WISE PIECE ON CIA RECRUITMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B00443R001904430036-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2011
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: April 22, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/23: CIA-RDP88B00443R001904430036-5
Remarks To 14: For appropriate action.
22 Ex"tive Secret
Date
EXECUTIVE SECRET 'IAT
ROUTING SLIP ((~~
\J
ACTION
INFO
DATE
INITIAL
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CI
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DDCI
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EXDIR
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D/ICS
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DDI
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DDA
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DDO
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DDS&T
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Chm/NIC
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GC
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IG
1
Compt
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D/OLL
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D/PAO
X
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D/PERS
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VC/NIC
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ES
X
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22 April 1986
MEMORANDUM FOR: D/Public Affairs
SUBJECT: Wise Piece on CIA
Recruitment
George:
This is good. I have added the
second paragraph on the second page.
William J. Casey
DCI
EXEC
REG
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21 April 1986
David Wise, best known for writing the first tell-it-all
book--The Invisible Government--about intelligence in 1964, has been asked by
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE to do a piece on CIA recruitment. We think the
piece will have some good factual material, but will take pot shots along the
way. Wise is hung up on the theme that CIA used to be a bunch of Ivy League
elitists who thought the world was a big gameboard and that they were above
the laws of the land.
We have done our best to straigh ut his vi w of the past and to
emphasize the Agency as it is today of my office moderated a
lengthy discussion between Wise and Personnel's main
recruitment expert, on the processing of Agency employees. She also has had
some heated conversations with Wise, insisting that he look at the Agency as
it is now and not how he thought it was in the 1950s or even in the 1970s.
We've gotten in some good licks and he probably will reflect our point of
view, but I'm certain he's talking to lots of others who will give him the
.proverbial "other side of the story"--whether it's true or not.
He has asked to meet with you--citing the piece he did on you for NEWSDAY
in 1981--but I don't believe this would be useful. We are trying to keep him
at arms length. We have promised, however, to provide him some quotations
from you that have not been used elsewhere on Agency employment and the
quality of people who work at CIA. The attached paragraphs come from some of
your speeches that we have not handed out to the public. Please make any
changes you want in them. We also intend to give him a copy of THE
CONSERVATIVE DIGEST interview--it turned out beautifully.
Unfortunately, no matter what we do, we aren't likely to be pleased with
Wise's story. He is no friend of CIA.
George o/. Lauder
Approve giving Wise the attached as DCI quotes
Approve the attached with changes
Disapprove giving Wise the quotes
S/
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DCI QUOTATION FOR DAVID WISE ARTICLE ON CIA RECRUITMENT
We have worked hard to attract some extraordinary people to do the
challenging tasks involved in collecting and producing timely and insightful
intelligence for our nation's foreign policymakers. We train these people
rigorously and provide them opportunities for education, sabbaticals,
rotational assignments to other offices and organizations to increase their
understanding of the world and of the policy process they serve.
We have scholars in practically any discipline you can name. And our
standards are high. It may surprise you to learn that we have over 500 PhDs
at CIA and at least four times that number who hold MAs or advanced degrees.
We now must have specialists in more than 60 different disciplines to deal
with the range of issues on our plate. As you might suppose, a great number
of these talented and well-educated young people are in the "traditional"
intelligence disciplines of history, political science, foreign languages,
economics, cartography, international relations, area studies and information
science.
But as the intelligence field becomes more specialized, our requirement
for people having other skills has increased considerably. We now have
specialists in such unlikely disciplines as agronomy, demography, aerospace
and nuclear engineering, medicine and the life sciences, photogramnetry, and
geology.
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The people employed by CIA have survived one of the most rigorous
screening processes known to man--the highest skill requirements, the
toughest intelligence and psychological testing, close medical scrutiny,
security clearances with background investigations going back fifteen years,
and detailed polygraph examinations. The ones who get through this obstacle
course are smart, clean of drug and alcohol addiction, healthy, and
psychologically able to cope.
They immediately find themselves working among people dedicated and
committed to doing things with high morale and a can-do spirit. They find
themselves in action each day charged with arriving at a conclusion, figuring
something out, making something happen. They have come to understand that
the entire mission of the CIA depends on their recognizing problems and
opportunities that confront them and their initiative in tackling them in
a creative and entrepreneurial way which is the kind of atmosphere
Winston Churchill generated in wartime Britian as he stamped the papers
he sent through the wartime machinery with the directive "Action This Day."
Those who attain career status after a three-year probationary period
must live with any number of security responsibilities, heavy travel demands,
heavy pressure and time requirements, and complete anonymity in many cases.
Throughout their careers, they know they will receive little public recognition
for their achievements, and that criticisms--justified or not--must be tolerated
in silence.
But there is an elitism here and great pride among our people. They are
committed to excellence. They have come to CIA to work for our nation's
security and well-being and to protect the freedoms that we all enjoy. CIA
is not their intelligence service or my intelligence service. It belongs to
the American people.
2
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/23: CIA-RDP88B00443R001904430036-5
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/23: CIA-RDP88B00443R001904430036-5
The people employed by CIA have survived one of the most rigorous
screening processes known to man--the highest skill requirements, the toughest
intelligence and psychological testing, close medical scrutiny, security
clearances with background investigations going back fifteen years, and
detailed polygraph examinations. The ones who get through this obstacle
course are smart, clean of drug and alcohol addiction, healthy, and
psychologically able to cope.
ptt4J.
Those who attain career status after/a three-year probationary period
must live with any number of security
heavy pressure and time requirements
sponsibilities, heavy travel demands,
and complete anonymity in many cases.
Throughout their careers, they kno they will receive little public
recognition for their achievemen , and that criticisms--justified or
not--must be tolerated in silen e.
But there is an elitis here and great pride among our people. They are
committed to excellence. /hey have come to CIA to work for our nation's
security and well-being nd to protect the freedoms that we all enjoy. CIA is
not their intelligence service or my intelligence service. It belongs to the
American people.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/23: CIA-RDP88B00443R001904430036-5