Quote:
Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
I just don't get this. Why would Bush appoint a military officer to head the CIA, a civilian agency?
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Thirty years ago, the media thought it was great when Jimmy Carter named Navy Admiral Stansfield Turner to direct the CIA. An excerpt of the Washington Post’s February 9, 1977 editorial, headlined "Why Not a Military Man at CIA?" :
"The nomination of Admiral Stansfield Turner to be Director of Central Intelligence has confounded some people because of the fact that he is a professional military man. By this particular line of thinking, no one in uniform can fairly be expected to rise above parochial service concerns — either in his perception of the international environment or in his capacity to work effectively within the confines of the political society. This is no doubt a fashionable argument but — in our judgment — a misguided, insulting one. It should not be necessary to point to earlier examples of versatile and accomplished military men, or to civilians — including some at the Central Intelligence Agency — who went about their work in what some would call a simplistic “militaristic” way. Admiral Turner seems exactly the right man to prove the point anew...."