NPIC Seeing the Secrets Growing the Leaders: A Cultural History of the National Photographic Interpretation Center

by Jack O'Connor, Carl W. Ford Jr. (Foreword)

This is a history of a little-known CIA office that discovered most of the Cold War Strategic secrets of the Soviet Union. It also produced more future leaders than any other office in the intelligence community. The book explains how two leaders at NPIC created and reinvigorated the culture that led to both of these outcomes.

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 16, 2015

About the author

Jack O'Connor was best known as a writer for Outdoor Life, magazine, where he served as Shooting Editor for 31 years.

Jack O'Connor taught English at the University of Arizona, and became its first journalism professor. His first love was the outdoors and writing about hunting, firearms, and the natural history of big game animals. As the longtime firearms editor for Outdoor Life magazine, O'Connor hunted and collected trophies throughout the world, and introduced millions of readers to hunting and firearms. O'Connor moved to Lewiston, Idaho in 1948 and he lived there until his death in 1978.

O'Connor was well known among shooters and hunters as a proponent of the .270 Winchester and 7x57mm Mauser (.275 Rigby) cartridges. His knowledge of hunting and shooting was extensive, and he had a firm opinion on everything. He was one of America's greatest hunting and gun writers of the twentieth century.

Jack O'Connor authored over a dozen non-fiction books including "Game in the Desert" "The Rifle Book" "The Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns" "The Big Game of North America" "The Art of Hunting Big Game in North America," and "Sheep and Sheep Hunting" He also wrote two western novels, "Conquest," and "Boom Town," and the autobiography of his formative years: "Horse and Buggy West: A Boyhood on the Last Frontier."

According to his son Bradford, in an introduction written for the 2004 book, "The Lost Classics of Jack O'Connor," Jack wrote more than 1200 articles for hunting and fishing magazines, and also wrote romantic novellas and articles for Redbook, Mademoiselle, Reader's Digest, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, the literary magazine Midland, and other magazines popular in the 1930s and 1940s.

Thanks to his education and teaching experience O'Connor's writing skills and style were far above the norm for outdoor magazines. An O'Connor story always taught the reader something about hunting, shooting, or sportsmanship. He had the ability to make the reader feel as if they were right there with him, and he usually closed a hunting story with a bit of humor or an exclamation by one of the characters, leaving the reader eager for more.

Reviews

[Judie · Rating 3 out of 5]

NPIC: SEEING THE SECRETS AND GROWING THE LEADERS begins with a meeting in 1987 when Arthur Lundahl, the man who envisioned and was first director of the US National Photographic Interpretation Center’s (NPIC) was honored by his peers and those who followed him.
It then moves back to April 1986 when an analyst in the Priority Exploitation Group (PEG) observed something unusual happening in the USSR. The USSR denied any problems until the US released evidence proving that there was a major problem at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Because of that, the USSR was forced to admit there had been a power surge led to an explosion that led to a fire that released massive quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere. The book then goes back in time to 1954 when Lundahl was told by Allen Dulles to turn over his duties at the CIA’s Photographic Interpretation Division (PID) and begin to build an organization to “interpret, exploit, and analyze the photos that were to be taken over the Soviet Union.”
NPIC: SEEING THE SECRETS AND GROWING THE LEADERS is an extremely detailed recounting of the organization: What it did, how it grew with changing needs and capabilities, how it was managed, and how it competed with other government agencies. At that time, and for many years afterwards, there was a lot of competition between the agencies ofttimes resulting in information not being shared because of territorial disputes. The agencies that needed the information were often delayed because of technical and personal problems.
Lundahl encouraged initiative among the NPIC employees. When the CIA initiated a cost-saving program in the 60s and 70s whereby any employee could make suggestions, NPIC employees claimed half of the rewards. The CIA sent teams to NPIC to see what they were doing differently.
As photographic imagery became more advanced, the size and capabilities of the equipment and the staff grew. The first electro-optical satellite was so computer intensive that existing computers and networks in the analytic community were no match for the flow of its data.
Many of the staff had military backgrounds. This resulted in a lack of very many women and minorities. (By 1972, it had a higher percentage of African-Americans than any other CIA office, they were mostly in lower level positions.) It also affected the way employees were evaluated, promoted, and treated. Many of the necessary skills were not learned or used in the military.
The photo interpreters had to learn what to look for and how to interpret it so they were focusing on areas of importance. They had to learn how to classify and share information. They didn’t have a useful system of sharing or using their findings; often it was kept in their heads.
It tells how the information was used to prepare US Presidents for negotiations with other countries and to determine what information other countries divulged was true and what was propaganda.
One chapter I found very interesting and useful described the way Rae Huffstetler, the
fourth director who took over in 1988 made major management changes to make the organization more open and consistent.
The story ends in 1985. I am confident that there have been a lot of changes since then. I wonder why, with improved technology, the Bush administration insisted there were nuclear weapons in Iraq. I assume the US is counting on the spy in the sky serve to monitor Iranian compliance with treaty.
As I mentioned, this book is extremely detailed. While it has a Chronological chart at the beginning, tt could have used a list of all the acronyms at either the beginning or the end. The chronology is broken when, for instance, it talks about when Rae Huffstetler became the director in 1984, then refers to things that happened in 1982.
I do not know much about technology nor photography. On the whole, I was able to understand most of the information presented in NPIC: SEEING THE SECRETS AND GROWING THE LEADERS. I just wish it had been written better. In the agency evaluatiaon process, for a high score in Self-expression, “ ...employees needed excellent writing skills.” The author would have benefitted by an improvement in this area. The book also could have used some major editing to eliminate all the repetitions. When talking about individual performance evaluations on pp 175-176, it reads, “Such actions could be training courses, future assignment, or improving some aspect of an individual’s performance. These actions could be designed to improve present performance or to prepare for a position of greater responsibility.”
It presented some information without explanation: “Sary Shagan and Plesetsk were related as were....: It doesn’t say how they were related. It omits information, e.g., it says what William Kampiles what he did by giving information to the Soviet Union, how it affected the US, what he received as his sentence, and the aftermath.. Later it mentions the espionage of Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssom without explanation any explanation except how it affected the US.
With better editing, could easily have given the book four or five stars. My frustration level reduced the rating.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of the history of NPIC as told through the actions of some of its first leaders. Not so much on why so many of them went on to senior positions in the IC. Also many grammatical errors detracted from some passages. Overall an informative read.