complete range of intelligence information relevant to an
-4-
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analyst's work available to him--at his desk--instantaneously. The
project is in its early stages and, as no one in the information-
handling world--in or out of government--has attempted an undertaking
of this complexity, it is not certain that it will succeed. It is no
surprise to those who know him, however, that a project requiring
such imagination and a commitment to excellence should have been
initiated under the leadership of Mr. Proctor.
When one confronts the task of summing up the career of this
exceptional civil servant--a career that seems certain to go on to
even more impressive achievements--two things leap to mind. First,
is the managerial ability which he has demonstrated in reorganizing
and revitalizing the extremely complex institution he heads. As his
distinguished predecessors have shown, it takes a big man to run the
Intelligence Directorate; but it takes an even bigger one to change it.
Second, and perhaps ultimately more important, is the record
of intellectual excellence and personal integrity which Ed Proctor
has established in his 22 years of service with the Agency. In the
hidden world of intelligence analysis, what matters most is rigorous
mental effort, an ability to articulate one's findings with utmost
clarity, and the courage to communicate them--even when the news is
bad. Edward W. Proctor, by his success in these difficult arts,
has established a new model for his fellow professionals.
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