TRANSCRIPT OF CIA CAREER SERVICE BOARD MEETING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01826R000500010004-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 25
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 17, 2002
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: August 26, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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CIA CAREER, SERVICE BOARD MB~TING
26 AUGUST 1952, 4:00 P.M.
.PRESENT :
Mr. Walter Reid Wolf, Chairman
Mr. Loftus E. Becker
Mr. Frank G. Wisner
Lt. Gen. W. H. H. Morris, Jr.
Colonel Matthew Baird
Mr. James M. Andrews
Mr. Richard Helms
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MR. BLCKER: I had a talk early today with Mro
and got some
different ideas about some of this stuff that I gathered up to now. That is
one of the things that was troubling me very much on seeing the various papers
go through -- the real extent of the rotatability of a lot of the people we
have, and also the question of wish or want in its effect on rotation and what
our attitude was going to be towards people who say from the intelligence
side just didn't want to rotate into operations.
MR. `,^TOLF: I think there are two or three factors in this overall plan.
One, I think you realize that the plan, or whatever we want to call it, which
has been approved up to date and signed by the Director is highly flexible.
It is made highly flexible because we knew enough to know in our various
meetings that no one of us in those meetings could categorically state that
there would be A, B, and C in the way of rotation. Also I think I am correct --
Dick, you and Matt would know better than I -- remember better than I --
I believe that each Deputy -- I won't say has factual veto power, but each
'Deputy has the power to hold in abeyance a rotation of any member of the
organization that he is concerned with and state his case clearly before the
Board makes any recommendation to the Director. Is that a fair statement?
MR. HELMS: I think so.
Int.. WOLF: I don't think that is the way it is expressed, but I think
that is the purport of it, isn't it? I think as we gain experience in this
field we are going to know how to do many things that I frankly don't know how
to do now. In my recent trip individuals talking to me about the program
clearly indicated that in the past in order to get promotion and in order to
get into the so-called super-grade level, it seemed absolutely essential
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to take a fellow out of his professional career and make him an executive,
and it seemed to them, and it certainly seems to me, that it isn't necessary
in this business to make a fellow an executive in order to bring him along --
that the long-term training and development of a highly skillful professional
in this field of endeavor, whether he be overt or covert, or whether he be
domestic or foreign, or whether he be black or white, is immaterial, I think
we need top professionals just as much as we need fellows who can run the show.
Now that may not be the opinion of everyone else, but there are a lot of boys
in the field who don't want to be executives but they want to have an opportunity
to develop themselves so that they can consider themselves the best damn pro-
fessionals this business has ever seen, and I said that is why we had hoped
to make this overall plan so flexible, so as we gained experience we as a Board
could develop, and we are not inclined to go off the deep end hastily and
make decisions over the top of our heads. I don't know whether that answers
I won't say question, but it is in part a response to your comment, but that
is my on feeling as I have been thinking about it, and, Dick, what is your
point on that?
MR. HELMS: That is certainly the feeling we had in the Committee,
There is no question about that.
MR. WOLF: You see I came in this Committee rather late. I succeeded
when he left and didn't have the privilege of spending the hundreds and
25X1 A9Anundreds of man hours that Matt and others spent, but I tried to catch up with
it a little bit, and Dick, and Kingman Douglass, and Matt, we had some pretty
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long sessions, and I think in general as we went over everything that had
been done, we adjusted our thinking.
(At this point Mr. Wisner and Mr.Intered the room.)
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M. WOLF: The first item presented on the agenda is called "Discussion
of and adoption of Board procedure," and if you will. bear with me for a very
few minutes, I would like to make a few comments that bear on this subject of
Board procedure, but before getting into that, I would like to state that I
think the work that has been done by the Board that preceded this Board and
the subsidiary Board over a period of some 10-1/2 months by the ablest group
of men that we had in the Agency has been one of the finest jobs I have ever
seen, and as you all know it was signed by the Director. I don't think you
all know that he took it and would not sign it simply because he was asked
to sign it or because there was a very well written cover sheet telling him
the high points, but he took it and read it and stated to me that he had read
it at least twice word for word in intimate detail and discussed it thoroughly,
and he was willing to sign it with one very minor change that I can't even
remember it -- which he himself said was totally unimportant.
25X1A9A Mi.
MR. WOLF: I feel very strongly, and I think I am right, this is one
of the things that is as close to his heart as anything that has been brought
to his attention or he has been involved in since he has been the Director.
I am convinced that he is 100% behind this Board and is looking to this Board
to carry forward something which can be for the long-term future of this
Agency -- one of the most important things that can be done. .,fat I am simply
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saying is that I take the business of this Board very seriously myself. I
will repeat what I have said to Frank, and to Dick Helms, and to others,
partly due to my recent travels, I think the only real asset that this Agency
has got is people. I think that there is no Agency that I know of in Govern-
ment, and I know of no. private enterprise that has the quality, and the char-
acter, and the innate ability, and the magnificent drive of youth that the
majority of the people that we have in this Agency have. I fully recognize
that in certain phases of our work there is relatively a lack of maturity.
I believe that if some disaster occurred and we did not have the people that
we have now got, and if we had to go out and get people to do this business,
it would be absolutely impossible to duplicate what we now have. I, therefore,
think that the most important job in this business today is the proper person-
nel handling and development of people. I would like to point out just one
statement in the opening paragraph of this thing which the Director signed,
and I really feel that this is definitely a two-way street, where it says under
the word "fflO ?LEM. To devise a Career Service Program that identifies, develops,
effectively uses and rewards individuals who have the skills required by CIA;
motivates them towards rendering maximum service to the Agency; and eliminates
from the service, in an equitable manner, those who in spite of the Program
fail to perform as effective members of the organization." I hope that we
will always remember that we have got to not only build what we have got but
we have got to find ways and means to eliminate those for whatever reason or
not are not effective for the long pull in this business. (1) I think it would
be disastrous for the business. (2) I think we would be doing the individuals
concerned a great disservice if we fail to recognize at the proper time that
they were not the people to stay in this business and let them stay and then
wreck them when they got to an older age.
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So much for my philosophies. As to the procedure of this Board, I hope
that a suggestion that I am going to make might be considered reasonable. I
hope during these three months of which I am going to act as Chairman to have
a preliminary meeting with General Morris and Colonel Baird and with any member
of this Board or any individual whom he may select to meet with me a week
before the Board meeting so that I may with that group thoroughly and care-
fully screen the agenda, discuss it, and bring to this Board a refined agenda
for the sole purpose of attempting to waste as little time of the members of
this Board as is humanly possible. I hope that this Board will have an
opportunity not only to read that which is sent to them but possibly each member
talk with his associate if he prefers to have an associate come to the pre-
liminary meeting and that we can present to this Board in clear-cut form
matters of policy to be decided and not involve ourselves necessarily in hours
and hours of discussion at a Board meeting. I would hope that we could do that
without wasting the time of the Deputies and Assistant Directors who serve.
If any member of the Board would like to discuss that, or would like to make
any recommendation as to how he thinks we can conduct these on a businesslike
basis without waste of time, I would most certainly like to have his thoughts.
Frank, would you -- ?
NR. 14ISNER: Well, as regards my position and my own views, I would
like to associate myself with absolutely every single sentence and word of
what Mr. Wolf said in his expression of his philosophy concerning the importance
and vital necessity of a system of this kind which will have the effect of
protecting those assets which we have developed and are developing them further,
and of gradually winnowing out such a relatively small percentage of chaff as
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I believe may presently exist within the Agency. I think that anything that
we can do to move ahead with the perfection and the adoption of a program that
will accomplish those results deserves absolutely top priority, I for my part
will certainly want to attend all of the major meetings, and I would like to
have the privilege, as already indicated as being possible, of designating a
representative of my Staff to attend the interim or working party meetings.
And I believe that from time to time I may be able to provide more definitive
recommendations both concerning the procedures under which we operate and
also with respect to the substantive issues which are involved in the program.
MR. WOLF: Have you any -- ?
MR. BECKER: I have no comment except I concur.
MR. HELMS: Well I certainly concur and feel quite strongly, based on
my experience with the Career Service Committee which preceded this Board, that
it is essential that we have an acting working committee to work through all
these matters and present them to the Board in a reasonably finalized fashion
because there is no problem that comes up in connection with Career Service
that I have seen yet that isn't highly complicated and highly controversial,
and this BoaI::d would be sitting all the time unless the work is almost com-
pleted before it came before them.
Imo. ANDREVIS: I agree exactly.
COLONEL TBAIRL: I haven't anything to add to that, Walter, except that
working group, as I see it, would be to complete the staff work on material
that carte to us, and the only reason I can see that you have asked General
Morris and me to be a member of that working committee is -hat so much of this
career service program is implemented by personnel and training, and we could
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at least help in the staff work on that phase of it, reserving the policies
and. decisions for the large board as a whole.
M. WOLF: I fully appreciate that the major job here is personnel and
training, and, General, you, and Matt, and. I discussed this general philosophy
a week ago. Would you like to add to the procedures?
GENERAL Mc RIS: No, not a thing. I concur with everything you have
MR. WOLF: If there is no objection we will attempt to carry this Board
through on that general basis. If there is no further discussion --
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May I make one point, Mr. Wolf?
MR. 14OLF: Surely.
MR.I
If we are to distribute the agenda a reasonable time
before the main board meeting, we will have to think of the timing of the
preliminary meeting because the reproduction of material may have --
MR. WOLF: I think, if I may interrupt, as long as -- during these
three months -- while I am acting as Chairman, I think any question of that
kind you can take up direct with me, and we can determine how we want to do
it without taking the time of this Board for that sort of thing -- if you have
no objection to that?
25X1A9A MR ?
MIR. WOLF: The second thing on the Venda has to do with the "final
report of the Working Group on Honor Awards, dated 8 August 1952." It states,
"Action: Approval or disapproval of the Report; if approved, transmittal to
the DCI for his approval and recommendation to the President." I don't know
whether each member of the Board has had an opportunity to read it, study it
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carefully, and digest this paper. This paper was not available to be incor-
porated in the original at the time the Director approved the plan. It is
in effect an addition to the overall Career Service Program. It was distributed.,
I believe, a week or more ago.
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Ten days ago.
NR. WOLF: I would most certainly like to have the views of the members
of this Board on this paper if they care to take it up today.
COLONEL BAIRD: I just had one suggestion, Mr. Chairman, that we do
not load more boards than absolutely necessary with Assistant Directors and
that the membership of the Board is to be composed of three Agency officials
of the Assistant Director level or equivalent appointed by the Director. I
think we are slowing up some of the processes of the Agency by insisting upon
Assistant Director or equivalent level for membership on boards, and it seems
to me that there must be people in the Agency of experience, integrity, and
good will who can sit on some of these boards without making the Assistant
Directors or their equivalents sit on them. I think Lofty may bear me out on
that that some of our Loyalty Review Boards and Security Review Boards are
months and months behind in their work because it is very difficult to get
Assistant Directors or Deputy Directors to sit on the Boards.
MR. WOLF: I think, Matt, you have got a very good point. I think there
is another reason in the Loyalty Review and Security Review Boards which I have
already taken action on, and I think it happens to be that the way the thing
has been handled -- has been calling up people and asking them when it would
be convenient for them to do A, B, or C. and as a net result it is never
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convenient, and I hope that we will have a definite clear-cut program as to
attacking this thing because we have a very strong recommendation from an
independent analysis and survey of our overall total security situation which
we must follow. That is an illustrative point. I agree with you that it need
not necessarily be an Assistant Director or one who carries the rank of
Assistant Director. I think I am a little confused in my own mind some as to
what actual so-called rank they do carry. Unfortunately in my life rank
doesn't bother me very much, but I do think that possibly on recommendation of
the members of this Board approval by members of this Board, of recommendation
by, if you like, the Assistant Director of Personnel and the Director of
Training, and the DD/A recommending to this Board individuals in this Agency
with the approval of the Director we will say that it need not necessarily be
an Assistant Director.
COLONEL BAL-tD: Speaking for myself I would like to stay off of it.
M. WOLF: I think if you, and General Morris, and I got together and
selected a Committee and then presented the names of that Committee to this
Board, and if this Board approved or disapproved and asked us to resubmit, we
could do it. If this Board approved that list, I would feel perfectly free
to recommend to the Director that he appoint those individuals for a stated
period of time to serve, and I would leave out any comment as to the rank of
Assistant Director, etc. If that would be a reasonable --
MR. BECKER: As to the mechanics, if you just take this paragraph 1. a.
on Tab A here where, as I understand Matt's suggestion, the effect of it would
be to strike out the second line up to the word "appointed". It would then
read "three Agency officials appointed by the Director upon recommendation of
the CIA Career Service Board."
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MR. 'NX)LF: If everybody agrees to that, I would certainly go along
with it.
MR. BECKER: I move that it be so amended.
MR. WOLF: If there is no objection, it will be so amended.
MR. BACKER; I have read over the recommendations for this Board, and
I think they are very well drafted and to the point, and I concur in their
appr oval.
MR. HELMS: I wanted to raise one question about it, and that is whether
we want three levels of awards in this Agency. There is Valor, Distinguished
Achievement, Exceptional Achievement, and Meritorious Achievement. I just
wonder if that isn't narrowing it down pretty far. I realize that that is sort
of throwing a rock right in the middle of the pond because this has all been
very carefully studied and worked out, and I assume Mr. ows what
led them to arrive at so many categories, but it did seem to me to be a
little bit excessive and that you would have a slightly difficult time, it
seemed to me, as to just how to fit people into them. I mean the number of
valorous deeds, for example, that would be performed in peacetime are going
to be pretty few and far between. They are going to be a different type of
thing, much more like the fellow that was decorated by the Director the other
day, and this somehow to me -- well, it looked as though we were trying to
make decorations comparable to the ones that exist in the Armed Services,
and exist for very specific purpose and almost entirely with minor exceptions
to wartime conditions, and I rather got, the impression that this was more
pitched at a war situation than it was at a peacetime situation, and I hope
the legitimate history of this Agency will be that we will be operating much
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more in peacetime than in war.
MR. WOLF: Just to give you a view, may general impression was somewhat
different. I felt the Cross of Valor, which is the first thing talked about,
was aimed at -- primarily aimed at -- outstanding valorous achievements by
somebody in this business during the time so-called peace, that during the
time of war I wouldn't know what the effect would be on our people who operate
globally. My guess would be that many of them would be integrated pretty
.fast into the military services one way or the other regardless of how it was
done and that deeds of outstanding valor during the period of war could be
awarded just as they are in war to the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service
Cross, the Silver Star, etc., but I felt that this referred to individuals
associated with this business. I am carefully not saying the CIA because,
as I recall it, it goes way beyond who have performed some outstandingly
valorous job at great personal risk and beyond the call of normal duty,
That was all there was to that. The other -- I must say I was slowed up on
three more, but as I understood that, although I believe there are ways and
means by which the Director can at the present time award the -- what do you
call it? -- Medal for Merit or Medal for Freedom, these were somet.in? else
again, and that is where I got stuck.- I felt certainly there would be indi-
viduals in this organization who would render a service to the country which
could in no way be construed as outstanding valor but a distinguished service
through the medium of this type of business, and they might very appropriately
and properly be granted some recognition. It might be such that the Director
or those associated with him might not feel that he wanted to go so far as
to award the Medal for Freedom or the Medal for Merit but that this was
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distinguished because it was primarily for this type of service. As I
remember, after the last war various and sundry people in business who served
various commercial airlines and others were -- even a couple of advertising
fellows -- awarded the Medal of Merit or Medal of Freedom, or one of those
things, but that this was limited to this field of endeavor in the nation.
Now, frankly, why three I don't know except that the military services appar-
ently have the Distinguished Service Medal which need not be obtained in the
field of battle as I understand it. They have the Legion of Merit, which
Matt Baird has just discussed a few minutes ago, and they have the Eronze
Star, and, as I think Lofty pointed out, one fellow for cleaning out a German
Camp and another for running a good PX got that. Of course, from my point
of view those three have nothing to do with cleaning out a situation. They
simply have a gradation of service rendered while engaged in this business,
and there will be people in relatively low level jobs who will render a fine
service, and in your wildest imagination you could not quite consider it
distinguished service, and I was slowed on three, but I don't know -- that
may be all right. I don't know enough about this sort of thing.
MR. BECKEFh: I didn't get slowed up on three. Although I recognize,
Dick, that we are not directly comparable with the military, I still feel that
the considerations the military use in making distinctions between awards
they give are applicable here. The General occasionally says that the two
dheapest forms of non-monetary stimulation the Government has is a medal and B.G.,
and there is a great deal of truth in it, I think. We have got to within the
Agency because we don't, although we compare favorably withcth er Government
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agencies, we are competing for business, and monetary rewards are very high,
and*I think as a matter of policy we may consider it a good idea and a worth-
while. idea to be relatively liberal with the lowest form of award that we have.
I can think of good reasons for saying that as I walk through some of these
temporary structures and see the conditions under which people, relatively
distinguished in their achievements and capabilities, are working and the
fact that they don't have any recognition of any kind. Many of them aren't
even allowed to say where they work or what they do -- that you can say for a
period of service that is really productive you take the lowest grade. Well
if you are going to adopt that policy then you want to have a certain amount
of flexibility, you say, for the guy that does something outstanding and beyond
the requirements of duty. You will give him that, and then when you get that
far, then you will always have the fellow who does something that is extremely
high. It is a matter of not watering down your top one and yet having avail-
able for relatively liberal use something that is in recognition of something
that is worthwhile. I am inclined to favor the gradation, and I also favor
a distinction being made between that kind of recognition and the recognition
of valor which everybody puts in a different category.
MR. H LMS: Well there are four are there not?
25X1A9A M.
Two medals, one of which has three grades. The reason
the Working Group adopted that, or one of the reasons, is that our sister
IAC agencies have a similar series for their civilians. In other words, the
Department of State has a gold, a silver, and a bronze medal for outstanding,
meritorious, and superior achievement. I have forgotten the exact details.
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The .Aym.y and the Air Force has exactly the same. one of our people just won,
25X1 as you know, the
I think although he is
absent, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Kingman Douglass' point which we agreed to consider at
the first meeting of the Board when this came up, he felt very strongly that
there should be a distinction between Meritorious Achievement and Valor and
that the two should not be confused from point of view of medal.
MR. WOLF: I think the Board presented this paper to the full recogni-
tion of that, and in its presentation it is very clear in the paper that
that is why there is one valor and one for service, but three gradations of
that.
MR. liMMS: It was in the gradations I was beginning to wonder.
25X1A9A MR.
One of the reasons, Dick, just as Mr. Becker said, we
don't want to water down the highest medal because that should be reserved
for something really tops and rarely given, but at the same time in order to
recognize and to satisfy, I am trying to quote the Working Group, the
normal human urge for some kind of recognition of your colleagues, the lowest
grade would be fairly liberally given, but at the same time it would not
reduce the intangible value of the top gold. medal for outstanding service.
Those are the reasons for it.
COLON, BAI: D: Mr. Chairman, I move we adopt the report.
MR. WOLF: Has anyone any further comment? I know Frank has stated he
has not had an opportunity to read this. I would most certainly like to have
Frank read it, and if he has any thoughts we would like to have them.
MR. NISNLi: I don't want to hold up this thing, Walter. I would like
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to ask one question to satisfy my curiosity and at the same time reveal the
extent of ray ignorance of this thing. 'Ahy is it that we find it necessary to
devise our own decorations, and why is it not possible -- I am sure this has
been gone into,, considered, and disposed of -- but I just ask for information for us to have access so to speak to decorations which are more broadly and
widely recognized and the wearing or displaying of oh ich do not necessarily
identify the recipient thereof with this Agency? In other words., I could
well imagine particularly a youngish man having these urges that you speak of
and who we might want to use from time to time in the future in a relatively
sensitive capacity. He would be the recipient of one of these medals, and he
would want to show it to his friends. If it is a CIA medal and only that,
would this not be apt to produce a security risk of sorts?
MR. WOLF: Well, I think the attempt was made by the Commit' ee to cover
that in the paper, and while you were out I referred to awards in this kind
of business. It refers to anybody whether he be in the Army, Navy, Air Force,
or State Department, or anywhere else who is involved in the overall field of
in- elligence. I am not sure the answer is entirely correct, and I think it is
a point well vo rth consideration. I think if my memory is corrLct that this
award can be made and the actual wearing of this can be withheld, but then
again you come to the point at some future date you might want that individual
to do something.
25X1A9A #1R.
May I try to answa' some of Mr. Wisner +s queries briefly?
MR. WOLF: Yes.
25X1A9A'~ Medals such as the Silver Star -- the military medals
can only be given to officers on active duty. They cannot be given to a rusorve
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officer, for e-sample, who is not on active duty. There are certain civilian
medals which our people have received.
Does that answer the question as to how we
can use it? We can and should use it to the greatest extent possible the
medals of other agencies that are providing cover for our people, but all of
our people aren't under cover of one sort or another; therefore, there are
no medals available or no rewards available to quite a large number of
people. The second point is with respect to security. The working Group
believes that when the Honor Awards Board, if it is created and establishes
the procedure and regulations, etc., as Mr. Wolf, I believe, said, that an
award can be made and notice can be given to the Agency that, let us say,
the Cross of Valor has been awarded. That can be awarded in pseudonym, and
the actual medal can be put in the DCI's safe or wherever you wish. The
impact of somebody in CIA having been awarded the Cross of Valor even though
nobody knows who it is is believed to be good for the Agency. The very fact
that CIA does recognize that even though nobody knows who it is is believed
to be a good morale factor for the Agency. And lastly with respect to
25X1 A9s curity. Mr. on behalf of Colonel Edwards who was out of town
at the time, has asked because in the first place I&S sat on this Working
Croup. In the final analysis I&S requests the privilef_,e of concurring
in all r gulations rich are drawn for Honor Awards, which naturally they
don't even have to ask. We would expect them to. I took the liberty of saying
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25X1A9Ao Mr. Opurely as a working suggestion that I believed that it would
he practical and useful for somebody from I&S to be on the Honor Awards Board
perhaps as an advisor, a permanent advisor, perhaps as a permanent member,
so that all aspects of security with respect to the awarding of these various
categories could be properly screened and recommendations made before the
award was made,
1,U L WISN : Is there any provision in this paper for our continuing
to be as diligent as we can notwithstanding the position of our honor awards
in obtaining under appropriate circumstances as described by you the military
decorations for people who qualify for them?
25X1A9A lei.
There is, Sir, but that would be one of the responsibilities
of this Honor Awards Board, but the Working Group has not Lone outside the
Agency yet until this program had been considered by the Career Service Board
and by the Director, No representations have been made to any Agency with
respect to that, but it is the recommendation of the Working Group that to
the greatest extent possible and for which arrangements can be made that the
awards of other agencies be used just as a security device if for no other
reason,
M. WISNHR: I should say it ought to be used to the greatest extent
possible, not only the security device, but also because of the fact the
public knowledge and appreciation of these other better known awards has great
currency, and it is something we ought not to fail to be diligent about in
addition to our on system, and I would like to subscribe to that and under-
score it as important,
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MR. WOLF: I think that is a very worthwhile statement, and I think
this Board who after all will be the final Board to approve the recommendations
should have that a part of the record and take it into very careful considera-
tion, continuous care, as we develop.
MR . ; CKER: I have a qualification on it. It is not serious, nor
do I think it is really contravention of anything Frank has said, but I would
hope that over a period of time, particularly in those parts of the Agency
which are not covert, that this new award that is being started out here
would for people within the Agency have a value as great as if not greater
than those of any outside Agency.
NR. 1-TISNER: I share that fully, and I would certainly not wish to
propose or even appear to propose something that would cut against that.
It is a somewhat different thought that I have in mind, I believe. Certainly
in the case of military personnel a military award is a matter of career
significance, and I would not like to see us relax our efforts to get that
kind of award or see that a man receives the award if he is entitled to it.
I would accept your qualification that we should take no action and do nothing
here that would tend to undermine or cut against the coming into a position
of treasured significance the award that is established here.
MR. WOLF: Is there any further comment on that?
25X1A9A
Just one comment. Award c., the one for Meritorious Achieve-
meat in the statement of description seems to me to come a little easy. In
other words, if we are beginning to give a medal to people whose performance
is outstanding and above normal expectation -- the reason outstanding struck
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my eye is I reviewed five efficiency reports that
25X1 A6la e
prepared for 25X1A9A
and five people were outstanding in almost every category
of the fourteen. We are liable to get into a position where people will
figure if they don't get a medal they are not outstanding. I would like to
insert at least the word "unique" in front of "outstanding" or some other
phrase to make it a little higher up because I think Mr. Becker's point that
people who ran a good PX got a Bronze Star and if they didn't get kicked out
of the Army they expected a Bronze Star is a point we will have to consider,
so it should be a little stronger than merely outstanding and above normal
expectation.
25X1A9A MR.
I think these definitions should be worked over very
carefully by the Honor Awards Board.
MR. WOLF: I don't think these definitions as written are necessarily
finalized as far as verbage is concerned.
MR. 1:ISNIR: I think you will get over your particular problem if you
use a different word than is used in efficiency ratings.
25X1A9A MR.
One important point which I think we should mention,
and that is this recommendation as drawn by the Working Group would not limit
the award of these so-called CIA medals to CIA personnel. They are capable
of award to any body who contributes to the national intelligence effort, and
that is the way the Executive Order of the President is drawn. Furthermore,
in the Executive Order --
MR. iOLF: That has been pointed out, I think, and maybe Frank wasn't
here when I referred to the fact that I very carefully did not use the word
CIA but said this type of business.
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MR. WISNER: I would certainly subscribe to that because, my goodness,
the-number of people that you can please and get to stay with you with a bit
of ribbon and a piece of metal by comparison with a cash award is simply
amazing. The British know this very well, and don't think they haven't been
cashing in on it for years. The foreign agents of theirs who perform well
and faithfully for them receive these awards and are insulted when you offer
them money. They take these things, and they treasure them, and they keep
them all of their lives, and they will display them at the drop of a hat too.
MR. WOLF: Gentlemen, is there any further comment on this, or shall
we agree that we approve it in principle and will present it appropriately to
the Director for his approval? If there is no other comment we will so do.
The last thing on the Agenda I would like to mention is the report of
the Executive Secretary on actions taken between 13 June 1952 and 15 August
1952 to implement the Career Service Program attached. I ratherfbel that we
have used up pretty close to an hour, and if the statements which are to be
reported on are attached and everybody has a copy of the statements -- the
development since June to date -- my own judgment would be, and I hope some-
body might concur in it, that it is unnecessary to sit here and discuss then
in that they are written. I have read them, and it looks all right to me,
and unless somebody wants to question something in the paper, or if at a sub-
sequent meeting any questions have developed, in the meantime I would be very
glad to have them put on the Agenda and discussed, particularly at the pre-
liminary meeting, and bring then here if a matter of policy is to be decided,
MR. HELD : We have just now pretty well finalized what type of Career
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Service Organization we are going to have in the covert offices, and I thought
25X1A9Athat rather than taking the time of this meeting we could forward it to Mr.
Career Service Board Meeting. Actually informally what we plan to do is to
have a Career Service Board in the three elements -- foreign intelligence,
psychological warfare, and paramilitary -- and then the Chairman of each of
25X1A9Athose Boards would sit together with Mr.Ilas the DD/Pts Career Service
for incorporation in the paper so it could be reviewed at the next
Board to work out any problems which arise between these three Career Service
Boards and see to it that all of their policies and programs are in consonance
with each other so we don't have unevenness in the treatment of personnel,
and promotions, and things of that kind.
MR. WOLF: Is there anything else to be brought before this Board?
MR. BECK K: Let me ask a question. This listing you gave me will be
taken up in this Executive Inventory when it comes through?
25X1A9A
That came from the Executive Inventory,
MR. BECKER: I would suggest that it be circulated to the other members
of the Board. I think it is a thought provoking paper. All it is is a listing
of women in our Executive Inventory from Grade 13 and above. I find it rather
interesting.
COLONEL BAIRD: What do you mean by the Executive Inventory?
MR. BECKER: That is to say it is a listing of what women we have in the
Agency out of strength in the Grades 13 and above.
25X1A9A MR.
Mr. Becker asked me for this this morning when I was talk-
ing to him, and I prepared this in response to his request from the, you might
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call it, embryo Executive Inventory which we have and which is referred to
in my report on page whatever it is,
COLONEL BAIRD: That doesn't include everybody of the Grade of 13
in the Agency -- 13 and up?
25X1A9A MR.
It includes everybody in the Grade 14 and up in the
Executive Inventory, I added 13's because I had the names available since
you asked for them.
MR. HELMS: I know of one that isn't in there.
25X1A9A
I am, of course, relying on machine records. I do not
have the names of everybody in the Agency.
COLONEL BADID: Mr. Chairman, I think we ought to ask Mr.
0
if there is anything that has come up that he needs any decision from the
Board on. He has been attending these meetings of the office Boards, and I
am, therefore, assuming that there are no problems that you cant handle.
25X1A9A MR.
I with that were true, one of the major problems, of
course, is promotion policy,
MR. `,'OLF: May I ask if there is anything that is defined to the point,
that is in shape, to present for a matter of policy decision at this time?
25X1A9A
There is one thing, Mr. Wolf, and it is a minor detail,
but I think only this Board can solve it, and that is the addition of an
advisor from the Medical Office to the Professional Selection Panel. The
paper as approved by General Smith did not contain that, I believe you have
a view on that, Colonel Baird, that the Professional Selection Panel should
have such an advisor, and the Panel at its first meeting, which was held on
Friday, agreed to ask the Board to authorize it to have such an advisor.
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MR. WOLF: As far as I am concerned, I would most certainly have no
objection to that, but does any other member of the Board have any comment?
MR. Bt KER.: No objection.
GENFAAL MORRIS: No objection.
MR. ANDi1,9WJS: No objection.
25X1A9A
They will have to take a physical exam anyway, won't they?
COLONEL LAIR]): We have had a lack of coordination between security,
medics, personnel, and training where no one of them comes up with anything
that is disqualifying in itself. You get all four of them together, and you
have a picture of an individual that you don't want in the Agency, and the
medics will pass a man physically, but in the course of their examination they
will uncover some emotional disturbances which if you know of them, then you
look at security and see what they came up with., and you look back in his PHS
and see what -- just as an Advisory Member of the Panel I think it can be
useful.
MR. ':!OLF: I think everybody here has agreed that is entirely all right,
and so is there anything else?
No, Sir.
25X1A9A
MR. WOLF: If not we stand adjourned,
(Meeting adjourned at 5:00 P.M.)
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