Throughout my career, I had the great fortune to experience firsthand as well as to witness what it means to be a CIA officer.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
You can say that I lived in Asia for a long time and in Japan I became close to several CIA agents. And you could say that I became an adviser to several CIA agents in the field and, through my friends in the CIA, met many powerful people and did special works and special favors.
When I was about, I'd say, 18 or 19 years old, I wanted to be a part of the CIA just because they know those intimate secrets... So I was just always into knowing. I like to know things.
I wanted to be in the FBI. I also wanted to be a pie salesman.
Breaking a cardinal rule of spy craft, I actually let it be known that I wanted to work for the CIA.
I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation's largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations.
My proudest moment was probably when my oldest boy finished law school and went on to become an FBI agent. It was just beyond my imagination that - with my background - my own son would become an FBI agent.
I was a prosecutor and an FBI agent for many, many years.
The greatest luck that I've had has been the ability to find men and women who came into my administration who worked with me and brought extraordinary talents that we were able to take full advantage of.
I'm going to be so much better a president for having been at the CIA that you're not going to believe it.
I was with the CIA for only three years. I worked in the Directorate of Operations, which is now called the National Clandestine Service. It's the part of the organization where the spies live. I didn't have much experience beyond the training.