COMMENTS ON SUMMER INTERN PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86B00985R000100040054-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 27, 2005
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: August 12, 1970
• Content Type: MF

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Approved For ReleaFre 2006/01/12 : CIA-RDP86B0098iS 00 0040054-9
12 August 1970
MEMORANDUM FOR:
Special Assistant to the Director
of Personnel
Summer Intern
SUBJECT Comments on Summer Intern Program
1. I must admit that upon entering the Central
Intelligence Agency this summer, I had many misgivings,
e.g., how friends would view my employment with the
Agency, how this association might diminish prospects
for future employment with other government agencies
and international organizations. At this point I can
say that these factors no longer seem important. The
Summer Intern Program has successfully dispelled many
of my misconceptions and uncertainties about the Agency's
goals, functions, and organization. What: single factor
has impressed me most about this experience is the
realization that the Agency has no ulterior purpose than
the collection, evaluation, and correct analysis of data
and that it is on these criteria alone that the Agency's
performance is evaluated. Needless to say I have been
impressed by the rigorous standards of objective analy-
sis pursued and the willingness of other offices and
divisions to assist each other in what approaches a
collegial atmosphere. Unfortunately, the Agency has
hitherto been unable or unwilling to educate a wider seg-
ment of the public as to the necessity of intelligence
gathering, the raison-d'etre for Agency reluctance to
suggest policy or to defend itself against accusations by
its critics, etc.. More precisely, my assignment in the
DDI/SRS (China), has enabled me to secure a general under-
standing of the CIA from an-operative aspect, combined
with the meaningful investigation of a substantive research
problem. The following items are some specific observa-
tions related to both this specific. assignment and the
Intern Program as well:
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a. Application Procedure. I would like
to see an earlier app ication deadline so that
clearance can be completed by'May 1. My final
notification in June, several days before my
departure from'school, made planning accomoda-
tions and alternative summer employment extremely
difficult.
b. Briefings. I felt that the full day
of general brie ings for all summer employees
was excessive both in terms of length and material
covered. A single organizational chart of the
Agency would have sufficed for the multitude of
flow charts, graphs and other illustrative
material used. The movies shown and case studies
discussed concerning espionage activities were
at most entertaining, but otherwise useless.
The Summer Intern briefings all suffered from
a basic misconception -- they should be designed
to describe the functional and procedural
aspects of a given office (e.g., its role, how
this role fits into needs and capabilities of
other offices within the CIA, the nature of the
finished product) rather than detailed substan-
tive data, couched in highly-technical language
(e.g., NPIC briefings about satellite photographs
of missile sites in China, USSR and Egypt) and
of particular interest only to a specialist in
that subject area. Adiscussion of the procedural
and functional aspects of a given office (using
substantive data only by way of illustration)
would immensely assist personnel of other.offices
in knowing where collateral resources may be
found for a specific problem. In addition, the
excessive length of the briefing sessions (e.g.,
three hours at NPIC) tends to hamper any meaning-
ful assimilation of the material presented.
The exclusion of the DD/P and DDS&T divisions
from the briefings was a major error, suggesting
that their work had little on-going relevance to
the research and analysis of DD/I personnel.
c. Research with SRS. I appreciated the
adult-like, professiona manner in which I have
been allowed to pursue my research, with a mini-
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96
mum of supervision, the willingness of senior
? analysts to listen to my queries and to dis-
cuss research problems with me, and the
research problem given me, tailored to my
interests and training, and challenging as
a meaningful topic for investigation. Perhaps
one of the weaknesses was that I had too much
freedom, for much time was needlessly wasted
in discovering for myself bibliographic
sources, both within the same office (e.g.,
other analysts working on related topics) and
outside of the office. Within the last month
of my summer internship, I quite by accident
discovered the research services of CRS and a
week later was introduced by SRS to analysts
in the DD/P division of China operations;
little did I previously suspect that DD/P
had its own research staff --- a fact which
could have been made known to me much earlier
either by my own office or through a summer
intern briefing session.
2. Once again, I wish to stress that my overall
impression of the Summer Intern Program is extremely
favorable and due to this experience I can now say with
greater certainty that my conception of the Agency and
its role is a much more balanced, objective one.
Respectfully submitted,
Distribution:
Orig. & 1 Addressee
1 - O/DDI/Admin
1 - DDI/SRS/Intern Folder
I - DDI/SRS/Chrono
Approved For Release 2006/01/12 : CIS F 6P86B00985R000100040054-9