DR. R. JACK SMITH'[S CAREER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: NGA Records (Formerly NIMA)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78B05703A000400090001-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 11, 2003
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 23, 1970
• Content Type: MEMO

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DRAFT
23 October 1970
Dr. R. Jack Smith has given in his 24 years of government service
a persistent excellence of leadership. He has-been and is highly in-
'fluential in improving the quality of the intelligence provided to the
President and to the Executive and Legislative branches of our govern-
ment. He has been and is a powerful force for efficiency in the
acquisition and production of intelligence.
Dr. Smith entered the intelligence service with the Office of
Strategic Services in World War II. He served with the Central Intelli-
gence Agency from its beginning. The superior quality of his performance
and accomplishments at home and abroad in these early years led to his
appointment to the Board of National Estimates -- a senior advisory
group to the Director of Central Intelligence -- at the relatively
youthful age of 44.
Dr. Smith brought to the influential Board of National Estimates
his incisiveness, integrity and devotion to serving the public interest
at a critical time in the history of the United States. The late 1950's
and early 1960's was a time of rapid transition in the nature of national
military strength and in the international balance of power. Dr. Smith
accepted the leadership in preparing a national intelligence concensus
on the nature of the-foreign military threat, a concensus which was
critical to determinations ofnational policies concerning U.S. mili-
tary posture. He exercised that leadership and met that responsibility
forcefully. He won acceptance of new techniques for measuring enemy
Declass Review by
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strategic strength and achieved a series of national intelligence
assessments which gave relevant and effective definition to the
intelligence base for developing, executing and funding U.S. policies.
By 1961, the pace of change and tempo of developments at home and
abroad was quickening, and our government felt an increasing need for
up-to-the-minute, around-the-clock intelligence. Dr. Smith was chosen
in early 1962 to take charge of the effort to match the government's
need with effective current intelligence service. As Director of the
Office of Current Intelligence from 1962 to 1966, he created and led
a rapid intelligence reporting capability which met high standards of
responsiveness, accuracy and efficiency. The ability of Dr. Smith and
his organization to meet the exacting requirements of the White House
and the National Security Council won for the Office acceptance and
praise as an authoritative and timely source of concise reporting and
informed interpretation.
Dr. Smith not only gave the policy-maker a new and better kind of
intelligence service, but did so without any major augmentation of
personnel. His managerial skill, sound judgment, and aggressive leader-
ship in that effort significantly enhanced the intelligence services
which the Agency provided during the Cuban missile crisis in late 1962.
Since January of 1966 Dr. Smith has -- as Deputy Director for
Intelligence -- been the principal adviser to and representative of the
Director of Central intelligence, and the leader of the Central Intelli-
gence Agency's major intelligence processing, analysis and production
components. He has succeeded in organizing the resources and work of
this large directorate in-ways which have markedly increased its
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effective production and services, strengthened its responsiveness
and ability to adjust to changing situations and needs, and enhanced
its efficient use of resources.
Throughout Dr. Smith's career he has shaped each component'and
-organization for which he has been responsible' into a leaner, younger,
.more efficient and more responsive capability. Perhaps Dr. Smith's
.greatest contributions to his government service have resulted from
-his persistently successful efforts to identify and further the
:careers of deserving young officers, and to make government service
.:stimulating and rewarding experience for all who serve with him.
r- Endowed with a brilliant mind, a genius for management leader-
:hip and highest capability for imaginative intelligence production,
Dr. R. Jack Smith is my choice as the Intelligence Officer of the Year.
He would be the first man that I would recruit if I were called upon
to start from scratch and recreate the CIA in the best format of
efficiency and service to our national security.
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