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I’m offering a collection of Cold War CIA and U.S. Department of State publications and recruitment material, including two illustrated CIA booklets, career information sheets, and a gray CIA-seal cover with a career-office label. Dated pieces span 1979–1983.
What interests me about this group is the practical detail behind intelligence and overseas government work: mainframe computers, foreign-broadcast monitoring, cryptographic equipment, language testing, and the qualifications sought from prospective employees. Together, these pieces offer a period view of how the agencies presented their work and recruited the people who supported it.
My lot includes the April 1983 Factbook on Intelligence, with agency history, biographies of William J. Casey and John N. McMahon, organizational charts, the intelligence cycle, headquarters information, memorial stars, and agency medals. Its command-responsibility chart is dated March 1983.
The second booklet is Intelligence: The Acme of Skill, with its striking red cover and CIA seal. Illustrated sections cover the intelligence cycle, the U.S. intelligence community, the agency’s origins, oversight, activities, and personnel. Its publication date is undetermined. These two titles were distributed together by the CIA during the 1980s.
I’m including two CIA Career Opportunities publications: Office of Data Processing, dated June 1980, and Editorial Careers in the Foreign Broadcast Information Service. The computing sheet references IBM and Amdahl processors, UNIX, FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, and other contemporary systems. The FBIS material describes monitoring foreign media, translating and editing information, and working at overseas bureaus.
The State Department material includes Information on Escort Interpreting; Vocational Opportunities for Linguists; Escort Interpreting Aptitude Test, dated December 1979; Communications Electronics Officers qualifications, form RD-700a dated December 1982; and the yellow Foreign Service Employment Benefits sheet, form RD-500a dated March 1983.
The communications sheet covers radio, cryptographic equipment, computers, and telephone systems, naming equipment including the KW-26, KW-7, and KY-70. The benefits sheet provides period salary and overseas-allowance examples for postings around the world.
The gray CIA-seal cover retains an “Office of Career Planning and Placement — Office Copy — Do Not Remove” label with a handwritten “8/83” date.
My collection has age toning, surface rubbing, handling creases, bent corners, and small edge tears or nicks. Some loose sheets have spots and stains, including a brown mark near the right edge of the FBIS sheet. The gray cover has upper-edge wear. The red Acme of Skill cover has visible scuffing and edge wear; its interior is clean. The Factbook’s interior text, photographs, and charts are also clean and readable. I’m selling all the pictured material together.
Author: Central Intelligence Agency; United States Department of State
Book Title: Factbook on Intelligence; Intelligence: The Acme of Skill; Recruitment and Career Information
Language: English
ISBN: Does not apply
Topic: Cold War; Intelligence History; Government Recruitment; Cryptography; Computing History; Foreign Service
Publisher: Central Intelligence Agency; United States Department of State
Format: Softcover booklets, loose paper handouts, and card cover
Narrative Type: Nonfiction
Special Features: Illustrated CIA Booklets; April 1983 Factbook; Organizational Charts; Recruitment Material; Career-Office Label
Publication Year: 1979–1983 on dated pieces; other pieces undated
Signed: No
Intended Audience: Adults
Vintage: Yes
Ex Libris: Career-office copy label on gray cover
Inscribed: No personal inscription established
Personalized: No
Era: Cold War
Illustrator: Not credited
Literary Movement: Not applicable
Genre: History; Government Publications; Career Information
Subject: CIA and State Department Organization, Recruitment, and Overseas Employment
Place of Publication: Washington, D.C.
CIA, Central Intelligence Agency, Cold War ephemera, Factbook on Intelligence, Intelligence The Acme of Skill, intelligence history, recruitment publications, State Department, Foreign Service, cryptographic equipment, KW-26, KW-7, KY-70, Office of Data Processing, vintage computing, IBM mainframe, Amdahl, FBIS, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, linguists, escort interpreting, William Casey, government documents
