BEFORE THE HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND MOVEMENTS SYMPOSIUM ON 'THE FUTURE OF U. S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01048A000300200009-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 26, 2005
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: July 22, 1968
• Content Type: SPEECH

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UNItED STATES
ADVISORY COMMISSION
ON INFORMATION
Washington, D. C. 20547
BEFORE THE HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS SUBCOMMITTEE
ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND MOVEMENTS
SYMPOSIUM ON "THE FUTURE OF U. S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY"
Remarks by FRANK STANTON, Chairman
United States Advisory Commission on Information
Washington, D. C. July 22, 1868
Mr. Chairman, members of the Subcommittee. You need not search
far to find the assessment of the United States Advisory Commission on
Information on "The Importance of Communications in International Rela-
tions." Twenty-three times in twenty years members of this Commission
have put their names to documents which embodied their view, and their
vision, of that subject. It is my privilege to offer for your appraisal
the published record of this Commissions activity, and in so doing to
convey to you the sentiments of two decade;.
Their most recent expression was in the 23d Report, submitted
in February of this 20th anniversary year of the information, educa-
tional and cultural programs now administered by the United States In-
formation Agency -- the programs over which this Commission is charged
to keep watch. That Report offered four general suggestions of how the
future should proceed from the past.
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The first involved a change in course. "New Directions," we
said, were indicated in both the mission and the organization of United
States public affairs programs abroad. Those programs had taken their
lead from what we knew about the world in the years immediately follow-
ing World War II, and reflected both the hopes and the fears of that
period. But the world has moved on; faster, in this respect, than have
The second involved a change in organization. We began the
post-war period with virtually no foreign public affairs program.
There is now not one, but several. Parts of the program have devolved
to the President, parts to the Secretary of State, parts to the Direc-
tor of the USIA and parts to various others in the governmental estab-
lis'~:nent. While, in our view, the overall effort remains too little,
what there is is fractionalized, "New Dimensions" are required, said
the Commission in its 23d Report, It is time to draw together the
reins now leading to our many-bossed overseas public affairs effort.
"New Duties" are indicated. For the most part, USIA h4s been
assigned what we call the "trumpet" function in foreign affairs, It
has been an outward effort, proceeding from the notion that if we will
but tell the world what vae want it to hear, it will be quick to heed.
We think USS_A should listen, too. Moreover, we think USIA should be
listened to, in the governmental councils at home, It should be an
influence on policy as well as an instrument of it. It seldom is nojti~.
It will never be fully effective in the future unless it is assigned
that role.
The nuts and bolts need tinkering, too.
"New Emphases" should
be put on USIA's approach to it tiip~ nn
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sophisticated world in 1868 than it was in 1g~8. No longer may we ex-
pect the word from Washington to be accepted either intact or in Coto
by media abroad. The message, said the 23d Report, is better delivered
by hand than by handout. The wave of the future must be in greater re-
liance on personal contact: on an official-to-official basis, an
official-to-people basis and a people-to-people basis.
It was the purpose of the Advisory Commission, in preparing the
23d Report, to take "a long step back from the trees and a searching
look at the forest." Not everything came into focus. What we saw con-
vinced us, however, that a further study -- one which would go beyond
our resources, if not beyond our charter -- ought to be undertaken. We
posed 11 questions that might suggest an initial agenda for that re-
search:
"Is the United States Information Agency to be but an agent of
American 'propaganda'?
"Should it be more than an arm of
"Are information, educational and
ble within one agency?
foreign policy?
cultural objectives
compati-
"Were they consolidated outside of the Department of State,
should that body have Cabinet rank?
"Or should the reins be drawn together within a restructured
Department of State?
"Does the responsibility of those who create the foreign policy
of the United States go beyond its declaration?
"Should they have charge of its promulgation as well?
"Should USIA have a hand in information dispersal for govern-
ment agencies beyond the Department of State?
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"Should it play a role in the influence of policy as well as
in its execution?
"Should it help support those private organizations whose over-
seas activities had been subsidized covertly in the past by the federal
government and whose future funding is under study by a committee
chaired by the Secretary of State?
"Do we really intend that USIA work toward "mutual understand-
ing"; is it to help us understand them as well as to help them under-
stand us?"
I would return in closing to the point where we began -- to
"The Importance of Communications in International Relations," Let me
put it this way.
There are four channels through which a nation may conduct its
foreign affairs. The first is diplomacy. The second is trade. The
third is communication. The fourth is force. Three are complementary,
the last is alternative. Indeed, the last alternative, It is indica-
tive of the disordered priorities of our time that 95 percent of our
foreign affairs moneys are devoted to the channel that the other 5 per-
cent is dedicated to avoid.# It seems to me an uneven proposition.
There is no business more crucial- to this hour than the assign-
ment of priorities for the future. It is, I submit, far more important
than the assignment of blame for the past. The subject we discuss to-
day is neither the be-all nor the end-all of that future, but it is
worthy of far greater consideration than it has ever been accorded be-
f ore .
"According to the "The Budget in Brief," published by the Executive
Office of the President/Bureau of the Budget, the federal budget for
Fiscal Year 1869 allocates ;79.8 billion to national defense, $~.5
billion to i~~S'~I~~~~~'""d~? ~~~~~01~~4~J~~~~'~-tt}~on of
the Departmen o to e, e n e S a es n ormat on gency, the
Peace Corps and the foreign aid program.
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