The assignment of an interpreter with slightly ulterior motives for selected
international visits yields a net gain.
Eduardo S. Sifuentes
The rather obvious time-honored practice of using interpreters assigned
to international exchange delegations as intelligence agents (or,
conversely, of getting intelligence personnel assigned as interpreters)
has both advantages and disadvantages. If the interpreter makes the
most of his intelligence mission, however, and observes some commonsense rules of behavior, there can be a net advantage both in the direct
yield of information from such an assignment and in the improvement of
an asset in the person of the interpreter. The advantage in immediate
information is likely to be limited; the improvement of personal assets
can be considerable.
In discussing these advantages we shall assume that the interpreter can
be given adequate intelligence training and briefing (or that the
intelligence officer is competent as an interpreter, and not
compromised). We shall ignore the technical aspects of the interpreter's
art and the occupational diseases, nervous indigestion and
undernourishment, contracted in his attempts to gulp food while
translating banquet conversations. We shall examine his domestic and
foreign assignments separately: the advantages and disadvantages of
assignment at home and abroad often coincide, but there are also
important differences.
Gains on Home Ground
Let us look first at the domestic assignment, where the interpreter is on
his own native soil, attached to a group of foreign visitors or delegates.
As the communications link between the visitors and their strange
surroundings, he possesses a strong psychological advantage in his
available option to confine himself strictly to the business portions of
the trip, leaving the visitors to fend for themselves in their spare time.
Even if they have their own interpreter along, there are a number of
matters--shopping, local customs, the availability of services--in which it
would be convenient for them to have his help.
Recognizing their dependence on his cooperation for the smooth
progress of their visit, they will usually do their best to establish, if not a
cordial friendship, at least a good working relationship. A great deal
depends on the interpreter himself, of course, but normal friendly
overtures on his part will usually be met at least half way by the visitors.
Just by being relaxed and perhaps willing to do a small extra favor here
and there, he can become accepted as an indispensable member of
their family group. An excellent way to break down reserve and promote
a free exchange of ideas is to invite the group to his home. (It does not
pay for him to be so obliging that he becomes a valet, and it is advisable
to establish this principle early in the game.)
Continued friendly gestures are likely to result in time in the
establishment of a genuine rapport, with its attendant benefits. If the
interpreter is knowledgeable in the field of the official discussions which
he is interpreting, he can clarify in private discussions with the visitors
some of the ambiguous or contradictory statements made during the
official talks. Without appearing too curious or asking too many
questions of intelligence purport (he should be particularly circumspect
at the outset of a trip, when his bona fides is subject to greatest
suspicion), he will sometimes be able to get definitive statements in
private which are lacking in the confusion and interruptions of official
discussions. It is here that he may bring to bear his training or natural
bent for elicitation, whether for official purposes or for his own
education.
At the same time the interpreter himself is the target of numerous
questions which reveal both intelligence and personal interests on the
part of his charges. Their intelligence questions may indicate gaps in
p g ellig e que y in e g p
their own service's information, and their personal ones are more broadly
useful in showing the preconceived picture of this country that the
visitors have brought with them. Although they often realize that their
questions betray a lack of sophistication, they are willing to sacrifice
dignity to satisfy their burning curiosity. Honest, natural answers,
despite the apparent rudeness of some of the questions ("How much do
you make? How much are you in debt?"), strengthen the interpreter's
position and may lead to even more revealing questions. If the visitors
are from a controlled society the very opportunity to put certain kinds of
questions is a luxury they cannot afford at home. And when one of them
is alone with the interpreter he often shows eagerness to ask questions
of a kind not brought up in group discussions.
In all these discussions the interpreter is gaining knowledge which no
academic training can give him. First, he is given a glimpse of his own
country through the warped glass of foreign misconceptions and
propaganda. The image will not be fully that which hostile propagandists
have sought to fix, but it will show where they have succeeded and
where they have failed. Second, he learns how to get ideas across to
these representatives of another culture, learns where he must explain
at length and where he can make a telling point in just a few words.
Finally, as a sort of synthesis of his experience, he can arrive at some
conclusions concerning the visitors' inner thought processes, often quite
alien to his own.
In addition to gaining these insights, the interpreter makes what may
prove to be useful contacts in future assignments. How potentially
useful depends on the spirit in which he parts company with the
visitors, but anything short of outright hostility is likely to make them of
some value.
Drawbacks and Limitations
The chief disadvantages of domestic assignment for the agentinterpreter lie in the shallowness of his cover. Visitors from Communist
countries, in particular, start with a strong presumption that any
interpreter is at least working hand in glove with local intelligence or
security groups if he is not actually a member of one. The barrier thus
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imposed in the initial stages of a trip may break down as rapport is
established, but there always remains a lurking suspicion that the
interpreter is not what he seems, and the visitors are always on guard
against the slightest hint of prying or propaganda. Furthermore, they
collect a large file of biographic information. on him in the course of their
association, material which is certainly delivered to their own security
forces. Matching this up with some earlier trace they may have of him
may blow his organizational connections.
Another limiting factor is that foreign delegations, particularly from Bloc
countries, are drawn from the elite and so not typical of the peoples
they represent. The impressions the interpreter receives concerning their
beliefs and feelings may not be applicable to their countrymen at home.
Though the delegation members may not be as orthodox abroad as on
their home ground, where conformity is obligatory, they have a more
compelling stake in the regime than the average citizen.
The last disadvantage to be noted depends in large part on the
capabilities and limitations of the interpreter himself. It lies in the
difficulty of retaining facts and figures in one's head while performing
the complicated task of translation. It is possible to store in one's mind
only a limited number of figures before the whole delicate structure of
memory disintegrates into a jumble of confused statistics which are of
no use to anyone. While it is permissible to take notes during long
speeches where it is obviously impossible to remember everything said
between pauses, this device is not appropriate for short conversations.
If the interpreter is caught frantically scribbling notes immediately after
a visitor has casually let drop the annual production of some electronic
gadget, his usefulness to intelligence has largely evaporated.
Furthermore, he has pinpointed an area of intelligence interest. A dash
to the toilet after some particularly significant slip on the part of a visitor
can sometimes provide privacy for note taking, but too frequent use of
this dodge excites embarrassing commiseration or, more often,
suspicion.
On the Opponent's Home Field
The foreign assignment differs in many respects from the domestic. On
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the profit side, in addition to getting the same positive intelligence take
as the domestic interpreter, the interpreter abroad can be an observer,
reporting on things which have nothing to do with his linguistic job. If he
has had proper training, such observations can be quite valuable.
Furthermore, he can acquire a feeling for the country and a sense of
what intelligence activities can be undertaken and what cannot. He may,
for example, attempt photography in areas on the borderline of
legitimacy just to test reaction, or take a stroll before going to bed in
order to check surveillance patterns. If he is an area specialist, the trip
provides an education which no amount of book learning could give. He
confirms certain of his preconceptions while discarding others, and he
returns with a far more solid grasp on his specialty than he had
previously. The confidence thus gained from firsthand experience is a
very valuable asset if he is to be involved in operations against the
country in the future.
On the negative side we find all the disadvantages noted in the
domestic assignment: the interpreter accompanying a delegation abroad
is, if anything, under sharper scrutiny as a probable agent, and should
be prepared for a more or less clandestine search of his bagage; his
memory is still strained to hold on to useful data; his official foreign
contacts are the most loyal stalwarts of the regime; his digestion
deteriorates. In addition, he finds himself a prisoner of his cover
profession. Whereas the foreign delegation's dependence on him during
his domestic assignment led to enlightening discussions, his own party's
need for his help, not only on official matters but on everything that
requires communication during every waking hour, now obliges him to
spend all of his time with his own countrymen. He becomes a
communications machine, unable to introduce any of his own ideas or
queries into the conversations. Contacts are pretty well limited to those
which the hosts have thoughtfully provided for about eighteen out of
every twenty-four hours, and a delegation of six-foot Americans
accompanied by watchful hosts is not the sort of group which a
dissident member of a closed society is likely to approach in order to
unload his true feelings about the regime.
Finally, even the diffident admissions of ignorance implicit in questions
put to the interpreter on his own home ground are lacking when he goes
abroad. Particularly in Communist countries the officials he contacts
need to show that they have not been contaminated by his ideology;
each tries to out-party-line the rest, less as an effort (usually counterproductive) to influence the visiting delegation than as a demonstration
pr ) t e visiting deleg
of his own orthodoxy for the benefit of his comrades. This compulsion
precludes any serious discussion about either the hosts' or the visitors'
country. During such exhibitions of chest-beating the interpreter is put
on his mettle to hold his temper and restrain himself from active
participation in the conversation.
Criteria and Other Considerations
From the foregoing we may conclude that the principal intelligence value
of the domestic assignment lies in the psychological field--exploration of
mental attitudes, blind spots, thought processes, strength and
weakness of beliefs--whereas the value of the foreign assignment
derives from first-hand experience in the country and from the collection
of observable operational and positive intelligence. It is perhaps
unnecessary to warn that the interpreter can not fulfill the classic agent
roles of recruiting spy nets, agitating for revolution, or personally stealing
the master war plans. He will pay his way by less dramatic acts.
Here are some of the factors that should be taken into consideration in
recruiting an interpreter for an intelligence mission or utilizing an existing
intelligence asset in interpreter capacity. First, it must be borne in mind
that almost any interpreter will be the target of intense scrutiny by the
opposition, particularly in Bloc countries. The prevailing political climate
today, however, is such that the interpreter's official position as part of a
delegation protects him from arbitrary arrest, except perhaps in
Communist China. The rest of the Bloc is so committed to East-West
exchanges that it would not jeopardize the program for one rather
insignificant intelligence fish.
Second, the interpreter should not be the only briefed member of the
delegation going abroad. As we have shown, the interpreter has his
hands full with his official duties and has little opportunity for taking
notes. The official delegate, however, has good opportunities and
excellent cover for taking notes. In addition, being presumably an expert
in the field of the discussions, he can recognize significant material
better than the interpreter.
Third, the size of the delegation is an extremely important factor
affecting the usefulness of both domestic and: foreign interpreter
assignments. A delegation of more than six or seven people imposes
such a burden on the interpreter that he has no time for an intelligence
mission. He is kept continually busy rounding up strays, making travel
reservations, getting people settled in hotels, and generally playing
nurse-maid. The best possible delegation would consist of one very lazy
man who neither demanded nor rejected the presence of the interpreter.
Finally, the itinerary itself must be considered. On domestic assignments
the most important thing is a relaxed schedule which will give the
visitors enough spare time to observe their surroundings and ask
questions about non-official matters. On the foreign assignment
perhaps the most important consideration is the previous accessibility
of the areas to be visited. If the area is completely off the beaten track
or had previously been closed to foreigners, there is excellent reason to
employ a trained observer as interpreter. Even the standard tourist trips,
however, may provide useful information if the interpreter is alert.
This paper has been oriented primarily towards the interpreter-agent
question as it obtains in visits to or from the Soviet Bloc, but many of
the same factors are valid for neutralist or uncommitted areas. With the
steady increase in cultural and professional exchanges among most
countries of the world, opportunities for placing interpreters have also
expanded. The expansion is not only making more experience and
training available but is affording better cover for interpreters with
intelligence objectives. Perhaps more of them should be given such
objectives, despite the drawbacks we have noted.
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