AREA TRAINING DEVELOPMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP60-00050A000100140002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 18
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2003
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: September 26, 1955
• Content Type: MF

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26 SEP 1955
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DRAFT..
OSOPH P1'TD ATh
Courses, The Language and 'External
Training School (TITS")
rasing to develcp courses (see model syllabi) on all foreign area. -ate
teliigence iii.?pnific.ance for the lit . States,, These courses wi.l.l
within the .fo1lot: x, categories t
The }Basic Country Survey - a course on each major country and on,
each grouping of two or more minor countries,
The Reg~f.onal Survey w a course on each world region. or broad
/r?ouping of countrries.:
The Current Problems Seminar - a discussion of intelligence prob-
lem... as appropriate, centerinj; on a particular country or region.
The "Americans Abroad" course on each major country or appropriate
grouping of countries:. ?
The "Oamibu. P'rogr " of comprehensive training,, including languages,
on r rs ind vidua.?. country or apnr?oapri_ate grouping of countries,..
Needs Chits entire mission is focussed on foreign developments aid
situations which spring from the actions of foreign peoples responding to
their enuirear ent a e }fence * in order to comprehend, ailticipate, or utilize
these actions, a sound knowledge of the people involved, as well as of the
places and things about them, is indispensable.,
Such knowledge is deficient of course particularly it l aex?icans3
who r til recent years found less need than other major nations for foreign
ar- a aad fan -%ge studies, As a result,, -werican4 in general have a ma ce
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Ct7A1F`ol)T dTIAL
tendency to evaluate and anticipate the responses of foreign peoples on
the basis of purely American criteria.
In CIA? only a small percentage of the personnel concerned with
a particular area are believed to possess the minimum of area ~morwledge or
f. il:iarity essential for efficient fulfillment of their assignmentsE, hvi-
dence of this fact was abundant among the 73 employees who took Professor
courses on the Far East, sponsored by,L afS, in the summer of
19555; he was astounded at the lack of basic knowledge of this area in many
who had official responsibilities connected with it,. Such defici.enctes are
widespread in CIA probably because: (i) functional rather than area knowll,
edge and experience are most often the determining factor in. hiring person-
nel; (2) those with area specializations must often be utilized on jobs
unconcerned with those specializations; and (3) even when employees do hold
positions utilizing their area specializations, such knowledge is seldom
current or balanced enough, or sufficiently geared to intelligence needs;;
for efficient job performance.
Supervisors throughout the agency have no trouble in recalling
ific-end perhaps cost?:---instk:nees of employees with such handicaps.
The good administrator or the ;ood operator is shifted to a desk- or a field
post where these special talents are urgently needed,., but his ignorance of
the area concerned cannot be overcome quickly enough to prevent serious er-
rors of Judgment and. perhaps even the ruin of operations longW--abuildinga
The economist or the scientist who may be an outstanding authority in his
technical field may nevertheless tend to ever-generalize when an empirical
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CoMIDE TTIA:
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CONFThE TLAL
studw of a particular case is called for; that is, he may be entirely
lacking In the area experience necessary to evaluate or handle specific
data or people in a specific locale. A case or desk officer, though he
has excellent experience on a given area, may be even more of a. liability
than the functionalist if he is shifted to another area since he tends to
carry over from one area to the other institutional and cultural patterns
which no longer apply.
Above all, the CIA employee going out to a foreign post must by
the nature of his business fit Into the now environment as smoothly as pos-
sible. In order to be unobtrusive and yet be in a position to promote Ameri-
can objectives, he must possess a broad knowledge of-and a sensitivity to-
the area, which the proposed courses will. go far to supply. Chile some CIA
employees have lived a total of many years in the country to which they are
assigned, few of even these employees are bell ieved to have ever had system-
atic training on their areas, which their increasing job responsibilities
demand. Heretofore, CT-9- as a young and growing organization has sent out
most of its field employees without showing adequate concern for their area
and language training. Correction of this deficiency has been enjoined on
CIA by the Clark Committee report.
Objectives: LETS therefore seeks to develop gradually the area training
courses which a large number of Agency personnel appear to need with - varying
degrees of urgency. The Basic Country and the Regional Survey courses, as
well as the Area Problems Seminar, will be tailored to the general needs of
CONFIDENTIi L
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CO W1DENTIAL
DDI, DD?, and DDS personnel; the Americans Abroad courses and the Omnibus
Program will serve specialized needs of those employees of the three major
components, who are preparing to go to the area concerned.
By definition,, then, these courses will go well beyond
the standard academic country survey. History, people, institutions, geog-
raphy.. and climate will be concisely presented as only the fr&nework for
further specialized discussion. For the DDI employee, current conditions,
trends, and attitudes will be hi lighted to clarify the present intelligence
situation or predictive problems. The student from the DDS will be alerted,
for example, to special characteristics of the economy-in transportation,
communications., food supply, price trends--which may affect his CIA job ac-
tivities. The DDP employee will profit., for example, from attention to
popular attitudes, racial composition of the population, governmental pro-
cesses, and legal system.
For all, who take the courses, the goal will be to develop
a sharper understanding of foreign areas and a greater skill in anticipating
responses within them. In short,. the aim is to develop a keener sensitivity
to -vhhat is professionally significant in foreign areas, for effective intel-
ligence work either within them or concerning them.
Intelligence-oriented area courses are not at present of-
fered anywhere in the United Statea0 For obvious security reasons they must
be offered vi-ithin an. intelligence agency. They are being given increasing
priority by a maturing CIA. With the relaxation of the cold war in the post-
Geneva period, such courses are less of a luxury than before, and yet become
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4
more vital for the increasingly subtle, long-term struggle with the USSR
for the confidence and support of foreign governments and populations
Staff t In order to make the new area training program as efficient
and realistic as possible, it is to be correlated closely with language
training and administered by a staff vehich will tend tovrard bi competency.
Thus, under a proposed reorganization of LETS, the existing language train-
ing program will be coordinated with the new area program under three re-
gional groups: The Western, The Slavic, and The Oriental. This arrangement
for pooling talents should maximize W ZS capabilities for providing coherent
mid long-neglected-training on foreign peoples and their environments.
In addition, experienced personnel from the DDI, DDP, and DDS will be in-
vited as appropriate to lead discussions of the relationships of area con-
siderations to their respective msssionsa
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They Basic Cauntry Survey course examines all principal,
f cet: of a foreign country and its people in the 'Light of American
tel ligence ,.erelO sa Minor countries are ouped appropriately for tors-
e: ce-,e-g -v Scandinaviap crab c? imtries, Pakistan wi.tt. Inct&ab, Port1j,_
th &oa.in, French North t_friea4
Y' Objectives. T be. purpose of the course is strictly professional.--Y..
develop a sensIt;-ivty to what is siifieant in the forci~:, i coctrstry
from an intelligence view-point. The employee is alerted to those aspects
of its physical rake--up, traditions,, attitudes, and car:rent conditions which
safer t his r k. Thus lie is trained more effectively to interpret they t.np-_
ments,s anticipate r??sponses;, and promote CIA operational objectives in the
cciuntry <
a3. The course is intended for al.l intelligence officers
those asii.gnments are concerned with the country to be studied, The course
is slanted toward the professional needs of sersonael engaged in intelligence
vroductio n operations or services, Certain unclassl.f led portions of the
course may be available also to adult dependents.
a. Content, The course consists of three main phases. The first
includes: (a) a sketch of why the country is important to the United
States; (b) a broad consideration of l meric a. policy toward the country
concerned and toward the world region in which it falls- and. (c) specific
consideration of American policy toward the country concerned and toward
CONFIDENTIAL
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