Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- THE COLD WAR AND THE UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY
- Prologue
- 1 Getting the Sheep to Speak
- 2 Mobilizing “the P-Factor”
- 3 In the Shadow of Sputnik
- 4 Inventing Truth
- 5 Maintaining Confidence
- 6 “My Radio Station”
- 7 Surviving Détente
- 8 A New Beginning
- 9 From the “Two-Way” Mandate to the Second Cold War
- 10 “Project Truth”
- 11 Showdown
- Epilogue
- Conclusion
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
Prologue
The Foundations of U.S. Information Overseas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- THE COLD WAR AND THE UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY
- Prologue
- 1 Getting the Sheep to Speak
- 2 Mobilizing “the P-Factor”
- 3 In the Shadow of Sputnik
- 4 Inventing Truth
- 5 Maintaining Confidence
- 6 “My Radio Station”
- 7 Surviving Détente
- 8 A New Beginning
- 9 From the “Two-Way” Mandate to the Second Cold War
- 10 “Project Truth”
- 11 Showdown
- Epilogue
- Conclusion
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
Telling America's Story to the World
Motto of the United States Information Agency, 1953–99In the north of Luxembourg, surrounded by the steep, wooded hills of the Ardennes, lies the small market town of Clervaux. The town is dominated by an imposing castle, one wing of which is home to a lovingly restored photographic exhibition. The show comprises 500 images made by professional and amateur photographers from around the world, documenting the breadth of the universal human experience, encompassing birth, death, love, work, faith, community, and more. Half a century ago this exhibition triumphantly toured the globe under the auspices of the United States government. Audiences from Guatemala City to Moscow waited in line for hours to view it. The exhibition's images associated its sponsors with the universal values of what the show's title called “The Family of Man” and thereby challenged the claim that any one political approach had a monopoly on the celebrating humanity. The restored exhibit is today presented as a tribute to its locally born creator – photographer Edward Steichen – but the exhibit also speaks to the best of the U.S. government's postwar cultural and informational engagement with the world and is a living memorial to the institution that brought it forth: the United States Information Agency.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cold War and the United States Information AgencyAmerican Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945–1989, pp. 1 - 21Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008