ACCESSION NUMBER:382900

FILE ID:PO1101

DATE:03/13/95

TITLE:CLINTON CALLS CHOICE TO HEAD CIA "INNOVATIVE" THINKER (03/13/95)

TEXT:*95031301.PO1

CLINTON CALLS CHOICE TO HEAD CIA "INNOVATIVE" THINKER

(Profile: Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch) (910)

By Alexander M. Sullivan

USIA White House Correspondent

Washington -- John Deutch, President Clinton's choice to head the

intelligence community, is an aggressive technocrat who moves easily

between government and the private sector.



Deutch also demonstrates "the kind of innovative thinking we need to meet

the new challenges" of the post-Cold War era, Clinton said in announcing

the nomination March 11.





If confirmed by the Senate, Deutch, who currently serves as deputy defense

secretary, will take the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency -- an

organization seeking to define its role in a new world far removed from

Cold War realities.  In the aftermath of the Aldrich Ames spy scandal, the

agency is seeking to determine how employees ignored warning signs of what

appears to be the worst betrayal in CIA history.  It is fighting the

morale-crushing effects of downsizing, trying to decide what role it will

play in a multi-polar world and is being scrutinized by several oversight

congressional panels charged with determining the future of the

intelligence community in the United States.



Clinton announced that Deutch will have Cabinet rank as CIA director and

will integrate intelligence data more tightly into the formulation of

national security policy.  This is not business as usual for the Director

of the Central Intelligence Agency (DCI); only the late CIA Director

William Casey occupied a similar position in government.



Clinton said he attaches "the highest personal priority" to enhancing the

nation's capacity to gather and analyze intelligence data, and "to make

that commitment absolutely clear," the president asserted, he will name

Deutch "to my Cabinet if he is confirmed" as DCI.



It has been the task of the DCI -- who has nominal supervision over the

intelligence arms of the U.S. military and the National Security Agency --

to collect and analyze data and present it to policy-makers in the White

House, the National Security Council and the State Department.



At the Pentagon, Deutch developed a close relationship with Clinton, taking

a leading role in reviewing the U.S. nuclear force posture and overseeing

1odernization of weapons systems.  Clinton said Deutch had "become

intimately familiar with the workings of the intelligence community" by

working out a "blueprint" to eliminate duplication between civilian and

military intelligence operations.  The president said that type of

achievement "demonstrates the kind of innovative thinking we need to meet

the new challenges" of the post-Cold War world.



Deutch has been a chemistry professor at Princeton University, provost of

the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), an under secretary of

energy in the Carter administration, a member of the Foreign Intelligence

Advisory Board in the Bush administration, as well as under secretary and

deputy secretary of defense under Clinton.  He also has served with the

National Science Foundation, as an overseer of the Museum of Fine Arts in

Boston, as a trustee of Wellesley College and member of the Trilateral

Commission.  He is a graduate of Amherst College and earned degrees in

chemical engineering and physical chemistry from M.I.T.



As far as intelligence responsibilities are concerned, Deutch is a reluctant

participant who once before told Clinton he preferred to remain at the

Defense Department rather than accept the DCI nomination.  He reportedly

agreed to take the post the second time it was offered after being assured

of Cabinet level input.



White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry told reporters March 13 that

Deutch, while he "will not play a policy-making role," will be seated at

the decision-making table with "the best available facts and... analysis,"

which will be "critical as the administration addresses the challenges

America faces in this new world."



Clinton, he added, thinks Cabinet rank will "add significance to the

intelligence function during foreign policy deliberations."



McCurry said Clinton decided to elevate the post to Cabinet status "to help

bring the intelligence-gathering function to the table as foreign policy is

discussed within the White House.  It is a reflection of the president's

view that in the new world that we live in the information that we need to

make the right decisions becomes very, very important and Dr. Deutch, as

someone who will be the chief analyst of that information, will be able to

contribute from that perspective to the discussions under way."



The president selected Deutch after the withdrawal of the nomination of

Michael Carns, a retired Air Force general chosen by Clinton after James

Woolsey resigned as DCI.  Stating that he did not wish to subject his

family to trial in the press, Carns withdrew from consideration after it

was disclosed that he had inadvertently broken U.S. immigration law by

helping a relative of a former employee enter the United States.



"The sad truth," Clinton said in accepting Carns' withdrawal, "is that we

live in a time when even the most exemplary individuals are deterred from

serving by the fear that their records will be distorted...their

achievements ignored and...their families maligned during the confirmation

process."



McCurry noted that Deutch has been through the Senate's confirmation process

twice in recent months, most recently last year when confirmed as the

second-ranking person in the Defense Department "so that most of the

material and background (data) is relatively current and was in the hands

of the Senate fairly recently.  Whatever additional information is

necessary, we will gather."



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