Harvard University Program on Information Resources Policy
   
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Bullet Compliments

        Note: This page was prepared in September of 2009. Names of organizations and titles are current as of the date of the quotation. Many subsequently changed. All items are quoted by explicit permission, except those from the press (fair use) and quotations by persons now deceased or otherwise impossible to locate.


The Program works with and makes its findings available to senior decisionmakers in government—in all branches, in both political parties, and over succeeding administrations…

I suggest you make direct contact with my Policy Planning Staff and Bureau of Intelligence and Research …send them along to either Winston Lord, Director of Policy Planning, or Bill Hyland who heads our Intelligence and Research shop. This, I think, will establish a good point of contact which can provide a means to develop mutual cooperation between the Program and the Department.

Henry A. Kissinger
Secretary of State, 1974


I am honored to be included among those listed as participating.

William E. Colby
Director, Central Intelligence Agency, 1977


Keep those cards, letters, and working papers coming in. If I can’t read them, I will make sure my staff does.

Charles D. Ferris
Chairman, Federal Communications Commission, 1978


My Federal Agency is only a year old as of yesterday, but it owes some of the impetus for its formation to spade work begun by Mr. Oettinger, Mr. LeGates and your colleagues for the past several years.... Your Program has also been a source of important substantive ideas and insights. I myself have cribbed shamelessly....

Ambassador John E. Reinhardt
Director, International Communications Agency, 1979


I wish I had discovered this place two years ago before I went to the FCC. I'm sure I could have had two more productive years had I had a chance to talk to you beforehand.

Anne Jones
Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, 1981


Thanks for your summary on Telecommunications Costs and Prices. It is at the same time lucid and thought provoking. I truly value independent perspective.

Mark S. Fowler
Chairman, Federal Communications Commission, 1982


What an extraordinary experience for me. Thank you for sharing your time, energy, and knowledge. I hope we can do so again and again.

Mimi Weyforth Dawson
Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, 1982


Again…thanks for keeping me in the loop on your study efforts. Perhaps we can discuss Chapter 8 and succeeding chapters when you are in town.

John W. Vessey, Jr.
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1982


I would be deeply honored to participate in any way you think appropriate in your follow-up volume, "Options and Implications." Please let me know how I can help.

General P. X. Kelley
Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps, 1983


You are like a breath of fresh air blowing through a miasma of hot air, which permeates the national dialogue on telephony. You are the only one I have met in the last fourteen years…who understands the situation, articulates it, and does so without prejudice.

Edward P. Larkin
Chairman, New York Public Service Commission, 1984


Overall the comprehensiveness of this study makes it a document of considerable significance, both to us and no doubt to the Policy Community as well. A major value of this document to us is the background it provides for the whole policy question of verification.

William J. Casey
Director of Central Intelligence, 1984


In the course of its work on developing the JCS bill, the Investigations Subcommittee, which I chair, has benefited significantly from the studies authored by retired General J. H. Cushman. I understand that the Program on Information Resources Policy has sponsored General Cushman’s work, and commend you for supporting a project that is having an immediate, constructive impact as the Congress frames the future structure of the defense establishment.

Congressman Bill Nichols, 1985

Your presentation would give the Commission an opportunity to hear the views of someone with expertise in telecommunications who is not bound to represent any particular interest. We would therefore like to make your presentation the first item on the agenda.

G. Mitchell Wilk
President, California Public Utilities Commission, 1987


This is an extremely important subject and one highly relevant to our mission at USIA. I will make sure that your book is widely circulated within the Agency.

Charles Z. Wick
Director, United States Information Agency, 1987


Your study is particularly timely, and I intend to review it closely as the Committee and the Congress move to full legislative consideration of the Administration’s proposal.

Congressman Dante B. Fascell
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, 1987


I want to thank you for the time you spent with us yesterday and for your frank discussion of the issues. In this business, it isn’t often that we meet with unbiased experts, and it is very helpful to know that a resource like yours is available.

Lila M. Sapinsley
Commissioner, Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission, 1988


I've had time to read over more of the draft…and I must say I am quite enthusiastic and impressed. It is the best thing of its kind I’ve seen.

Robert T. Herres
Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1988


The Program on Information Resources Policy, through its independent and incisive analyses, free from special interest and partisan considerations, has helped me and my predecessors cut through the noise and get to the bottom of important public policy issues in the communications and information field. Over the years, the Harvard Program has become an indispensable institution on which policymakers in both the public and private sector have come to depend for truthful and fearless advice, even if its views have run sometimes counter to popular or conventional wisdom. For a Congressman to deal with people who are in fact impartial and competent is a rare experience. I recognize this program and your work as being critical to the development of sound telecommunications policy, and I support your continued efforts to examine these important issues.

Congressman Edward J. Markey
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, 1991


For many years, the Senate Armed Services Committee has benefited from the analysis prepared by the Program on Information Resources Policy. The Program’s work on military command and control was especially helpful during the Committee’s three-year project in defense reorganization.

Senator Sam Nunn
Chairman, Committee on Armed Services, 1991


(Longstaff’s draft is) the best thing I ever read in the field. I need another copy. Senator McCain is reading it and won’t let it go.

John McCain/Mark Buse
Senator John McCain’s office, 1995


Thank you for sending me copies of your fine publications. They were quite thought –provoking. I was impressed with their breadth and scope. I enjoyed our lunch also and found the conversation fascinating. I hope we can get together again in the near future.

Eugene A. Ludwig
Comptroller of the Currency, 1996


I have always valued insights and stimulating discourse on information management issues which allow us to do our work more efficiently. Your rich background in information systems contributed greatly to our discussions.

Patrick M. Hughes
Director Defense Intelligence Agency, 1997


...and leaders in industry.

Your work is a distinguished contribution not only to the world of research and to your university, but to all of us whose life is caught up in the business of communication.

Robert D. Lilley
President, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1974


We have been looking for several years to find some source external to our own industry that is looking objectively and with perspective at the entire information industry. Yours is the only one that I have seen, and we would like to be involved.

Robert G. Marbut
President and CEO, Harte-Hanks Newspapers, Inc., 1975


Certainly, this dialogue and the availability of expert opinion should have an impact on the formulation of important new policy which will be formed in the months and years ahead.

Howard R. Hawkins
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, RCA, 1975


Please list my name as the recipient of the information and requests from your organization. I will assign the material to appropriate individuals depending on the subject matter.

C. Gus Grant
President, SPCommunications, 1977


A note again to say how much I enjoyed being a part of your program, in both capacities.

William F. Kerby
Chairman of the Board, Dow Jones and Company, Inc. 1977


Last week’s conference was the finest I have ever attended.

John R. Bennett
President, Transamerica Information Services, 1977


We are appreciative of the constructive work that you have been doing, particularly in the postal arena, and we certainly hope that you will continue to contribute to clearer thinking about the Postal Service here in this country.

Kent Rhodes
Chairman, Reader's Digest, 1978

The Program you have fashioned is both important and serves the increasing timely interests of the Corporation.

A. M. Zarem
Chairman, Xerox Development Corporation, 1979


Literally…every day we think, and I often speak, of the admirable role of your program in introducing both knowledge and rationale into these issues of our future.

William O. Baker
Chairman, Bell Laboratories, 1979


You and your associates did a superb job with the presentation from the Center before the ANPA Board in Chicago.

Allen H. Neuharth
Chairman and President, Gannett , 1980


I think that you have a unique perspective both because of your experience and understanding of the issues in the telecommunications field, and because of the fact that you carry on “relations” with all sides.

Robert F. Erburu
President and Chief Executive Officer, Times Mirror, 1981


I found the session extremely worthwhile.

Walter Wriston
Chairman, Citicorp, 1985


Your tripartite division of media into substance, format, and process has been an extremely helpful analytical tool.

Mitchell Kapor
Chairman, ON Technology, 1989


Our discussion helped my cabinet members confirm that we’re on the right track with our plan.

James A. Smith
Colorado Vice President, U S West, 1989


We also work with support people at all levels in government…

We need your help! I look forward to your views on our 1978 priorities, and I trust you will keep me on your mailing list. Let me know when you will be in Washington next.

Richard M. Neustadt
Assistant Director, Domestic Policy Staff, The White House, 1978


Generally I think it’s so worthwhile it should be widely circulated. You should circulate it fast. The Administration is making a few moves…which could mean an eventual coordination of the policy-making machinery.

George M. Kroloff
Administrative Assistant to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 1978


I continue to look forward to receiving these reports—they are uniformly excellent and cover subjects that are relevant to my duties. As a result, I often send them to my subordinates and superiors for review.

C. Norman Wood
Brigadier General, USAF, Deputy Director for the NSTL, 1984

Your center is a gold mine of information—and I very much appreciate your thoughtfulness in filling up my reading file with such helpful and insightful materials.

"You could have used my name if you hadn’t asked"
Executive Office of the President, 1990


Thank you so much for laying the groundwork for our discussions on the implications of EC'92 on the information industry.… As always when NLM calls upon the Harvard Program on Information Resources Policy, it comes through with flying colors.

Kent A. Smith
Deputy Director, National Library of Medicine
President, National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services, 1990


…and industry.

Your chart of information industries revenues will save us and our consultants many hundreds of hours of labor. I am especially grateful for your willingness to send a handwritten table prior to publication—we will guard it with our lives.

Charles M. Oliver
Director, Legislative and Regulatory Policy, CBS, Inc., 1981


Without the materials you loaned us we would have had an impossible task. Even more help than the materials, though, was the problem-solving discussion you had with me.

Jeff Mauzy (consultant), 1983


Sometimes I get so enamored with the merits of the argument that I tend to lose the perspective of how such decisions are usually made. Thanks, that's another one I owe you.

John R. Hoffman
Senior Vice President, External Affairs, US Sprint, 1988

In just a few short hours you were able to challenge my thinking and stretch the bounds of what I thought was reasonable behavior for the computer world.

Michael J. Riley
Vice President, Finance, Treasurer, and Chief Financial Officer, Lee Enterprises, 1989


We found the draft very interesting, enlightening, and extremely useful. Its primary value has been to focus on the issues in a way that helps us take a fresh look at where we stand on many HDTV issues.

Peter Smith
Vice President, Engineering, NBC, 1990


I want both of you to know that our luncheon session last month and your follow-on work paid big dividends for us.

George H. Bolling
Vice President, Advanced Programs, COMSAT, 1990


The paper is an excellent discussion of considerations that must be taken into account when formulating information resource security policy.

C. S. Skrzypczak
Vice President, Science and Technology, NYNEX, 1990


We work not only in the United States but also internationally…

As you are both aware...I continue to be impressed by the high quality papers to emerge from the Program.... This sort of "in depth" research...seems to be almost unparalleled elsewhere, and we feel impelled to give this form of research whatever favorable publicity we can. What seems even more important is that some other organizations should follow in Harvard’s footsteps, either in a European or, better still, a global context.

O. G. Robinson
International Press Telecommunications Council, HQ London, 1976


It was our pleasure that we had the wide and detailed discussion on the problems about telecommunications policies and protection of privacy.

Tadashi Kuranari
Member of the House of Representatives, Chairman

Yuichi Kohri
Member of the House of Councilors, Chairman of Privacy Study Group

Keizo Obuchi
Member of the House of Representatives
Chairman, Communication Regulations Study Group, Japan, 1981


I thank you once again for giving us the permission to publish Mr. McLaughlin’s study which appears as one of the main contributions of this bulletin.

Laurent Gille
IDATE, France, 1982


Thank you very much for taking time from your busy schedule to come to Bell Northern Research to speak to us, and also for the special session in the afternoon.

John A. Roth
President, Bell Northern Research, Canada, 1983


There is no trace of the mindless pap which passes as "debate on regulation."

Media Information Australia, 1985

Have now read the C3I paper. Absolutely fascinating, and very useful to me in preparing a speech I hope to make on the SDI program later this week. The quality of the discussion was quite exceptional, and kept me reading all weekend!

Ian Lloyd, M.P.
House of Commons, U.K., 1986


I must confess with thanks that it was a wonderful experience during my short stay in Harvard. I have obtained very helpful materials for my report and look forward to meeting you in the near future.

Loh Chee Meng
Assistant Director, National Computer Board, Singapore, 1987


The role that you played, as speaker, was absolutely central to this success.

Timothy Balding
Director, Federation Internationale des Editeurs de Journaux, HQ Paris, 1988


I believe the report is a major contribution to the analysis of the development of European Telecommunications as we move towards 1992 and points to the major issues in the Community’s outside relations in this context.

H. Ungerer
DGXIII, Telecommunications Policy Commission of the European Communities,
HQ Brussels, 1989


Our discussions were of great interest for the Senators, given the scope of the study on Canada’s international competitive position in communications.

Marie-P (Charette) Poulin
Chair, The Senate of Canada, Subcommittee on Communications, 1997


…and with policymakers who have other perspectives.

It’s a wonderful paper, and with your permission, I’d like to cite some of your data in various comments at the FCC and Congress…for the first time I was able to visualize a number of concepts that have, until now, been awfully blurred

Dean Burch
Pierson, Ball & Dowd, 1977. Formerly Chairman, Federal Communications Commission; Republican National Chairman


I distributed the 10 copies of the reports to the noted (in most cases nationally famous) attorneys who comprise the [Science and Technology Section] Council [of the American Bar Association]. You will be pleased to know that I received several very positive comments on the reports. (In fact, the interest generated by the reports was so keen that I gave away my personal copies, too!)

John C. Lautsch
Davis, Stafford, Kellman &Fenwick, 1979


We plan to use the material in testimony to OMB. We will give credit to your program at Harvard and the excellent work performed by your staff.

Robert R. Lovell
Director, Communications and Information Systems Division, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1981


The Program is in our view the pre-eminent honest broker in the massive job of keeping track of what is happening to, and within, the industry that comprises the means of moving information from place to place.

John Morgan
Assistant to Executive Vice President, Communications Workers of America, 1981


I see your presence popping up all over the place, particularly in Washington. I hear this from other people as well.

Robert Smith
Norfolk and Western Railway, 1981


There is no question at all that Washington looks at your work as an outside expert of very high credibility. I see your testimony reflected in their decisions as well as hearing about you in their discussions. Your work and your role are excellent.

William Ditch
American District Telegraph Corporation, 1981


I have noticed recently that almost every thoughtful piece on the future of the communications business acknowledges your work.

Noel C. R. Gunther
Dow, Lohnes &Albertson, 1982


This confirms my…request…on behalf of the National Academy of Engineering, Committee on NCS Initiatives, for twelve copies of the report on Network Management. It will be provided to members of the committee to aid their understanding of the network management issues as they consider various NCS initiatives for various national emergency telecommunications planning activities.

Lee M. Paschall
President and CEO, American Satellite Company, 1982

There is little doubt that the program makes a major contribution in an area where there are orders of magnitude more noise than clear signal.

Joe B. Wyatt
Chancellor, Vanderbilt University, 1982


I am sure this will be useful to the work we are doing on the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, and I will make sure that it gets in the hands of our people that are working on the various subcommittees.

Edmund B. Fitzgerald
President, Northern Telecom, 1983


We are using the information binder you gave me in developing ideas for both the Conflict Clinic and the university-based Program on Negotiation.

John S. Murray
Acting Executive Director, The Conflict Clinic, Inc., 1983


Douglas H. Ginsberg, a Harvard Law School professor, became Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. Ordinarily, CLTR would not note such an appointment, but Ginsberg’s particular interests have been in the communications and banking fields.… Ginsberg has completed a study of interstate banking problems for… Harvard University’s think tank in the computer and communications area.

Computer Law and Tax Report, 1983


You were just what we needed—an educational agent provocateur—and you did a great job. In fact, the evaluation judged your performance "the most valuable aspect of the symposium."

Cynthia Y. Levinson
Project Administrator, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 1983


I will soon be chairing for the Defense Department a study of the impact of semiconductor imports on US Defense preparedness. I expect this to be a very contentious topic, and believe the report you forwarded to me would be helpful in giving the members perspective.

Norman R. Augustine
Executive Vice President, Martin Marietta Corporation, 1985


David Charlton was very high in praise for you as the highest quality effort he has ever come in contact with.

Frank Kapper
Corning, Inc 1989


I am amazed at the religious fervor with which Apple is using your map. I was handed it as background reading for my meeting with Sculley, Chairman and Nagle, Chief Scientist. They said “this may take you a while”.

John Schwartz
Newsweek (reporter), 1993


We encourage other programs that wish to do similar work.

I am grateful for your openness and willingness to help out a new kid on the block! In turn I will stay in touch on the Annenberg developments on this end.

Christopher H. Sterling
Director, Center for Telecommunications Studies
George Washington University, 1982


We are often cited or quoted in the trade press…

More of the good and useful (and in nearly all cases, unique in approach and content) papers from the Harvard Program on Information Resources Policy have appeared in recent months.

Mass Media Booknotes (subsequently, Communications Booknotes), 1978


These two studies…review available facts of two complex and often puzzling international tragedies—the Falklands War and the Soviet downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007. The results are the more impressive in that they are all drawn from published sources.

Chronicle of International Communication, 1984

This chapter is the most succinct and analytical source yet available for elucidating local distribution policy, planning, and marketing.

Journal of Communications, 1985


In essence the Harvard Program is the ranking U.S. information analysis center on information policy issues.

Government Computer News, 1985


…and in the mass media.

We have authored a cover article for The New York Times Magazine, and we wrote the keynote article for the centennial issue of Science. We have been quoted or cited in the Economist, the Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The New York Times, the San Francisco Examiner, Time, and many other widely read sources of news and opinion. We have appeared on "All Things Considered," "The Cambridge Forum," the "Voice of America," and all three national networks' morning programs.


The reasons we most often quote for organizations affiliating or not…

If you say something supportive of the company, people will believe you because we didn’t pay for it. If you say something unsupportive of the company, we can deny it because we didn’t pay for it. We'll affiliate with you.

Robert D. Lilley
President, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1973

I fail to understand the attractiveness of paying for something we can’t control.

Attribution withheld


I understand exactly what you boys are up to. But you need to understand that the last thing we need in this industry is truth.

Attribution withheld


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