THE ADEQUACY OF PREPARATION AND PROPRIETY OF SELECTION OF CAREER TRAINEE FOR OVERSEAS ASSIGNMENT TO (SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-06096A000400030006-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 11, 2000
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: July 20, 1965
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Releas 1000/08/3 -06096AW0400030006-9
20 July 1965
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Training
SUBJECT The Adequacy of Preparation and Propriety
of Selection of Career Trainees for Over-
seas Assignment to Vietnam and Other
Potential "Hot Spots" in Southeast Asia,
Africa, and South America
Should the Agency and more particularly the Office of Train-
ing and the Medical Staff consider supplementing the assessment
and training of Career Trainees being assigned to Vietnam and other
potentially- explosive areas. This writer does not believe there is
any question as to the appropriateness of the assessment and train-
ing programs presently employed. The question is whether or not
they are sufficient.
II. Present Selection and Training Procedures
A. The processing of Career Training Program candidates
is exhaustive and provides the Agency with a dimensional image
of each aspirant. In particular, the medical examination, A&E
testing, and Career Training Program Staff interviews effect
an initial winnowing of those who do not meet our standards or
who would not be happy with us from those who meet our stand-
ards and would be content in a career in the Agency.
B. Career Trainees ultimately bound for the DDP have a
thorough grounding in operational techniques and methodology
and are provided ample opportunity to "try out" in a variety
of face-to-face problems. Also, the "paper" of our business
is no longer a mystery by the time their training is completed.
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Opportunities are provided for language training and main-
tenance of language proficiency as appropriate. The Career
Trainee is well prepared for an overseas assignment in a
relatively stable and reasonably civilized country.
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III. Speculation
A. Is the Career Trainee prepared for and equal to a
semi-barbaric country where violence is more the rule than
the exception? Is he equal to an assignment requiring alert-
ness and awareness 24 hours of every day? Such an assign-
ment calls for resourcefulness as an absolute "must" for
success and, in some cases, for survival. In an atmosphere
of perpetual tension where there is neither civilian nor mili-
tary law and order, as we understand it, emotional stability,
moral fiber, and physical endurance become very real con-
siderations. Are we properly selecting and preparing young
Career Trainees for assignments of this nature?
B. Until very recent times, the training techniques and
assessment exercises employed by the Office of Strategic
Services during World War II would have seemed unsophisti-
cated and unnecessary. The circumstances whereby a young
officer had to be "tried" and tested as well as trained in a
very short period of time prior to his dispatch behind enemy
lines may not be synonymous with the preparation of a Career
Trainee for assignment to Vietnam but the nature and fiber
required of both men could certainly be considered analogous.
CO~FIDE~~tAI
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1 CONF1DEt TI i L
C. The fact that a young man is not physically or
emotionally equal to this particular type of assignment
should not necessarily disqualify him for assignment within
the Clandestine Services. Such an assignment requires a
particular combination of courage, resourcefulness, and
physical stamina that is not always easy to find in one young
man regardless of our elaborate screening process.
A. An additional block of training to consist of psycho-
logical pressure and stress situations and ingenuity-provok-
ing exercises should be incorporated into one of the following
courses of instruction:
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1. Operations Course
2. Paramilitary Course
3. Survival Course
B. A concerted effort should be made by the A&E Staff
working together with the Career Training Staff to'identify
those candidates who "measure up" to a mutually agreed upon
and reasonably well defined "image" of what the Agency requires
for Vietnam-type assignments.
C. More attention should be given to the individual on-his-
own in training exercises. The team function as an hour-by-
hour day-by-day procedure is not always possible and when it
is possible it is not always appropriate particulary when work-
ing in the "boondocks" with foreign nationals. This does not
suggest that an Agency officer should forget his Agency's role
in the American team scheme of things but it does suggest that
he may not always be able to reach out and "touch" another
American when the workday ends or when the job becomes lonely
and difficult.
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CONFIDENTIAL
Approved For Release 2000/08/30 : CIA-RDP78-06096A000400030006-9