Question/Remarks

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00699A000100080010-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 29, 1998
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: November 21, 1952
• Content Type: SPEECH

Approved liwf` Release : CIA-RDP78-00699AI400100080010-9
Question: Do you feel that there is enough work L g level cooperation
between CIA, Offices today, within the limits, of course, of
security?
General Smith Yes, I think sop You have to try to arrive at a happy
medium between the necessity of knowing and ths: actual need of
knowing# particularly with regard to our sensitive Offices, At
least, the intention of the policy and the desire to provide that
cooperation a iste, although the machinery, from time to time,
has not been as affective as one would like. I hope to increase
this by gradual transfer of qualified personnel from one Division
of the Agency to another, to a greater extent than has heretofore
obtained,, so that each officer w each employee o will have a
broader perspective than that given him by work within one
particular Division in which he may well specializes But he should
have one or two alternate specialties, particularly when he goes
out into the fi4da
Questions Bhsy CIA people have reserve status$ Does the fact that a
CIA employee is a member of an Armor reserve hinder his career or
help it in CIAT
General Smith; Why to a certain extent I should think it would help
it, because there we mss jobs that we do in which mdlitary-
training or past military experience is an essential quality.
Besides, the re are many jobs that we have to do vhere it might
be desirable to have a person ac orally identified with the military
seervice4n which owe we can have them ordered to active duty,
assigned to us and reimburse the military depart ment concernedo
So, in mar opiftion, reserve statue Is an asset because it increases
the scope of the usefulness of a CIA officer.
Questions Are you concerned about personnel turnover and are you
taking steps to minimize it?
General Smith: Very much so. Our personnel turnover is by compea-icon
relatively small, but it'ss still, much too large. That's one of
the reasons why brought an Inspector Genet here and
made him available to aasjbody in the Agency who had any complaint
of any kind, As you know, you all have opportunity also for a
direct appeal to myself or Nom. Dual ese if you feel that ydu have
been a victim of injusstice. So there is no excuse for arsybody
Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00699A000100080010-9
 Approved `srr'r Release : CIA-RDP78-00699AOd0100080010-9
going unheard if they have a complaint or a legitimate question to
raise with regard to their official or personal lives within the
Agencyo I Will not, however, tolerate anybody going outside the
Agency* I had a case about six months agog Since it was a special
ones I have decided to Ignore it* One of our employees wrote a
letter to the President - of course he handed it to me, But we
have an Inspector General for that, and you can all come to someone,
Cuestions Since we can not tolerate mediocrity in CIA, what does an
employee do when he finds it on the job?
General Smith: If he is an executives who is responsible for eliminating
m ediocri.ty$ he should promptly eliminate it. On the other hands
no one likes to be a talebearers and no one likes a taalsbesr'ero In
dealing with your subordinates, be completely cold-blooded in
eliminating mediocrity. Where you encounter it among your colleagues
on the same levels just grit your teeth and hope that your immediate
superior will be as quick to recognize it as you are*
Questions With regard to the official ceiling on P/O o ass d9 you anticipate
that there will be further cuts in the organization?
General Saaith: No, I dons to We & ll have to increase a little bit for
training purpoasea. It Q s a simple fact that while we have a rather
large personnel ceiling budgeted for, we can0 t got the qualified
people to fill that personnel cei li ng? They just simply don't
exist. Weave gone about the limit. Occasionally one may get from
the outside very highly qualified amen or womaen, tempt them ins twist
their arms and get them to sign up on aa, career basiso But those we
becoming fewer and fewer so we must depend on the younger people
that we are bringing up through the ranks. Of course that is, in
any technical service like our own, the heart and soul of a career
organization. Unless every private carries the baton of a fie 3d
maarshall in his knapsack, he haanet very much to look forward too
Unless every junior officer has the right to expect promotion through
the grades and ultimately the opportunity to occupy the highest post
in the career of his choice,, there is very little to hold him in his
jobs So, my intention is to keep our numbers dons to be selective
instead of expansive, and to look more and more to the juniors to
fill the scaler posts.
IZ
Approved For Release?9 A-RDP78-00699A000100080010-9