REMARKS OF BRUCE HERSCHENSOHN FORMER DIRECTOR, MOTION PICTURE AND TELEVISION SERVICE UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP74B00415R000100110036-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 28, 2001
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: April 12, 1972
• Content Type: REPORT

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HOLD FOR RELEASE UNTIL 1 P. M., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1972
Remarks of Bruce Herschensohn
Former Director, Motion Picture and Television Service
UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY
WASHINGTON FILM COUNCIL
Barker Hall Dining Room
YWCA Building - 17th & K Streets
1 P. M. , Wednesday, April 12, 1972
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A number of months ago, if someone was to have asked me if there was
any single person within the United States who had the power to veto the
will of the Senate and the House and the Executive Branch of government,
I surely would have said "of course not.
The answer, however, would have been incorrect. The Chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has recently been able to intentionally
accomplish that clear distortion of democracy.
Beyond that, to some it is unthinkable, unpardonable and irreverent to
question the views or the judgments of the man who uses the priviledged
sanctuary of that chair for so much advancement of his own personal and
unrepresentative point-of-view.
But during the past number of years I have heard loud opposition voiced,
hearings conducted and investigations made of Supreme Court Appointees
and officers of the Justice Department including the former Attorney General
and the Acting Attorney General of the United States. No stone has been U'Vro?A.
to question one of their previous decisions or points-of-view.
With the powers he holds so extraordinary, I think it worthy to periodically
examine the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
-- A man who has not voted in favor of one major piece of civil
rights legislation throughout the 1950's and 1960s.
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-- Who feels Israel should return to the Arab States the territories it
gained during the six-day war.
-- Who praises Ho Chi Minh and justifies Khrushchev setting missiles
in Cuba during President Kennedy's administration.
-- Who defends China's entrance into the Korean conflict against us.
-- Who successfully blocked a Senate resolution co-sponsored by liberals,
conservatives, Republicans and Democrats alike, comending the
Sontay raiders in their attempt to free Prisoners-of-War within
North Vietnam.
-- Who defends so-called "wars of national liberation. "
--Who is now attempting to kill the only access to free information for
citizens of closed societies.
-- Who is attempting to cripple the United States Information Agency and
withhold its output from the review of United States citizens,
Should there be advice and consent given to the President for Presidential
appointees? Of course. That is one of the great checks and balances of
'this government. But the man who sits in the most powerful legislative chair
regarding this nation's foreign affairs should not be exempt from review.
It is my feeling that it is time for the American public tar give its own
advice and consent.
His power and his use of that power is staggering. Let us take, for
example, the brief history of the coming extinction of Radio Free Europe
and Radio Liberty, which nothing short of an eleventh-hour appeal can save:
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The House of Representatives passed a bill funding the two radio arms
through Fiscal Year 1973. An overwhelming majority of the Senate signed
a resolution co-sponsored by Senators Humphrey and Percy, advocating
continuation of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. With little, if any
exception, the nation's major newspapers wholeheartedly voiced opposition
to Senator Fulbright's plan to kill the two radio arms. Where does it stand
today? They will die on June 30, 1972 because Senator Fulbright wants them
to die--and as he said in February of this year "take their rightful place in
the graveyard of cold-war relics.
Concurrent with those events, the Senator commissioned the Library of
Congress to make a thorough study of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
and report back to him on its findings. However, when he discovered the
completed Library of Congress reports praised the two radio arms, he
disregarded the report. And that is where the matter stands.,.
Senator Fulbright explains his position by stating, "Is there any reason
to insist upon continuing these activities which I believe to be fundamentally
,inconsistent with the purposes of the President?"
But is Senator Fulbright the judge of the purposes of the President, or
is the President the judge of his purposes?
On March 11, 1972, the President made the following statement: "I am
deeply concerned at the imminent prospect that Radio Free Europe and Radio
Liberty may be compelled to shut down. With the support of the. American
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government and people, these two unique voices of freedom have for many
years been a vital source of uncensored news and commentary for tens of
millions of people in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union... It would be a
tragedy if their light should now be extinguished...
In the mid-sixties I had the rare opportunity to interview over five-
hundred refugees from communist nations across the entire Eurasian
continent from the tip of Scandinavia in the west to the tip of Korea in the
east, The most unanimous repeated praise, almost with a religious fervor
and often with tears, was for the information received from those radio arms
and the Voice of America. My experience was by no means.', unique'.; The~'out-
pouring of communications into the United States Ixxformation Agency within
the last couple of months with world press reports, letters and telegrams
regarding the shock and alarm at the probable extinction of the radio arms,
has been mountainous, Last Week, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize-
winning dissident Russian literary giant voiced his praise for Radio Liberty.
Saying, "if we learn anything about events in our own country, it's from
.Radio Liberty. " When Senator Fulbright wanted to support his view against
those radio arms on the floor of the Senate last March the Sixth, he was
able to have in his possession only one letter of support from overseas -- and
that one being from a retired American Foreign Service Officer whose name
the Senator left anonymous.
Nevertheless, the Senator has, so far, been successful.
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With that record behind him, Senator Fulbright for the first time held
authorization hearings of the United States Information Agency prior to funding
through the Appropriations Committees of the House and the Senate. The
conclusions to which he will arrive are not yet known.
Now, I must separate fact from editorial prophecy. I believe -- and
it's only a belief, that the Senator will attempt to cut the funds of the USIA.
The logical question could well be posed: "Why not wait to see what the
Senator does prescribe for the USIA rather than make a prejudgment based
"
on what you have surmised at the hearings?
It is my concern that once he records his judgment it will be too late
for any affirmative action. If the work of the United States Information Agency
is to be unhampered, it is my opinion that what ever public pressure which
can be exerted, must be exerted now, Pressure for the continuation of
Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe started coming in when`it was already
the eleventh hour. No one would have believed then that he would have acted
against the majority of the Congress. Few would have known that he had
-the power to succeed.
There is one further catch in requesting public interest in the works of
the USIA. While he attempts to pass judgment on the Agency, he is trying to
insure that the taxpayer not be able to review the products of the Agency,
and hence not be able to fairly review his judgment.
If Senator Fulbright believes the products of the USIA are not worth the
taxpayer's money I should think he would be the first to have his decision
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"The public's right to know" has been the phrase so often used by
Senator Fulbright in regard to classified information which, once divulged,
has involved the possible detrement of national security. Is it not, then,
inconsistent that he wants to prohibit "the public's right to know" when it
comes to unclassified material that does.not involve national security?
Why am I so confident that if the public, had continuing access to the
material of the USIA, its budget would be maintained or increased? Because.
I have seen those products. Because I have been witness to some of their
effects. Because I believe that the majority of this country would be proud
of an Agency that receives so much abuse for itself and gives so much reward
for this nation.
How many films of the United States. Information Agency has Senator
Fulbright seen? How many publications of the USIA has he read? How many
hours has the Senator spent before a radio, listening to the VQice of America
or, for that matter, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe? How many
Public Affairs Officers, Information Officers and Cultural Affairs Officers
has he seen at work overseas? How many USIS facilities has he inspected?
I suppose I'll never know. But it was apparent by his questioning at the
hearings, he knows very little about the United States Information Agency.
.Even that would not be significant if he conducted the hearings in an effort to
find out information.
But the style in which he conducted,those hearings seemed to indicate
his purpose was to state his own position and try to find any one piece of
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information that would seem to substantiate his prejudices which he held
prior to those hearings. The Senator seemed to have a preconceived idea
that all communication from the United States government to peoples of other
nations is wrong. Beyond cultural exchanges and libraries, the termination,
or as a fall-back position, the lessening of all other channels, seems to be
his position.
The diminution of the United States Information Agency would be a tragedy
for many peoples of the world -- but most of all for the people of the United
States. Through other sources, we can count on all our troubles and problems,
our setbacks and faults to be told around the world with daily regularity.
Friend and foe alike, find the ailments of America to be in seemingly endless
supply and demand. The taxpayer of this, country should have no fear that
the world is kept ignorant of our faults through hundreds of sources.
There is only one real communications outlet of this government that.. has
as its mission the task of putting hard news, which is the truth of abnormality
- into context with the broader story, which is the truth of normality.
The two, together form a more honest representation of the United States
today then would be received by foreign citizens if they were witness only
to our aberrations.
The balance provided by the United States Information Agency is by no
means enough -- but it is something -- and the small amount it provides is
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The USIA has brought artistry and creativity into government. The
marriage of policy content and quality has been made compatible by its
Director, Mr. Frank Shakespeare. No longer is there sacrifice in one to
make the other work. There has only been compromises of weaknesses
to gain strengths and no longer the other way around.
We are in an era when artistry and communications are finally beginning
to work in concert with the documents in attache cases of diplomats. Perhaps
in a future time, the conflict of ideas will only be fought by creativity rather
than destruction, The USIA is currently our most forward step in that direction.
Outside of the governments of closed societies, who are the voices who
speak against the products of the United States Information Agency? By
.and large, those foreign citizens who oppose the United States.
Within this country, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and
liberals, communicators and artists who are familiar with its products are
not divided on the work of the USIA.
But, unfortunately, its future may ultimately depend not on the judgment
of the implementers of U. S. policy nor on communication experts nor on
,-'artists and creators, but instead on the perception of a single man'--
Senator Fulbright. Will the American people have a knowledgable Voice in
his decision? Not if he can prohibit that knowledgable voice.
If future conflicts can be fought with ideas and communications rather than
with guns and death, then civilization will have taken a giant step forward.
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While communist nations have not simply maintained but have increased
their international communications efforts on a continual basis, for us to
unilaterally disarm in the dissemination of ideas, would be the most
unforgivable surrender of all free men.
Senator Fulbright seems convinced the ideological conflict is over. I
wish he was right. However, I don't recall the date the conflict ended. Was
it the day the Berlin Wall came down? Was it the day guerrilla movements
within Latin America were called back to Cuba? Was it the day North
Vietnamese troops stopped crossing the demilitarized-. -zone? Was it the
day the borders,between communist nations and its neighbors were freely
opened? Or was it the day that the over one hundred radio arms from
communist countries stopped. international broadcasting of their propaganda?
None of that has happened. And so, though in Senator Fulbright's view
the ideological conflict is over when he says it's over, the rest of us should,
perhaps, wait for other signs.
We are a nation impatient for Utopia -- but impatience breeds errors,
With loud voices of self-condemnation rather than self-confidence, we
have become perversely interested in flagelating ourselves and congratulating
others. For over a decade, the advocates of that perversity have stood ready
to flail the United States and its leaders for idealism and hard decisions.
Simultaneously they have eagerly justified and defended the actions of
closed societies, shrouded in their curtained-off "mystique. " Those
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.messages were often applauded by those too young to know.
But lately more and more young people have caught on. They have
started to travel. They have started to compare America -- not with a
non-existent Utopia, as they did in the late 1960's but with the other
nations of the world as they exist in the 1970's. And knowing that this
nation has the greatest potential of reaching Utopia - - they are working for
its arrival. All of this is true not because of the Fulbrights and other voices
of masochism -- but in spite of them.
It is the proof that the continuing revolution which started two hundred
years ago, will overcome future voices of masochism and will, in the
long run, succeed.
Thank you.
Are there any questions?
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TRANSMITTAL SLIP
DATE
12 April 1972
TO:
ROOM NO.
7 D 4+3 Langley
REMARKS:
I thought you might be interested
in the remarks of Bruce Herschensohn
in what I believe is his formal repl
to Sen. Fulbright.
Copies have been sent to:
Angus Thuermer
FRO
ROOM N EXTENSION
3618
FORM NO 24 I REPLACES FORM 36-6
WHICH MAY BE USED.
25X1A
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