YOUR HELP IS ASKED FOR EXTENDING COVERAGE OF THE REVISED FOREIGN SERVICE ACT TO THE SPOSES OF CIA PERSONNEL.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP10-00750R000101110001-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: MISC

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Your help is asked for extending coverage of the
revised Foreign Service Act to the spouses of CIA personnel.
Provisions also need to be made for establishing minimum subsistence
benefits for spouses divorced or widowed.
Many of these women have served loyally (to date, most
dependent spouses are women) in a succession of overseas assignments
through as many as 30 and 40 years of married life. Yet CIA spouses
are not covered by the new Foreign Service Act or by the acts now
being prepared by Colorado Congresswoman Patricia Shroeder for the
wives of Military and Civil Service personnel or by the Income
Protection Act of Senator Packwood of Oregon.
In their years of support to the CIA mission, these
dependents worked hard in foreign countries to establish environments
in which operations could be expeditiously and effectively conducted.
They cooperated loyally in security requirements, ensuring the
cooperation of household members. They guarded the health and,
in many cases, the morale of the staff officers to whom they were
married. They fulfilled the many duties required by their spouses'
cover assignments--tasks that could and frequently did add up to
a 40-hour work week. In many cases, CIA dependents provided clerical
and operational support--usually unpaid--with such efficiency that
personnel requirements abroad were kept to a minimum.
For the CIA emFloyees, they provided extra contacts with
the local scene. The learned the local mores as they worked to
establish and maintain new homes. They helped to build working
relationships with the local citizens and third-country nationals in
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whom their spouses were interested. The friendships they made
with local wives translated into freer communication for CIA
personnel with their local male contacts.
At the same time, these CIA dependents found--
like other Foreign Service dependents--that they could ndf~maintain
careers of their own because the laws of the host countries
prohibited placing foreigners in jobs that could be held by local
citizens. The CIA dependents discovered also that the frequent
moves--often to less developed countries--eliminated any chance of
building their own careers. Security requirements and cover assignments
inappropriate to outside employment posed other restrictions.
The number of former spouses of CIA personnel who would
benefit from corrective legislation is unknown. But it would seem
that spouses of CIA personnel face unique risks of divorce and
resulting financial insecurity. An argument can be made that marriages
to CIA staff members founder because job-related secrecy leads to
breakdowns in communication between husband and wife and subsequent
estrangement. The use of alcohol as an instrument of interrogation
can lead to abuse, spurred by the stresses of years of constant
change, of hazardous operational assignments.
The spouse of a CIA officer faces stresses and carries
responsibilities unique to CIA service: not only must her household
be moved frequently, but changing cover assignments mean that she
must learn and undertake new duties with each new tour to add to
the already heavy load of responsibilities she carries from the
position of the CIA staff member.
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Often the countries of interest to intelligence
professionals are tha coun'~ries in turmoil--small, backward countries
attempting too-rapid entry into the modern world. As a result,
the CIA wife frequently finds herself at small stations that can
mean difficult--even hazardous--living for American families.
Her spouse can be away for long periods--on unknown, possibly
dangerous, assignments. She is left to cope alone with family problems,
many of which she is encountering for the first time. Often, she is
outside the official diplomatic family. Even if they are available,
she may be unable to use peer or official support systems because of
the requirements for secrecy.
The CIA spouse finds her financial security threatened
when returning to a stateside divorce court, she again is
handicapped by the rules of secrecy in telling details of why
a divorce has become necessary. She is loyal and trained to be
discreet. But she knows too that the family income is unprotected
by Civil Service regulations, should she breach security requirements.
Some wives have been left to fend for themselves--without any
financial support--because the real problems with the marriage could not
be brought out in court.
Once divorced, the former CIA spouse often finds that she
must care for her children alone, as her former husband departs
again for foreign assignment. She and her children find that
stateside culture is strange and uncomfortable after their years
abroad. The family stress is especially painful because it is
unexpected. While all her children are affected, the situation is
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most painful for teenagers for whom peer acceptance is everything;
emotional damage can be lasting.
The divorced spouse must cope also with increased
expenses--the result of inflation, the lack of cost-of-living
allowances, and the withdrawal of medical coverage--at the time
her share of the family income is being drastically reduced. This,
despite the fact that the ills--physical and emotional--were aggravated
or incurred abroad.
If the divorced spouse attempts to enter the job market,
she finds her age and lack of marketable skills handicapping. Any
training she once had is many years outdated. She is too old .for
the training programs that offer upward career mobility.
Her years of service to her country earn her no special
consideration for government employment. If she is fortunate enough
to secure an entry-level government job, her job placement will be
too low, her years of working too few to earn even a subsistence
retirement. She will be unable to collect the Social Security
benefits earned during her marriage in her husband's name if she
collects the Civil Service retirement benefits she earns herself.
Implementation of the proposed delays and reductions in government
retirement benefits can be expected only to further diminish her
chances for an adequate retirement income.
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