CENTRAL EMPLOYMENT AGENCY

...I've gotten an awful lot of Matthew Rothschild is an associate editor of The Progressive...

...I'm an analyst...

...There used to be large demonstrations against the CIA," said Minnie Reed, director of career services...

...Look at it this way," she explained...

...Gone is the militant protest, gone is the stigma...

...still others were schooled in a right-wing academic environment which justified working for the CIA on intellectual grounds...

...that," he says, adding that anti-CIA demonstrations on campus have "dramatically declined...

...The CIA guarantees you a total preoccupation with your interest, and it provides you with first-hand experience...

...But even more startling than the CIA's open presence on campus was its almost total acceptance by the students...

...In fact, they were just today's college kids...

...We'll have that much less to talk about over the dinner table...

...Working for the CIA "also involves arguments of political change," said Pawlisch...

...I don't think you can hold it against someone," said Andy Moravcsik, a SAIS student from a liberal New England family...

...I don't have any strong moral objection to working for them...

...I followed the political views of my parents till I was sixteen, and then somewhere I rebelled...

...Throughout the society, its image has been retouched, the Agency as a whole remys-tified...

...But Rhodes did cite one common reservation: "It may be difficult to pursue a career outside of the CIA after having one inside," since future employers might suspect he still had a connection with the Agency...

...They wish me luck...

...Our conversation was cut short by the CIA recruiter, a middle-aged woman with close-cropped brown hair, wearing a maroon sweater, matching shin-length skirt, and unpolished blue low-heel shoes two decades out of fashion...

...Students here at Georgetown, because of the faculty that's here and the exposure to Washington, would see it [the CIA] as a normal outlet," said Eric Schlesinger, director of career services...

...The first time it was mentioned, I said, 'No, no, I'm really not interested in assassinating foreign leaders.'" Pawlisch downplays the importance of his parents' influence on his decision to apply...

...It's very, very conservative," he said...

...It's been years...

...How do you best change politics...

...It's not the James Bond, John Wayne approach, but a very pragmatic one, with a little idealism...

...At SAIS, at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School, and at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, I talked randomly with students about the CIA...

...That's what was frightening and strange...

...Curt Pawlisch used to be a socialist...

...They saw the CIA as just another potential employer—like the Departments of Commerce or State, like the Peace Corps, like a bank, a consulting firm, a multinational corporation, or a newspaper...

...Some voiced strong disapproval of the CIA's record but thought they might be able to reform the Agency from within...

...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...

...At each institution, it took no more than three interviews to find someone interested in working for the Agency...

...She, too, intended to specialize in analysis rather than operations...

...Right next to it was the thirty-page CIA recruiting booklet, Intelligence: The Acme of Skill...

...no one was outraged...

...I don't have too many Mata Hari fantasies," she chuckled...

...At SAIS, the Agency recruits students much more openly than in the past...

...He was the only student I met who said he was looking for work on the operations side of the CIA...

...Ed Rhodes is working toward a Ph.D...

...The resurgence of the CIA on campus is the most obvious indication of the attitudes characterizing today's students...

...It doesn't matter to me...

...They can't recruit our students to do their killing around the world," said Andy Daitsman, through a megaphone...

...It's just a job opportunity," said Jennifer Amdur, one of the demonstrators...

...Two weeks later, after talking with some twenty CIA recruits at four schools—SAIS, Georgetown, Princeton, and the University of Wisconsin—I had a better handle on these eager agents-to-be and the motives that propelled them along the path to Langley...

...Would it bother him if in the line of duty he was asked to bribe someone...

...Peck was enthusiastic about the resources the Agency offers to the specialist in foreign affairs...

...Her admiration for the scholarly reputation of the CIA stemmed in part from her contact with professors at Georgetown University who had worked for the Agency...

...A few professors influenced him, as did some books he read during this period...

...She opened the door to the interviewing office, dismissed one student, and invited Peck in with the fetching phrase, "Next victim...

...It is thorough and highly professional...

...A small crowd of about thirty students gathered outside the office of career services the day the Agency was interviewing...

...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...

...That's not a bad sort of agency to be associated with...

...We're doing very well," says a CIA officer knowledgeable about the recruitment effort...

...At the School of Foreign Service, and in the Arab Studies Department, it's one of the options students take for granted...

...President Reagan awards former CIA director and convicted perjurer Richard Helms a National Security Medal...

...He later asked me not to use his name...

...The mood has certainly changed...

...I asked him why he wanted to work for the CIA...

...I visited the School of Advanced International Studies—which everyone there calls SAIS (rhymes with nice)—one cold and rainy morning last December...

...These are not places where critical or radical ideas are discussed...

...They teach international affairs from a conservative standpoint, and the emphasis is functional, not moral...

...Some comforted themselves with the thought that they would work only on the research side of the Agency, not in operations...

...Pawlisch is seeking a "purely research" job with the Agency, one that he divorces from the covert activities of which he disapproves...

...That's the term they use in courses...

...I didn't see myself confronted with those moral dilemmas on the research side...

...How did Pawlisch manage the political migration from socialism to the CIA...

...Increasingly alienated from radical politics, he enrolled in a master's program in political science...

...Central Employment Agency Students respond to the CIA rush BY MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD On Washington's Massachusetts Avenue, sandwiched between the flag-waving embassies of Chile and Canada, stands the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies...

...In part, the CIA's favorable reception reflects the kind of education that these three specialty schools provide...

...He now describes himself as a "social democrat...

...I asked him whether he was troubled by the CIA's involvement in the 1973 overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile or the 1954 coup against Jacobo Ar-benz in Guatemala...

...And even if the Agency did something he couldn't endorse, that would not have any bearing on his work...

...They're hiring.' And I told him the same thing: 'Political assassinations are not for me.' " Of the four schools I visited, only the University of Wisconsin could muster a faint protest against CIA recruitment...

...Outside the SAIS recruiting office, I camped on a three-cushioned couch that served as the on-deck circle for the applicants...

...They were some of the most brilliant people in the field," she said, and impressed her as role models...

...No, not at all," said Tracaana...

...I know everyone here who is interviewing," he said...

...Georgetown, home base of United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and other right-wing political scientists, is a natural training ground for CIA officers...

...Not meaning to wave the flag too ostentatiously, there is a dramatic difference between our way of life and that on the other side," Michels said...

...Three glossy CIA booklets were prominently displayed on a table just outside the office of career services at SAIS, which shares a suite with the office of admissions...

...You know, they get cards from the White House and probably calls from the Republican Party," he said...

...There are certain things I just can't do for the CIA...

...I think I'd do better out in the field, knowing the people in the Middle East, the area, and the culture, rather than sitting here in Washington digesting information," he said...

...Nothing will work unless elite institutions are changed, or a new elite is put in place...

...The division of labor within the CIA made the application more easy to accomplish," he said...

...The work they do is highly respected," she said...

...You can compartmentalize," he explained...

...I think I'd gain a lot of experience in working for a Government agency, and I'd be serving my country at the same time," he said, adding that he was "very patriotic...

...And Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School, though slightly less career oriented, has a similar tradition, boasting such prestigious alumni as former CIA Director William Colby and former Deputy Director Frank Carlucci...

...Every applicant I met had a supportive right-wing community to fall back on...

...Bean catalog, sporting a dark blue sweater with the totemic alligator embossed in place, a blue and white button-down shirt with the collar peeping the requisite three quarters of an inch from under the sweater, green and blue checked woolen pants, argyle socks, and rubber prep shoes...

...It's important to have good people on the analytical side," said Jay Bleiman, the assistant dean for placement, who had a "Dear Jay, Sincerely Al" letter from Alexander Haig taped to his door...

...I had one professor who said, 'Why not apply to the CIA...

...Back in the Vietnam days, we had to let students in the back door and the recruiter in the side door, because the protests were at the front door," said Marilyn Bugg, assistant to the dean of SAIS...

...He told me he wanted to work for the CIA...

...Moral acquiescence was the order of the day...

...I had a very simplistic left-wing view of the world which I carried around in my back pocket," he said...

...The view of the Agency is very good...

...He had some problems with covert action...

...Basically, if you like traveling and international affairs, it'd be something you'd be interested in," said the student, who requested anonymity...

...Others didn't care...

...Anthony Tracaana, a senior at the University of Wisconsin, said he was "very excited" about the possibility of working for the CIA...

...Morton Kondracke writes about the importance of a strengthened, more efficient CIA in The New Republic...

...This was no idle concern, for the CIA is enjoying a remarkable renaissance on American college campuses...

...I followed the previous victim down a couple of flights of stairs to a basement locker room...

...If the CIA does have an open mind, maybe I can make some difference...

...My old man sent me a clip from The Wall Street JournaF with an advertisement for employment in the CIA...

...My family is deeply Republican...

...But not all of the potential recruits shrugged off questions of morality...

...In fact, his father was one of two people who brought up the CIA idea...

...It just wouldn't...

...You can call that spying, but that's part of the job...

...I think it's miseducation...

...Take Nathan Hale," he said...

...In the SAIS library reading room, The New York Times Magazine, featuring an article on the importance of placing the cruise and Pershing II missiles in Europe, was lying on a table...

...The better the intelligence agency, the better the foreign policy...

...They knew of my interest in travel, in international affairs...

...I really haven't thought about it that much," he said...

...He attributes this positive reception, in part, to an increased level of patriotism...

...Some simply didn't know about the CIA's record of overthrowing governments and assassinating Third World leaders...

...I've chatted with the CIA recruiters," he said...

...And if you look at the CIA's history, some of its past dealings were reprehensible," he said, citing the Agency's use of the Mafia to try to assassinate Fidel Castro...

...In a lounge at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, I met a swarthy, heavy-set young man engrossed in an Arabic textbook...

...foreign policy with which I have strong disagreements...

...Or they've made a political choice that is different than mine...

...I'd never heard it before...

...A recruiter from the Central Intelligence Agency was scheduled to interview a dozen SAIS students that day, and I, too, was eager to talk with them...

...I'm not physically cut out for it, and it's not something I'm morally capable of doing...

...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...

...It's a tried and true formula for my happiness...

...others surrounded themselves with apolitical or reactionary friends, for whom working with the CIA was a distinction, not a scar...

...I've moved away from socialism," he said...

...It's of no concern...

...His parents "think it'd be nice" if he landed a job with the CIA, said Tracaana, and "of my friends and the people I associate with, they probably have the same feelings I do: that it'd probably be a really good job opportunity...

...If I'm an analyst with them, they may knock off a Chilean leader, but I didn't do it...

...Defense of the homeland has a justification...

...No, no, I don't think it would," he said with a small smile...

...Such caution is no longer necessary...

...During his radical college days, "I was threatened with being removed from the family will," Pawlisch remembered...

...At Princeton, there hasn't been a protest in at least three years...

...I organized the Madison Committee Against Registration and the Draft in 1980," he said...

...As far as I'm concerned, the United States needs to have an intelligence agency of some kind...

...Pawlisch grew up in the wealthy Milwaukee suburb of Whitefish Bay...

...But his parents did support his effort to join the CIA...

...It is not the initiator of the devil's work, but the implementer of policy," he said...

...When I asked him about CIA abuses, this applicant became defensive...

...Everyone knew that some classmates were looking into pursuing that line of work...

...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...

...Ignorance, naivete, patriotism, and ca-reerism—some combination of these character traits was in evidence for each of the aspiring CIA officers...

...But though some of the rhetoric was tough, the demonstration was subdued and the attitude of the protesters remarkably generous...

...Progressive thought is not encouraged here," said a black SAIS student who spent many years in West Africa and just returned to get a graduate degree in African studies...

...The analysis fell short...

...The guy had a certain commitment to make, and he made it...

...Anytime you're in operations, you're talking to nationals in that country in a roundabout way...

...His journey began with a sense of dissatisfaction about leftist ideology...

...I went to graduate school to challenge the simplistic left-wing views I held...

...No rancor was in evidence...

...One of these was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which he calls "one of the five best novels ever written...

...The stigma of working for the CIA has been thoroughly excised at many schools...

...I didn't wake up one day and say I'm not a socialist," he recalled...

...If there's any other way but violence, I'm for it," he said...

...The students all exhibited a strong version of 1980s careerism, citing the excellent job opportunities the CIA offered in international relations, government, languages, or engineering...

...He was an international relations and economics major...

...Now Pawlisch is trying to get a job with the CIA...

...The officer, who asked that his name not be used, says the Agency now recruits openly on 300 campuses...

...Interest among Princeton students in regard to the CIA has been increasing steadily over the years," she added...

...She also suggested other reasons...

...They encouraged me to do it," he said...

...It is not so surprising, then, that the Agency is seen as a worthy employer by students facing an uncertain job market...

...I wrestled for about a year with the question of whether to apply or not," he told me one evening in his apartment on Madison's east side, the heart of that city's countercultural community...

...Like Rhodes, most of the CIA candidates showed little concern for ethical questions involved in working for the Agency...

...The CIA's list had only slightly fewer names than the bank's...

...Mass demonstrations won't work...

...I wasn't impressed intellectually by the arguments...

...Its sandy, concrete walls and stiff, rectangular windows mirror the bland facade of the Brookings Institution across the street...

...Tracaana, who lives in the Chi Phi house on Madison's fraternity row, looked as if he had just walked out of an L.L...

...When I asked about any stigma that might attach to them if they worked for the CIA, students almost invariably responded in career, not moral, terms...

...But the students I interviewed were not evil people, and only a few of them struck me as frightening or strange...

...I'd have to do more personal research on the CIA's role, number one...

...The CIA offers a nice, big package of job security...

...Clearly there are areas of U.S...

...Bob Dylan was straining from the stereo...

...To this professional inducement, Peck added a dash of patriotism...

...If that means covert action in a foreign country, though, I haven't made up my mind...

...I don't know...

...I came out with the conclusion that the United States needed a defense policy of strength against the Soviet Union...

...Across the hall, a sign-up sheet was posted for interviews with the Agency, alongside one from the First National Bank of Maryland...

...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...

...Her father was in the armed services and her husband, who now serves as a military intelligence officer, is encouraging her to work for the CIA...

...If they know what they're doing, that's fine...

...In my life, I have a rule of thumb: Whatever my parents want me to do, I do the opposite...

...Covert action, he stressed, was not for him...

...The room was sparse, with two modernist paintings and a large rubber plant taking all the credit for decoration...

...The possibility to broaden your area of expertise is what brings people to this job," he said...

...It was a gradual process...

...Soft-spoken and reflective, Pawlisch offered several more rationales for working with the Agency...

...Students seem to be much more responsive" than they were even five years ago, and "more are applying, certainly," the CIA man says...

...That was the initial hesitation—the aspects of the CIA and American foreign policy I couldn't accept and still can't accept...

...Those encounters served as my introduction to the young CIA aspirants, increasingly common on campuses these days...

...The other person who urged him to consider the CIA was a teacher he respected...

...I'm deeply distrustful of the state...

...What we are doing in Nicaragua is beyond my comprehension...

...Do the CIA's interventions abroad disturb him...

...To a degree that would have seemed almost impossible ten or fifteen years ago, the CIA is once again a legitimate institution...

...And number two, that wouldn't influence my opinion of the Agency in any way...

...But aside from the increasingly conservative national political culture and the anxiety students feel about finding jobs, other factors are aiding the CIA recruiter...

...No one was surprised that the CIA was on campus...

...Pay for a graduating senior typically starts between $17,000 and $27,000...

...And I formed a socialist caucus in the Dane County Democratic Party as part of an effort with DSA [the Democratic Socialists of America...

...Civil disobedience won't work...

...Some were children of military families or of staunch conservatives, and took a cue from their parents...

...We don't discuss politics any more...

...Not all the evil in the world can be traced to the CIA...

...The perspective taught is a "conservative realist" one, he added...

...Conservatism once again prevails in the society at large, and the resilience of America's imperial culture finds expression in the application forms addressed to William Casey as much as in the jingoist huz-zahs over the invasion of Grenada...

...Now maybe the CIA is an exception, maybe not...

...Certainly things aren't happening the way they were in '73 in Chile or in '54 in Guatemala," he said...

...in national security studies—"guns and bombs," as he calls it—at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs...