Chapter –XV

CIA DIRECTOR

In late 1975, as a result in particular of his role in Watergate, Bush's confirmation as CIA
Director was not automatic. And though the debate at his confirmation was superificial,
some senators, including in particular the late Frank Church of Idaho, made some
observations about the dangers inherent in the Bush nomination that have turned out in
retrospect to be useful.

The political scene on the homefront from which Bush had been so anxious to be absent
during 1975 was the so-called "Year of Intelligence," in that it had been a year of intense
scrutiny of the illegal activities and abuses of the intelligence community, including CIA
domestic and covert operations. On December 22, 1974 the New York Times published
the first of a series of articles by Seymour M. Hersh which relied on leaked reports of
CIA activities assembled by Director James Rodney Schlesinger to expose alleged
misdeeds by the agency.

It was widely recognized at the time that the Hersh articles were a self-exposure by the
CIA that was designed to set the agenda for the Ford-appointed Rockefeller Commission,
which was set up a few days later, on January 4, 1975. The Rockefeller Commission
members included John T. Connor, C. Douglas Dillon, Erwin N. Griswold, Lane
Kirkland, Lyman Lemnitzer, Ronald Reagan, and Edgar F. Shannon, Jr. The Rockefeller
Commission was supposed to examine the malfeasance of the intelligence agencies and
make recommendations about how they could be reorganized and reformed. In reality,
the Rockefeller Commission proposals would reflect the transition from the structures of
the cold war towards the growing totalitarian tendencies of the 1980's.

While the Rockefeller Commission was a tightly controlled vehicle of the Eastern
Anglophile liberal establishment, Congressional investigating committees were
empaneled during 1975 whose proceedings were somewhat less rigidly controlled. These
included the Senate Intelligence Committee, known as the Church Committee, and the
corresponding House committee, first chaired by Rep. Lucien Nedzi (who had previously
chaired one of the principal Watergate-era probes) and then (after July) by Rep. Otis
Pike. One example was the Pike Committee's issuance of a contempt of Congress citation
against Henry Kissinger for his refusal to provide documentation of covert operations in
November, 1975. Another was Church's role in leading the opposition to the Bush
nomination.