INVITATION FROM THE NATIONAL TOWN MEETING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300730009-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 30, 2004
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: October 7, 1974
• Content Type: MF

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MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT: Invitation from the National Town Meeting
I suggest that you gracefully decline the attached invitation.
While this is by far a much better forum than the Fund for Peace
Conference, the need for your appearance i:,, in my opinion., much
less compelling. I feel you said your piece on behalf of the Agency
in an outstanding presentation at the Fund for Peace Conference.
Reports I have received from both ends of the political spectrum
and many stages in between were to the effect that you did an out-
standing job under the most adverse circumstances. Nevertheless
my advice is to quit or at least hold up while you are ahead and I
think our Subcommittee Chairmen would feel that too much public
exposure is not a good idea.
Ge rge L. Cary
Legislative Counsel.
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Remarks:
Mr. Colby will be focusing on the attached
shortly after his return. It is provided FYI in the
!event .fie wishes to review it with you at some
Meeting.
T
10/04 74_
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EISENHOWER THEATRE-KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
September 30, 1974
Honorable William Colby
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency-
McLean, Virginia
Dear Mr. Colby:
I am writing with what is obviously an unusual invi-
tation, to be one of two principal participants in the
National Town Meeting to be held in the Eisenhower Theatre
of the Kennedy Center on Wednesday morning (10:3011:30),
November 6th, on "The Need for a Foreign Intelligence
Organization by a Major Democratic Nation".
The session would be part of the weekly National
Town Meeting series begun this summer in the Kennedy Center
to give visitors to the nation's capital an opportunity
to hear and ask questions of key governmental and other
figures in our society. The series has been so well
received that it has been expanded to include meetings
alternately at the Kennedy Center and important histori-
cal sites in U.S. history, as : Concord, Mass. (Sept. 29),
Independence Hall in Philadelphia (Oct. 13), Springfield,
Illinois (Oct. 27) and others. Among the speakers are
Senators Hugh Scott, J. William Fulbright; John Tower,
Secretary of Agriculture Butz and Dr. Edward Teller. A
list of the participants and topics this summer and as
scheduled for this autumn thus far, is attached.
The programs are broadcast nationwide by public
television and National Public Radio. The moderator for
the sessions is Harrison Salisbury of the New`ork Times.
}a) 7?>- 3
1~1 '1 g,-! iq~ls I? Ao gaq
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The format of the meetings calls for brief opening
statements (five minutes or less) by the two participants,
than about six minutes of questions by two established rrnem-
bers of the media in order to get the session flowing, and then
questions from members of the audience for the remainder of
the hour. The objective of the format is to give cross-
sections of citizens an opportunity to participate more in
public discussion than has been possible with just. speaker-,,
or speakers-and-a--press panel, or senators and congressmen
questioning expert witnesses. With the Town. Meeting sessions
conveyed nationally by public TV and public radio, it is
hoped the want of increasing numbers of Americans to be heard
can be responded to within a context of intelligent, rational
discussion. The National Town Meetings and public broadcast
of them have been made possible by a grant from the Mobil
Oil Corporation similar to its funding of Masterpiece Theater
on public TV.
I recognize that public meetings present problems for
you and are contrary to the Agency's general past practice.
At the same time, a widespread re-appraisal would seem to be
developing as to the role of the intelligence community in
a time of both increasing global complexity and evolving
domestic attitudes. You have been responding with considerable
sensitivity to the crosscurrents at work. And it would seem
that one of the National Town Meetings, with its publi..c
television and radio coverage, would be an effective way to
convey to a significant number of Americans your own thinking
and in a way relating directly to the public rather than
just agency critics.
The National Town Meetings do not seek a direct
debate but rather an exploring of contemporary developments
from differing, mainstream viewpoints. The other principal,
participant for November 6th would be invited from the Senate,
and the press panel would be balanced and selected from the
major networks or newspapers. The suggested topic seeks to
focus as much as possible on the broad underlying premises
of national policy and need rather than on any particular
specifics.
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Page Three
If you would like to have more information on the
National Town Meeting or the proposed session, please
do not hesitate to have your staff call me.
I hope very much that you will accept the invitation
and believe it can be a constructive opportunity for
you as well as for public thoughtfulness on an admittedly
difficult matter.
Frederick G. Dutton
Executive Director
FGD/cbg
Enclosure
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NAT.%O,yAL
197 Suiw ter Series
Senator Sam Ervin
Patrick Murphy, President of the Police Foundation.
Press Questioners:
George Herman, CBS News
George Will, National Review and syndicated columnist
Perspectives
on Defense Spending
Senator John Tower, Rep, Texas
Senator Thomas McIntyre, Dem. N.H.
Press Questioners:
Robert Walters, Washinccton Star-Nets Congressional Cori.
Robert Goralski, NBC News
America Revisited: A Dccpor Looi: - July 3
Eugene McCarthy
Senator Charles Mathie Rep. NNd.
Press Questioners:
Eileen Shanahan, New York Times writer
David ilalberstam,Pulitzer.--prize winning author
Womcri::.Ric hts StrurclJ_co - July 10
Congresswoman Martha Griffiths, Derv. Mich.,
Mrs. Phyllis Schlafly, author of A Choice Not an Echo
Press Questioners:
Martin Nolan, Boston Globe Washington bureau chief and
syndicated-columnist
Peggy Cooper, Post--Newsweek Stations executive
~/ A Critique of ti:e media -- July I'/
Patrick Buchanan, Special Assistant to
former net?.spapermon
Richard Goodwin, Special Assist-ant to
and Johnson, author,
Washington nu:ceau of
Richard Harwood, National Editor,
Washington Post,
Nixon
Presidents J enfe&j
and Chief of
Rolling Stan-
Thomas Asher, Director, tedia Access Project, a pun-I.J.c
intores L law i J rm : pec: ali'1.in in the
communications field
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The Energy Proble,m1 and the Environment - July 24
Senator Edmund Muskie
Federal Energy Chief John Sawhill.
Press Questioners:
Jim Bishop, Newsweek magazine energy and environmental.
editor
Thomas O'Toole, Washington Post science editor
Harriet Sugar, Boston Globe summer intern
Per s ectivea on Detente - July 3l
Senator J. William Ful.bright, Demo Ark.
Prof. Hans Morgenthau
Press Questioners:
Peter Lisagor, Chici-lgo Dail ?Nc.w~~ Washington bureau.
chic and synd.icat-ed columnist
Stanley i{arnol contribut:i.fE; editor, New Rc. ubli.c
Inflation and the Amer_ ican EconO.il ?-- August 7
Andrew Brimmer, Federal Reserve System Board of Corr-__r.nc>
Congressman Henry Reuss, Dem. Wisc.
Press Questioners:
Iiolbbart Rowcn, W15hingLon PosL-. financial editor
Edwin Dale, New York Times busi.nc i and econonai.c,ss wra.Lee
T:~e Spreading Nuclcar_ banger -.August 3-4
Dr. Edward Teller
Dr. Philip Morrison, Chairman, Federation of American
Scientists
Press Questioners:
Bill Hines, C'nicaao Sun-Times Science Reporter
Judith Randall, Washington Star--News Science Editor
New Directions in the Arts - August 21
Nancy Hanks, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
Daniel Boorstin, Director, Museum of History & 1'echnolc
Press Questioners:
Nora Ephron, New t'ori,, Mlaq,a,- ine, contributing editor
Michael J. Sobran, Jr., National Review, art critic,
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NATIONAL TOWITN MEETINGS
Autumn 1.97: Series to Dzhte
Sunday, September 29th - From First Parish Meeting House, Concord,
Mass.
Speakers:
'Whatever Happened to The American Dream?
Our Hopes and Values...And the Shifting
Balance Between Optimism and pessimism
About So Much In U.S. Society.'
William Ruckelshaus, former chief adm7..ni.---
strator, Environmental. Protection Agency
and Deputy U.S. Attorney General
Arthur. Schlesinger, Jr., Albert chwe it?er
2rof. of History, City University of. New
York.
Interrogators: William Rusher, publisher, National Review
Tom Winship, executive editor , I3oston Globe
Wednesday, October 2nd - From the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
(TV Broadcast Sunday 'High. Food Prices At Home and Famine Abroad
October 6th) U.S. Agricultural Policy.'
Speakers: Secretary of Agriculture ture Earl Butz
Senator Hubert Humphrey (Dem., Minn.)
(Both are U.S. Delegates to the World Food
Conference in Rome in November)
Interrogators: Gladwyn Hill, New York Times (just back fro:
World Population Conference)
Alan McConnagha, Minneapolis Tribune, Washi
ton Bureau (just hack f.ro:n si.x-creek - t_udy o
famine in the sub--Sahara)
Sunday, October 13th -
Congress Hall in Philadelphia: (This sessi
is part of the ceremonies observing the two
hundred anniversary of the convening of the
first Continental Congress)
'The Congress Today - Is Congressional TRefo
Going Anywhere? Is the Congress Going To R
claim Anything from the Executive Branch?
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 (Dcc. 13th cont'd)
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Speakers:
Interrogators:
Wednesday, October 16 -
(TV Broadcast Sunday
October 20)
Speakers:
Interrogators:
unday, October 27th -
Sunday, November 3rd
dnesday, November 5th
(-V Broadcast
Sunday, Nov. 8 )
Senator Hugh Scott, Republican Senate Leader
Congressman Richard Bolling (Dem., Missouri.)
Chairman of the Special Committee appointed
by Speaker Carl Albert to study reorganizat:i car
of the House Committee structure.
David Broder, Washington Post, Syndicated
Columnist
Catherine Mackin, NBC News Congressional
Correspondent
From the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
'Campaign Spending and Political Ethics'
Governor Dan Walker, Dem.
Republican Member of Congress not yet announc(
Fred Wertheimer, Common Cause
Congressional Correspondent
Mary Russell, Washington post Congressional
Correspondent
From Springfield, Illinois - the restored.sta
legislative chamber where young Abraham Linco
served.
'Washington, D.C. As Viewed From the Heart-
land - Shifting State-Federal Relations;
and Grievances Against the Federal Government:
From New Haven, Connecticut - Yale Law
School Auditorium
'Critiquing the -veni_ng News Shows'
From the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C..
I
'The Sovereignty of the Bureaucracy
(And weekly through Sunday, December 15th)
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