Introduction
Originally published in Studies 25, no 3 (September 1981).
David Frost opens the interview: As you look back over your long career in the CIA what would you say was the highpoint, the greatest moment, and what was the lowest or the saddest?
Well, it is a little difficult to say what was the greatest moment because there was some success that was not manifest, perhaps, to the public. I think that one of the high points was the time that we predicted beforehand how long the Six Day War would last almost within a matter of hours. In other words, before the war began we told President Johnson that it wouldn’t last more than seven days no matter what combination of forces was brought to bear by the Arabs.
When you come as close as that in the intelligence business, it has to be regarded pretty much a triumph.
I think the lowest point came after I had left when in 1975, during the investigations, I saw what was happening to the Agency and heard the charges being brought against it and saw the amount of material pushed into the public domain at the time. I think that was probably the lowest point. It was not while I was in the Agency itself.