~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Vietnamese language program closes

MONTEREY - In a sign of shifting global priorities, the Defense Language Institute has graduated its last class of Vietnamese majors because there is less need for military specialists who can speak the language. The Monterey institute, the nation's premier language training center, has discontinued the Vietnamese program it launched in 1954.

The program produced more than 23,000 graduates. At its height in 1969, 4,887 students were enrolled; by 1973, the year of U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam, the program had dwindled to 421 students. The final class, which graduated during a low-key ceremony Thursday, included three Vietnamese language students and five students who specialized in Thai. The audience included alumni and former generals of the South Vietnamese Army.

During the Vietnam War, 295 of the program's graduates were killed in action. Their names were listed in Thursday's program. Vietnamese still will be taught to small groups at the DLI's Washington, D.C., office.

The Associated Press - October 23, 2004