Outside the Beltway

Does Hayden Know His History?

Alex Knapp
15

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Amy Zegart points out a really strange statement made by CIA Director Michael Hayden in a speech yesterday.

As eventful as the world may be right now, the development that is likely to have the most far-reaching consequences will be a domestic one — the election of a new American president. From the standpoint of the Intelligence Community, it’ll be the first time since 1952 that our top customer will not have served as an incumbent or vice president.

Zegart claims to have heard this, and got the quote directly from the prepared transcript.

This statement is, of course, not remotely true. Kennedy, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush were all neither incumbents nor vice-presidents. Surely the Director of the CIA should be familiar with some of the broad outlines of recent American history, right? I can’t imagine that his analyses of threats to the United States would be much use if he didn’t, er, know that much about the United States.

Here’s hoping this is some kind of transcript error or something.

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15 responses to “Does Hayden Know His History?”

  1. Aaron Avatar
    Aaron

    What he may have meant is that this is the first time since 1952 that neither a president nor a vice president is on the ballot. I’ve certainly heard that before, and it’s true, but I don’t see that it has any special relevance to the intelligence community as opposed to the rest of the country.

  2. Christopher Avatar
    Christopher

    “customer”?

    Huh?

  3. Alex Knapp Avatar
    Alex Knapp

    Aaron,

    That’s what I thought at first, too, but it doesn’t quite make sense–he’s saying that our “top customer” won’t be. Nothing about the ballot per se.

  4. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    I think Hayden is the guy who totally flubbed the Fourth Amendment as well.

  5. DL Avatar
    DL

    I suspect that since we were all in gradeschool, and believed those stories about Washington and Lincoln, we’ve naively tended to have blind faith in our leaders.The reality that they are all just frail people and our systems really are far from perfect, is a schocker. This is why I don’t trust government nor democracy to save me. I just pray and hope for the best. Less than perfection, I understand and hope we”re always trying to improve it, but the other thing -the professional deceit, manipulating and lying, as the norm, I don’t accept -nor should any of us. Instead we vote the deceivers and liars back into office because they tell us what we want to hear. In short, as they said when Bill got caught by Monica’s blue dress, yes he’s a liar, but he’s our liar. Sigh!

  6. DL Avatar
    DL

    I suspect that since we were all in gradeschool, and believed those stories about Washington and Lincoln, we’ve naively tended to have blind faith in our leaders.The reality that they are all just frail people and our systems really are far from perfect, is a schocker. This is why I don’t trust government nor democracy to save me. I just pray and hope for the best. Less than perfection, I understand and hope we”re always trying to improve it, but the other thing -the professional deceit, manipulating and lying, as the norm, I don’t accept -nor should any of us. Instead we vote the deceivers and liars back into office because they tell us what we want to hear. In short, as they said when Bill got caught by Monica’s blue dress, yes he’s a liar, but he’s our liar. Sigh!

  7. Mithras Avatar
    Mithras

    “customer”?

    Huh?

    In the intelligence world, there are “producers” and “customers” of product. It’s an explicit analogy to the business world, meant to focus intelligence agencies on the fact that they are working for specific end users with specific needs and concerns, which guides the producer’s budgets and priorities.

    Hayden’s mistake about the incumbent thing I can’t explain. It’s a little concerning.

  8. Boyd Avatar
    Boyd

    Does the Director of the CIA have speechwriters?

    This is totally bizarre, and completely at odds with everything I know about the man. Something is seriously out of whack here, but I don’t know if it’s Gen Hayden or something else.

  9. G.A.Phillips Avatar
    G.A.Phillips

    It makes one wonder if he even knows how many states we have.

  10. PD Shaw Avatar
    PD Shaw

    I belive he means that this is the first election since ’52 in which there is not an incumbant President or Vice President running for President. I.e., Cheney is not running.

    As to why this is a concern to intelligence, I can’t say. I suppose if an incumbant were running, the CIA would already have been supplying information to the incumbant for the last four or so years. This election, the CIA is guaranteed to have a new relationship that begins Jan. 20.

  11. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    In the intelligence world, there are “producers” and “customers” of product. It’s an explicit analogy to the business world, meant to focus intelligence agencies on the fact that they are working for specific end users with specific needs and concerns, which guides the producer’s budgets and priorities.

    Please tell me they don’t also use the phrase “The customer is always right”.

  12. Boyd Avatar
    Boyd

    Please tell me they don’t also use the phrase “The customer is always right”.

    It depends on how much they tip.

  13. interested Avatar
    interested

    all except Kennedy were Governors. I could see if perhaps Governors were considered “incumbent customers”, but that would imply that Senators are not – which, of course, they are.

  14. Mithras Avatar
    Mithras

    Please tell me they don’t also use the phrase “The customer is always right”.

    Used to, in the Office of Special Plans.

  15. Christopher Avatar
    Christopher

    Mithras,

    Thanks for the explanation. Appreciate it.

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