BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle” – Sun Tzu (The Art of War)
For United States Military Academy alum Lt. General James Williams playing defense and knowing what the opposition was going to do next were life-long tasks.
A 1954 graduate of Army, the USMA water polo player went from serving as an airplane spotter during World War II to leading his water polo team to a runner-up finish at the National Championship his senior year prior to joining the Armed Forces and rising to a role as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the 1980’s.
A 1987 inductee of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame and former Chairman of the Board of Directors for the National Military Intelligence Association, Williams was born in Paterson, N.J., on March 29, 1932 and quickly became interested in the Armed Force. As a youth, Williams paid his first visit to the U.S. Military Academy in May 1938, and four years later began his first Federal Service in May 1942 as a volunteer aircraft spotter for the 2nd Anti-Aircraft Region keeping an eye out for enemy planes. Active in sports, playing baseball, running track and swimming, he was a member of the 1950 NJ Group II State Basketball Championship Team and garnered Group II All State Honors.
In the Fall of 1950, he accepted a commission to the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., and continued his athletic exploits. As a senior, he helped Army finish second at the “National Collegiate Water Polo Championship” and denoted in an interview with the Americans in Wartime Museum the team’s success was among the highlights of his collegiate tenure.
In 1954, Williams graduated from the U.S. Military Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering and initially commissioned as a second lieutenant in Air Defense Artillery. He received a Master of Arts degree in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico in 1964. In addition during his tenure in the Army, he completed the Air Defense Basic Officers Course, the United States Army Intelligence School, the Artillery Officers Career Course, the United States Army Command and General Staff College, the Defense Intelligence School and the National War College.
Upon graduation, he was stationed at Fort Bliss in the Anti-Aircraft School and accepted his first assignment in Philadelphia as battery commander. In 1956, he attempted to make the Olympic games in another sport as he tried out for the USA Olympic Basketball Team while assigned to Fort Meade in Maryland. However, an injury while competing for the 2nd Army squad ended his basketball career.
The injury prevented him from having a chance to make an Olympic team that rolled to the Gold Medal behind University of San Francisco teammates, future Boston Celtics legends and Basketball Hall of Fame Fame inductees Bill Russell and K.C. Jones by an average of 53.5 points per game.
Except for a tour with the Field Command of the Defense Atomic Support Agency, his subsequent assignments were in the intelligence field. After assignments with the 470th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment, Fort Amador, Canal Zone and the 471st Counterintelligence Corps Detachment, Fort Brooke, Puerto Rico, he was assigned to the US Army Combat Developments Command at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was project intelligence officer for Tactical Aerial Reconnaissance and Surveillance, 1975. After this, he served as the Assistant Army Attaché in Caracas, Venezuela. He then commanded the 1st Military Intelligence Battalion (Provisional), 525th Military Intelligence Group, United States Army Vietnam supporting the III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF) and then served in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations in Washington, DC.
Remaining in Washington, Williams was named the Director of Political/Military Affairs, Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, State Department and Chief, Counterintelligence and Collection Division, and then Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Headquarters, Department of the Army. From there he assumed command of the 650th Military Intelligence Group (Counterintelligence) at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. Upon return to the United States, he was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency as Chief, Missile Forces/Strategic Arms Limitation Branch, Soviet/Warsaw Pact Division, and he later served as the Deputy Director for Estimates. Prior to his return to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) as its director, Williams served as Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, United States Army, and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, United States Army, Europe, leading the first team of DOD analysts to provide strategic early warning of Contingency Planning for Martial Law in Soviet-dominated Poland vice Warsaw Pact intervention. In September 1981, he was appointed the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Williams culminated 31 years service with a four-year tour as Director of the DIA. He was the senior intelligence officer (SIO) for the Department of Defense (DoD) and directed intelligence analysis for the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He initiated widespread use of open source collection of foreign scientific and technical information by DIA as well as establishment of the Military Intelligence Integrated Data System. Under the General’s supervision DIA, in conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), brought into operation the Secure Analyst File Environment (SAFE) an interactive system of intelligence analyst files. Under his direction DIA established the first formal requirements for imagery from civilian satellites such as LANDSAT. Williams was also instrumental in creating the first computerized threat methodologies for the Department of Defense and established the first threat validation system for the Defense Acquisition Cycle
Williams focused the Agency on enhancing support to tactical and theater commanders, improving capabilities to meet major wartime intelligence requirements, and strengthening indications and warning assets. In this regard he was responsible for establishing the first terrorism warning billets in the Agency and for placing the first United States Coast Guard Attachés on station. During his tenure the Defense Intelligence College was chartered by Congress to award a master’s degree of Strategic Intelligence, the first federally chartered institution to be authorized to award a graduate level degree.
In December 1981, President Reagan signed Executive Order 12333 giving the Intelligence Community a mandate for the years ahead. In response to a requirement to improve intelligence support to the Unified & Specified Commands’ war-fighting capabilities, the functional manager for intelligence processing was established in 1982. The Central America Joint Intelligence Team (CAJIT) was established in 1984 as an interagency analytical task organization focused on insurgency in Central America inside Nicaragua. DIA also created the Intelligence Communications Architecture to improve the Department of Defense’s ability to disseminate national level intelligence to tactical commanders during contingency situations. The concept of intelligence as a “force multiplier in crises” became a predominant theme in planning as DIA began structuring an all source integrated database to support the Unified & Specified Commands in assessing the threat in the field Williams established a Research Crisis Support Center to provide a centralized, operationally secure, all-source, crisis management center to support the National Military Intelligence Center and the Unified & Specified Commands.
Other analysis focused on the Falkland Islands War and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. When 6,000 U.S. troops invaded Grenada during Operation URGENT FURY in 1983, DIA’s Task Force responded to numerous formal taskings for briefings and information, and distributed a wide variety of intelligence summaries to assist field commanders during the operation. The planning process for URGENT FURY was greatly facilitated by a number of intelligence products that had been prepared as early as 1979, bringing high praise for DIA’s support and services. Other DIA analytical efforts during the year centered on the continuing crises in Nicaragua, Lebanon (the attack on the Marine barracks), Iran and Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as the Soviet shoot-down of airline flight KAL 007, the civil war in Chad, and unrest in the Philippines. A significantly larger number of hijackings, bombings, kidnappings, murders and other acts of terrorism led to characterizing 1985 as the “Year of the Terrorist.”
Upon his retirement in 1985, he was quoted, “The military is a public service and very gratifying. A leadership lesson is always to tell the truth and have faith in your people.”
Following his retirement, Williams served as a senior consultant for a variety of projects dealing with the collection, processing and analysis of intelligence; integration of intelligence data processing systems and revitalization of the civil remote sensing program. He also served as a member of intelligence advisory panels for Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories and was a member of the Special Technologies Advisory Panel for the Department of Energy.
Williams was among the pioneers in the use of open source data for commercial purposes. Starting in 1987, he was President of the Direct Information Access Corporation (DIAC), which specializes in the production of commercial intelligence.
Williams served for five years as the Chairman of a task force overseeing the creation of the Defense HUMINT Service which which conducts clandestine espionage activities around the world to answer national-level defense objectives for senior U.S. policymakers and military leaders . He also served as an advisor for the Army on the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Program/drones.
Williams passed away on October 31, 2017.
