WHY I AM LEAVING THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100090042-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 13, 2007
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: March 31, 1977
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/14: CIA-RDP99-00498ROO0100090042-9
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WASHINGTON POST
John R. Stockwell was 27, a graduate of the Unit'er-
sity of Texas and a Marine veteran working as a mar-
ket analyst for a rubber company in Colorado usher: he
was recruited into the CIA in 1964. A week ago, he resig-
ned front the agency and explained his reasons in the
following letter to Adm. Stanfield Turner, the new di-
rector of central intelligence. Stockwell plans to rove
::.
to Texas and become a house builder.
31 'March 1977
W e E HAVE NOT MET and will not have the opportu-
'' ' pity of working together; as you are coming into
the Central Intelligence Agency as I am leaving. Al-
though I am disassociating myself from the Agency, I
have read with considerable interest about your ap-
pointment and listened to some of your comments. You
have clearly .committed yourself to defending the
Agency from its detractors and to improving its image,
and this has stirred a wave of hope among many of its
career officers. However, others are disappointed that
you have given no indication of intention or even aware-
ness of the need for the internal housecleaning that is so
conspicuously overdue the Agency.
You invited Agency officers to write you their sugges-
tions or grievances and you promised personally to read
all,such letters. l hi!e I no longer have a career interest,
having already submitted my resignation, numerous
friends in the DDO ;Deputy Directorate for Operations]
have encouraged me to write you, hoping that it might
lead to measures which would upgrade the clandestine
service from its present mediocre standards to the elite
organization it was once reputed. to be. While I sympa-
thize with their complaints, I have agreed to write this
letter more to document the circumstances and condi-
tions which led to my own disillusionment with CIA-
First, let me introduce myself. I was until yesterday a
successful GS-14 with 12 years in the A(,ency, having ser-
ved seven full tours of duty including chief of base, Lu-
bumbashi; chief of station, Bujumbura; officer in charge
of Tay Ninh Province. in Vietnam, and. chief, - Angola
Task Force. My file..documents what I was told occasion-
ally, that I could realistically aspire to top managerial
positions in the Agency. I .grew up in Zaire, a few miles
from the Kapanga Methodist Mission Station which was
recently "liberated" by Katangese invaders, and I speak
fluent English and Tshiluba, "High" French and smat-
terings of Swahili and other dialects.
My. disillusionment was progressive- throughout four
periods of my career. First, during three successive as-
signments in Africa from 1966 through 1977, I increas-
_ ingly questioned fhe'value and justification of the re-
. porting and operations we worked so hard to generate.
n:onc post, Abidjan, the
-:ritpn:st presence, no su!
?ii;terests and a stable go
eted i.ith State Departi
.cleat Eouphouet-Boigny':
? I atte.pted to rations
contribute, and not to
ontribution, which sho'
Weshington.-However, tl
:looped up through a cua,ii vi. ___ ___
step-by-step: a) the branch, chief, who had.never
'-iuded
,
erred in-Africa and was conspicuously iguorant of
-'black Africa; h) the chief of operations, who was a senior
roff icer although he had never served an operational
overseas tour and was correspondingly naive about field
operations; and c) the division chief, who was a political
:dilettante who had never served an operational tour in
A, ica_ Their leadership continuously reflected their in-
: Standards of operations were low in the field, with
considerable energy devoted to the accumulation of per-
'quisites and living a luxurious life at the taxpayer's ex-
pense. When I made "chief of station,"?a supergrade
took me out for drinks and, after welcoming me to the
.exclusive inner club of "chiefs," proceeded to brief ine
on how to supplement my income by an additional $3-
4,C0 per year, tax free, by manipulating my representa-
tional and operational funds. This was quite within the
regulations. For example, the COS Kinshasa last year le-
gaIly collected over $9,000 from CIA for the operation of
his household. Most case officers handled 90 per cent of
their operations in their own living rooms, in full view
of servants, guards and neighbors. And I expect few in-
dividuals would accept CIA recruitments if they knew
bow biithely?their cases are discussed over the phone:
"Hello, John - '- when you meet your friend after the
cocktail party tonight . . . you know, the one with the
old Mercedes .. be sure to get that receipt for $300..
and pick up the little Sony, so we can fix the signaling .
: ?
device."
In Burundi we won a round in the game of dirty tricks
against the Soviets. Shortly after my arrival, we moun-
ted an operation to'exploit the Soviets' vulnerabilities of
having a disproportionately large embassy staff and a
fumbling, obnoxious old ambassador, and discredit them
its the eyes of the Barundi. We were apparently success-
the Barundi requested that the ambassador not';
return when he went on leave, and they ordered the
-Soviets to reduce their staff by 50 per cent. We were
proud of the operation, but a few months later the
Soviets assigned a competent career diplomat to the post
' and he arrived to receive a cordial welcome from the
Barundi who were more than a little nervous at their
brashness and eager to make amends: For the rest of my
tour relations were remarkably better between the two
countries than, before our - operation. The operation,
nevertheless, won us some accolades.' However. it left
tions ,out the real value of
nfnund reserva
.,,P with nr Approved For Release 2007/06/14: CIA-RDP99-OO498ROO0100090042-9
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