A SENIOR SEMINAR ON NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00308A000100010023-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 10, 2000
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: October 1, 1970
• Content Type: MF

Approved For 19~ase 2002/05/01 : CIA-RDP8.0-00308A 0100010073=2
O 1 OCT 1970
MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Iirector-Comptroller
THROUGH : Deputy Director for Support
SUBJECT : A Senior Seminar on National Intelligence
REFERENCE Memo frm D/OP to Ex. Dir. -Compt.,
dtd 16 Sep 70, subj: A Senior School for
the Agency
1. Mr. Wattles's persuasive suggestion closely parallels our thinking in
the Office of Training: we have been at work on a proposal much like his for
several weeks. An ad hoc committee of the School Chiefs of OTR and others
is busy identifying the problems and working up possible solutions, in the hope
that the Agency will give sufficient support to the idea for us to be able to offer
a genuinely senior seminar of broad scope and duration as early as the autumn
of 1971.
2. I had not intended to surface the idea until I could describe it more
precisely; for the moment let me say that I think Wattles's memorandum iden-
f
rom
tifies a real and important need. My own p:coposal will differ somewhat
his. It would lead to the eventual creation of a Senior Seminar on National
Intelligence, which while principally devoted to the needs of CIA would also
take in senior representatives of the Departments of State and Defense and
would come to be the intelligence counterpart of the senior war colleges.
3. Something like this was in the back of my head when, in January 1969
before becoming Director of Training, I showed a list of suggestions to
Mr. Bannerman and Mr. Helms. Since then we have moved in the direction
of intensified training for mid-level old hands by developing two successful
new courses: the Advanced Intelligence Serninar and the Advanced Operations
Course. Both courses profit greatly from t Laving the carefully selected students
help educate each other. I believe we are now in a position to develop the same
approach to substantive in-house training for prospective executives from all
over the Agency.
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4. Among current reasons for proposing this development are these:
a. OTR has for some time been bothered by the problem you recently
raised with respect to the Midcareer Course. Your note of 23 September
arrived at a time when we were preparing to recommend that the Midcareer
Course be with few exceptions limited to students under forty years of age.
More on this soon.
b. This year's nominations for the senior war colleges and other
external training brought two growing problems into sharp focus- - (1) the
Agency is nominating a far larger number of highly qualified officers than
can be accommodated and (2) i! n general, it is nominating older men than
those who would probably receive most benefit from the particular external
opportunities available. On the first point the Training Selection Board
could only regretfully reject many qualified candidates, with the feeling
that they nevertheless observe opportunities for appropriate senior training.
On the second, the Board's decision to stick to the age limits set by the
schools themselves caused the rejection of a number of otherwise highly
qualified applicants on grounds of age alone. More on this soon too.
5. These current concerns, along with the preparation for succession
emphasized by Wattles, impel recognition that the Agency needs a new approach
to training for carefully selected men. and women in their forties who are still
growing in their jobs. For such people a good course would be a real opportunity,
precisely at the time when their grasp of intelligence problems is most likely to
need broadening and deepening beyond their previously parochial experience.
25X1A
HU H T. CUNNING IAM
.Director of Training .
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