George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

Brooke leading the pack; others had been added by the White House after checking by
telephone with Jennifer Fitzgerald.
Before proceding, let us take a loom at Bush's team of associates at the CIA, since we
will find them in many of his later political campaigns and office staffs.
When Bush became DCI, his principal deputy was General Vernon Walters, a former
army lieutenant general. This is the same Gen. Vernon Walters who was mentioned by
Haldeman and Nixon in the notorious "smoking gun" tape already discussed, but who of
course denied that he ever did any of the things that Haldeman and Ehrlichman said that
he had promised to do. Walters had been at the CIA as DDCI since May, 1972--a Nixon
appointee who had been with Nixon when the then vice president's car was stoned in
Caracas, Venezuela way back when. Ever since then Nixon had seen him as part of the
old guard. Walters left to become a private consultant in July, 1976.
To replace Walters, Bush picked Enno Henry Knoche, who had joined CIA in 1953 as an
intelligence analyst specializing in Far Eastern political and military affairs. Knoche
came from the navy and knew Chinese. From 1962 to 1967 he had been the chief of the
National Photographic Interpretation Center. In 1969, he had become deputy director of
planning and budegting, and chaired the internal CIA committee in charge of
computerization. (This emphasis was reflected during the Bush tenure by heavy emphasis
on satellites and SIGINT communications monitoring.) Knoche was then deputy director
of the Office of Current Intelligence, which produces ongoing assessments of
international events for the President and the NSC. After 1972, Knoche headed the
Intelligence Directorate's Office of Strategic Research, charged with evaluating strategic
threats to the US. In 1975, Knoche had been a special liaison between Colby and the
Rockefeller Commission, as well as with the Church and Pike Committees. This was a
very sensitive post, and Bush clearly looked to Knoche to help him deal with continuing
challenges coming from the Congress. In the fall of 1975, Knoche had become the
number two on Colby's staff for the coordination and management of the intelligence
community. According to some, Knoche was to function as Bush's "Indian guide"
through the secrets of Langley; he knew "where the bodies were buiried." Otherwise,
Knoche was known for his love of tennis.
Knoche was highly critical of Colby's policy of handing over limited amounts of
classified material to the Pike and Church committees, while fighting to save the core of
covert operations. Knoche told a group of friends during this period: "There is no
counterintelligence any more." This implies a condemnation of the Congressional
committees with whom Knoche had served as liaison, and can also be read as a lament
for the ousting of James Jesus Angleton, chief of the CIA's Counterintelligence
operations until 1975 and director of the mail-opening operation that had been exposed
by various probers. [fn 26]
Here was a deputy who could protect Bush's flank with his Congressional tormentors,
who would call Bush to the Hill more than fifty times during his approximately one year
of CIA tenure. He would also appear to have had enough administrative experience to run