The Foreign Service Journal, November 2007

Next came language instruction, intended to enable CORDS partici- pants to communicate well enough to function in Vietnam. By the time we finished, we could find our way around town, order a meal, ask for directions, and work with and train villagers for self-help projects, econo- mic development, public adminis- tration, and so on. Those who show- ed real aptitude in tonal languages were given additional training, while those who had difficulty were allowed to leave early for positions where language mastery was less important. But the bottom line was that every effort was made to afford CORDS personnel the type of in-depth train- ing required for them to be effective. In addition, every member of every class was given instruction in basic self-protection, which meant familiarity with, and at least a limited degree of proficiency in using, the weaponry and communications equipment available to the combined military-civilian CORDS teams at district, province and corps levels. Most classes received this instruction at U.S. military facilities; my group did its self-defense training at Ft. Gordon, Ga. 14 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 7 S P E A K I N G O U T The assignment of FS personnel to PRTs simply for the sake of having the State Department appear to “do its part” doesn’t make much sense.