Sailors aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS John Stennis may be surprised to know that the person for whom their ship is named, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Stennis of Mississippi, ordered his committee to conduct a full review of the CIA’s 1947 charter to prevent the agency from ever again engaging in secret wars, illegal surveillance as it did during Watergate, and political assassinations. Stennis apparently agreed with his Senate colleagues who believed that the 1947 National Security Act, which created the CIA, was too vague.
Stennis was also spurred into action by the revelation of a memorandum from Secretary of State George C. Marshall to President Harry S Truman, dated February 7, 1947, that urged Truman to think again about signing the National Security Act because the CIA, created by the act, would have “almost unlimited powers” and that the agency’s proposed powers needed clarification. Marshall was concerned that the proposed CIA would exercise peacetime powers that would diminish the role of the Department of State.
Stennis was adamant about reviewing and possibly amending not only the 1947 National Security Act but also the 1949 CIA Act, which exempted the CIA from the limitations applied to other federal agencies in the expenditure of federal funds and permitted the CIA to keep its salaries, position titles, organization chart, and number of employees classified. Stennis and other senators also wanted access to National Security Council Intelligence Directives (NSCIDs), including the classified NSCID that created the CIA.
Senator Stennis, confident that he had gotten the CIA’s attention, was on his front lawn entering his 3609 Cumberland Street, Northwest Washington, DC, home at 7:40 pm on January 31, 1973, when he was approached by two men who demanded the 71-year old senator hand over his wallet, gold watch, and 25 cents in change. They then said, “Now we’re going to shoot you any way.” Stennis was struck by the first bullet, fired from a .22 caliber pistol, in his thigh and a second bullet hit his chest, close to his heart. The two assailants, reported to be black by the police, fled and were never apprehended. Stennis crawled to his front door and his wife called the police. The news media dutifully reported, without any evidence to the contrary, that the shooters likely did not realize they had shot Stennis.
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