Attachment
Paper Prepared in the United States Information
Agency4
While the Department of State and other U.S. Government agencies will
undoubtedly concern themselves with the political, economic and
commercial implications of United States policy toward the countries
of Eastern Europe as enunciated by President Johnson in his recent Lexington,
Virginia speech,5 it is
USIA’s particular
responsibility and opportunity to consider the psychological
implications and to build informational and cultural bridges.
The psychological approach is particularly important in creating the
atmosphere necessary for establishing more substantial and concrete
relations in fields of greatest interest to us. Conversely, the
unrest—intellectual, economic, political and ideological—existing
within the countries of Eastern Europe today provides us with
opportunities to bring these people ideas and information from the
United States.
[Page 58]
We must first seek to reach the opinion
leaders in Eastern Europe with the information we want them to have
and to interpret it for them. Our major goals should be to encourage
liberalization within the countries of Eastern Europe, to further
evolution away from political repression toward societies in which
the leadership responds to the will of the people. Information and
ideas will also help reestablish the traditional ties with the West
which the people of Eastern Europe have been virtually denied during
recent years.
In considering programs in which we now engage, activities which we
envisage for the near future and plans which we have on a long-range
basis, we make first the following general observations:
1. Some of our information and cultural activities—such as, for
instance, the Voice of America—need no agreement by the respective
governments and operate without it. Others do need their permission,
but we believe that our goals can best be achieved without resorting
to the negotiation of formal written agreements. We can probably do
best by operating on an ad hoc basis as we
presently do in Poland, by being flexible in our approach and by
taking advantage of opportunities as they arise.
2. The United States stands to gain both by the exposure of American
intellectuals and opinion leaders to the people of Eastern Europe
and by the exposure of Eastern European men and women of influence
to this country.
3. The Eastern European governments should be made to realize that
the conduct of cultural and informational activities is consistent
with normal friendly relations between countries and that these
activities are our part of a quid-pro-quo for
something they want. There should be at least tacit understanding on
the part of these governments that our diplomatic missions will have
free access to officials and private citizens in the pursuit of
legitimate cultural activities and that the citizens of the
respective countries will have access to the cultural activities of
the U.S. missions (library, film showings, English classes) without
running the risk of harassment by local authorities. The missions of
the Eastern European countries in Washington already enjoy analogous
access here.
4. Our targets are those individuals in Eastern Europe who now and in
the future will guide public opinion and attitudes. These include
party and government officials, managers and “technocrats”, youth
leaders, publicists and the intellectual elite. In communicating
with the intellectual elite—the writers, creative artists and
academicians—we must, however, strike a careful balance: On one
hand, we want to encourage the “dissident” elements, those
avant-gardists who are out of favor but who are bringing new life
into intellectualism in Eastern Europe. On the other hand, we do not
want to give them the kiss of
[Page 59]
death by singling them out for attention. But neither do we want
to ignore the moderates among the intellectuals—as opposed to the
reactionaries—these moderates being responsible for some of the
liberalization which already has been achieved.
Following is a summary of our present activities and future
recommendations:
1. Radio. VOA already broadcasts in
all the Eastern European languages and no increase is contemplated.
However, we are making constant efforts to make our programs more
effective in terms of our present foreign policy objectives. VOA remains the single most important
source of news from the United States and information about it. Now
that jamming has ceased in all countries but Bulgaria, VOA’s potential has greatly
increased.
2. Publications.
a. We should push for agreement for the sale of a prestige American
publication such as Amerika6 (already being distributed in
Poland—32,000 copies, and in the USSR—62,000 copies monthly). This type of publication
would serve in place of commercially-published American periodicals,
unless and until these are freely distributed in Eastern Europe. The
United States would agree to the sale in this country of reciprocal
publications.
b. We will push for publication of a Cultural Bulletin in Hungary and
Czechoslovakia (as we now distribute in the other countries) and of
a Science Bulletin (already being distributed in the USSR)—both in local languages. These
bulletins give up-to-date news of events and accomplishments in the
cultural and technical-scientific fields.
c. We should press to obtain wider circulation of Embassy daily
information bulletins to editors, journalists and government
officials and of press releases to these same individuals and to
others who might be assumed to have special interest in a given
press release.
d. We should continue judicious distribution of presentation
materials—such as publications, films and elements for display—at
the request of local citizens and organizations.
e. We should press officially and privately at all appropriate levels
for sales of our commercial publications—books, periodicals,
newspapers—in the countries of Eastern Europe thereby to achieve a
freer flow of information.
3. Exhibits.
[Page 60]
a. We should continue to participate in international trade fairs in
Eastern Europe and expand to include other trade fairs since they
are an excellent platform from which to show the U.S. flag.
b. We should try to expand our current program of major solo exhibits
such as those in plastics, transportation, communications, graphics,
and medicine which will have been shown already successfully in some
Eastern European countries (Rumania, Poland, Bulgaria).
4. Reading Rooms. In spite of categoric opposition to date by the
Eastern European governments to the establishment of reciprocal
reading rooms (or information centers), we should continue to press
for them. We should stress that such reading rooms are part of
normal diplomatic establishments in countries maintaining friendly
relations with one another.
5. English Teaching Assistance. Since there is great interest in
Eastern Europe in learning English, we believe that we can promote
American ideas through this means. We are doing some of this now
through the publication of the “English Teaching Forum”,7 through loans of language laboratories, and through
participation in English teaching seminars.
6. Television and Radio. We should continue to try to place on
Eastern European TV networks
especially produced and targeted American TV and radio programs, including cultural features and
possibly English teaching materials. We should also encourage
American commercial and educational radio and TV networks to offer appropriate
programs to these countries.
We should likewise encourage exchanges between the Eastern European
International Broadcasting and Television Organization and the
European Broadcasting Union.
7. Exchanges of People. One of the most effective means of
strengthening ties between the people of Eastern Europe and the
United States is an increased and free flow of individuals and
groups of individuals—tourists, relatives, businessmen, teachers and
students, or specialists in various fields visiting their
counterparts. We should push particularly exchanges in the
intellectual and cultural fields among writers, artists,
journalists, educators, and youth leaders.
8. Exchanges with Western Europe. Since, as the President stated, we
must work “. . . to demonstrate that identity of interest and the
prospects of progress for Eastern Europe lie in a wider relationship
with the West”, we should seize every opportunity to encourage the
Western European countries to build similar bridges using methods
delineated above and others which may be available to them.
