BACKGROUND STATEMENT - JPRS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01495R000700010029-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: July 11, 2005
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: August 22, 1973
• Content Type: REPORT

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22 August 1973
BACKGROUND STATEMENT - JPRS
The end of World War II marked the beginning of an information
explosion in open foreign-language sources (newspapers, periodicals,
books) of interest to U.S. Government departments and agencies. The
launching of Sputnik in 1957 heightened interest in foreign scientific
and technological information, an interest shared by the Federal Govern-
ment, the scientific and academic community, and the public at large.
At the same time, foreign publications were multiplying so rapidly that
it was beyond the capability of any single Federal agency to translate
the volume and variety of material involved.
In keeping with its assigned task of performing services of common
concern for the intelligence community which can be more efficiently
accanplished centrally, the Central Intelligence Agency established an
activity, under the name of the U.S. Joint Publications Research Service
(JPRS) and with a small staff engaging the services of hundreds of free-
lance contract translators, which was able to meet the ever increasing
demand for translating open foreign-language sources.
Consistent with law, it was neither published nor disclosed that
JPRS was a component of CIA.
All JPRS translations came from open-source material. Further,
JPRS functioned as a translation service for the entire U.S. Government,
accepting translation requests from other Government departments and
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agencies. Finally, the Department of Corrunerce, in keeping with its
interest in disseminating scientific and technical data became the
channel for providing public access to the translations produced by
JPRS. What started out as informal ties gradually developed to the
point where JPRS became publicly identified as a component of the
DePar-bnent of Commerce.
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