LETTER (SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP01-00569R000100070024-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 12, 2009
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: February 18, 1983
• Content Type: LETTER

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/13: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100070024-9
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18 February 1983
Please forgive my delay in answering your letter. It was an
interesting letter which deserved an immediate reply. One thing
and another, culminating in a snowstorm, have kept me away from
my desk.
I may be responsible for use of "fashionable"
in connection with Intelligence as a_profession. I didn't mean
that it had become a fad -- simply that the hostility which existed
towards the Government, generally, and the idea of a career in Intel-
ligence, specifically, seems to have pretty much disappeared.
on her educational career, impressed.on her the importance of stay-
ing clear of CIA. Any kind of depravity is better than working for
Obviously the scarcity of jobs, particularly for those graduat-
ing with degrees in the social sciences, has made Government service
look better than perhaps it did. But I don't think that that is a
primary factor in"what seems to be the present popularity of CIA.
I think a prime cause is the fact that more younger people are think-
ing along the lines suggested in your letter about the need for ac-
curacy in American estimates of foreign developments and also the
need for truth, at least an honest approximation of the truth. I
hope they are. In any event, I'didn't mean "fashionable" in a frivo-
lous sense -- simply that there is a lot of interest in the subject.
As to how effective CIA is today, and how it is oriented, when-
ever anybody asks me that question, I am always reminded of the
statement falsely attributed to Voltaire, "When I examine myself, I
am nothing; when I compare myself, I am superb."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/13: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100070024-9
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/13: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100070024-9
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The Agency is well run. The process through which collec-
tion systems, some of them technical marvels, are directed toward
the acquisition of priority information is well understood and
administered. The Agency is staffed on the whole with exceeding-
ly bright and experienced people. The people running the Agency
are trying, effectively I think, to organize the analytic talent
that exists in the Agency, the Government and.in the public sector
to develop studies and estimates that are as accurate and respon-
sive to policy requirements as possible. There is no question in
my mind that the Agency is here to stay and will continue to play
an important, and probably an increasingly important, part in the
Government in the future.
Obviously, there are disadvantages to a career in Intelligence
or anywhere in the Government. The pay isn't so wonderful. The
Agency is more informal and flexible than most Government agencies,
but it still is a big bureaucracy. As such, it can hold frustrations
for the individual -- frustrations because of the difficulties in
getting one's own views on a subject recognized, and frustrations
because of the pace at which a large-scale institution inevitably
operates. To me, these frustations are offset by the fact that what
the Agency produces is professional -- it is for real -- it counts.
This is al.l pretty general. If there is anything specific I
can help you with, let me know.
Sincerely,
John A. Bross
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/13: CIA-RDP01-00569R000100070024-9