Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917–1972, Volume VI, Public Diplomacy, 1961–1963

62. Paper Prepared in the Office of Public Information, United States Information Agency¹

Washington, undated.

FOCUS: BERLIN

The USIA has assigned continuing priority to output in all its media—through films, radio, television and newsreel, materials for press and periodicals, exhibits, pamphlets, libraries and lecture programs—on themes related to the Berlin situation. Purpose has been to inform a worldwide audience of the truth of what has been happening in Berlin and to show how those events relate meaningfully to the lives and aspirations of people everywhere.

Basic political points made in USIA’s output have been four-fold:

The Berlin crisis is “Khrushchev’s crisis”, manufactured in Moscow. The danger to Free Berlin is a danger to free people everywhere, for it is but one point of continuing and global Communist ambitions. The Allies are united in their determination to maintain Free Berlin, but remain ready to negotiate to prevent armed conflict. The August 13 Berlin Sector closing² was a stark confession of the bankruptcy of Communism in East Germany and dramatic evidence of the irresponsibility and desperation of the Soviet-controlled Ulbricht regime.

Following is a rundown of what USIA has done and is doing about the Berlin situation and evidence of use and impact:

RADIO

The Voice of America, broadcasting over 100 hours daily in 36 languages, has dwelt heavily on Berlin developments in its shortwave news coverage, commentaries and features heard by an estimated daily audience of more than 20 million. “Berlin 1961”, a one-hour documentary, was distributed on tape in multiple languages for rebroadcast on overseas medium-wave stations, as was a three-part series, “The Manufactured Crisis” and a seven-part series, “The Berlin Story”. In September alone, VOA aired 80 commentaries and features on the Berlin situation in addition to extensive news coverage.

“The Berlin Story” was widely used abroad. It was carried, for example, during peak listening time by the Persian radio stations in Tehran, Tabriz, Meshed, Isfahan and Khorramshahr. Two networks in the Argentine and 16 stations in Bolivia broadcast the series.

President Kennedy’s address before the UN on September 25³ was broadcast live in English worldwide. It was re-broadcast at peak listening times in 35 other languages throughout the world. These broadcasts provided virtually the only means whereby people behind the Iron and Bamboo curtains could learn of the speech, for the Communists heavily censored their own accounts of it. Tapes of the speech were air-shipped to Agency posts abroad for placement on local medium-wave stations. The President’s earlier Berlin speech, on July 25,⁴ was given the same worldwide treatment.

RIAS, the Agency’s radio station in Berlin, has been on the air 24 hours a day in medium, short and long wave and frequency modulation, telling the truth to the captive East Germans. Seventy-five per cent of the population of the Soviet Zone is known to listen regularly to RIAS despite Communist efforts to jam the broadcasts. In September the voice of RIAS was further strengthened by the construction of antennas beamed to East Germany to permit a five-fold increase of power at night, and the purchase of four mobile studio units to permit on-the-scene coverage in Berlin.

FILMS

USIA has produced 7 documentary films and 24 newsreels on Berlin and distributed them in 35 languages to 106 countries.

The President’s UN address was filmed and 16 mm. prints were air-expressed to 95 countries abroad; a 35 mm. film of the speech highlights, with visual cut-ins to illustrate the President’s words, was distributed worldwide in 29 languages. Earlier, the same procedure was used with the President’s July 25 speech. Upwards of 900 prints of each of these films are currently in circulation abroad.

“Journey Across Berlin”, a 20-minute documentary providing a comprehensive roundup of the Berlin situation, was released worldwide in 30 languages. Showings have had a great impact abroad. Bolivia’s biggest newspaper called it “a sensational documentary”. Rome’s TV showed it to an estimated audience of five million. In Copenhagen and Reykjavik, leading theaters showed it to widely approving audiences. Mogadiscio called for more prints in Arabic and Italian. Rio reported that 1,400 theaters across the country showed it, called for 15 additional Portuguese prints, said “the demand is fantastic”. The film proved so popular in the 2,000-seat Buyuk Theater in Ankara that it was held over for ten days despite customary change of feature film every five days.

Another film, “Promise to History”, a 10-minute documentary based on the President’s July 25 Berlin speech, was seen by 70,000 in Turkey and caused a box office rush in Monrovia, Liberia. “Day of Denial” dealt with the August 13 Sector closing in Berlin and was shown by 1,200 theaters in Brazil and over 1,000 in the Argentine. “They are not Alone”, a 10-minute film of the visit of Vice President Johnson⁵ and the arrival of U.S. troops in Berlin was seen in 80 theaters in Ceylon, for example, by an audience of 350,000 to 400,000, was shown in 1,040 theaters in the Argentine. Others included “Ask Those Who Know”, a 20-minute documentary, pegged to Berlin, on worldwide refugees from Communism and “Hour of Challenge”, an adaptation with illustrative visuals of the President’s UN address.

News stories and features have regularly been placed in USIA’s popular monthly film magazine, “Today”, showing in over 1,300 theaters to an estimated annual audience of 30 million in 30 countries in Africa. Such features included “Berlin Through African Eyes”, a film depicting the Berlin situation as eyewitnessed by visiting Africans.

TELEVISION

In addition to television adaptations of USIA films, the following has been done purely for TV:

“Anatomy of Aggression”, a half-hour documentary linking Communist pressures in Berlin to Communist aggression worldwide, was distributed in Spanish, Portuguese and English to 67 posts in 51 countries. “Focus Berlin, Barbed Wire World”, a quarter-hour documentary, was distributed to 54 posts in 38 countries.

Special on-camera reports from Latin American students in Berlin have been included in several editions of “Panorama Panamericano”, a weekly quarter-hour public affairs TV program in Spanish and Portuguese, which is televised regularly in 36 cities of 18 Latin American countries. The programs reach an estimated total audience of about 12 million Latin Americans weekly.

PRESS & PUBLICATIONS

Since the mounting of Communist pressures against Berlin in mid-summer, USIA’s worldwide press service has been radio-teletyping heavy daily coverage, including features, commentaries, backgrounders and reference material for placement by overseas posts in local newspapers and magazines. This material is filed in English, Spanish and French to 90 key USIA offices where it is translated and adapted for local use in the five major world areas.

The President’s Berlin speeches were teletyped to USIA overseas posts shortly after he finished speaking, with the result that several dozen leading newspapers—from Oslo to Lima, and Karachi to Tokyo—carried the texts in full. Hundreds of other papers carried extensive extracts, summaries and highlights—made possible by rapid USIA-provided translations.

Many of the Agency’s 85 field-produced magazines and newspapers have regularly been carrying illustrated articles dealing with the Berlin question. These publications have an aggregate circulation of 2,780,000 in 55 countries. The Agency’s cartoon continuity, “It’s a Fact”, seen by over 100 million readers of 1,246 newspapers in 56 countries, has carried panels on Berlin. Field posts have received more than 100 different photos of Berlin developments for reproduction and placement locally.

The radio-teletype network has regularly cross-played useful domestic and foreign editorial comment around the world as a means of informing its audience of what their near and distant neighbors are saying about Berlin. Interviews, lectures, speeches, on-the-spot accounts by Asian, African and Latin American visitors to Berlin, columns and other features have also been continuously reported around the world in support of the U.S. position. Opinion surveys demonstrating U.S. and free world firmness on Berlin have been filed around the world.

A special illustrated packet of 15 background articles on the post-war history of Berlin, legal aspects, refugees and Communist oppression in East Berlin was sent to all posts for adaptation and placement. Post dispatches reported very heavy useage.

In addition to placement of the President’s speeches, overseas posts have reported heavy and continuing use of USIA-provided materials.

Some samples:

The Italian illustrated weekly, “Orizzonti”, used 13 Agency-supplied photos. Upper Volta’s only printed newspaper, the weekly “Carrefour Africain”, used four Agency photos to illustrate a summary of the situation. “Correio de Manha”, one of Brazil’s leading dailies, front-paged on consecutive days a two-part series on Berlin. Lahore reported that seven different Agency columns on Berlin appeared in full in seven Urdu-language papers; ten other papers used the USIA feature, “Berlin—Focal Point of International Tension”.

Delhi reported that five local papers carried an Agency backgrounder on East German refugees. A leading Hindi paper serialized the Berlin pamphlet. “La Presse” of Tunis carried three different USIA features; papers in Jidda, Saigon, Tehran and Freetown extensively used Agency articles and photographs; and Chilean newspapers used more than 30 Agency photographs. “El Imparcial”, biggest Guatemala daily, published a series of 12 USIA articles on Berlin. Nairobi reported that Kenyan newspapers used twenty Agency-supplied illustrated articles in September alone.

The President’s speeches were reproduced in illustrated pamphlets. The July 25 speech was distributed in over 300,000 copies in multiple languages abroad. Nearly 200,000 copies of the September 25 speech were issued regionally as pamphlets in two dozen languages by the USIA publications centers in Beirut and Manila.

Dispatches from field posts reported these actions, taken within 24 hours of the event: USIS Belgrade distributed 1,600 copies of the President’s UN speech in Serbo-Croat to Yugoslav opinion leaders; USIS Dacca distributed 30,000 copies in Bengali throughout East Pakistan; USIS Istanbul distributed 5,000 copies of the Turkish translation, Moscow Embassy mailed translations of the text to 3,000 selected people in the USSR.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

USIA information centers, 261 of them in 80 countries, featured special window displays, with photographs, charts and texts, on the Berlin situation; featured books and magazine articles on the subject in their libraries; sponsored lectures, seminars and forums on Berlin.

Some 150 U.S. business firms responded to the USIA suggestion that they distribute pamphlet material to their representatives abroad. They requested some 3,000 copies of the State Department pamphlet, “Background Berlin—1961”.

The Agency has been working with the Berlin city government which has assisted the travel to Berlin of foreign leaders to see the situation for themselves. More than 750 personalities and newsmen from 80 countries were received in Berlin in the six weeks following August 13. A special illustrated Berlin pamphlet, in picture-magazine format with dramatic photographs, is being distributed abroad in some two million copies in 11 languages with USIA assistance.

1. Source: National Archives, RG 306, Director’s Subject Files, 1961, Entry UD WW 142, Box 6, Field Europe Berlin 1961 Sept.–Dec. No classification marking. Bennett sent the paper to all USIA agency heads under a November 17 memorandum, writing: “The attached roundup offers some measure of the combined effort by Agency media and overseas posts to give the world the facts about Khrushchev’s crisis in Berlin. We are sending it to you to help keep you up-to-date on a key Agency information theme and to provide evidence of the use and impact of Agency output on the Berlin situation.” (Ibid.) Another copy is in the National Archives, RG 306, Policy Guidance Files, 1953–1969, Entry UD WW 266, Box 315, Berlin (to 1964).
2. See footnote 3, Document 59.
3. For the text of the President’s address, see Public Papers: Kennedy, 1961, pp. 618–626.
4. The President’s radio and television report to the U.S. people regarding the crisis in Berlin was delivered from the White House at 10 p.m. the evening of July 25. For the text, see ibid., pp. 533–540.
5. The Vice President and Clay visited Bonn and Berlin August 19–20. Johnson’s August 18 departure statement; August 19 Bonn arrival statement; August 19 Berlin arrival statement, remarks at Berlin City Hall, and address before the West Berlin House of Representatives; August 20 departure statement; and August 21 Washington arrival statement are printed in Department of State Bulletin, September 4, 1961, pp. 391–395. For a report on his trip, see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, vol. XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962, Document 121.