Retired General to Be Nominee for CIA Director

President Clinton’s choice to head the CIA is retired Air Force Gen. Michael P.C. Carns, a former Vietnam War fighter pilot who, supporters say, could bring fresh ideas to an embattled spy agency unsure of its role in the post-Cold War era.

Carns, 57, served 35 years, earned four stars and rose to Air Force vice chief of staff before retiring in September. Clinton is expected to formally nominate him later this week, White House and congressional officials said Tuesday.

Although Administration officials would say only that Carns is “at the top of the list” for CIA director, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in an interview Tuesday that he was told by White House National Security Adviser Anthony Lake that Carns indeed will be announced as the nominee.

His appointment would end a lengthy search conducted during one of the most turbulent periods in the agency’s five-decade history. In the last year, the agency has been buffeted by the Aldrich H. Ames spy scandal, allegations of sex discrimination and a continuing debate over whether the CIA has outlived its usefulness.

Specter said he will push for confirmation hearings as early as this month, arguing that it is imperative for a director to be installed quickly.

“They’re in a real grip at the CIA,” he said. “This hasn’t been a good time for the agency not to have a director.”

Carns would replace R. James Woolsey, who announced his resignation in December. He would become only the third military official to run the CIA. The last was retired Navy Adm. Stansfield Turner during the Jimmy Carter Administration.

Carns could not be reached Tuesday at his Pebble Beach, Calif., home.

“He’s told Washington he wants to be real low-key about this and not hold any interviews,” said Air Force Col. Tom Boyd. “I’m sure he wants to talk to the people in government before he talks to anybody else.”

Those who know Carns, both inside and outside the Pentagon, said that his leadership is tough and sound and that he would be anything but low-key at the helm of the government spy apparatus.

“I have the highest regard for Mike Carns, and I consider him a man of great wisdom and tremendous leadership,” said his former boss, retired Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin L. Powell.

Robert W. Gaskin, a retired Air Force colonel and former pilot of U-2 spy planes who now runs Business Executives for National Security, a think tank in Washington, said that Carns’ greatest ability is his capacity to listen. That could go a long way in a CIA besieged by advice on how best to reform intelligence gathering.

“If Omar Bradley had that dog-faced exterior in the Army, Mike Carns had the opposite in the Air Force,” Gaskin said. “He has a lot of humility and he is always listening to people.”

“The CIA guys will have a great difficulty adjusting” to a director from outside the intelligence community, said Retired Lt. Gen. Charles May, who worked under Carns when he was assistant chief of staff.

“As a military guy, he will come in with a real challenge to get the professional CIA people to follow his lead,” May said. “And I think he will have great success.”

Carns, a native of Junction City, Kan., was graduated in 1959 as part of the first class at the Air Force Academy. During the Vietnam War, he flew more than 200 combat missions and was decorated.

He received a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University and later rose to become the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War, a high-level Pentagon position that coordinates the various functions of the nation’s four military branches.

As CIA director, Carns must demand full access to the President, something Woolsey never had, said former CIA Director Robert M. Gates, who served under President George Bush. “I would hope he gets it,” Gates said. “And I know Mike is smart enough to understand that and to ask for that.”

Retired Air Force Gen. Monroe Hatch, who now heads the Air Force Assn., said that Carns will demonstrate he has a “broad grounding in dealing with Capitol Hill”--an attribute that could serve him well as Congress attempts to reform the CIA.