ASPEN INSTITUTE SEMINAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89G00643R001300030006-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 6, 2011
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: July 24, 1987
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/06: CIA-RDP89G00643R001300030006-4
DDA SUS "-CT FILE COPY
24 July 1987
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Training and Education
25X1 FROM:
Chiet, Career Training Division, OTE
SUBJECT: Aspen Institute Seminar
1. I am in the process of preparing some evaluative comments on
the Aspen Institute seminar I attended 5-18 July 1987, but thought
you might be interested in a beneficial side effect of our
participation in it: the chance to correct misperceptions about the
Agency. A recurrent theme during my two weeks in Aspen -- from
auditors in the seminar as well as participants -- was the comment:
"I certainly have a different view of CIA after meeting you and
discovering that Agency people share our values." Am not certain
what they expected, but it was clear that there were some negative
preconceptions about what a CIA official might contribute to that
kind of forum. One auditor's parting shot was: "One thing I have
learned from this seminar is not to prejudge what a person will be
like by his title and affiliation." She made a point of saying
privately that the observation was chiefly directed at me.
2. The group of 16 participants was about evenly split between
political views to the left and right of center, with no one on the
extremes. By the time we left there was great fondness among the
group members, all of whom vowed to keep in touch. Though there was
curiosity about the Agency, and wariness evident among the
academics, my presence served to de-mystify and neutralize whatever
prejudices people brought with them. One evening, for example, the
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of
Missouri, one of my fellow discussants, asked me to spend an evening
in the bar with him to talk about CIA. A professed liberal, he
wanted to get what he thought would be straight information about
the Agency from someone in the organization he had come to trust.
He left asking for brochures on the CT Internship Program, which we
have subsequently sent him.
25X1
25X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/06: CIA-RDP89G00643R001300030006-4
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/06: CIA-RDP89GO0643R001300030006-4
SUBJECT-: Aspen Institute Seminar
3. These comments, of course, are not say that I
personally caused any changes of mind. If of NESA (whom
I replaced at the last moment as a stand in) had been there, he
would have had the same experience. The point is that we need to
see and be seen by people who will form opinions about CIA in a
vacuum if we are invisible. Since the people who attend Aspen
Institutes are leaders in their fields -- industry, state
government, academia, the labor movement, and the church -- we are
wise to be represented there. By extension, the same holds true for
other external training: it not only benefits the individual but --
to the extent that we are out there showing our true colors -- it
can significantly help the Agency's image.
2
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/06: CIA-RDP89GO0643R001300030006-4