WORLD IMAGE OF U.S. AT LOWEST EBB

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600050017-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 1999
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: November 2, 1969
• Content Type: NSPR

EC,0170N, 1411>?
GLOBE Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-001
b. - 237,967.
- 566,377
Experts blame Vietnam, crime, violence
for failure of costly overseas promotions
'Press releases for the literate in India
are something to sell for $2.00 a hundred'
pounds -- the value of the paper they're;
printed on. Press releases for the illiterate
are something to wrap fish in."
This was the blunt observation of one!,
of the speakers at a special conference I
held in New York 10 days ago on Ameri-
ca's performance record in selling its own'
image abroad. And it seemed to summa-
rize a prevailing opinion among those.
present that current marketing techniques
need help.
One hundred communicators, professors
and public relations personnel emphasized;
that the government gets minimal return
for the $250 million spent annually on ev ,
erseas information programs such as the
United States Information 'Agency and its
I subsidiary Voice of America.
There was
general agreement that too
often the U.S. neither says the right thing,
nor uses the right media methods to pro
.mote its foreign policies abroad.. Undue:
reliance on old-fashioned instruments like
CPYRGHT
this wou
change and modernization.
Just a year ago, it House Foreign Af-
fairs Subcommittee chaired by Cong. Fag-
cell concluded that the U.S. image abroad
;'was at its lowest ebb in the last 50 years.
Pour rcason5 were given for this: Viet-
nam, crime and violence in the cities, the
assassinations of the Kennedy brothers,
and Martin Luther King, and "distortions
in the minds of 'foreigners resulting from
the imbalanced coverage of U.S. news by
their own mass media."
One man at the New York conference
at least didn't think the USIA-no matter
how revitalized and transformed - could,
realistically do much about this.
"The simple truth is that the United
States of America is what it is," declared
.Benjamin H. Oehlert, a former U.S. am-,
bassador to Pakistpn, in raising the old
thesis that the best propaganda can never
make up for bad policies or bad news..:
From his experience Oehlert said,
most foreigners seem to have almost the
same suspicions about the USIA that they
have about the CIA.This, combined withI
his view of the dominant impact of pri-
vate American media on foreign attitudes ?,
about the U.S. led him to propose that the
USIA be abolished.
Other speakers urged major changes
to upgrade the agency rather than do"'
away with it. Several stressed the need t
for government policy-makers to consult.:
with USIA officials as equals instead of ,
as mere technicians. The negative impact
abroad of a domestic speech by President
Lyndon Johnson to the effect that the U.S.':,
is stronger than all the rest of the world
put together was cited as a disastrous ex-
ample of what can happen otherwise.
Two of the guests invited to the con-
ference which focussed largely on the
USIA were the agency's director Frank `
Shakespeare and deputy director Henry
Loomis. Neither attended.
Their absence raises further questions
about the public relations instincts and
responsiveness of the agency which is as-
sumed to have mastered these traits thor-
oughly for properly carrying the mores
and moods of America across the ,oceans.,
The conference, first of its kind, f a-
tured people like George Gallup Jr., he
public opinion analyst, and Barry 7 r-
hian, formerly the 'chief( press officer of
the U.S. Mission in Saigon, compar ng'!
notes on the importance of public di o- ,
acy.
In a keynote speech, the single pol ti-
cian present, Cong. . Dante B. Fa ell
(D-Fla.) stated the commonly agreed-,
upon premise: "Today the success or it-;
ure of foreign policy. undertakings is re-;
quently affected more profoundly by
what people say and think than by the
workings of traditional diplomacy."
The main moving force behind the
meeting was Edward' L. l3ernays, the
ambridge man who has been called he
father of public relations. He critic zed
our current overseas public relation as
woefully unimaginative, and sees the
country's image in the'eyes of the w rld
becoming ever more stilted and st re-
otyped as a result.
. He wants an easing of the absolute re=
strictions on USIA programming or ex-
penditures in this country. Though re og
nizing that without this restriction the
agency might originally have become a
mere domestic mouthpiece for an inc m-
bent administration, Bernays feels ?mt
the rules should now be bent to allow the
the official press release is Justa spxall' American public to see what the country
part, of the picture. s av' a out itself broad,,He thinks
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