In remembrance: Admiral Stansfield Turner, Naval officer as DCI

Abstract

Admiral Stansfield Turner, a former chief of the U.S. Intelligence Community (formally, the Director of Central Intelligence or DCI), died in early 2018. He served as DCI during the Carter Administration, where he was known to be an advocate of stronger intelligence accountability. This previously unpublished interview with him from 1991 discloses his views on a range of intelligence topics, as he reflected back on his experiences a decade after his tenure as DCI.

Notes

1. Weiner, “Stansfield Turner,” B14. On Turner’s tenure at the CIA, see Garthoff, Directors of Central Intelligence, 131–50.

2. The interview that follows has not been previously published, but I did draw on the questions and answers related to intelligence accountability in a chapter of my book entitled Spy Watching.