LETTER TO HONORABLE WILLIAM COLBY FROM FREDERICK G. DUTTON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300730016-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 30, 2004
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: September 30, 1974
• Content Type: LETTER

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(iona1 e J
EISENHOWER THEATRE-KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
September 30, 1974
Honorable William Colby
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
McLean, Virginia
Dear Mr. Colby:
I am writing with what is obviously an unusual invi-
tation, to be one of two principal participants in the
National Town Meeting to be held in the Eisenhower Theatre
of the Kennedy Center on Wednesday morning (10:30-11:30),
November 6th, on "The Need for a Foreign Intelligence
Organization by a Major Democratic Nation".
The session would be part of the weekly National
Town Meeting series begun this summer in the Kennedy Center
to give visitors to the nation's capital an opportunity
to hear and ask questions of key governmental and other
figures in our society. The series has been so well
received that it has been expanded to include meetings
alternately at the Kennedy Center and important histori-
cal sites in U.S. history, as: Concord,.Mass. (Sept. 29),
Independence Hall in Philadelphia (Oct. 13), Springfield,
Illinois (Oct. 27) and others. Among the speakers are
Senators Hugh Scott, J. William Fulbright, John Tower,
Secretary of Agriculture Butz and Dr. Edward Teller. A
list of the participants and topics this summer and as
scheduled for this autumn thus far, is attached.
The programs are broadcast nationwide by public
television and National Public Radio. The moderator for
the sessions is Harrison Salisbury of the New York Times.
Appr ~ ~ T p t ~ i~~cl L~ 1 t t
11 .0ff)r01P(202)2-3-445s
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The format of the meetings calls for brief opening
statements (five minutes or less) by the two participants,
then about six minutes of questions by two established mem-
bers of the media in order to get the session flowing, and then
questions from members of the audience for the remainder of
the hour. The objective of the format is to give cross-
sections of citizens an opportunity to participate more in.
public discussion than has been possible with just speakers,
or speakers-and-a-press panel, or senators and congressmen
questioning expert witnesses. With the Town Meeting sessions
conveyed nationally by public TV and public radio, it is
hoped the want of increasing numbers of Americans to be heard
can be responded to within a context of intelligent, rational
discussion. The National Town Meetings and public broadcast
of them have been made possible by a grant from the Mobil
Oil Corporation similar to its funding of Masterpiece Theater
on public TV.
I recognize that public meetings present problems for
you and are contrary to the Agency's general past practice.
At the same time, a widespread re-appraisal would seem to be
developing as to the role of the intelligence community in
a time of both increasing global complexity and evolving
domestic attitudes. You have been responding with considerable
sensitivity to the crosscurrents at work. And it would seem
that one of the National Town Meetings, with its public
television and radio coverage, would be an effective way to
convey to a significant number of Americans your own thinking -
and in a way relating directly to the public rather than
just agency critics.
The National Town Meetings do not seek a direct
debate but rather an exploring of contemporary developments
from differing, mainstream viewpoints. The other principal
participant for November 6th would be invited from the Senate,
and the press panel would be balanced and selected from the
major networks or newspapers. The suggested topic seeks to
focus as much as possible on the broad underlying premises
of national policy and need rather than on any particular
specifics.
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Page Three
If you would like to have more information on the
National Town Meeting or the proposed session, please
do not hesitate to have your staff call me.
I hope very much that you will accept the invitation
and believe it can be a constructive opportunity for
you as well as for public thoughtfuiness on an admittedly
difficult matter.
Frederick G. Dutton
Executive Director
FGD/cbg
Enclosure
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1971 Surruner Series
Liberty and Law Enforcement - June 12
Senator Sam Ervin
Patrick Murphy, President of the Police Foundation
Press Questioners:
George Herman, CBS News
George Will, National Review and syndicated columnist
J Perspectives o.n Defense Spending -- June 26
Senator John Tower, Rep. Texas
Senator Thomas McIntyre, Dem. N.H.
Press Questioners:
Robert Walters, Washington Star-News Congressional Corr
Robert Goralski, N13C News
America Revisited: A Deeper Look - July 3
Eugene McCarthy
Senator Charles Mathja-; , Rep. Md.
Press Questioners:
Eileen Shanahan, Now York Times writer
David H alberstam, ulirzer-prize winning author
4YWomcilr,'Ricjhts Strut le -- July 10
Congresswoman Martha Griffiths, Dem. Mich.
Mrs. Phyllis Schlafly, author of A Choice Not an Echo
Press Questioners:
Martin Nolan, Boston Globe Washington bureau chief and
syndicated columnist
Peggy Cooper, Post-Newsweek Stations executive
fA Critique of the Media - July 17
Patrick Buchanan, Special Assistant to Pres. Nixon and
former newspaperman
Richard Goodwin, Special Assistant to Presidents I;ennedy
and Johnson, author, and chief of
Washington bureau of Rolling Stone
Richard Harwood, National Editor, '
Washington Post
Thomas Asher, Director, Media Access Project, a public
interest law firm specializing in the
communications field
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V`1'he.Energy Problem and the Environment - July 24
Senator Edmund Muskie
Federal Energy Chief John Sawhill
press Questioners:
Jim Bishop, Newsweek magazine energy and environmental
editor
Thomas O'Toole, Washington Post science editor
Harriet Sugar, Boston Glole summer intern
per s ective& on Detente -- July 31
Senator J. William Fulbrigit, Dem. Ark.
Prof. Hans Morgenthau
Press Questioners:
Peter Lisagor, Chicago Daily mews Washington bureau
chief aid syndicated columnist
Stanley K~a.r'rnow, cont;r'ibbut;ini editor, New. Shed ub.iic
Inflation and the American Economy - August 7
Andrew Brimmor, Federal Reserve System Board of Governor
Congressman henry Reuss, Dem. Wisc.
Press Questioners:
Hobart. fowon, Washing ton Post financial editor
Edwin Dale, New York 'L'it;~e s business and economics write:
The S ~readin Nuclear Dancler_ -.August 14
Dr. Edward Teller
Dr. Philip Morrison, Chairman, Federation of American
Scientists
Press Questioners:
Bill T-sines, Chicago Sun-Times Science Reporter
Judith Randall, Washington Star-News Science Editor
New Directions in the Arts - August 21
Nancy Hanks, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
Daniel Boorstin, Director, Museum of History & Technoic
Press Questioners:
Nora Ephron, New York Magazine, contributing editor
Michael J. Sobran, Jr., National Review, art critic
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Sunday, September 29th - From First Parish Meeting House, Concord,
Mass.
Speakers:
'Whatever Happened to The American Dream?
Our Hopes and yalues...And the Shifting
Balance Between optimism and Pessimism
About So Much In U.S. Society.'
William Ruckelshaus, former chief admini-
strator, Environmental Protection Agency
and Deputy U.S. Attorney General
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Albert Schweitzer
Prof. of History, City University of New
York.
Interrogators: William Rusher, publisher, National Review
Tom Winship, executive editor, Boston Globe
Wednesday, October 2nd - From the Kennedy Center in Washington,. D.C.
(TV Broadcast Sunday
October 6th)
'High Food Prices At Home and Famine Abroad
U.S. Agricultural Policy.'
Speakers: Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz
Senator Hubert Humphrey (Dem., Minn.)
(Both are U.S. Delegates to the World Food
Conference in Rome in November)
Interrogators: Gladwyn Hill, New York Times (just back from
World Population Conference)
Alan McConnagha, Minneapolis Tribune, Washin
ton Bureau (just back from six-week study of
famine in the sub-Sahara)
Sunda v, October 13th -- Congress Hall in Philadelphia: (This sessio
is part of the ceremonies observing the two
hundred anniversary of the convening of the
First Continental Congress)
'The Congress Today - Is Congressional Refor
Going Anywhere? Is the Congress Going To Re
claim Anything from the Executive Branch?
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(Occ. 13th cont'd)
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Speakers:
interrogators:
Wednesday, October 16 -
(TV Broadcast Sunday
October 20)
Speakers:
Interrogators:
Sunday. October 27th -
Sunday, November 3rd
Senator Hugh Scott, Republican Senate Leader
Congressman Richard Bolling (Dem., Missouri)
Chairman of the Special committee appointed
by Speaker Carl Albert to study reorganization
of the House Committee structure.
David Broder, Washington Post, Syndicated
Columnist
Catherine Mackin, NBC News Congressional
Correspondent
From the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
'Campaign Spending and Political Ethics'
Governor Dan Walker, Dem.
Republican Member of Congress not yet announce,
Fred Wertheimer, Common Cause
Congressional Correspondent
Mary Russell, Washington Post Congressional
Correspondent
From Springfield, Illinois - the restored stat
legislative chamber where young Abraham Lincol
served.
'Washington, D.C. As Viewed From the Heart-
land - Shifting State-Federal Relations;
and Grievances Against the Federal Government'
From New Haven, Connecticut - Yale Law
School Auditorium
'Critiquing the Evening News Shows'
From the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
'The Sovereignty of the Bureaucracy'
Wednesday November 6th
(TV Broadcast
Sunday, Nov. 8)
(And weekly through Sunday, December 15th)
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