[Madame Dufarge]

Gwendolyn Myers would later tell an undercover FBI agent, posing as a Cuban operative, that her husband chose State because he was not "a very good liar." The CIA required regular polygraph tests, Myers said.

In the best Alger Hiss tradition.

Why on earth are State Department employees not required to take regular polygraphs?

[Bernard Marx]

Why on earth are State Department employees not required to take regular polygraphs?

Because the rot runs very, very deep and "short-timer" politicians are terrified of the entrenched bureaucracy's power. State has been compromised since at least the FDR administration and the ideological heirs of those who covered for Hiss remain.