BUSH'S YEARS AT CIA DRAW MIXED REVIEW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580010-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: October 30, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580010-0
ANNNORN.
draw
mixed. rewew
"As a manager and leader, he
Improved morale, was extremely successful," said Ray
but he avoided Cline, an intelligence specialist at
the CIA and the State Department
for 30 years. He also served as an
tough dec1S1011S "informal consultant" for Bush At
By Stewart M. Powell
and John P. Wafach
EXAMPER WASHNGTON 6t/iEAU
WASHINGTON - As director
of the. Central Intelligence Agency,
his only independent executive
post in the government, George
Bush proved himself adept at deal-
ing with Congress and staff mem-
bers, but less adroit at choosing
aides and making.certain tough de-
cisions.
That is the verdict of people who
watched Bush at close hand.during
his 356 days as CIA chief in 1976.
To his supporters, he buoyed
agency morale in tba wake of con-
gressional disclosures of miscon-
duct, improved relations with Con-
gress and exercised a canny prag-
matism that bridged differences
within the agency.
To his detractors, Bush selected
buddies as lieutenanta,ducked tick-
lish personnel decisiona,.,and al-
lowed hard-line conservatives to
shape the agency's traditionally in-
dependent assessment of Soviet ca-
pabilities.
With polls showing him ahead of
Democrat Michael Dukakis in the.
race for the White House, Bush's
performance as CIA chief executive
is being examined for insights into
the nature of a Bush presidency.
He himself once described the CIA
directorship as "the beat job in
Washington."
the CIA. "He didn't stay very long,
so I wouldn't overdo it, but he cer-
tainly improved the quality of esti-
mates and the morale of the agen-
cy.
A different view emerges from
Carl Duckett, the CIA's deputy for
science and technology who was let
go by Bush after three months. "I
never saw George feet he had to
understand the depth of some-
thing," Duckett said in a Washing-
ton Post interview.
. "He goes with the flow, looking
for how it will play politically."
Ford's nominee -
Bush, a former Texas congress-
man, was President Richard Nix-
on's ambassador to the United Na-
tions, chairman of the Republican
National Committee and U.S. en-
voy to China before President Ford
nominated him as CIA director
Nov. 3, 1975.
Bush took over at agency head-
quarters in Langley, Va., at a criti-
cal time. The agency was involved
in a furor after reports on Capitol
Hill that it had conducted unautho-
rized surveillance of U.S. citizens,
mounted assassination plots
against foreign leaders and staged
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other questionable covert activities
in the Nixon years.
Nixon even sought to. use the
CIA as part of his attempt to cover
up Political espionage in the Water.
gate scandal.
CIA Director William ,Colby, a
career professional, finally was
forced to step down.
. Bush quickly endeared himself
to the agency's estimated 15,000
employees by taking their side.
. "About three days after he got
there, he read some (critical) story
in the paper and turned to his asso-
ciates and said, 'What are they do-
ing to us?' Colby recalled. "Us!
Us! He had the place in the palm of
his hand from then 'on."
Bush deepened agency loyalty
with attempts to resist Justice De-
partment requests for. documents
detailing the role of former CIA
chief Richard ~Heli i in the 1973
overthrow of a democratically
elected Marxist government in
Chile.
Its new chiefs almost nonstop
appearances on Capitol Hill helped
restore the CIA's relations with
Congress.
"He really tried to work hard
with Congress," said Donald'Gregg;
a Bush aide at the CIA who is now
his special assistant for national
security affairs.
Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii,
chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Oversight Committee, paid tribute
,to Bush when he resigned to clear
CONTINUED
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580010-0
*..,
the way for President-elect Jimmy
Carter's CIA director, Stansfield
Turner.
"You might say Bush was one of
the best we had," Inouye said at the
time. "The morale of the intelli-
gence community has been in-
spired by Bush's leadership.'
z,
Questions about personnel
Beyond-repaMng the CIA, Bush
added $500 million to the techno.
logical intelligence budget, a move
that led to better spy satellite pho-
tography in later administrations.
But his record at the CIA was
marked by personnel problems. In-
siders complained that his choice of
deputies reflected preference for
aides with whom he felt personally
comfortable instead of
tough-minded lieutenants who
would challenge the status quo. At
least two major Bush appointees
were said to be "in over their
heads."
Turner, the four-star Navy ad-
miral who succeeded Bush, com-
plained that senior CIA officials
provided a "disturbing lack of spec-
ificity and clarity in response to my
questions" and that briefing books
were "too long and detailed to be
useful."
Nor did Bush tackle, the tough
personnel cutbacks. Internal CIA
studies recommended such trims in
order to streamline the agency after
the Vietnam War and to trim its
budget, then estimated at $1 billion
a year. (The agency now employs
an estimated 25,000 people world-
wide with a budget estimated to
range as high as $5 billion a year.)
For instance, the espionage
branch recommended that Bush
cut 1,350 jobs within that division
over five years. Yet Turner said
that when he took over, "no action
had been taken."
Critics also note that Bush took
no action against CIA employees
who had helped former CIA agent
Edwin Wilson. Wilson was con-
victed of crimes in arranging arms
shipments to Libya.
Nor did Bush remove from the
CIA payroll Jordan's King Hus-
sein, despite a recommendation by
the agency's general counsel that
Hussein's $750,000 secret retainer
be suspended.
Team A, Teats B
By far the most controversial
Bush legacy at the CIA was the
alleged "politicization" of its tradi-
tionally independent assessments.
of Soviet capabilities.
In what became known as the
"Team A, Team B" approach,
Bush invited a panel of conserva-
tives, led by Harvard history Pro-
fessor Richard Pipes, to challenge,
CIA analyses of intelligence on So.
viet military strength.
Bush subsequently adopted fea-
tures of the outsiders' stark assess-
ment - in effect doubling CIA esti-
mates of the share of the-Soviet
economy devoted to defense. That
appraisal, substantiated by addi-
tional CIA intelligence, helped jus-
tify the buildup of U.S. nuclear
forces upder Presidents Carter and
Reagan.
Cline, the former CIA analyst,
called the study "realistic," but
added, "From the point of view of
technique, it left something to be
desired."
The "B-team" practice was end-
ed shortly thereafter by Turner,
who said, "Pitting extremists
against one another can only lead
to poor results."
After being rebuffed in his offer
to stay on for the first few months
of the Carter administration, Bush
left Jan. 20, 1977, Inauguration
Day.
Later he returned to the agency
as a private citizen for a visit. When
he entered the executive dining
room, a waiter told him that kitch-
en workers would like to see him.
Bush greeted each one by name,
and an aide recalled, "That kind of
personal touch is still revered
there."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580010-0