Ludwell Lee Montague

Ludwell Lee Montague (1907–1972) was the first Chief of Reports and Estimates in the history of the modern United States intelligence community, remaining in this capacity in some form through World War II and into the early Cold War. He was a major architect of the United States intelligence system, being present during the creation of the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), and watching William J. Donovan transform it into a worldwide intelligence collection and propaganda agency. He remained in the intelligence community following the dissolution of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the initial postwar period prior to the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1946, he was placed by Sidney Souers in the command structure of the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) as the Chief of its Office of Reports and Estimates (ORE) staff. In 1947, with the establishment of the CIA, he was made the first Chief of the CIA's Global Survey Group, in charge of worldwide estimates. In 1950, he was made the chief of National Estimates.

Life Ludwell Lee Montague was born in Richmond City, Virginia. His father was Major Jeffrey Montague, a retired US Army officer. His mother was Harriotte Lee Taliaferro Montague, who was described as a scion of the Catlett family of Timber Neck and of the Nelson family of Yorktown. The Montague family home, Lowland Cottage in Gloucester County, was one of the few early Colonial houses that was still in use at the time.

He was an assistant professor of history at VMI from 1934 until 1940, when his academic career was interrupted by World War II.

In the autumn of 1950, when Walter Bedell Smith became the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), Montague was put in charge of the production of national intelligence estimates. For the next two decades, he worked primarily in this capacity.