CENTRAL EMPLOYMENT AGENCY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201150057-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 57
• Publication Date: February 1, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201150057-0
RNM
BY MATTHEW
ROTHSCHILD
n Washington's Massachusetts
Avenue, sandwiched between
the flag-waving embassies of
Chile and Canada, stands the
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced In-
ternational Studies. Its sandy, concrete
walls and stiff, rectangular windows mir-
ror the bland facade of the Brookings In-
stitution across the street.
I visited the School of Advanced In-
ternational Studies-which everyone there
Calls SAIS (rhymes with nice)-one cold
and rainy morning last December. A re-
cruiter from the Central Intelligence
Agency was scheduled to interview a dozen
SA1S student .that day, and I. too, was
eager to talk with them. I wanted to find
out what these students were like, why they
would want to work for the CIA, and how
they could justify their interest in such a
career.
This was no idle concern, for the CIA
is enjoying a remarkable renaissance on
American college campuses. Gone is the
militant protest, gone is the stigma. "The
view of the Agency is very good. We're
doing very well." says a CIA officer knowl-
edgeable about the recruitment effort.. The
officer, who asked that his name not be
used, says the Agency now recruits openly
on 300 campuses. Pay for a graduating
senior typically starts between S 17,000 and
S27.000.
"Students seem to be much more re-
sponsive" than they were even five years
ago. and "more are applying. certainly,"
the CIA man says. He attributes this pos-
itive reception. in pan, to an increased level
of patriotism. "I've gotten an awful lot of
that," he says. adding that anti-CIA dem-
onstrations on campus have "dramatically
declined."
The resurgence of the CIA on campus
is the most obvious indication of the at-
titudes characterizing today's students.
Conservatism once again prevails in the
society at large, and the resilience of Amer-
ica's imperial culture finds expression in
the application forms addressed to Wil-
liam Casey as much as in the jingoist huz-
zahs over the invasion of Grenada.
Outside the SAIS recruiting office. I
camped on a three-cushioned couch that
served as the on-deck circle for the appli-
cants. My first interviewee, Michael Peck,
a student in "conflict management," was
reluctant to tell me what had drawn him
to the CIA, but he did offer some general
insights. "I know everyone here who is in-
terviewing," he said. "It's not the James
Bond. John Wayne approach, but a very
pragmatic one, with a little idealism."
Peck was enthusiastic about the re-
sources the Agency offers to the specialist
in foreign affairs. "The possibility to
broaden your area of expertise is what
brings people to this job." he said. "The
CIA guarantees you a total preoccupation
with your interest, and it provides you with
first-hand experience." To this profes-
sional inducement, Peck added a dash of.
patriotism. "Take Nathan Hale," he said.
"The guy had a certain commitment to
make, and he made it."
Drawing a sharp distinction between the
analysis side of the CIA, where research is
conducted, and the operations side, where
the traditional cloak-and-dagger spy work
is performed. Peck said he was interested
only in analysis. He had some problems
with coven action. "If there's any other
way but violence. I'm for it," he said. "De-
fense of the homeland has a justification.
If that means covert action in a foreign
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
country, though, I haven't made up my
mind.
Our conversation was cut short by the
CIA recruiter, a middle-aged woman with
close-cropped brown hair, wearing a ma-!
roon sweater, matching shin-length skirt,
and unpolished blue low-heel shoes two
decades out of fashion. She opened the
door to the interviewing*office. dismissed
one student, and invited Peck in with the
fetching phrase, "Next victim.-
I followed the previous victim down a
couple of flights of stairs to a basement
locker room. As he took off his gray sport
jacket and tie, he explained why he had
signed up to interview with the CIA: "It's
one of the few careers directly related to
the education here." He was an interna-
tional relations and economics major.
When I asked him about CLa abuses,
this applicant became defensive. "Cer-
tainly things aren't happening the way they
were in '73 in Chile or in '54 in Guate-
mala," he said. And even if the Agency
did something he couldn't endorse, that
would not have any bearing on his work.
"You can compartmentalize," he ex-
plained. "If I'm an analyst with them. they
may knock off a Chilean leader, but I didn't
do it. I'm an analyst." He later asked me
not to use his name.
Elizabeth Michels, next in line for an
interview at SAIS. also viewed working for
the CIA as a way of pursuing her academic
interest, international economics. "The;
work they do is highly respected." she said.
"It is thorough and highly professional.
That's not a bad son of agency to be as-
sociated with."
Her admiration for the scholarly rep-
utation of the CIA stemmed in pan from
her contact with professors at Georgetown
University who had worked for the Agency.
"They were some of the most briiiiant peo-
ple in the field," she said. and impressed