Item COLD WAR 27/169 - Transcript of interview with Admiral Stansfield Turner, 1997

Typescript transcript of interview with US Adm Stansfield Turner, President, Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, 1972-1974, Commander, US Second Fleet, 1974-1975, Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), 1975-1977, and Director, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1977-1981, relating to the reasons for the development, manufacture and deployment of large numbers of nuclear weapons by the USA and the USSR during the Cold War, 1945-1990; the targetting with nuclear weapons of minor military and industrial installations during the Cold War, 1945-1990; the peak deployment by the USA of 32, 500 nuclear warheads, and the Soviet deployment of approximately 40, 000 warheads, [1968-1969]; the reasons why there has not been a massive reduction in nuclear arsenals since the end of the Cold War, 1990; the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) by US President George (Herbert Walker) Bush and General Secretary Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, Moscow, USSR, 31 Jul 1991; the decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear weapons by the USSR and the USA, [1991-1995]; the danger of nuclear proliferation since the dissolution of the USSR, 1991; the danger of a nuclear confrontation between the superpowers during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Oct 1962; the legacy of the Cold War, 1945-1997; Turner's opinion of the effectiveness of the CIA when he became Director, 1977; the role of the CIA, 1977-1981; Turner's opinion on the effectiveness of espionage via the employment of technically advanced equipment, 1977-1981; the various electronic, photographic and human systems for the collection of intelligence, 1977-1981; the differences in operational methods employed by the CIA and the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopastny, the Soviet Committee for State Security), 1977-1981; the deposition of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Jan 1979; the lack of knowledge and information, acquired by the CIA, prior to the Iranian revolution, 1979; Turner's commitment to making the CIA more accountable to the US government and the general public, 1977-1981; Turner's opinion on the contribution made by intelligence agencies to the Cold War, 1945-1990. 26pp