LUNCH WITH AMBASSADOR RONALD I. SPIERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88G01332R001301470011-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: November 26, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/13 :CIA-RDP88G01332R001301470011-4
TRAN~'1AITTE SLIP
DATE
TO: DDA Registry
ROOM NO.
BUILDING
REMARKS:
FROM:
ROOM NO.
BUILDING
EXTENSION
FORM NO. REPLACES FORM 36-8
~ 1 FEB 56 Z41 WHICH MAY BE USED.
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S E C R E T
2 6 ~! G 1986
SUBJECT: Lunch With Ambassador Ronald I. Spiers
1. I hosted a lunch and briefings for Ambassador Ronald I. Spiers,
Under Secretary of State for Management, and his Executive Assistant,
Mary Ryan on 18 November 1986. The Ambassador noted the heavy toll that
budget cuts were having on the Department. They are facing cutting 700
positions in 1987 -- he did not specify whether this would be accommodated
by attrition or by an actual reduction in force. He did note that European
posts have been asked to identify 7 percent of their positions that could be
eliminated. He also said that the Department was considering closing
additional posts as a cost cutting measure.
2. The Ambassador thought that the
was working well. As a taxpayer, he lamented the duplication
of effort but understood that our more stringent security requirements made
that necessary. The Ambassador observed that as long as George Shultz was
Secretary of State, the Department would not administer polygraph tests to
its personnel. He acknowledged that an agreement had been reached for State
employees who would be working on the joint CIA-State Plain Text Processing
equipment program to take the polygraph. He personally thought a similar
arrangement would make sense Ambassador Spiers mentioned
that he had taken us up on our invitation to take the polygraph, and he had
found it an interesting experience.
S E C R E T
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S E C R E T
5. Ambassador Spiers said that former Ambassador to Bahrain,
Donald Leidel, was about to launch an effort to merge State's
communications, data processing, and information management elements. I
reviewed for him our experience in forming the Office of Information
Technology and offered to provide any briefings that might be helpful to
Ambassador Leidel.
6. The subject of GSA surfaced, and Ambassador Spiers noted that State
was considering finding an alternative to GSA for day-today maintenance. I
told him about our positive experience with Allied and promised to get him
some background information on the specifics of our contract with Allied and
on how we phased out GSA.
7. After lunch) (provided a walking tour of the SAFE Support
Branch, the Northside Computer Center and the Crisis Communications Center.
gave an excellent demonstration of SAFE Delivery 2 that
clearly made Ambassador Spiers envious. He was also very impressed with
enthusiastic briefing on the Northside Computer Center and
the demonstration of the capabilities in the Crisis Communications Center.
William F onnelly
2
S E C R E T
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S E C R E T
SUBJECT: Lunch with Ambassador Spiers
ORIG: C/MS/DDA 20Nov86
Distribution:
1 - DDCI
1 - EX/DIR
1 - DDA
1 - D/OIT
1 - D/OC
1 - D/OL
1 - DDA Registry
1 - DDA/Management Staff Chrono
1 - DDA btemo of Conversation File
3
S E C R E T
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