Evening star., 1951-01-07
Beetle Smith Has
Had Some Tough Jobs
But None Like This


States.
Often it means CIA must take
the risk of judging the intent
OF a potential enemy on the
basis of the information it has
been able to piece together-a
process which can and does ex-
pose the general to the posi-
bility of being proved phony
prophet.
An estimate of intent" is
given when CIA is convinced
1t has nearly all of the pieces
of the puzzle at hand. When it
honestly believes it can't deter
mine intent" it will say so
rather than risk dressing up a
hunch or guess as considered
opinion.
CIA's new national estimates
seem to have the support of all
Government intelligence agen-
cies now. In the past the State
Department, at least, criticized
them frequently on the grounds
they were incomplete and mis-
leading.
This behind -the-scenes criti-
cism stemmed mostly from the
technique CIA used at that time
to write them. Sometimes they
were written within CIA and
then sent. to the various Gov
ernment intelligence depart
ments for their concurrence or
dissent. An agency was ex-
pected to object only when an
estimate, in its view, was dam
gerously misleading.
Beetle has reversed the pro-
cedure. Experts from each in
telligence department in the
Government participate in
writing national estimates from
the very beginning.
Down to Gases
After a first draft is prepared
by lower-level experts, the gen.
eral sits down with the top in
telllgence directors from OUT
side departments and goes over
it point by point to make GER
tain every one agrees. More
often than not these final ses-
slons last for hours and import
ant changes are made.
If any one diSsents, on$any
grounds. his dissent is included
in the report. There is no at
tempt, officials say, to whittle
a report down to something
everybody will agree to.
The general has changed not
only the way his estimates are
prepared and written but also
the purpose behind them. A
national estimate, he has ruled,
must devote itself to a broad
problem which can't be assessed
or evaluated adequately by a
single department.
Further. he holds, it should
deal with an immediate ques-
ton the answer to which will
help the highest Government
officials in their day-to-day
work.
I'VE don't get detailed desser-
tations on the political situa-
ton in some relatively unim-
| portant country from CIA any
more, but we do get reports on
what the Russians are doing
and planning-which is an awful
lot more important, is the way
one official sums it up.
Under Beetles. new plan Of
action, a report and analysis of
the political situation in AZ
ghanistan, for example, is the
job of the State Departments
political intelligence experts not
for CIA.
Giving the State Department
authority for assessing and
processing political informa-
ton has helped restore peace
and harmony between the State
Department and CIA.
Secretary Acheson and his in
telligence chief, w. Parke Arm
strong, a former Army intelli-
gence expert, had always main
tanned that the State Depart
ment, with its thousands of
diplomats scattered throughout
the world, was better equipped
to handle the work.
Beetles" predecessors kept a
good-sized staff of political ex-
perts" whose main task was to
check the accuracy of political
information which the State
Department sent to CIA.
The general and his top aides
decided this was an unnecessary
duplication and promptly elm
mated CIA's more detailed work
in this field.
Given Broad Scope
An important, although tiny,
fraction of the information CIA
receives. comes from secret
agents who are planted in key
areas of the world.
This is the most secret part of
any intelligence operation, and
American officials are UNDER
standably tight-lipped about it.
Presumably these secret agents
are responsible to CIA.
Presumably they include ex-
perts ranging from atomic sci
entists to economic and military
specialists.
And presumably the general
supervises their work. Congress
has given him authority to per-
form "such additional services
of common concern as the Ma
tional Security Council deter
mines can be more efficiently
accomplished centrally"
The Army, Navy and Air Force
intellipencn sections send alopp