QUALITY OF RECENT CT RECRUITS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00780R001500070001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 12, 2003
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: MFR

Approved For Release 20G31O5/05 CIA-F L P 00780R00150007000,1-0..
SUBJECT: "Quality" of Recent CT Recruits
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1. During his semiannual briefing of the Director in November 1966,
Mr. FitzGerald referred to some observations he attributed to the A&E Staff
which indicated a downward trend in the "quality" of recent CT classes.
2. Conversations withi Chief of the A&E Staff, reflect that
it was he who made the remarks Mr. FitzGerald referred to. While talking
with the Chief of Ops Services last September or October, had
said that it was his impression that recent CT classes did no measure up to
their predecessors in earlier years. I explained that his remarks
represented a personal, off-the-top-of-the-head reaction and did not reflect
any study done by his Staff or any other objective criteria. In fact, as he ex-
plained to me, he regretted having made the statement as soon as it was uttered
because he knew it was susceptible to misinterpretation.
3. On 15 December 1966 I obtained from cting Chief of the
A&E Staff, the results of a review he made of CT test records for the years
1958-1966. Although his review was done rather quickly, he felt these obser-
vations fairly accurate:
a. Test trends show pretty clearly that the verbal ability of
CT's (as measured by vocabulary, reading comprehension, and
artificial language tests) has gone down somewhat, beginning in 1962.
Non-verbal test results (as measured by arithmetic, matrix, and
other such tests) have remained essentially the same for each class.
b. Attitude and personality measures of CT's during the 9-year
period show no significant yearly variation.
c. Interest measures for the 9-year span have changed somewhat,
primarily in the direction of higher specialized interests during recent
years and particularly interest in support fields.
d. After the size of CT classes was expanded in 1965, we ap-
parently continued to attract essentially the same group as before
but added to it a much broader spectrum of trainees. In prior years
the group had been somewhat more homogenous, particularly with
Approved For Release 2003/05/05 : CIA-RDP84-007808001500070001;-0
25X1
25X1
25X1
 Approved For Release 2003105/05: CIA-RDP84'- 07808001500070001-0
respect to their interests in intelligence operations; now we're
getting a much more diverse group which includes a sizable number
of, support-oriented trainees as well as some specialists in the
physical sciences and other technical fields.
e. Notwithstanding a slight drift in verbal skills, our current
CT's are still a highly respectable group as compared with the
general population of Agency professionals.
4. In summary, Osays there is no cause for concern. He thinks
our "quality" controls are quite adequate and functioning effectively. We've
simply changed the size and purpose of the Program; consequently we can
naturally expect a more varied and therefore somewhat different group of
trainees from those we knew in the years prior to 1965 and particularly prior
to 1958.
25X1
Assistant Executive Officer to the
Deputy Director for Support
Distribution:
Orig - DD/S Subject
1 - DD/S Chrono
Approved For Release 2003/05/05 CIA-RDP84-00780 R001500070001-0