WHY NOT A MILITARY MAN AT CIA?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100060056-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 14, 2007
• Sequence Number: 56
• Publication Date: February 9, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/14: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100060056-7
A:tr.
WASHINGTON POS
9 February 1977
Not a Xidita#r_y Man at CIA ?
HE NOMINATION of Adm. Stansfield Turner to
T be Director of Central Intelligence has con-
founded some people because of the fact that he is a
professional military man. By this particular line of
thinking, no one in uniform can fairly be expected to
rise above parochial service concerns-either in his
perception of the international environment or in his
capacity to work effectively within the confines of
the political society. This is no doubt a fashionable ar-
gument but-in our judgment-a misguided, insult-
ing one. It should not be necessary to point to earlier
examples of versatile and accomplished military
men, or to civilians-including some at the Central
Intelligence Agency-who went about their work in
what some would call a simplistic "militaristic" way.
the fleet, systems analysis, the Naval War College--:
that are central to the responsibilities of an intellig-
ence chief. A rare bird? Sure, though demonstrably
not yet "the next George Marshall," in Jimmy Carter's
enthusiastic but somewhat overdone phrase:
We are eager to hear Adm. Turner's Senate interro-
gators draw him out on the whole range of "new"
questions to which recent history has sensitized
Washington-questions bearing on the role of the in-.
telligence apparatus in the society at large and the
role of the intelligence process in the government.
Until we hear out the admiral, we reserve judgment
on his nomination. But we are pleased to note provi-
sionally that this nomination is not burdened with
the various objections, worthy and unworthy, that
Adm. Turner seems exactly the right man to prove sank the previous nominee, Theodore Sorensen. It
,the point anew.- has doubtless not escaped White House notice that
He has been called "the Navy's intellectual," an allu- Adm. Turner, though he is not conspicuously of any
sion to the qualities that made him a Rhodes Scholar conventional "left" or "right" persuasion, would
and marked his swift rise to four-star rank. His latest probably be received with special satisfaction among,
published article, "The 'Naval . Balance: ' Not Just a A hose who think. that many of Mr. Carter's other na-
Numbers Game,". which appeared last month in?For tional security appointees are excessively of the left.
eign Affairs, reveals a mind operating nimbly. in and Meanwhile, we commend the President for recover-
between the military and political worlds (an excerpt 'ing from the Sorensen fiasco with a nominee who
from it is printed, For The Record, elsewhere on this does not seem to fit into any of those familiar cubby-
page today). Adm. Turner's career has afforded him holes that so often keep Washington from seeing peo-.
experience with a, number of the elements-NATO, . ple and things for what they are.
Approved For Release 2007/06/14: CIA-RDP99-00498R000100060056-7 ,