12. Memorandum From the Deputy Director for Policy and Plans of the
United States Information Agency (Sorensen) to All Heads of Elements and United States
Information Service Posts1
Washington, April 6, 1964
The Mission of the U.S. Information Agency, as defined by the President,
“is to help achieve United States foreign policy objectives.”2
In carrying out this Mission, the President instructed the Agency, among
other things, to “emphasize . . . those aspects of American life and
culture which facilitate sympathetic understanding of United States
policies.”
In order to utilize our limited resources for our most urgent needs, and
to harmonize media output in meeting these needs, priorities for media
output were established by the Agency in July, 1961,3 and revised in December, 1963.4
Priorities are also required for that portion of our output on American
life and culture to assure that we “emphasize . . . those aspects . . .
which facilitate sympathetic understanding of United States policies.”
The American scene is so varied that only conscious and careful
selection for coverage within a framework of priorities can prevent us
from diffusing and dissipating our means.
In many countries there are both damaging gaps in knowledge about the
United States and widely held shibboleths which adversely affect the
achievement of our objectives. Among these stubborn canards are that we
are capitalists in the evil 19th century Marxist sense, that we are
materialistic and without culture, that we are racist, and that we are
in a stage of economic stagnation. The latter supports the corollary
effort of the Communists to represent themselves as the “wave of the
future.”
This memorandum establishes priorities for output on the aspects of
American life and culture which will facilitate achievement of U.S.
foreign policies. These priorities have been approved by the Director
and the Deputy Director.
The attached priority subjects are, of course, not exclusive, but must be
given as full and persuasive treatment in all Media as resources [Page 32] permit before other subjects are
tackled. Submissions to the Quarterly Media—Area Meetings should reflect
these priorities.
The relative efforts in behalf of any of the priorities will, as in the
past, vary with the unfolding of events, the nature of the medium, and
the situation in individual countries.
The responsibility for coordinating Media output on these priority and
other subjects will continue to rest with the Assistant Deputy Director
(Media Content).
Attachment
Paper Prepared in the United States Information
Agency
5
I. RACIAL AND ETHNIC PROGRESS
The United States has the most diverse population in the world. In
the melting pot process, minorities have often suffered in the U.S.,
as they have historically and still do in many countries. But the
U.S. democratic social, political, and economic system has provided
a means for them to join and be absorbed into the main stream of
American life, in all its richness and variety. The last large such
minority—Negro Americans—are now actively in this process of full
integration. Progress will not always be easy, but, with the support
of the Federal Government and a majority of the citizenry, will
continue until the process is complete.
II. ECONOMIC STRENGTH
The U.S. has developed the most powerful and productive economy the
world has ever seen, based on a dynamic balance among business,
labor, and government. Incentives provide opportunity; government
protects against abuses and excess fluctuation of the business
cycle. The U.S. economy continues to grow rapidly, and there is no
evidence that the Soviets will overtake it soon or in the
foreseeable future. The strength and productivity of the U.S.
economy permits the U.S. to provide its people with material
standards and welfare measures which the communists have only
promised; to keep itself and the free [Page 33] world armed at a level adequate to protect
against all forms of attack, and to provide substantial aid to less
developed countries.
III. ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY
Social benefits, strong labor unions, a progressive tax system, broad
capital ownership by the populace, and Government regulatory
agencies contribute to widespread ownership and enjoyment of U.S.
productive wealth. The American system of “capitalism with a
conscience”6 is
far closer in philosophy and practice to the non-coercive Social
Democracy of Western Europe than it is to the earlier capitalistic
concept. Despite this progress, the U.S. seeks still greater
economic opportunity and equality for all its citizens.
IV. SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL STRENGTH
The United States is one of the leaders of the international
scientific community, with a depth and breadth of pure and applied
scientific research unmatched in any other country. After a late
start, the U.S. has taken the lead in space technology and
exploration. The quality of the U.S. educational system also ranks
with that of the most advanced nations. The American system is
unique in the large percentage of its citizens who receive a higher
education. Higher learning is available without regard to economic
or social classes. Claims that the rigid Soviet educational system
is likely soon to overtake the American system in either quality or
quantity are not borne out by the facts or by authoritative
projections for the next decades.
V. CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT, DIVERSITY,
DISTRIBUTION
Drawing upon its native inheritance and the wealth of intellectual,
artistic, philosophic, and religious traditions brought by
immigrants, the U.S. has created its own variegated, dynamic,
serious culture. Its hallmark is freedom: there are no more barriers
to expression in art than there are in speech; there is no cultural
party line imposed from the top. While respecting tradition and
continuing to study and appreciate the classical inheritance,
current American intellectual life, art, music, literature and other
cultural manifestations are characterized by vitality and a will to
experiment. Culture in the United States is not reserved for a
privileged few nor confined to the capital cities; it spans the
breadth of the people and the land. The United States believes in
the freedom to create, not only in the United States but for the
people everywhere, and the free flow of culture among nations.
