Richard Nixon Quotes
What the Hell do those clowns do out there at Langley? Get the CIA jerks working on Cambodia.
Richard M. Nixon, 1913-1994, 37th President of the United States (Republican, CA), Statement to CIA Director Richard Helms, March 17, 1970
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The U. S. was evacuating all its forces and agents as the Viet Cong overran Saigon. This ended the Vietnam War. The CIA, had been telling the President and the National Security Staff that the Army reports were exaggerated and we were not faring well in the Vietnam War. Events proved them right. Their earlier track record, especially with President Nixon was very poor in intelligence analysis and prediction. See {634511}, {634509}, and {634503} for Nixon’s view of the CIA.
Just as the brief was received, Kissinger received a Cable from the American Embassy in Cyprus stating that the Greek forces had moved in Cyprus and decimated the Cypriot forces and burned the Presidential Palace. Nixon was furious at the CIA which based their entire brief on one agent talking to the Greek dictator in Greece and had no agents who could report on what everyone in Cyprus could see. {634509}, {634503} and {634502} for examples of Nixon flaming the CIA. This was one of the reasons he came down on them.
Precursor to CIA. During WWII Donovan’s OSS, the FBI and the State Department had the three civilian intelligence organizations while each of the 4 Armed Services had their own intelligence services. Rarely did any of these 7 organizations communicate with any of the others. In the case of the OSS, the FBI and the military services tended to try and obstruct many of their operations. This was the first call for what became the CIA.
Harmon was one of the nation’s experts on Intelligence. She pointed out that the CIA spent a relatively small portion of its budget on spies, intelligence and analysis relative to the larger proportion that went to their paramilitary covert operations. Since its inception, the CIA professionals have always preferred the glamour, adventure, and machismo of covert operations as opposed to the relative drudgery of intelligence gathering and analysis. This many believe explains the many major intelligence blunders the CIA has made such as missing the fall of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the development of nuclear bombs in several countries and the totally mistaken analysis in the Bay of Pigs and The trigger for the Iraq War.
- Born: January 9, 1913
- Died: April 22, 1994
- Nationality: American
- Profession: President
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, Nixon previously served as the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961, having risen to national prominence as a representative and senator from California. After five years in the White House that saw the conclusion to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, he became the only president to resign from the office, following the Watergate scandal.
