SOVA PERFORMANCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90G01359R000200040013-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: November 18, 1985
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/12 : CIA-RDP90GO1359R000200040013-0
DDI #05631-85
18 November 1985
NOTE TO: Director, SOVA
Deputy Director for Intelligence
1 Now that the President is in Geneva, and we can all take
a deep breath, I want to tell you and your colleagues in SOVA
what exceptionally fine work I think you have been doing, not
only in connection with this week's Summit meeting, but more
broadly as well. There are always risks in singling out
particular areas of exceptional performance, but ones that leap
immediately to my mind include:
-- all of the work done for the Summit, from short papers
in support of arms control deliberations to scripts for
videotapes, longer range think pieces, and the NIE on
domestic stresses.
-- the work SOVA has done over the past months on the SS-20
problem, notable not only for careful, objective
analysis but also the treatment of alternative
interpretations.
-- the work being done on Sovet costing, tying together for
the first time those who track the forces, the
industrial capabilities, and the costing.
-- the work on Gorbachev's economic challenge and the
options open to him for fixing those problems.
-- the responses put together for the Director's reply to
Senator Helms.
-- the work done in recent weeks on Soviet activities in
key Third World countries, including the recent efforts
to develop a way to track patterns better.
-- support for a variety of briefings on Soviet military
developments and NIEs on new and complex issues, such as
denial and deception.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/12 : CIA-RDP90GO1359R000200040013-0
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/12 : CIA-RDP90GO1359R000200040013-0
SECRET
What has been impressive to me is the degree to which these
efforts and successes have not been confined to just one part of
the office but rather have quality performance across
the entire organization. 25X1
2. Henry Kissinger has written a letter to the President in
which he says very forthrightly that the analysis and evaluations
of the Soviet Union he has seen as a member of PFIAB are "far
better" to anything he saw during the years he was in
government. Additionally, the DCI's comments in his letters both
to Senator Helms and to Senator Durenberger in my view constitute
a strong endorsement of your work. 25X1
3. SOVA has more second guessers in and out of the building
(not the least troublesome of whom is the DDI) than virtually any
other office in the Directorate. I have seen remarkable progress
in the last year in SOVA's willingness to consider outside views
and alternative interpretations as well as to try new approaches
and methodologies it has developed itself. There should be no
doubt in anybody's mind around town that on the Soviet Union,
SOVA is the best thing going -- even as we bear in mind the
continued need always to strive to do even better.
4. I just wanted you and those in SOVA to know, for what it
is worth, what fine work I think you are doing. 25X1
Robert M. Gates
Deputy Director for Intelligence
DDI/RMGates~
DISTRIBUTION:
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1 - DDI Registry
1 - DDI Chrono
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/12 : CIA-RDP90GO1359R000200040013-0