MODERN U.S. MILITARY SPEAKS MANY TONGUES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300160010-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 1998
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: September 14, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

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STAR-LEDGER 221,4o$anitized - Approved; For Release
S. 374,529
Front Edi
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never before in overseas aid progra is
and in gathering cold war Intel -
gence, now speaks In 56 commonpla e
and exotic tongues - from Afrikaa
Albanian and Amharic to Urdu, Ukra -
Ian and Vietnamese.
So greatly has American foreig
policy Increased the linguistic d
mands on U.S. Officers, men and thei
families that the Pentagon has bee
obliged to revamp language trainin
In all services under a new Defense
Language Institute.
The new Institute, in being only two
months, Is geared to provide working
knowledge of one or more foreign
tongues to 6,100 servicemen a year
studying full-time, plus 15,000 part-
time and another 50,000 to 200,000 on a
volunteer basis.
* * *
THE SCHOOL IS a coordination of
previou
s service programs, using the
old Army language training facility ,t
?w west coast a-sui mee and advisory grou
branch and the
old
Navy language (MAAG) stationed in Saigon have late
training school in Washington as the e direct contact with th
Ea
t C
s
s
oa
e Vietnamese
t branch. ilitary and officialdom, some knowl-
In addition, contracts with Yale, ge of the language is considered
Syracuse and Indiana
lpfu1
universities
and with seven Smannr
t o C
~
olumbia give I "js~Gln NEEDS are plat-'
the Defense Department a spectrum of g demand on the institute for
language training 17nnn??L.a t mina in s ... -_
se
r
a
h
t
p
-?-,.
e
ra
e. I
e hinese dia-
Though expansion of the American Mandarin, for which there
military assistance program has been a e 548 full-time billets, Cantonese and'
the single most si
T n sinew (ei
nifi
ht
g
g
cant factor in
each), and
e (one). Fukien-
establishment of the instit
N
ute, the one
language most heavily enrolled Is not Also, the U.S. military's commit-'
spoken to any degree in any aid -re- m tits in Spain and'fforttt al where
,
ceiving country. di lects. other tha
,
n
tho e
That language is Russian. The in- to ght in U.S. Public Ex:ltools are sp k-
statute currently is trai
in en require trainin
f1 ?61
g c
n
8 men a ear ~{ o
American military and other gove3n0 in astillian and 124,13 y
osed to Braziliall, ~arope>4n as .
Sanitized - Approved For Release
Iiy JULES WVITCOVER T
mental employes In Russian. A roll
call of the sponsortdg agencies -. the
Defense Intelligence Agency, the Cen.:
tral Intelligence Agency, the National
Security Agency and others . is a
tipoff of the' institute's importance to :
U.S. intelligence work.
DEMANDS ON THE school's vari-
ous language courses also provide a
fairly good baromet
er of the cold war.
The second , largest enrollment, 1,230
full-time students a? year, is for Viet-
namese, where the United ?tates has
committed about 14
" ,000 troops as
advisers" in the fight against the
Communist Viet Cong.
According to CoL Lloyd H. Gomes,
director of DLI and a combat Infan-
the Pentagon hopesyto give every of.
icer and most enlisted men going to
Vietnam at least a st
ruggling workinf
knowledge of the nativ
t
e
ongue. -
Though certain administrative .,,
CCnuntin
CPYRGHT