35. Memorandum From the Deputy Director for Policy and Plans, United States Information Agency (Sorensen) to the Deputy Director (Wilson)1
SUBJECT
- Short-cuts for Appraising Effectiveness of USIS Posts
To facilitate obtaining a fast and accurate appraisal of the effectiveness of a USIS post, I suggest you:
1. Pay an unannounced visit to the Library. How many patrons are there? Are they mostly children or are they obviously members of the Post’s target audiences?
2. Check the proportion of Spanish (in Brazil, Portuguese)-language and English-language books on the shelves. Look at the check-out cards in the backs of the books to determine what kinds of books are circulating. Only fiction, or substantive (Americana, biography, political science, communism, and American literature) books as well? Mostly in the local languages, or in English as well?
3. Is the Library conveniently accessible to our principal target audiences?
4. Take a look at Film Section records. Are substantive as well as entertainment films circulating? Who are our viewers—mostly children or members of target audiences?
5. Observe the relationships between the Public Affairs Officer and members of his staff. Does the Public Affairs Officer encourage you to see his colleagues or are you isolated from them?
6. See the Ambassador, the Deputy Chief of Mission, the ICA Mission Chief and other senior Embassy officials alone. They will be more candid if the Public Affairs Officer is not present.
7. Look at what the post distributes to the local newspapers from the Wireless File? Is there a careful selection, editing and rewriting of items? How fast does the material move?
8. Ask local editors for their views on the value of our press output and the quality of our translations.
9. Look at the type of principal contacts of the Public Affairs Officer, Information Officer and Cultural Officer. Are they key representatives [Page 110] of the Post’s target audiences, or are they mostly pro-American, English speaking “tame Latinos?”
10. Look into the relationship of the Post’s principal, i.e., most time consuming, activities and the Country Plan. Is the Post devoting most of its effort to achievement of specific objectives or is it squandering too much time on activities which are generally useful but only peripheral in terms of our political and psychological objectives?
- Source: National Archives, RG 306, Director’s Subject Files, 1961, Entry UD WW 142, Box 7, Policy and Plans—General (IOP) 1961 January–June. No classification marking. A copy was sent to Murrow. Wilson initialed the memorandum, indicating that he had seen it.↩