Word: raborn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...agency since its start, no CIA chief ever came into office with such a passion for anonymity and downright disdain for public acclaim. His predecessors assumed the directorship after long public exposure in Government (Allen Dulles), industry (John McCone), or the military (General Walter Bedell Smith and Admiral William Raborn), with tangible accomplishments and medals to show for it. Richard Helms? He had a 1965 award from the National Civil Service League, the sort given annually to groups of career bureaucrats, for "significant contributions to excellence in Government." But who could say just what these contributions were...
...proved impractical, but the Navy within a year had made dramatic progress toward development of its own solid-fuel Polaris missile, and had also overcome many of the technical problems of designing a nuclear-powered submarine. The two programs logically became one. Working side by side, Admirals William F. Raborn (more recently head of the CIA) and Hyman Rickover headed a team that devised a complex navigational device that could plot the sub's movement under water and keep it synchronized with the weapons-guidance system. In December 1959, three years ahead of schedule, the first Polaris...
Unlike his immediate predecessors, John McCone and Allen Dulles, Raborn sought no policymaking role, was far less concerned with the substance of intelligence, and his detached air drew criticism...
Actually, Raborn had an understanding with Johnson, when he took the job 14 months ago, that he would stay only a year or two; thus his departure was not unexpected. A retired line officer with a flair for administration, he brought to the sprawling spookery in Langley, Va., modern management techniques for analyzing, projecting and distributing the inchoate mass of information that pours in on the agency from every corner of the world...
...signed up with the CIA at its founding in 1947. He rose to become deputy director for plans-meaning coyert operations-under McCone, and has since handled the agency's delicate relations with Congress while simultaneously directing most of the CIA's pure-intelligence functions as Raborn's first deputy. He thus became the first professional ever to head the agency, and about that at least there was no mystery...