CONVERSATION WITH BILL BUNDY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91M00696R000900020010-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: March 26, 1976
• Content Type: MF

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MEMORANDUM FOR: The Director ow)
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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