Stansfield Turner

Stansfield Turner
Turner in 1983
12th Director of Central Intelligence
In office
March 9, 1977 – January 20, 1981
PresidentJimmy Carter
DeputyE. Henry Knoche
John F. Blake
Frank Carlucci
Preceded byGeorge H. W. Bush
Succeeded byWilliam J. Casey
37th President of the Naval War College
In office
June 30, 1972 – August 9, 1974
Preceded byBenedict J. Semmes Jr.
Succeeded byJulien LeBourgeois
Personal details
Born(1923-12-01)December 1, 1923
Highland Park, Illinois, U.S.
DiedJanuary 18, 2018(2018-01-18) (aged 94)
Redmond, Washington, U.S.
Resting placeUnited States Naval Academy Cemetery
Spouses
Patricia Busby Whitney
(m. 1953; div. 1984)
Eli Karin Tjelta
(m. 1985; died 2000)
Marion Levitt Weiss
(m. 2002)
Children2
EducationUnited States Naval Academy (BS)
Exeter College, Oxford (BA)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Navy
Years of service1946–1978
RankAdmiral
CommandsUSS Conquest
USS Rowan
USS Horne
U.S. Second Fleet
Allied Forces Southern Europe
Battles/warsWorld War II
Korean War
Vietnam War

Stansfield Turner (December 1, 1923 – January 18, 2018) was an admiral in the United States Navy who served as President of the Naval War College (1972–1974), commander of the United States Second Fleet (1974–1975), Supreme Allied Commander NATO Southern Europe (1975–1977), and was Director of Central Intelligence (1977–1981) under the Carter administration. A graduate of Exeter College, Oxford and the United States Naval Academy, Turner served for more than 30 years in the Navy, commanding warships, a carrier group, and NATO's military forces in southern Europe, among other commands.

Turner was appointed to lead the CIA by Jimmy Carter in 1977 and undertook a series of controversial reforms, including downsizing the Agency's clandestine arm and emphasizing technical intelligence collection over human intelligence. He also oversaw the CIA's responses to the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet–Afghan War. After leaving the CIA in 1981, Turner entered the private sector, authored several books, and criticized subsequent administrations, including the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War. He was a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park's School of Public Policy.