elicited a fit of apoplexy from our hero: "That's very interesting," said Bush. We came down here to
do a professional job. The President directed me to brief him on intelligence matters. Everythingwent very well." Carter backed off a day later, saying "I happen to think a lot of George Bush."
In the close 1976 election, Carter prevailed by vote fraud in New York, Ohio, and other states, but
Ford was convinced by Nelson and Happy Rockefeller, as well as by his own distraught wife Betty,
that he must concede in order to preserve the work of "heWatergate. Carter would therefore enter the White House. aling" that he had accomplished since
Bush prepared to make his bid for continuity at the CIA. Shortly after the election, he was
scheduled to journey to Plains to brief Carter once again with the help of his deputy Henry Knoche.
Early in the morning Bush and Knoche stopped off at the Old Executive Office Building to talk toBudget Director Robert Lynn in order to secure a cash infusion for the CIA, which was facing a
budgetary crunch. Bush then dropped in on Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and also went into
the Oval Office to talk to Ford.
The critical meeting with Carter went very badly indeed. Bush took Carter aside and argued that in1960 and 1968, CIA Directors were retained during presidential transitions, and that it would make (^)
Carter look good if he did the same. Carter signalled that he wasn't interested. Then Bush lamely
stammered that if Carter wanted his own man in Langley, Bush would be willing to resign. which is
of course standard procedure for all agency heads when a new president takes office. Carter said
that that was indeed exactly what he wanted, and that he would have his own new DCI ready byJanuary 21, 1977. Bush and Knoche then briefed Carter and his people for some six hours. Carter (^)
insiders told the press that Bush's briefing had been a "disaster." "Jimmy just wasn't impressed with
Bush," said a key Carter staffer. [fn 59]
Bush and Knoche then flew back to Washington, and on the plane Bush wrote a memo for HenryKissinger describing his exchanges with Carter. At midnight, Bush drove to Kissinger's home and (^)
briefed him for an hour.
Knoche said later that he was mightily impressed by Bush's long day of meeting the budget director,
the president, the vice president, the president-elect and the secretary of state, all on the same day,even if the result had been that Bush was fired. At Bush's 9:30 AM staff meeting in Langley the
next day, Knoche and a group of other officialsawarded Bush the Intelligence Medal of Merit. "It
was a very touching day," said Knoche.
Carter first attempted to make Theodore Sorenson, the former Kennedy intimate, his new CIADirector. It soon became clear that certain circles were determined to block this nomination. The (^)
Sorenson nomination was soon torpedoed by a series of leaks, including revelations that Sorenson
had been a conscientious objector during World War II, plus accusations that he had taken classified
documents with him when he had left the government in 1964. Carter tried to get NATO General
Bernard Rogeown class at Annapolis. rs for the post, but finally had to settle for Navy Admiral Stansfield Turner from his
An important internal CIA issue that arose during Turner's time in Langley was the question of
personnel cuts, especially in the operations directorate. To understand Bush's infl;uence on this
topic, we must go back to the Watergate era.
During the Schlesinger-Colby period, about 2,000 CIA personnel, representing about 15% of the
CIA manpower complement, were dismissed. The method of these firings appears to have been
heavily influenced by Shackley and his faction, who argued that CIA personnel who were in danger
of being exposed by Philip Agee should be pre-emptively terminated. There is therefore much