The Unknown CIA; My Three Decades with the Agency

Washington DC: Pergamon-Brassey's International Defense Publishers, Inc, 1989. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. x, 221, [1] pages. Foreword by Richard Helms. Inscribed by author on title page. DJ has slight wear, soiling, and sticker residue at back. Inscribed to Paul Grove, possibly the noted Congressional Staffer who handles State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs for the Senate Committee on Appropriations. The author rose to become Deputy Director for Intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency. Derived from a Kirkus review: CIA business, Smith suggests, is conducted by dedicated intelligence analysts. Smith, himself one such desk man, was present at the creation of the CIA in 1947 (after a stint as an English professor at Williams College). He quickly went on to work at the higher levels of the CIA through such crises as the U-2 fiasco, the Bay of Pigs episode, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Six-Day War in the Mideast, and the Vietnam War. He portrays the workaday operations and the internal atmosphere of the agency. Smith has kind words for his directors (Walter Bedell Smith: ""a man of genuine brilliance, great personal force, and organizational genius""; Richard Helms, whose ""leadership enabled the CIA to become a unified, cohesive organization""). Smith points an accusing finger at Nixon, whose ""mean-spirited, trust-no.one-but-ourselves, us-against-them siege mentality"" precipitated the public denigration of the CIA. A solid, fascinatingly inside-look. Smith had a long and stellar career from the CIA's early days as an analyst, estimator, and head of the Directorate of Intelligence (DI); he ended his service with a prestigious foreign assignment. Jack Smith, as he was known throughout his career, was born on July 4, 1913. Smith graduated with distinction from Miami University of Ohio in 1937. He attended graduate school at Cornell University on a full scholarship and earned a Ph.D. in English Literature. After graduating, Smith taught at Williams College until the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. With the beginning of U.S. involvement in World War II, Smith signed on with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)-the predecessor of today's CIA. He worked for the OSS as a researcher and writer. After World War II, the OSS was abolished and its functions were transferred to the State and War departments. It wasn't long before President Harry S. Truman realized that the nation needed a central intelligence organization, and in January 1946 he issued an Executive Order establishing the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). The creation of the Central Intelligence Agency followed in September 1947, as ordered by the National Security Act. Smith was offered a position in the fledgling CIG and soon was editing the Daily Summary-an analytic publication that CIG and then CIA prepared for President Truman. From 1957 to 1962, Smith served on the Board of National Estimates, an arm of the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), which was responsible for preparing estimates of foreign intentions. As a member of the elite Board-the predecessor to today's National Intelligence Council-Smith worked closely with Sherman Kent. Kent-often called the "father of intelligence analysis"-is credited with developing the techniques and methods used in intelligence analysis today. In the early 1960s, then-Deputy Director of Intelligence (DDI) Ray Cline made Smith the director of Current Intelligence and then his deputy. In 1966, Richard Helms-an alumnus of Williams College and then deputy to DCI William Raborn-recommended Smith to succeed Cline as DDI. Smith served as DDI from 1966 to 1971, a period that included the Arab-Israel Six-Day and Vietnam wars. During both wars, Smith was responsible for the analysis and dissemination of intelligence. One of Smith's first achievements in the position was the establishment of the Office of Strategic Research (OSR). CIA analysts in OSR would produce all-source, independent, strategic assessment of military developments and trends. In 1971, Smith was ready for a change. DCI Helms sent Smith to an important field post in the Middle East, where he was highly regarded by U.S. ambassadors for his candor and judgment. When Smith retired in late 1973, colleagues described him as one of the best all-round substantive analysts in the Intelligence Community. He received the Distinguished Intelligence Medal for a career of significant contributions to the Agency and the analytic profession. In retirement, Smith continued to write and eventually produced more than a dozen books. His greatest contribution was his memoir, The Unknown CIA (1989). Many historians agree that it is the best reflection on and explanation of a career in intelligence analysis. Reflecting on his career long after he retired, Smith was asked which job was most satisfying. He responded immediately, "I must say, I enjoyed it all.".