LETTER TO DEAR AMBASSADOR BUSH, FROM RALPH M. GOLDMAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R000300080002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 12, 2005
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 28, 1975
• Content Type: LETTER

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FROM THE DESK OF
RALPHv M. GOLDMAN,
SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY 94132
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
175'- 0
November 28, 1975
Dear Ambassador Bush:
The attached comments may interest
you in the light of your new responsi-
bilities.
May I also wish you good luck in
a most difficult situation.
Cordially,
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San Francisco State University
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
Mr. Thomas A.
Executive Dirj_._,
The Arms Control Association
11 Dupont Circle, N.W., Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20036
November 24, 1975
Is it possible to find a small corner of ARMS CONTROL TODAY for the communication
of "wild ideas" among our colleagues? Particularly wild ideas that may have some
timely impact?
My own wild idea is stimulated by the Nation's current concern over what to do
with and about the Central Intelligence Agency. The resolution of this issue is
likely to have consequences for arms control policy for decades to come, let alone
for the future safety of the world. By stating my own recommendation below in
simplistic terms I am simply trying to do what academics are paid to do, that is,
illuminate and challenge some of the underlying assumptions that guide political
policy and behavior.
Briefly, my recommendation is that the Congress rewrite the CIA statutes to require
that Agency to make public reports of all -- repeat, ALL -- its intelligence
hypotheses and findings. These could take the form of periodic -- weekly, monthly,
and annually -- public reports to the President, with copies required to be sent
to either the Secretary-General of the United Nations or a revived United Nations
Military Staff Committee.
What this proposal does is challenge the presumed need for secrecy in international
ink elligence activities. Is not intelligence secrecy an obstacle to the achievement
of our national goals of nonviolence and safety in inter-nation relations? My own
view is that secrecy is profoundly counterproductive of these goals. Secrecy sus-
tains attitudes and policies of distrust. Secrecy encourages and even legitimizes
aberrant military adventures (Bay of Pigs, the assassination involvements, etc.).
Secrecy prevents accountability and responsibility in public policy implementation.
Secrecy assumes that we and others have "cards" to hide that at some strategic
moment may be used to trump the adversary, a fear that has --- happily -- prompted
the hot-line agreements, the SALT talks, the creation of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, etc.
What happens if we opt for total publicity of our intelligence findings and specu-
lations? Would this be undressing before the enemy and thereby revealing our
weakness? How could the strongest nation in the world answer such a question in
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the affirmative? Would such public intelligence reporting undress the enemy,
in fact the whole crowd, and reveal not only weaknesses but also a few oJ_ their
blemishes? I would hope so! This would be as American as apple pie and Water-
gate. It would initially annoy every national leader in the world, but it would
ultimately relieve them of the onerous and risky responsibilities of "having
secrets."
In short, by outlawing intelligence secrecy and requiring the CIA to "go public"
we can, in one stroke, change the nature of the arms race and start opening up
the entire international diplomatic environment to the kind of open politics at
which we as a Nation are so talented. In effect, the Central Intelligence Agency
could thereby become the unofficial intelligence arm of the United Nations. The
Agency itself could be preserved fairly intact, although its mission would surely
require a new style of leadership and new bureaucratic attitudes. And, most
important, world opinion would acquire a new informational basis ---- the CIA ---
from which to develop political pressures and policies that could constrain the
arms race without risking the security of any nation or the international system.
Our colleagues should,I beli.eve,carefully examine the substance and implications of
this apparent bizarre proposal. I feel that the time is ripe for a significant
shifting of gears in the arms race and for innovative arrangements in the intelli-
gence field.
P.S. I hope you will not mind if I share this letter with a number of colleagues
at this time.
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Biographical Note: Ralph M. Goldman
Professor, Department of Political Science, San Francisco
State University (1962 to present). Formerly: Director of Institute
for Research on International Behavior (1964-1967), Associate Dean
for Faculty Research (1965-1967), Political Science Department Chairman,
(1971-1974), San Francisco State University. Research Associate,
Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. (1953-1956).
Has taught at Michigan State University (1957-1961),
University of Chicago (1961-1962), University of California at
Berkeley (1963), Stanford University (1966).
Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Chicago, 1951.
Author: BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVES ON AMERICAL POLITICS (1973),
a textbook in American Politics; CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON POLITICS
(1972), an introductory textbook in political behavior; THE DEMOCRATIC
PARTY IN AMERICAN POLITICS (1966). Co-author or co-editor: THE
POLITICS OF NATIONAL PARTY CONVENTIONS (1960); PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATING
POLITICS IN 1952 (5 vols., 1954).
Author of more than 30 articles in scholarly journals,
encyclopedias, and collected works. Established fields have been
American national politics, especially party and electoral behavior.
Currently engaged in research on international conflict, particularly
at the United Nations, arms control processes, and world party
movements.
Married. Born: May 14, 1920. Wife is elementary school
teacher and art historian. Son and daughter are teen-agers attending
college.
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