publication of the Pike Committee report. The issue then went to the full House on January 29,
which voted, 146 to 124, that the Pike Committee must submit its report to censorship by the WhiteHouse and thus by the CIA. At almost the same time, Senator Howard Baker joined Tower and
Goldwater in opposing the principal final recommendation of the Church Committee, such as it
was, the establishment of a permanent intelligence oversight committee.
Pike found tof separation of powhat the attempt to censor his report had made "a complete travesty of the whole doctrineers." In the view of a staffer of the Church committee, "all within two days, the
House Intelligence Committee had ground to a halt, and the Senate Intelligence Committee had split
asunder over the centerpiece of its recommendations. The White House must have rejoiced; the
Welch death and leaks from the Pike committee report had produced, at last, a backlash against the
congressional investigations." [fn 24]
Riding the crest of that wave of backlash was George Bush. The constellation of events around his
confirmation prefigures the wretched state of Congress today: a rubber stamp parliament in a
totalitarian state, incapable of overriding even one of Bush's 22 vetoes.
On Friday, January 30, Ford and Bush were joined at the CIA auditorium for Bush's swearing in
ceremony before a large gathering of agency employees. Colby was also there: some said he had
been fired primarily because Kissinger thought that he was divulging too much to the Congressional
committees, but Kissinger later told Colby that the latter's stratagems had been correct. Colby
opened the ceremony with a few brief words: "Mr. President, and Mr. Bush, I have the great honorto present you to an organization of dedicated professionals. Despite the turmoil and tumult of the
last year, they continue to produce the best intelligence in the world." This was met by a burst of
applause. [fn 25] Ford's line was: "We cannot improve this agency by destroying it." Bush promised
to make "CIA an instrument of peace and an object of pride for all our people." Bush went on to
say: "I will not turn my back from the past. We've learned a lot about what an intelligence agencymust do to maintain the confidence of the people in an open society. But the emphasis will now be (^)
on the future. I'm determined to protect those things that must be kept secret. And I am more
determined to protect those unselfish and patriotic people who with total dedication serve their
country, often putting thjeir lives on the line, only to have some people bent on destroying this
agency expose their names." A number of senators were invited, with Stennis, Thurmond, Tower,Goldwater, Baker and Brooke leading the pack; others had been added by the White House after
checking by telephone with Jennifer Fitzgerald.
Before proceding, let us take a loom at Bush's team of associates at the CIA, since we will find
them in many of his later political campaigns and office staffs.
When Bush became DCI, his principal deputy was General Vernon Walters, a former army
lieutenant general. This is the same Gen. Vernon Walters who was mentioned by Haldeman and
Nixon in the notorious "smoking gun" tape already discussed, but who of course denied that he ever
did any of the things that Haldeman and Ehrlichman said that he had promised to do. Wbeen at the CIA as DDCI since May, 1972--a Nixon appointee who had been with Nixon when thealters had (^)
then vice president's car was stoned in Caracas, Venezuela way back when. Ever since then Nixon
had seen him as part of the old guard. Walters left to become a private consultant in July, 1976.
To replace Walters, Bush picked Enno Henry Knoche, who had joined CIA in 1953 aintelligence analyst specializing in Far Eastern political and military affairs. Knoche came from thes an (^)
navy and knew Chinese. From 1962 to 1967 he had been the chief of the National Photographic
Interpretation Center. In 1969, he had become deputy director of planning and budegting, and
chaired the internal CIA committee in charge of computerization. (This emphasis was reflected
during the Bush tenure by heavy emphasis on satellites and SIGINT communications monitoring.)