General Hayden: Man for Our Times
Written by JACK KERRIGAN
As this issue of Military Information Technology was going to press, Air Force General Michael Hayden was sworn in as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
On behalf of MIT and the other members of the Kerrigan Media family, I’d like to offer congratulations to General Hayden and take a moment to reflect on the importance of his appointment to our nation.
President Bush, who appeared at a swearing-in ceremony for General Hayden not long after his confirmation by Senate by a wide margin, was on the money when he described their new leader to CIA employees this way: “In Mike Hayden, you have a leader who recognizes your talents, who understands your challenges and will ensure that you remain the finest intelligence agency in the world.”
After the extensive media coverage of General Hayden’s confirmation process, readers will no doubt be familiar with the outline of his distinguished career so far, including service as commander of the Air Intelligence Agency, director of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center, director of the National Security Agency/Central Security Service and principal deputy director of national intelligence.
Instead, I’d like to focus on a few vital aspects of General Hayden the man: his commitment to fundamental principles, his belief in appropriate openness and communication, and his willingness to work with others—including Kerrigan Media—to achieve those ends.
Long before the recent controversy over NSA information-gathering techniques in the war on terror, General Hayden was thinking deeply about the need to make tough calls in finding the balance between national security and constitutional protections. As he told MIT in 2004: “NSA makes its living by utilizing two important entities that have traditionally been looked upon with suspicion by our nation’s citizens, namely power and secrecy. Our mission is essential, but we cannot be successful in our efforts without the trust of the American people.
“With this in mind, we must ensure that when we conduct our activities, we do so in strict accordance to the rule of law and with the understanding that the protection of civil liberties is paramount,” he continued. “Along these lines, we have a responsibility to work with both the public and private sectors to find the critical balance point between the demands of intelligence and those of liberty.”
To foster public trust in the nation’s intelligence community, General Hayden was willing to work with the media in ways that represented a marked departure from the secretive traditions of NSA and other agencies. As part of that strategy, he also reached out to other military and national security leaders through the pages of Kerrigan Media publications, for which he participated in three Cover Story Question & Answer features: in MIT, 2001, Issue 6; MIT, 2004, Issue 1; and Military Geospatial Technology, 2006, Issue 1.
“The public image of the agency shifts between being omnipotent or incompetent,” he said in explaining his approach to communications. "The American people need an accurate picture of this agency so there is not a vacuum that will be filled by bad press and unrealistic movies. We live in a culture that distrusts power and secrecy. Due to the nature of our business, NSA is both very powerful and very secret. After all, one of our missions is to protect the nation’s secrets.
“We have made some clear decisions over the past few years to reach out with core messages that provide a clear understanding of NSA’s mission and its importance to the American public. We believe we can continue to do that despite raising our profile so that the American people will have a better understanding of who we are and what we do,” he continued.
We’re proud of our record of support for General Hayden, who is truly a man for our challenging times. ♦
