Video Transcript

(Narrator)

Thank you, Ambassador Kennedy.

Under Secretary Clifford L. Stanley is the senior policy advisor to the Secretary of Defense on recruitment, career development, pay and benefits for 1.4 million active duty military personnel, 1.3 million Guard and Reserve personnel, 680,000 DoD civilians.

He has to ensure that these millions of Soldiers and civilians are prepared for a full range of varied, complex missions that our current and future security environment requires, which includes building expertise in expertise in foreign languages and in regional and culture skills to complement these foreign language skills. Under Secretary Stanley understands how the government, private sector, and academia can work together.

Before assuming his current position, Dr. Stanley was President of Scholarship America, the nation's largest nonprofit, private-sector scholarship organization and served on the senior leadership team of the University of Pennsylvania.   
He is a retired United States Marine Corps infantry officer, served 33 years in uniform, retiring as a Major General.  His last position was as the Deputy Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, Virginia. Additionally, he served as the Marine Corps Principal Representative to the Joint Requirements Board which supported the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in carrying out his responsibilities.

Under Secretary Stanley is a graduate of South Carolina State University.  He received his Master of Science degree from Johns Hopkins University and his Doctoral Degree from the University of Pennsylvania.   He also holds Doctor of Laws degrees from South Carolina State University and Spalding University.  
Please welcome Dr. Stanley.

(Dr. Clifford Stanley)

“Good morning and thank you very much for the kind introduction."

“I am not going to talk long because I have actually been sitting there too.  So I kind of have a feeling of what you have been through.  So you don’t have to worry about that."

“I have to be honest with you, when Director Panetta and the word came out that you were doing this Summit, I was thinking that the sun, the stars, the moon, and everything was lining up.  Because I said, “I can’t believe this.  I have died and gone to heaven.”  Because the issue of language development is important and so significant for me personally and so I came to the Department of Defense at this time with a bias, and my bias was this.  The bias was that looking at the time I that served in uniform and to have been there that long and to remember from my early beginnings because I have been either blessed or cursed with understanding and embracing certain things about our society."

“From my own perspective it is my perspective, but it is one right now that I am able to share sort of like a bully pulpit, but differently.  Some of you may have heard of some of these things I will allude to and give it some context."

“My mom is from a little place called Juanita, Virginia - near Roanoke.  My father is from a place a called Conway, South Carolina they had a tendency to talk around the kids.  And I had to tell you, they told me I think was about 3 years old at the time and they would like to talk around us.  They sort of had their own little language, a code language.  They spoke pig Latin.  Oda ouya peaksa atinla?"

“I’m not exaggerating.  And so little Clifford figured it out one day, without even thinking about it. "

“So when I talk about coming to the table with a bias.  The bias was even then, as I learned later on that kids can get this."

“And so to Secretary Duncan I am really saying Pre-K through 12.  I am really appreciative right now because I really think this is important.  And as unbelievable as we all know that we learn informally and formally.  The contexts we are in, the environments we are in, and the associations we are in.  And when we get older it is a little harder, but we can still learn it."

“And so that bias is there and so as I joined the Department of Defense again I emphasized this time.  Here is what I was thinking: You only have a few years to do this thing Stanley.  You are not going to have all day to get this platform together, so what are you going to emphasize?  Well, language and education became major platforms because that is the passion spot.  But then as I looked at it that I said ok it’s not going to happen all right now – there is no way it can happen all right now.  I am thinking 30 years out, maybe even 40 years out.  In terms of how you institute something because all the change doesn’t happen overnight.  Admittedly, there is a sense of urgency.  The passion is there to make certain things happen.  And I remember Goldwater-Nichols as they were introducing that how so many people fought this whole notion of joint-ness, where officers and people who served in uniform just had to comingle.  I am oversimplifying it ok, but I am basically saying that it was requirement.  It is required."

“And so my vision is one that the Department of Defense and not just as the Department of Defense but understanding that as the person now responsible for the all volunteer force, responsible now for making sure we set the stage for success in terms of our recruiting pool, expanding that pool and having an invested interest in education, ensuring that we have an expanded, qualified, and educated pool.  Language fits right at the very top of that to ensure that we have the right people, with the right skills, who speak the language, who have nurtured that language."

“Like so many people I came through, same just like everyone else, I took a little Latin, took 5 years of French and I can barely speak it.  Because I didn’t reinforce it.  It just went away.  What I am alluding to right now is the fact that we can do much better at this."

“And so my vision is to have it as a requirement for officer and some enlisted.  If you expect to achieve senior rank within our Services, you better know how to speak languages and I am going to underscore this next statement, cultures.  Languages and cultures."

“From a Department of Defense perspective, what that does for us is it allows us to better master our own cultures."

“Now if you will remember something about the book that you have read, on war it s a really thick book, Clausowitz, and he said that war is an extension of policy.  Everything that happens at State Department; everything that happens from our Commander-in-Chief; everything that happens in terms of the CIA; or anybody else; things that are going on right now, war being an extension of policy.  As a guy who wore that uniform for a few years, you were basically telling me where to go.  And I do not mean that in a pejorative sense.  Alright, but you essentially made that choice."

“We did not, we were not, and have not been, very good at predicting that next place that we are going to fight that war.  And we end up going there sort of catching up as we go there.  That is not the way we do it.  We can do a lot better than that.  And our nation can do a lot better than that.  And education and language can be your part of it."

“And we are doing a lot of things in the Department of Defense; I am going to close with this.  We have one program, for example, and I know I am looking at a few faces out here, our Foreign Area officer Program, for example.  Now we have a great program, but one of the things we are doing is we are taking these smart people, smart people, and give them all of this education, give them the opportunity to learn these languages really well, and then they don’t really have, what I would call, any place to go.  I am now talking about promotions.  Unlike what we have alluded to here, in terms of an opportunity to have officers being selected because of their skill sets and so forth.  We kind of say after we have used you, “we will see you later.”  And unfortunately that is not the way we are going to be mastering or get this language thing together.  We can do much better at this.  And so these are the kinds of things we are working on right now.  I am familiar with our foreign language skills.  I am familiar with the standards that we should be setting.  I know that Pre-K – 12 is it." 

“My issue in this part of my life right now is very much education and language development and moving forward.  I am not going to stand here and bore you to death with the kinds of programs that we have, hopefully we can get to some of that during the Q&A.  But I will tell you right now that this is spot on."

“Thank you very much and that is all I have.”