Sherman Kent

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Sherman Kent was a senior CIA intelligence analyst who headed the Office of National Estimates from January 1952 to December 1967.[1]

Abram Shulsky and Gary Schmitt have criticised a view of intelligence as social science which they attribute to Kent:

If intelligence could reliably make the predictions implied in Kent's discussion, policy makers would indeed be foolish to ignore them, an their jobs would be made much easier. Kent's optimism on this point reflects the general optimism of the social sciences in the 1940s and 1950s.[2]

Shulsky and Schmitt's interpretation of Kent's views has been strongly criticised by David Habakkuk.[3][4]

Notes

  1. Harold P. Ford, A Tribute to Sherman Kent, CIA, accessed 1 August 2009.
  2. Abram N. Shulsky and Gary J. Schmitt, Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence, Brassey's, 2002,p.174.
  3. David Habakkuk, sspaper.pdf, Sic Semper Tyrannis, 11 November 2005.
  4. David Habakkuk, Habakkuk on the neocons' use of intelligence, Sic Semper Tyrannis, 14 December 2007.