A 1944 CIA training document, recently declassified, lays out in cold detail exactly how the agency evaluated and manipulated potential assets.
More than a manual, it’s a psychological dissection of human vulnerability-who can be recruited, how to spot them, and how to own them.
It starts with a principle that still applies today: everyone has a price-if you’re patient enough to find it.
🎯 Who Gets Chosen?
Forget what movies say. Ideal agents weren’t always glamorous. In fact, the best targets were often:
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Lonely or socially isolated
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Discontent with their career or country
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Greedy or deeply in debt
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Ego-driven and easy to flatter
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Emotionally unstable or narcissistic
"The ideal subject is suggestible, insecure, and seeks importance in the eyes of others."
The CIA focused on behavioral observation-even before speaking to the target.
Who hesitates before answering?
Who talks too much at a party?
Who wants to impress strangers?
These were tells.
🧠 The Approach: It’s Never About the Mission
Recruitment didn’t begin with talk of espionage. It began with friendship, admiration, or even a fabricated business opportunity.
The approach was gradual:
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Build rapport through "innocent" conversations
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Ask them for a favor unrelated to intelligence
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Watch their reaction to morally gray tasks
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Introduce secrecy and reward
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Finally, present the mission
"Recruitment is a process, not an offer. If you rush it, you’ll lose the subject-or worse."
🧲 Money, Ego, or Escape?
Agents were typically recruited for one of three reasons:
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Financial gain (greedy or in debt)
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Ego and validation (disgruntled or narcissistic)
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Escape from something (legal trouble, failed career, unhappy marriage)
Each motive required a different strategy. But the common thread was control.
Once an agent took the first step-no matter how small-they were locked in by guilt, fear, and increasing dependency.
🧾 From Civilian to Cipher
Once recruited, agents were trained in:
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Secure communication
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Avoidance of suspicion
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Encoding methods
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Counter-interrogation responses
They were also taught what to do if caught-not because it would save them, but because it kept their handler safe.
"An expendable agent is only useful if he remains silent. He must believe this is his greatest value."
🕳️ The Recruitment Never Ends
Perhaps the most chilling detail in the document: re-recruitment.
The agency anticipated that even loyal agents could drift or resist.
So the process of psychological pressure-flattery, threat, reward-never stopped.
They were always being recruited.
Every day.
