COMMENT ON OFFICE OF TRAINING BASIC INTELLIGENCE COURSE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP54-00355A000100020008-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 5, 2009
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: November 7, 1952
• Content Type: MEMO

Office Memorandu'PojWED STATES GOVERNMENT
To : Assistant Director for Operations
FROM : Chief, FBID
DATE: 7 November 1952
suBJECT: Comment on Office of Training Basic Intelligence Course
1. The proposed Basic Intelligence Course will entail six
weeks' delay in the EOD of new personnel after clearances. FBID
will find it difficult to absorb this additional time lag at the
present time, especially in the editorial and information specialist
field. The proposed course does not touch upon the specific problems,
techniques and requirements of FBID, nor does it seem to contribute
substantially toward preparation for the editorial, analytical and
monitoring work in which most of FBID's professional employees will
be engaged during their first several years in CIA.
2. The Reading Improvement Course should be confined to those
individuals who actually need it because of demonstrable reading
defects in those who take it. Informed opinion is to the effect
that more harm than good comes of giving this course to individuals
whose reading techniques, especially as applied to FBID operations,
are already adequate.
3. The thirty-six hours of lectures would be of value if the
y
could be adjusted to FBID deadlines, say two hours a day for eighteen
work days from 1300 to 1500. It is doubtful if the 204 hours spent
in "discussion periods", "trainee problems and projectsa, "study and
conference periods", and "reading improvement courses" would for
training purposes be anywhere near as valuable as 204 hours spent
in the Editorial and Special Reports Branches of FBID. On-the-job
training has the additional advantage of providing assistance in the
heavy production load of the Division.
!t. FBID considers on-the-job training essential regardless of
pre-entry background or training which the individual employee has
when he enters on duty in the Division. The advantages that on-the-
job training in FBID has over a basic intelligence course include:
specific instruction in work methods and techniques of the Division
and to some extent those of CIA; highly current information on the
political, sociological and economical situations in various large
areas of the world as opposed to highly specialized area study;
concurrent orientation in all aspects of FBID's intelligence infor-
mation collection problems along with the development of area back-
ground and the general policies of the Agency.
Approved For Release 2009/03/05: CIA-RDP54-00355A000100020008-5
Approved For Release 2009/03/05: CIA-RDP54-00355A000100020008-5