William Raborn
William Raborn | |
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7th Director of Central Intelligence | |
In office April 28, 1965 – June 30, 1966 | |
President | Lyndon Johnson |
Deputy | Richard Helms |
Preceded by | John McCone |
Succeeded by | Richard Helms |
Personal details | |
Born | William Francis Raborn, Jr. June 8, 1905 Navy Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star |
William Francis Raborn, Jr., (June 8, 1905 – March 6, 1990) was the United States
Born in
Raborn was a rear admiral when he was appointed, on November 8, 1955, as director of special projects at the Bureau of Weapons. His task was to develop a
Raborn had delivered Polaris three years ahead of schedule, due in part to his application of the
Time magazine wrote that his organizational skills would be invaluable in a CIA that admitted it was in danger of being "drowned in data",[2] but his tenure was not successful: author David Barrett described Raborn as "incompetent at CIA, not understanding the agency or the intelligence business",[4] and even the CIA's own historians said "Raborn did not 'take' to the DCI job".[5] A later CIA director, William Colby, described Raborn as focused on intelligence technology and not sufficiently attuned to the cultural issues involved in dealing with foreign nationals and governments.
Raborn resigned on June 30, 1966, having served for only fourteen months as DCI. He was replaced by his deputy, Richard Helms.
He was involved, during his time at the CIA, in its early activities against
Raborn is buried in the United States Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland.
Awards
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1st Row | Navy Distinguished Service Medal | Silver Star | award star
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2nd row | Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal | Navy Unit Commendation | American Defense Service Medal w/1 service star | |||||||||
3rd row | American Campaign Medal | Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
w/3 service stars |
World War II Victory Medal | |||||||||
4th row | Navy Occupation Service Medal | China Service Medal | National Defense Service Medal w/1 service star | |||||||||
5th row | Korean Service Medal | United Nations Service Medal Korea | Philippines Liberation Medal
w/1 service star |
Raborn was also:
- Vice admiral (United States Navy)
- Director, U.S. Navy Special Projects Office
- Deputy Chief of Naval Operations [1]
- 32° Mason (Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite Of Freemasonry)[2]
Other honors and recognition
In 1962, Raborn received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[7]
External links
- William F. Raborn Collection, 1932-1964, MS 490 held by Special Collections & Archives, Nimitz Library at the United States Naval Academy
References
- ^ Michael Wines (March 13, 1990). "William F. Raborn Is Dead at 84; Led Production of Polaris Missile". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
- ^ a b "A PERT Man for the CIA", Time magazine, April 23, 1965
- ^ Collier 1960-1969 Winners Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, National Aeronautic Association
- ISBN 0-7006-1400-1 (quote sourced via "Generals Have Poor Records as CIA Bosses, but Hayden Looks Different", Jeff Stein, Congressional Quarterly, May 9, 2006)
- ^ "John McCone and William Raborn: New Kind of DCI", Directors of Central Intelligence as Leaders of the U.S. Intelligence Community, Douglas F. Garthoff, CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence
- ^ James Jesus Angleton, the CIA, and the Craft of Counterintelligence, By Michael Howard Holzman, 2008, via https://books.google.com
- American Academy of Achievement.
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Navy