1985 was labeled the Year of the Spy by the American press following a series of high-profile espionage arrests. One of the best-known cases of this period is that of Aldrich Hazen Ames. In his thirty-year tenure at the Central Intelligence Agency's directorate of operations, Ames compromised the second largest number of CIA assets as far as is known; he was alleged to have revealed virtually all active Soviet CIA agents, many of whom were subsequently executed or imprisoned. Ames received large payments for the information he provided: money he had used years earlier to purchase a new Jaguar automobile and a $540,000 house, in cash, in Arlington. Apparently, these seemingly large expenditures by an employee earning less than $70,000 a year had raised no questions at the CIA. For this research paper, I wanted to know how Aldrich Ames managed to engage in espionage activities for nearly a decade without drawing any attention to himself, and also how this particular case transformed the counterintelligence practices of the United States intelligence community United. Aldrich Ames' life before his involvement in espionage was heavily centered on the Central Intelligence Agency. Carleton Ames, Aldrich's father, moved his family to the Northern Virginia area in 1952 and began working for the CIA's Directorate of Operations. In 1957, "Rick" followed in his father's footsteps and secured a summer job at the CIA as a documents analyst where he marked classified documents for archiving. He continued this work summer after summer every year until 1959. After a struggle with failing grades that ultimately led to his withdrawal from the University of Chicago, Ames returned to... middle of paper... his wife remained in New York. While in Mexico, Aldrich Ames continued to specialize in Soviet cases. While its first review was mostly positive, its second and final ratings continued to get progressively weaker. He was much stronger at managing established assets than at creating new ones, spent little time out of the office, developed few assets, and, once again, was behind on financial accounting. Furthermore, his ratings were generally apathetic and focused heavily on his poor administrative work. Regardless, his supervisors said he “occasionally exceeds work standards” and “his performance is good.” CIA records show that in 1982 Ames was considered for a deputy chief of station job in another Latin American country, but none of his direct supervisors supported the job because of his ordinary performance..