Sherman Kent

Kent was the son of U.S. Congressman William Kent and women's rights activist Elizabeth Thacher Kent, and the brother of Roger Kent and Adaline Kent. His grandfather was Yale professor Thomas Anthony Thacher, and he was great-great grandson of American founding father Roger Sherman. He was a graduate of The Thacher School (founded by his uncle Sherman Day Thacher) and Yale University where he studied European history with the intention of spending his career as an academic. After graduating in 1926, he spent several years teaching and doing research but joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) with the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1942.

Sherman Kent first served within the Research and Analysis Branch of the OSS as Chief of the Europe-Africa Division. In this capacity, he oversaw much of the process which would now be considered intelligence preparation of the battlespace in support of planning for Operation Torch, the 1942 Allied invasion of North Africa. (An irreverent wit, Kent once proposed for the heraldic emblem of the often-zany OSS, "A horse's ass rampant on a Boston Social Register".)Richard Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency (Guilford, CT, 2005)

After a post-war stint at the National War College, he returned to Yale for three years, during which time he penned his classic work, Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy.{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/kent-center-occasional-papers/vol1no5.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612215517/https://www.cia.gov/library/kent-center-occasional-papers/vol1no5.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 12, 2007|title=Sherman Kent and the Profession of Intelligence Analysis |date=|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=5 June 2017}} In November 1950, during the crisis that followed, the Chinese Communist incursion in the Korean War, which prompted a build-up and reorganization of the American Intelligence Community, he was called to Washington, DC, to assist Harvard historian William L. Langer, with whom he had worked in OSS, to form a new CIA Office of National Estimates (ONE). He succeeded Langer as chief of ONE in 1952, serving in that position for the next fifteen years under four Directors of Central Intelligence in four presidential administrations.

ONE was "a small organization, consisting of a Board of National Estimates of between five and twelve senior experts, a professional staff of 25–30 regional and functional specialists, and a support staff."{{cite web|author=Robert|title=History of Intelligence Estimates|publisher=US National Intelligence Council |url=http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_tradecraft_overview.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528103305/http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_tradecraft_overview.html|archive-date=2009-05-28}} Until it was dissolved, six years after Kent's retirement, in a Watergate-era CIA reorganization, ONE prepared more than 1,500 speculative National Intelligence Estimates for the President and top foreign policy-makers.

Kent led ONE through years of challenge and crisis, including McCarthy-era accusations against one of Kent's young aides, future presidential advisor William Bundy,Peter Grose, "Gentleman Spy, The Life of Allen Dulles" (Boston, 1994) and "predictive failures" during the Cuban Missile CrisisSee pages 135 to 191 in {{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Milo L. and |last2=Silberzahn |first2=Philippe|year=2013 |title=Constructing Cassandra, Reframing Intelligence Failure at the CIA, 1947–2001|publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-9336-0}} and other Cold War "flaps".

Kent's unique and enduring role within the US intelligence community was to formalize analytical "tradecraft" and methodologies, while encouraging creation of a "literature of intelligence" to provide a formal mechanism for the transfer of knowledge and experiences between generations of analysts.

Sherman Kent retired from the CIA in 1967 and died in 1986.

In 2000, the CIA established a school in Kent's name dedicated to the pursuit of professionalism in the art and science of intelligence analysis.

• Electoral Procedure Under Louis Philippe (Yale University Press, 1937)
• Writing History (NY, 1941; 1967)
• Election of 1827 in France (Harvard University Press, 1975)

• Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy (Princeton University Press, 1949; 1966){{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/strategicintelli0000kent|url-access=registration|title=Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy|first=Sherman|last=Kent|date=5 June 1966|publisher=Princeton University Press|access-date=5 June 2017|via=Internet Archive}}
• [https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP93T01132R000100020036-3.pdf Words of Estimative Probability (CIA, 1964)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070612220944/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/toc.html Sherman Kent and the Board of National Estimates: Collected Essays]

:* [https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7267738 The Law and Custom of the National Intelligence Estimate (CIA, 1965)]

:* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070613122030/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/making.html The Making of an NIE (CIA, 1967)]

:* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070613042200/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/the-theory-of-intelligence.html The Theory of Intelligence (CIA 1968)]

• A Boy and a Pig, But Mostly Horses (NY, 1974) ("Recounts the adventures of three boys during the summer they spend working on a Nevada ranch in the 1920s")
• *Letters (also listed as Buffalo Letters): Sherman Kent to His Family, 1936–1965 ([n.d., but "for Christmas 1990" mentioned in Acknowledgements; n.p., probably Washington D. C.]) (private publication for family members edited by Margaret Gourd-Barrett, published by Kent's widow, illustrated by Kent)
• Reminiscences of a Varied Life (San Rafael, CA, 1991)

• Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis
• Studies in Intelligence

{{reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070613042212/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/1tribute.html Harold P. Ford, "A Tribute to Sherman Kent" in Studies in Intelligence (CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1980)]
• Steury, Donald Paul, ed. "Sherman Kent and the Board of National Estimates: Collected Essays" (CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1994)

• {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/shermangenealog01shergoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/shermangenealog01shergoog/page/n447 345]|title=Sherman Genealogy Including Families of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, England|year=1920|first=Thomas Townsend|last=Sherman|publisher=T. A. Wright|access-date=5 June 2017|via=Internet Archive}}
• Political Graveyard (Lawrence Kestenbaum)

:* {{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/10001-051.html|title=Baldwin-Greene-Gager family of Connecticut|access-date=5 June 2017}}

:* {{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/10001-055.html|title=Sherman-Hoar family|access-date=5 June 2017}}

:* {{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/10064.html|title=Bankhead family of Jasper, Alabama|access-date=5 June 2017}}

• CIA

:* {{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/1tribute.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613042212/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/1tribute.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 13, 2007|title=Harold P. Ford, "A Tribute to Sherman Kent" in Studies in Intelligence (CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1980)}}

:*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070411015702/https://www.cia.gov/csi/books/shermankent/toc.html Sherman Kent and the Board of National Estimates]

:*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070411210150/https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/fall00/Sherman_Kent.pdf Sherman Kent Photo]

:*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070411093220/https://www.cia.gov/csi/books/shermankent/3valedict.html Valediction]

:*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070411210248/https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/fall00/ch1_needForIntelligence.pdf The Need for an Intelligence Literature]

:* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090402141210/https://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_tradecraft_overview.html NIC Analytical Methodologies - Tradecraft Overview]

:* {{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/5law.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613122025/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/5law.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 13, 2007|title=The Law and Custom of the National Intelligence Estimate|website=cia.gov|access-date=5 June 2017}}

:* {{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/6words.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613122040/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/6words.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 13, 2007|title=Words of Estimative Probability|website=cia.gov|access-date=5 June 2017}}

:* {{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/making.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613122030/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/making.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 13, 2007|title=II. The Making of an NIE|website=cia.gov|access-date=5 June 2017}}

:* {{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/the-theory-of-intelligence.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613042200/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/the-theory-of-intelligence.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 13, 2007|title=The Theory of Intelligence|website=cia.gov|access-date=5 June 2017}}

:* {{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/kent-center-occasional-papers/vol1no5.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612215517/https://www.cia.gov/library/kent-center-occasional-papers/vol1no5.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 12, 2007|title=Sherman Kent and the Profession of Intelligence Analysis|website=cia.gov|access-date=5 June 2017}}

:* {{cite web|url=http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cia/strategic_warning_kent.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040825135558/http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cia/strategic_warning_kent.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 25, 2004|title=The Sherman Kent Center for Intelligence Analysis|author=|date=|website=www.au.af.mil|access-date=5 June 2017}}

• {{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/15/obituaries/sherman-kent-82-ex-official-of-cia-and-yale-professor.html|title=SHERMAN KENT, 82; EX-OFFICIAL OF C.I.A. AND YALE PROFESSOR|last=AP|work=The New York Times |date=15 March 1986|publisher=|access-date=5 June 2017|via=NYTimes.com}}
• {{cite web|url=http://drs.library.yale.edu/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=mssa:ms.0854&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes|title=Guide to the Sherman Kent Papers|website=yale.edu|access-date=5 June 2017}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Sherman}}

Category:1903 births

Category:1986 deaths

Category:Analysts of the Central Intelligence Agency

Category:Yale University faculty

Category:20th-century American historians

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:The Thacher School alumni

Category:Yale University alumni

Category:Kent family (California)

Category:Recipients of the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service

Category:American male non-fiction writers