LETTER TO ALBERT WHEELON FROM (SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00885R000100080030-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 14, 2007
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: April 26, 1984
• Content Type: LETTER

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New York University
A private university in the public service
Graduate School of Arts and Science
Science and Environmental Reporting Program
277 Meyer Half"of Physics
4 Washington Place
New York, N.Y. 10003
Telephone: [phone], 7762
April 26, 1984
Dr. Albert Wheelon PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
Space and Communications Group
Hughes Aerospace Company
P.O. Box 92919
Los Angeles, California 90009
Dear Dr. Wheelon,
I thought'it might help matters a bit if I send you this, briefly
explaining what I'm up to, so you can mull over the situation.
I have been engaged by Random House to write a- fairlyrcomprehsive
book on strategic reconnaissance and national security. My
interest in the subject began when I researched and wrote a piece
on "Overhead Reconnaissance" for The New Yorker a little more than
a year ago (it is now in galleys).
I have reported for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and
The Wall Street Journa , have written three other books, and many
magazine articles for such publications as The New York Times
Magazine, Har er's, Foreign Affairs, Harvard 1agazine, The Sciences,
and High Technology, have a deep regn for facts and. 7 ike
to get things wrong. I might mention here that writing does not
pay the mortgage: I am a tenured professor here and direct this
program, which I founded three years ago and funded with outside
support I raised myself. Okay.
The book breaks into four parts, as I see it: technology (what
the various systems are and what they can and cannot do); the
infrastructure (NRO, JRC, NPIC, and the various agencies and boards
that get involved in research, tasking, analysis, the development
of NIEs and so forth); politics (the often acrimonious relation-
ship between the Air Force and the CIA over budgets, product
development, control of the system, and interpretation of data);
arms control (is verification capability "good enough" to do the
job?). The book will not be chronological and, unlike what is
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Dr. Albert Wheelon ..... 2
currently available, will be oriented toward people and politics,
not machines (though the machines have to be explained in
adequate detail so readers understand what the battle over
reconnaissance is all about).
A great many people have agreed to talk with me, many of the
former CIA hands. Some, like Pete Scoville, Bill Colby and
Richard Bissell, don't mind being named. Others mind very much,
especially those who have gotten into pretty heavy technical
areas: I understand that they're trying to help the book because
they believe it's important; they understand that I.do not violate
confidences. The Air Force's side is currently being represented
by George Keegan and a few others. Many -- four, actually --
of the CIA people have advised me to talk to "Bud" Wheelon and
Carl Duckett, and a couple of those say that you are a "must."
I might add here that I will be at Beale for two days before
coming to L.A., and will speak to many people on that general
swing, including scientists at Berkeley, Cal. Tech, and JPL, plus
former government employes now retired, and then go on to
Colorado Springs to speak with Nick Johnson and get a NORAD brief-
ing.
I hope this gives you a better idea of what I'm up to. I have no
intention of jeopardizing the national security of the United
States. But it's very important that the public gets to under-
stand something of our capability to watch the otherside, and that
the really interesting history of doing so gets put down before
many of the immediate participants are no longer in a position to
help. I know Mr. Bissell feels that way, and his recollections
of the birth and development of the U-2 program are therefore
very valuable (I am also interviewing Ben Rich and Kelly Johnson
for that aspect).
I would very much appreciate hearing from you regarding whether
you think you'll have a little time to spare for this or not. It
would be best to write to my home.
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