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
Conclusion
Trajectories, Maps, and Lessons from the Past of U.S. Public Diplomacy
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
This book has told a complex story spread across a forty-six-year span. Stepping back from the details of the year-by-year development, it is worth reconsidering the whole in search of the broader patterns of narrative, the big geographic sweep of USIA history, and the lessons that may be derived for those who practice public diplomacy today.
FIVE TRAJECTORIES
The preface to this work identified five core elements of public diplomacy – listening, advocacy, cultural diplomacy, exchange diplomacy, and international broadcasting. Each has – to a greater or lesser extent – been woven into the fabric of this history, but considered in isolation the individual trajectory of each is instructive.
The USIA and listening
The core of the USIA's engagement with world opinion was its network of posts in the field, which continually fed back evidence and assessments of the international mood into the agency system. The USIA's career as a listening agency was further advanced at the time of its foundation by the appointment of Henry Loomis as special assistant to the director. Late in 1954, Loomis founded the USIA's Office of Research and Intelligence. The ORI's specialized research and public opinion analysis reports informed the agency's engagement with the key issues of the day and were of considerable use in alerting the wider administration to the scale of particular problems.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cold War and the United States Information AgencyAmerican Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945–1989, pp. 486 - 504Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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