ACCESSION NUMBER:259871
FILE ID:POL306
DATE:12/23/92
TITLE:MILITARY, SECURITY EXPERT R. JAMES WOOLSEY TO HEAD CIA (12/23/92)
TEXT:*92122306.POL
MILITARY, SECURITY EXPERT R. JAMES WOOLSEY TO HEAD CIA

(Profile:  Clinton's CIA director)  (690)
By Robert Fullerton
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- R. James Woolsey, President-elect Clinton's nominee to head
U.S. central intelligence, is an expert in military and arms control issues
as well as nuclear weapons strategy.

A confidant of current National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, Woolsey
possesses a broad knowledge of defense intelligence and national security
1ffairs.  If confirmed by the Senate, he will provide both experience and
continuity as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

In nominating him December 22, Clinton noted that Woolsey, a political
moderate, is respected by Republicans and Democrats alike.  The Bush
administration, he recalled, chose Woolsey to negotiate the landmark
Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, and President Carter picked him
as his undersecretary of the Navy.

With the end of the Cold War, Clinton explained, the CIA must adjust "to new
challenges," and he predicted that Woolsey's analytical rigor, ability and
honesty "will serve the CIA well" in its job of providing the new
administration with what the president-elect calls information "accurate,
complete, free from political bias and honest about what does not provide."

In a speech several weeks ago to the World Affairs Council, Woolsey said
that "this world that we are beginning to see...(appears) more and more
like a more lethal version of the old world that existed before 1914, when
a range of nationalist sentiments produced the holocaust of World War One."
 He also called for a different approach to collective security under the
aegis of the United Nations.

Woolsey, 51, is described by associates as a wry, self-deprecating man with
a ready sense of humor and talent for blending widely disparate views into
thoughtful analyses.  He has long been immersed in secret intelligence and
has definite ideas on needed changes.  It is anticipated that he will focus
less on collection of intelligence information than on swift processing and
analysis of the data amassed.

"Jim will insist that analysts look through the eyes of people whose
behavior they want to assess and predict," said former top CIA official
George A. Carver, Jr.

But another colleague familiar with Woolsey's views questions whether he
will bring about bold, sweeping changes at the agency.  "He's a superbly
competent man, but he's not going to break any china," he said.

Woolsey chaired a task force last summer for CIA director Robert Gates to
make recommendations on the future of satellite spying.  A CIA spokesman
said the report was "well received by the intelligence community and the
Congress."  Woolsey met Clinton about a year ago and joined other moderate
defense intellectuals in advising the president-elect during the campaign.

In his 22-year career in Washington, Woolsey has served four
administrations, beginning with President Nixon's.  He worked as a staff
member on the National Security Council 1968-70, as counsel to the Senate
Armed Services Committee 1970-73, and as Carter's undersecretary of the
Navy 1977-79.  In the latter post he oversaw the Navy's intelligence
operations and "was deeply involved in the nuts and bolts of intelligence
gathering," a colleague said.

President Reagan appointed Woolsey a delegate-at-large to the U.S.-Soviet
Strategic Arms Reduction Talks and nuclear and space talks 1983-86; he also
worked as a chief aide to Scowcroft on a commission that paved the way for
building MX missiles and developing a smaller Midgetman missile.  From
1989-91 he was the ambassador and U.S. representative to negotiations on
the CFE Treaty for President Bush.

"He did a very good job shepherding CFE through a very complicated political
process," according to Jack Mendelsohn, director of the private Arms
Control Association.  "It was an incredibly positive accomplishment."

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Woolsey received his bachelor's degree from
Stanford University in 1963.  He and fellow Oklahoman Democratic Senator
David Boren, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, were
named Rhodes Scholars together in 1965.  Woolsey received his law degree
1rom Yale University in 1968.

A retired army captain, he and his wife Suzanne Hale have three sons.
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