MEETING WITH PRESIDENT-ELECT AND VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT IN PLAINS, GEORGIA, ON 19 NOVEMBER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79M00467A003100120005-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 27, 2005
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: November 29, 1976
• Content Type: MFR

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SUBJECT: Meeting with President-elect and Vice President-elect
in Plains, Georgia, on 19 November
1. Director Bush, and I, accompanied by Dick
Lehman, Bill Parmenter and j ourneyed to the Plains
on 19 November for a1:00 p.m. session with Governor Carter and.
Senator Mondale. Present for the session also were Stuart- Eizenstat
and David Aaron. The Director met privately with Governor Carter and
Senator Mondale for about 45 minutes.
2. At 1:45 p.m. Governor Carter, Senator Mondale and the Director
joined the rest of the group in the Carter recreation room for what then
became a five-hour session beginning with a briefing by
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on the nature of the Intelligence Community, the CFI, and the new
DCI responsibilities and authorities and a description of the technical
collection systems, particularly the overhead systems. This briefing.
lasted about 40 to 45 minutes.
3. I then briefed for about 45 minutes on the nature of CIA. I
began with a brief description-of the National Security Act of 1947,
emphasizing the requirement that there be a central facility to pull
facts together for the President and the NSC. I noted the requirement
to carry out "such other duties as the NSC may, from time to time, direct,"
and the DCI's special responsibility for the protection of intelligence
sources and methods. I gave a brief history of the early origins of
the CIA which was built upon the remnants of the OSS organization
capabilities invested in CIA, but it soon became apparent that it was
not enough to pull together reports -- the Agency had to develop its.
own analytical capability free of political or policy biases.
4. I then described briefly the collection, processing, and
production functions of the Agency and noted that work is done, too, in
administrative support, R&D, covert action and counterintelligence fields.
5. I covered the types of analysis and production done, running
all the way from current reporting to estimative, far-out, and deeper
specialized: research. I cited the growing importance of economic informa-
tion and concluded that our basic job is to inform, to alert, and to
estimate. I said we did the information job best; alerting and predicting
by nature are tougher things to accomplish well and we are working on ways
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to improve analysis, particularly in order to get an interdisciplinary
approach to assessing a foreign government, its problems, and its policies.
6. I referred briefly to the CIA organization with its four
directorates and then moved on to the men and women of CIA, their
professionalism, the numbers involved, the various skills required, the
educational backgrounds that most have, and the growing investment we
make in internal training and external training. I particularly noted.,
that in the Operations Directorate we have substantial numbers of people
who know foreign cultures and languages, who work easily with foreign
officials and leaders and that very often senior foreign leaders prefer to
talk freely and informally to our people rather than follow a more formal 25X1
official route in passing along the message to the United States Government.
I said I thought this' capability would prove useful to the new Administration.
Governor Carter asked for an example of this and I referred to
This led in turn to a question from the Governor as to the nature 01 e
relationship between Chiefs o--" Station and Ambassadors. The answer was that
by law the COS is a subordinate of the Ambassador, and must keep the Ambassador
informed. This does run headlong into the Director's responsibility to
protect intelligence sources and methods. Occasionally there are differences
of opinion between a COS and an Ambassador. If these differences cannot
be resolved on the ground, they are appealed to Washington where resolution
is applied. In any event, it is not a raging controversy of a daily nature
and it is manageable.
7. I covered briefly the trends over time in Agency investment in
personnel and dollar resources, emphasizing the reduction of some 20o in
our overall personnel strengths since the peak year of 1969 and also the
drop-off in covert action to just 1.7% of our 1977 budget. This compares
with well over 50% in the peak years of the cold war era. In describing
the trends in the Agency's history, I pointed out the dramatic impact of
technology, citing the special development of the U-2, the OXCART, the
overhead satellites, et al. I said this kind of capability continues to
exist within CIA and the Government is well served by the maintenance of
such a capability in the Agency.
8. The description of covert action and its dramatic drop-off led
to questions from Senator Mondale and Governor Carter on the nature of
controls over covert action. We described the Operations Advisory Group,
the way it functions in approving or disapproving proposals for covert
action. I explained that not all covert action proposals originate
within the Agency. I also pointed out that when the OAG approves a proposed
covert action under current laws and arrangements, the President must make
a finding that the activity is in the national interest and then the DCI
must brief seven different committees of the Congress "in a timely way."
This seemed to come as news to the audience. It led to a discussion of the
value of the Senate's focusing its responsibility for intelligence oversight
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in the SSCI and our hope that the House of Representatives will, in the
next session, adopt a similar arrangement to focus it in the House.
9. Covered next were the major differences between our current
programs and those of the 50's and 60's. Emphasizing the new look to
analysis and production which I described as the capstone of our effort=
and our increased investment in it, I once again hit the drop-off is covert
action, pointing out that some of this is due to the realization that most
covert actions can't be kept secret under current arrangements. T referred.
to the growing importance of clandestine collection in obtaining intentions
information as compared with the capabilities data that we acquire from
technical sources. I also underlined the continuing importance of technical
collection, particularly the importance of such collection in peace-keeping
arrangements like SALT, MBFR, and thel and described brief 125X1
too, our efforts to take a new look at secrecy in order to insure adequate
protection of sources and methods while at the same time freeing up the 25X1
product for wider dissemination throughout the American, scene.-
12. I did not have time to get deeply into counterintelligence,
narcotics, or counterterrorism -- some of the new major subjects we
delve into these days -- but I did tell the Governor we would like to
brief him on these.
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13. I concluded the presentation with a brief description of what
I thought were our most important problems and opportunities. First,
the need for better analysis and production; second, the need for
improved secrecy governing sources and methods; third, the problem of
how to insure creativity in a place like CIA while building internal
and external controls to insure propriety; and fourth, simply that of
providing effective planning and management, balancing resources, planning
the future and cutting the expendables.
14. The Governor and the Senator seemed intent and rapt during
the presentation. Their questions were good ones. They did not shrink
at any mention of secrecy, cover, sensitivity, covert action, etc. My
subjective impressions of the Governor are: a) he will be at home with
and comfortable in the world of technology -- this probably grows out of
his Navy and submarine experience; b) already the Governor is in receipt
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of large numbers of communications from world leaders 25X1
c as a person, -
serene as i a .- oge er inside), is well-briefed; his questions e good;
traveled but he knows a good deal about the wod,
he is not extensivel
y
particularly the troubled spots. He is interested and absorbed in zntelli-
gence matters. He is very detached and cool. I think we will find a goo
customer and champion of intelligence during his incumbency in the White
House.
E. H. Knoche
Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
cc: ER (Sensitive)
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