DIA LANGUAGE AND AREA STUDIES PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84M00395R000800250035-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 20, 2007
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: January 20, 1982
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2007/04/20: CIA-RDP84M00395R000800250035-9
The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20505
Intelligence Community Staff
MEMORANDUM FOR:
Assistant Vice Directorate for Attaches and Training,
Defense Intelligence Agency
DCI/ICS 82-3807
20 January 1982
Special Assistant for Education and Training,
airman, Hoc Task orce on the Linguist Problem
SUBJECT: DIA Language and Area Studies Program
Jy~
Members of the Intelligence Community Staff have read with great
interest the implementation plan for the DIA Language and Area Studies
Program (U-745/AT-SA) which you sent me on 25 November 1981. As you know,
I had, in respo '52 to your request for comments by 9 December, passed on
by telephone to the IC Staff opinion that your program neither 25X1
duplicated nor ran counter to any other programs in the Community of which
this Staff was aware. In the past two weeks, members of the IC Staff
representing the offices of Assessment and Evaluation (OA&E), Planning
(OP), Community Coordination (0CC), HUMINT Collection (OHC) and, Program
and Budget Coordination (OPBC) have reviewed your program and
implementation plan again. The following represents their collective
views:
a. We particularly welcome the emphasis which your program
gives to "low-density" languages used in areas of potential
instability in the Third World. Concentration on this area would
support, among others, Issue 6 (Comprehensive, Worldwide Intelligence
Foundation: Data Base and Analytical Capabilities); Issue 11 (Surge
Capability); and Issue 12 (Manpower, Talent and Productivity),
identified as Intelligence Challenges in 1985-1990 in the "1985
Intelligence Capabilities Study."
b. We also welcome the "establishment of a central,
standardized DoD file from which individuals with critical langauge
and area skills and knowledge can be quickly identified and located."
..e e expect , t.~-ie A d d,c~.: i "_' F~?rc. o,,, the Linguist Problem is
reconstituted as the Intelligence Community Foreign Language Training
Committee, such a DoD file would be a vital link in a Community-wide
register of individuals with critical language and area skills.
Approved For Release 2007/04/20: CIA-RDP84MOO395ROO0800250035-9
 Approved For Release 2007/04/20: CIA-RDP84M00395R000800250035-9
SUBJECT: DIA Language and Area.Studies Program
c. Of particular interest is your Paragraph 13 (Page 25),
"Cooperation Within the Intelligence Community." Coordination of the
training of Community members in low-density languages is absolutely
essential if valuable resources are to be utilized to the maximum
degree. Coordination of proposed external research on Third World
areas will also prevent duplication of effort and husbanding of
scarce resources. As you know, various elements of the Community
have adopted, if only temporarily, bonus and incentive programs to
encourage the retention and further development of individuals with
expertise in Third World areas with low-density languages. Opinions
as to the efficacy of such programs, including their management and
coordination, vary and we would hope that the new Intelligence
Community Foreign Language Training Committee, as one of its first
tasks, will address these important issues.
Approved For Release 2007/04/20: CIA-RDP84M00395R000800250035-9
 Approved For Release 2007/04/20: CIA-RDP84M00395R000800250035-9
SUBJECT: DIA Language and Area Studies Program
Distribution: DCI/ICS 82-3807
Orig-Addressee
?'1-D/ICS
'^1-DD/ICS
1-D/OCC
1-NFIB/S
c 1-D/OP
' 1-D/OPBC
1-D/OHC
1-D/OA&
1=-0A&E,
1LOA&E Subject
1r0A&E Chrono
l-ICS Registry
DCI/ICS/0A& 1-01/20/82)
Approved For Release 2007/04/20: CIA-RDP84M00395R000800250035-9