Sickening, isn’t it? My dad was a 30 year naval officer, and was the communications and security officer at the Yokosuka Naval base in Japan when the USS Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans. I know that having a job like that required a significant security clearance, that goes without saying.
I asked my dad about that one time, and he told me when he was a young naval officer they actually sent somebody to his hometown to interview people that he knew when he was being evaluated for high-level security clearance.
I remember that - was quite a hubbub at NSA then. I was just a trainee at the time, but I remember all the scurrying, whispering in the halls, certain notes on cork boards in our classrooms.
When I got into the field some months later, I learned that our reporting had begun to deteriorate as the war had progressed. Emphasis had changed from best/most accurate info to making sure all the correct forms were filled out. The intel was becoming an afterthought.
It seemed to me that the policy of rotating high ranking non-coms and junior officers from Nam into units doing non-Nam collection was the culprit. It was all about them looking good to advance their careers.