LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100400005-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 2, 2000
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: February 12, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For ReC tr6Z2 WD/05/24 :
WASHINGTON POST AND FEB 12 1964
TEVIFS HERALD
FOIAb5
Letters t
(;IA (:yber-,irtit-s
news release "Soviet Econom-
ic Problems Multiply" Is a
breach of almost universal in-
telligence practice, Once any
intelligence agency reports to
the public, rather than exclu-
sively to the sovereign power
of the Nation, it compromises
both itself and ~ also other
Government agencies.
I conclude from the CIA
press release that the CIA be-
littles the 'Soviet' economic
threat because their GNP is
only 47 per cent of ours and
their growth rate is assumed
to be down to 2.5 per cent,
with it gold reserve of a mere
$2 billion and because of a
severe shortage of wheat.
flow is it that this antagonist
with the withering economy
that has been failing for 40
years, has built and maintains
armed forces that oblige us to
expend $50 billion annually to
create a counterforce?
Ifow is it that the atrophied
Soviet economy has leapt into
space first; has built 400 sub-
marines in ten years along
with an antisubmarine
warfare fishing fleet of eco-
nomic superiority; is far alien d
in the creation of a dominant
mercantile fleet; exports
electrical powor and pe-
troleum; and penetrates the
Pan American hemisphere?
Has not all this been done
without extended credits from
the USA except for unrepaid
lease lend?
Those who today forecast
the failure of the totally cen
tralized Soviet; economy now
base their argument upon the
Editor
lack of flexibility and the ina-
bility to manipulate the mass
of decision making as the Sd-
viet economy grows ,in both
size and connplexi ly. What
these critics overlook is the
evolution and application of
Soviet cybernetics, the science
of communication and control
invented in the West and now
widely and specifically.
applied to the Soviet economy
in order to overcome their
monumental d a t a handling
problem.
The politico-economic strut-
ture of the Soviet Union i
ideally suited for clectro-nme-
chanical control systems in
support of their economy. It
is not only the CIA analysts:
who appear not to understand.
I fear that some of our great-
est t h i n k e r s have been'
unable to grasp the central
fact that the Soviet Union has
advanced because its rulers
have learned how to apply the
art-the science-of communi-
cation and control of the
minds and actions of its 2213,-
000,000 people.
This monolithic s o 'c i e t y;
seems to induce intellectual
paralysis amongst our own;
thinkers rather than to stinluj,.
late innovations - that w i l l .
ensure our own superiority
consistent with the freedoms
IROBERT BICKNELL.
Washington.
CPYRGHT
Approved For Release 2000/05/24: CIA-RDP75-00149R000100400005-5