Abbott Emerson Smith (Rhodes 1928)
CIA. Balliol College, Oxford University, Rhodes Scholar.
Pictured History of United States Naval Operations in World War II 15 Volume Set and National Estimates Board issue which lead to the assembly of the ‘B Team’ who hightened the percieved Nuclear threat by Russia which resulted in the massive arms build up.
1968 to 1971 - Chairman of the board of National Estimates [at the CIA]
1953 to 1967 - Sherman Kent and Abbott Smith (Rhodes 1928) worked together to build the Office of National Estimates into a highly respected and efficient producer of intelligence at the national level.[2]
Note: DeForest Van Slyck (S&B 1920) - CIA (DC). Served on the Board of National Estimates between 1946 to 1960. Search mind map.
1950 - in the early stages of the Korean War, General Walter Bedell Smith [Later worked for Morehead Patterson (S&B 1920,CFR, BM)], the DCI, asked an aide for the latest estimates on Korea. Finding that CIA did not produce estimates, General Smith invited Professor William Langer, an OSS veteran, to come down from Harvard to organise an Office of National Estimates. Langer agreed, and persuaded an OSS colleague Sherman Kent (Grandson of Thomas Antony Thacher S&B 1853 and Nephew of Sherman Day Thacher S&B 1883), to leave Yale and join him in Washington as his deputy. Together, Langer and Kent interviewed prospective board and staff candidates, and brought into the newly formed ONE staff a number of the analysts from ORE, including Paul Borel, Ray Cline, and Abbott Smith (Rhodes 1928). Sherman Kent succeeded Langer as Director of National Estimates in 1952, with Ray Sontag as deputy, and when Sontag returned to academia the following year, Abbott was selected as deputy to Kent.[1]
1948 to 1971 - Employed with the Central Intelligence Agency. (attracted to CIA by his wartime friend, Paul Borel)[2]
After WW2, returned to US. Assisted Samuel Eliot Morision. (Author: History of United States Naval Operations in World War II 15 Volume Set - See picture.) and attained the rank of lieutenant commander.[2]
Returned to London where he was assigned to the Historical Staff of the Commander, US Naval Forces, Europe.[2]
After WW2, Served on the US Control Council in Vienna.
Sent to the US Naval Command in London, assigned to a US Army unit, and on D-Day landed at Utah Beach to serve as civil affairs officer.[2]
Sent to Columbia’s School of Military Government and Administration.[2]
After Pearl Harbour, commissioned in the Naval Reserve.[2]
Married Kathleen Mottram (South African Scholar. Met at Oxford University.)[2]
[2] - CIA Website Library - Abbot Emerson Smith - Biography - A Man of integrity.
[3] - Letter to Paul Borel from Allen W. Dulles
[4] - CIA Website Library - Sherman Kent - Occasional papers
[5]- FYI - Wiki - Sherman Kent
[6] - 28 Feb 1960, NY Times - Air Force Order on ‘Saucers’ cited.
Comments