LETTER TO THE HONORABLE BARRY GOLDWATER FROM STANSFIELD TURNER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R001900030030-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: July 15, 1978
• Content Type: LETTER

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July 15, 1978
The Honorable Barry Goldwater
427 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Barry:
Last Tuesday we discussed briefly the concerns expressed in your
recent letter to me. Even though we talked about it, I thought it
might still be useful to lay out my thoughts on reorganization of the
Intelligence Community at somewhat greater length.
I share your distaste for the creation of large, new bureaus. I
sincerely hope that in proposing this reorganization I am not bringing
about the birth of such a creature. I intend to control the size of
the Intelligence Community Staff; it may grow slightly in the next year
or so beyond the level I requested for Fiscal Year 1979, but any such
growth will be highly visible and will require strong justification to
me and to the Congress. I will expect my deputies to demonstrate to
me that they are using their manpower as efficiently as possible, and
I expect in turn to have to demonstrate that to you.
Why did I feel the reorganization was necessary? Let me consider
both parts:
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1. The Resource Management group, in my view, did a competent
:.,job of putting together the first real NFIP budget, that for
FY 1979, and supported me adequately in defending that budget
before OMB and the Congress. But, to be frank, that staff
was not able to do anywhere near enough evaluation and analysis
to convince me that I was making decisions on the budget and
program that were as well informed as I wanted them to be.
It did not provide sufficient capability independent of the
program managers, contractors, and other interested parties
to support the choices I had to make, Furthermore, it was
not sufficient to carry out the budget execution responsibilities
which I acquired with the promulgation of Executive Order 12036.
In assessing the size of this staff against the requirements,
it is also important to realize that responses to congressional
committees place important demands upon this staff's resources.
A large fraction of the analyses and evaluations that were
done in the last year were mandated by Congress. I think by
and large these were worthwhile studies to undertake, but they
allowed little margin of staff time for evaluation aimed
specifically at the decisions I had to make. So I feel com-
fortable in asking for some augmentation of staff to support
these activities.
2. Collection Tasking. The collection tasking activities were
carried out by three organizations: COMIREX was really managing
tasking and allocation of a very valuable resource. They were
deeply involved in the nuts and bolts of systems operation.
Nearly three quarters of the staff involved in collection
tasking worked for COMIREX. The SIGINT Committee was one step
removed from actual operations. They provided broad direction
and systems studies to support the SIGINT system. The Human
Resources Committee was very small. It did some evaluation,
and was involved in the setting of a smal,h:; number of broad
priorities. Thus, the activities of these three groups were
quite different. There was some real tasking done by COMIREX
and some guidance for detailed tasking provided by the SIGINT
Committee, but there were no overall plans made for collection
against specific intelligence problems. No one person was
responsible for planning the operation of the collection systems
taken as a whole,and no one was accountable for their performance.
In my plan I would add staff to do collection plans and to
evaluate the operational performance of collection systems and
mixes of collection systems measured against various intelligence
problems.
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Since the tasks of resource management and collection tasking
were growing and were so different, it was my judgment that it was
best tok;split the Intelligence Community Staff to reflect the
differences.
To a large extent, as your letter suggested, the Collection
Tasking Staff will be manned by people on loan from various Intel-
ligence Community entities. It is also important to note that this
proposal was accomplished without any change in the financing
requested for the NFIP. The billets were shifted from CIA and DoD.
Overall, budgets and manpower remained fixed.
I share your concern that we not overreact to the revelation
of intelligence abuses in the past. Although I hope these abuses
don't recur, this reorganization is not aimed at solving that
problem. Rather, it is aimed at executing the management responsi-
bilities which-.E.O. 12036 levied upon me. I am not certain overall
that the structure is exactly right or that the-numbers are precisely
those required. It is really not possible before the shakedown
cruise to make such judgments. But you can rest assured that I
will give you a report on the shakedown and that I will be striving
to my utmost to prevent this staff from growing out of control.
Sincerely,
~ l Stansf eld T1fttM^f
STANSFIELD TURNER
Distribution:
Orig. - Adsee.
1 - DCI
1 - DDCI
1 - ER
1 - OLC
1 - OPBD/RMS
1 - D/DCI/RM
1 - RM Registry
1 - D/DCI/CT
(10 July 78)
6 July 78)
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