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When last week's executive order was finally hammered out, Admiral Turner, perhaps only half in jest, threw up his arms, sighed and told Brzezinski: "They call me the intelligence czar, but you're the boss." The admiral had a point, but then he has nothing to complain about from the reshuffle. For the first time, one man has been told to take charge of the nine all too often freewheeling, intensely competitive and sometimes overlapping intelligence agencies.
Precisely how much power Turner will wield remains to be seen. The legislation establishing the CIA in 1947 gave the director, as his title suggests, a certain degree of authority over all the intelligence agencies; he was charged with "coordinating" their activities. But he only loosely performed that function. The new executive order considerably enhances the director's authority and responsibility. He has control of the total intelligence budget (an estimated $7 billion a year) and the right to give assignments to all the agencies. Turner's position ultimately depends on the power realities of Washington and his own abilities.
No one who knows Stan Turner doubts that the driving, fiercely ambitious admiral will make the most of his new job. He is one of the armed services' new breed of activist intellectuals who pride themselves on their grasp of nonmilitary matters: politics, economics, psychology. Born in Highland Park, Ill., a Chicago suburb, Turner decided on a naval career instead of joining his father in real estate. After graduating 25th in his class at Annapolis (Jimmy Carter finished 59th out of 820 in the same class of'46), he studied at Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. He served on a destroyer during the Korean War; from 1972 to 1974 he was president of the Naval War College, where he gained a reputation as a man of unconventional opinion. As he wrote in an article in Foreign Affairs, he preferred to "focus on trends rather than statistics."
Named commander of the Second Fleet in the Atlantic in 1974, Turner resorted again to unconventional tactics. He checked on the readiness of his ships by making surprise visits by helicopter. Then he would toss a life preserver into the ocean and order sailors to save a hypothetical man overboard. His ambition was to become Chief of Naval Operations, but his plans were interrupted last March by his Commander in Chief. Since Turner remains in the Navy, he is accused by critics in the CIA of using the intelligence post as a steppingstone to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The truth is, he probably could have found a safer route.
At the office through long days and into the night (his average work day is 12 hours), Turner spends his remaining time with his wife Patricia at their home in northwest Washington. His son Geoffrey is a Navy lieutenant stationed in Monterey, Calif. Daughter Laurel is married and lives in San Diego. Turner, who seldom drinks and does not smoke, likes to play tennis and squash or swim when he has the chance. His social life usually involves old friends from the Navy, not new ones from the CIA.