LETTERS
Letters The CIA James Fallows’ article “Putting the Wisdom Back into Intelligence” (June, 1973) purports to explain the need for changing the outlook of the Central Intelligence Agency. In...
...In reality, however, he presents some of the best evidence for the total elimination of the CIA as part of the American foreign policy institution...
...The Navy plans to further reduce its carrier force to 12 attack carriers in 1980...
...The fourth new nuclear attack carrier, which the Navy has requested this year, is a classic example...
...At his confirmation hearing, Secretary of Defense designate, James R. Schlesinger, stated that the Pentagon ought to provide more information on the life cycle cost of a weapon system...
...While it is sometimes important to point out the cost overruns, the waste, the inefficient methods used in procurement, etc., this is usually water over the dam...
...The federal budget as a whole is supposed this year to be anti-inflationary and “austere...
...Waiting for Disarmament C. Robert Zelnick’s article, “Waiting for Disarmament,” [May, 19731 was a lively, provocative contribution to current discussion of this country’s costly defense needs...
...It was in this spirit that Zelnick sought in his article to isolate what in the defense budget is “clearly waste...
...is director of the Center for Defense Information...
...My guess is that such a group would recommend abolishing the CIA’S “Department of Dirty Tricks” and the creation of a Joint Congressional Committee on Foreign Intelligence Activities...
...What is clearly needed is radical surgery to remove the CIA from the very ailing government...
...The Center for Defense Information recently made an analysis of these costs and found the carrier will cost over $8 billion, These costs will be as follows: -C- VN-70 Construction $1 .O billion Aircraft for 30 years (new suit every 5 years) 5 .O billion Crew of 5,000 for 30 years ($14,000 per crew memtler per year) 2.1 billion Overhauls (one every 5 years at $100 million per year) 0.5 billion Thirty-year cost $8.6 billion This $8.6 billion cost does not include the cost of the escorts and their operating expenses over the 30 years...
...At the same time as this unexpected rise in arms spending, the federal budget calls for a steep, 40 per cent cutback in the normal year-to-year increases in civilian programs...
...Ths year, the Pentagon is requesting $657 million for the aircraft carrier itself...
...By his own admission, the so-called intelligence that has been gathered by the CIA in Russia, China and the rest of the world has rarely been that much more reliable than the information collected by experienced-and controllable-foreign service officers who have personal knowledge of the nature of another country...
...The more practical approach, to which no military man can honestly object, is to determine what is really essential to, and what is frankly not required at this time for, the national defense...
...Such disparity in the treatment of military and civilian programs merits scrutiny...
...If Dr...
...The requirement for annual appropriations for weapon systems and other items tends to deny to the Congress and the public the essential information needed...
...There is, as Mr...
...Harry Howe Ransom teaches political science at Vanderbilt University and is author of The Intelligence Establishment...
...When the fat is sliced away, what is really necessary -for defense emeirges in hard and clear outline...
...Fallows notes, a need to apply entirely new theories and ideas in our foreign policy...
...Five carriers could be assigned to the Pacific, including three nuclear carriers...
...lnformed and forthright debate is absolutely essential if defense dollars are to be spent wisely and without waste-which has by no means always been the case in the past...
...It seems to me he succeeded to a large degree...
...It does not include costs for jet fuels for operating the aircraft during the lifetime of the carrier...
...The secret in bringing under control vast expenditures for weapon systems which are not needed is to ascertain the total cost before the system is built...
...The Pentagon, using the camel nose under the tent technique, gets a little money one year and a little more the next year, and before you know it the weapon system has been bought at a far higher cost than anyone realized at the outset...
...Schlesinger can induce the Pentagon to divulge the full cost of a weapon system throughout its lifetime prior to the time that the Congress is required to make its initial decision on the procurement of the weapon system, many weapon systems will not be built...
...But those new ideas-hopefully leading to a more rational and less interventionist approach-cannot be obtained through a mere transfusion...
...There is good reason, however, to plan for a force of only I1 attack carriers, six could be maintained in the Atlantic, the same number as now...
...MARK BARBASH Washington, D. C. “Putting the Wisdom Back Into Intelligence” pinpoints many of the ills of the U. S. inteihgence system...
...What is needed at this stage is a complete costs-benefits audit of past secret intelligence operations by a “Hoover Commission” type task force, comprising representatives from ExecutiveCongress-Private Sector...
...In the last four years, the Navy has reduced total carrier force from 24 down to 16...
...HARRY HOW RANSOM Nashville, Tenn...
...This would include four nuclear attack carriers and eight conventionally-powered carriers...
...Yet, the defense part of the budget shows a considerable, six per cent increase over last year, despite the end of U. S. participation in the Vietnam war, and despite last year’s agreements between ourselves and the Russians to accept ceilings on the numbers of missiles on each side...
...On the other hand, the Central Intelligence Agency has probably been the one factor which has perpetuated the image of the ‘‘ugly American” abroad...
...However, as Zelnick says, this need not take the form of trying to estimate which civilian programs could be sustained, or increased, by diverting money from defense...
...While we obviously know very little of the total scope of CIA activities (and Congress probably knows even less than the average citizen), no amount of “good news” could suffice to cover up the misdirected and bungled attempts to manage other people’s governments...
...costs of the escorts were included, the cost for the aircraft carrier, its aircraft and escorts would be about $10 billion...
...No mention is made of the additional cost involved in operating this aircraft carrier for its normal life of 30 years...
...With this for guidance, every effort should be made to avoid spending on unneeded arms...
...Letters The CIA James Fallows’ article “Putting the Wisdom Back into Intelligence” (June, 1973) purports to explain the need for changing the outlook of the Central Intelligence Agency...
...If the 30-year...
...It is too late to do anything about that weapon system...
...GENE La RoCQUE Washington, D. C. Gene La Rocque, Rear Admiral, USNIRet...
...Last year, the Pentagon requested and received $299 million from the Congress to start construction of a nuclear power plant for the aircraft carrier...
Vol. 5 • July 1973 • No. 5
