LETTER TO MR. WILLIAM P. BUNDY FROM RICHARD LEHMAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91M00696R000900020006-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: April 6, 1976
• Content Type: LETTER

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6 April 1976
Mr. William P. Bundy
Foreign Affairs
58 East 68th Street
New York, New York 10021
Dear Bill:
Just a belated note to thank you for the lunch. I have
given George a memorandum on our conversation, and I think he
will take your views seriously. So far, we are making haste
slowly.
I hope you were able to make the most of Florida.
Batteries get depleted this time of year.
Sincerely,
Richard Lehman
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26 March 1976
MEMORANDUM FOR: The Director
SUBJECT : Conversation with Bill Bundy
1. Following up your exchange of letters with Bill, I had
lunch with him in New York yesterday. He has some very firmly held
ideas, and ones that you should take seriously.
2. As a member of the Board of National Estimates during
the period of its strength in the late 1950's, he believes strongly
in the value of such an institution. He is aware of its deterior-
ation in later years and believes that, if it is reestablished,
devices such as fixed terms of membership should be used to avoid
ossification. He emphasizes, however, that for such a Board to do
its job, it would be necessary to recruit people of national repu-
tation, and. he cautions that this would be extremely difficult to
do in the last few months of an administration.
3. Bill is also convinced of the value of a drafting staff.
This, too, is based on his experience of a number of years ago,
and he has not had any exposure to the analytic organizations since
they matured. I would therefore not put too much weight on this
advice.
4. Bill's overriding concern is to rebuild the links be-
tween the national intelligence assessment organization and the
intellectual world outside the Community. He is aware, as are
we all, that these links have sadly deteriorated in recent years.
The Community has no monopoly on wisdom or knowledge. He believes
that the close association of the organizations responsible for
national assessments with clandestine activities is at the root
of the present antagonism. An entirely separate organization, a
"Federal Assessment Administration," would be able to deal with
the academic world without the "albatross" of espionage and covert
action around its neck.
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5. I explored how his proposals could be adapted to the
position in which the Executive Order puts you as the senior
national intelligence officer. Bill thought that a Board, if
the proper people could be recruited and if it answered directly
to you (as you have already decided), could provide the foundation
on which a new relationship could be built. He would go much
further, however. He would also separate the DDI from CIA and
make it a national assessment organization answering directly to
you. This in effect is a Model VI that carries Model V to its
logical conclusion. It is, I understand, one of the proposals
of the Senate Select Committee. The arguments against it are, of
course, that it is expensive, would break up fruitful working re-
lationships within CIA, and might open the door to further dis-
memberment of the Agency.
6. We also discussed an alternative, removing the DDO
from the Agency and establishing it in some independent manner.
I argued strongly against this on the grounds that there were few
volunteers for carrying the albatross, and he did not dispute me
on that.
7. We ended with his urging that you go slowly in this
field and that you try to do as little as possible this year.
I think this is-good advice as far as recruitment of stars for
a Board is concerned, but in the present situation, because the
decision on how everything is to be done has been dumped in your
lap, you cannot say "Let's do it the old way" without effectively
committing yourself. You do not have to do everything at once,
but you have to decide where you are going. I agree wholeheartedly
with Bill's view that the isolation of the Community from the out-
side,world'must be ended. We shall become increasingly introverted
and decreasingly useful if we do not stay in the mainstream of
American intellectual life.
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TRANSMITTAL SLIP I DATE
1 2 Aarc 1976
TO:
Dick Leyman
ROOM NO.
BUILDING
REMARKS:
Thought you might be
interested in this.
FROM:
DCI
ROOM NO.
BUILDING
EXTENSION
FORM NO REPLACES FORM 36-8
I FEB 55 24 I WHICH MAY BE USED.
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON,D.C. 20505
March 12, 1976
Dear Bill,
How thoughtful it was of you to take all that time
to write me that comprehensive letter on March 2nd.
We are busily at work implementing the President's
Executive Order reorganizing the Intelligence Community..
I read with interest your suggestion about divorcing the
overt activities of the Agency from the true clandestine
services. This was given a great deal of thought over
the past several months by various elements of the Intel-
ligence Community. In the final analysis, no one could
find a better home for the covert operations than CIA.
It is my view that covert operations will be spar-
ingly approved and will not be used in the future as
widely as they have been in the past. I do believe that
a covert capability is necessary.
We have much ongoing reorganizational work and your
letter gives me much food for thought. I happen to agree
with your point about the difficulty of being in the
position of "both judge and prime operator." Maybe after
we do our fundamental reorganization job we can find an
answer for this one.
You mention morale at the Agency. I am sure there
is some kind of a problem, but it's not near as significant.
as I thought it would be. I agree with you about the
pendulum-like swing of public opinion, but I have told
our people here that we cannot hunker down and be less
than responsive to change, just because a certain amount
of reason is returning to the scene.
As you more than most understand, this is a whale
of a challenge and I appreciate your kind words of support.
Sincerely,
GeorVe Bush
Director
William P. Bundy OLuTioN
Foreign Affairs ,
-
J V I ... 1. V V V 1 1 J 1. 1 G G V
Q
New York, New York 10021
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FOREIGN AFFAI I S
AN AMERICAN QQARTERLY REVIEW
58 EAST 68TH STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y.10021 1 (212) 734- 0400
WILLIAM P. BUNDY
EDITOR
March 2, 1976
JAMES CHACE
MANAGING EDITOR
The Honorable George Bush
Director of Central Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
Dear George:
Our brief meeting a month ago was hardly the occasion
to express myself about your appointment, and I am catching up
by this letter. In a word, I want to congratulate you most warmly
on the spirit of public service that has led you to take on this
extremely difficult task at this particular-moment, and to say
that if there is anything that an old alumnus of the estimate side
can do to help, I shall be only too happy to do it.
I think you are off on the right foot with the reorgan-
ization plan, which should give you much more formally and
explicitly a power that was always intended but never perhaps
properly exercised, to coordinate all the agencies in the business.
I would myself be inclined to go further and to divorce the overt
activities of the agency, evaluation, scientific collection in
terms of satellites and such, and the domestic collection from
interests overseas, from the true clandestine services. But
that is something that you would do well to brood over for some
time, and is perhaps not this year's business in any way. rMy
own feel is that the ton man in the intelligence community should
be the head of the overt organization, while having very strong
directing powers over all the supporting organizations, of which
clandestine intelligence would then be one. My thinking is only
partly prudential, in the sense that any kind of association with
clandestine activities may for the time being be a drawback on
the necessary recruitment for the overt side. But more basically
I do think there is a very considerable separation between the way
the two types of activities work, and that a separation would in
itself contribute to better control of clandestine intelligence
and of any clandestine activities that continued, and would
prevent the director from being in the difficult position of being
both judge and prime operator.
But this is for the future. For the time being, I should
think that restoring morale and getting the organization back at
concert pitch would absorb all of your energies and talent, and that
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you are a man with the character and experience to do this. In
the volatile swings of public opinion back and forth, I should
judge that opinion is now moving toward support of the basic
functions of the agency, including clandestine intelligence Qn) at
least the very occasional covert action. But it would be unwise
to count on public opinion staying level at any time, and the only
answer, as always, is to do the job as honestly and straight-
forwardly as you know how, in trust that the results will commend
themselves to men who have any objectivity.
In any case, my main purpose is to congratulate you
and to wish you all the best in a very tough job.
With warm regards,
Yours ever,
'Jt
William P. Bundy
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