The upper echelon of the United States intelligence community will mine through more than 18,000 pages of recently declassified material in a series of panel and lecture discussions in McCosh 50 this weekend.
The conference, "CIA's Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947-1991," begins this morning. It is co-sponsored by the University and the CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence.
"I think the conference will provide some interesting new insights into what the intelligence community knew about what was going on in the Soviet Union in those final days," Wilson School professor Frederick Hitz said in a press release.
Hitz — who served as inspector general of the CIA from 1990 to 1998 — continued, "I think it's terribly important for the historical record to be as complete as it can be on matters of what we knew and when we knew it during the Cold War."
The event's organizers and participants gathered last night in Prospect House for an organizational dinner and an address from Director of the CIA George Tenet.
"Declassification is not easy," Tenet said. "There are no shortcuts. It takes experienced, knowledgeable people sitting down with each document and painstakingly going over it page by page, line by line. There is no alternative. A mistake can put a life in danger."
Seven panels of security personnel and experts will critique the newly available material and debate the United States' accuracy in understanding Soviet military strength. The first discussion will be on the origins of the CIA's analysis of the Soviet Union. Following that discussion, a panel on Soviet economics will take the stage in McCosh 50.
Additional panel discussions during the weekend include Soviet politics and foreign policy as well as science and technology and military capabilities. The final panel will include analysts and practitioners from the former Soviet Union who will comment on Moscow's reaction to CIA intelligence.
Aside from the analysis of the newly released documents, the conference will be highlighted by three keynote addresses. Deputy Director of Central Intelligence John McLaughlin will speak during lunch in Frist today. Former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger is scheduled to speak during dinner tonight. Zeiginer Brezezinski, former National Security Adviser, will speak during the conference lunch scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
"The panelists and speakers have very interesting backgrounds," said Kenneth Absher '57, a veteran of the CIA for 32 years. "It will be very exciting to see the interaction of these accomplished analysts."
Tenet said he believes now is a perfect opportunity to open the world of intelligence to the academic world and foster continued interaction between the two groups.
"More than a decade after the Soviet Union's demise, we live in a world still in transition from something that was well understood — the bipolarity of the Cold War — to something that has yet to crystallize," Tenet said.
"In such a world, our country needs a strong analytic intelligence capability more than ever to help the president separate fact from fiction, avoid danger, seize opportunities and steer a safe course to the future," Tenet continued.
Conference host Hitz believe this unique opportunity to examine formerly classified documents will give the academic community just the abilities it needs to guide future policy and intelligence work.
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