Helped that we were fighting an in your face existential threat, the Evil Empire AKA the Soviet Union with their 45,000 (sic) nuclear warhead inventory peak in 1988 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_weapons_of_mass_des...). I in fact supplied a reference for a student acquaintance applying for a job at the NSA in that year.
Helped that we were fighting an in your face existential threat, the Evil Empire AKA the Soviet Union with their 45,000 (sic) nuclear warhead inventory peak in 1988 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_weapons_of_mass_des...). I in fact supplied a reference for a student acquaintance applying for a job at the NSA in that year.