WHY DIDN'T SOMEBODY LISTEN?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000300350090-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 14, 2000
• Sequence Number: 90
• Publication Date: December 27, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601F TATINTL50090-5
ROANOKE, VA.
TIMES
DEC 27 1971
M - 62,597
S - 106,111
Why Didnt Somebody Listen?
I
President Nixon 's reorganization
of the machinery for defense and dip-
lomatic intelligence is in order.. One
:`of the revelations of the Pentagon
Papers was that the Central Intelli-
J Bence A ey (CIA) called the shots
correctly all along. The American
people may have been sold a bill of
goods about the domino theory, the
marvelous effects of bombing and
other justifications for continuing this
miserable disaster, but the CIA was
not.
Writing in the January, 1972, is-
sue of Foreign Affairs, Chester L. J
Cooper pays a compliment and asks
a question: "Confronting one of the
most passion-laden, persistent and,
dangerous foreign crises the United
States has confronted since World
War II, they (the CIA's estimators
and analysts) consistently seem to
have kept their cool, they remained
impeccably objective, and they have
been right. But if the record was so
good, why wasn't anyone Up There
listening?"
Possibilities are that the men Up
There didn't want to hear and began
to neglect the CIA's advice. They
may have been overwhelmed by the
successes of the United States, princi-
pally in Europe, and convinced of
American might and right. President
.Johnson, specifically, didn't want to
be the first President to lose a war.
President Nixon's present policy is
open to the criticism of being tuned
to domestic politics and the Novem-
bdr election.
Whatever the possibilities, Mr.
Nixon's-plan puts the director of the J
CIA in a position where he can be
heard more easily. The director has
been relieved of day-to-day responsi-
bilities and has been given more au-
thority over all the government's in-
.telligence authorities. He can always
be overruled; the CIA does not make
policy. There may be occasions when
he should be overruled. But he can-
not be ignored quite so easily as was
the CIA during the late and continu-
ing tragedy.
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R000300350090-5