56. Editorial Note
The Senate confirmed the nomination of United States Information Agency (USIA) Director-Designate Leonard Marks on July 27, 1965, but he did not assume his duties until September 1, 1965. On August 31, Associate Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark administered the oath of office to Marks at a ceremony held in the Rose Garden at the White House. In his remarks made during the ceremony, President Lyndon B. Johnson thanked outgoing Director Carl Rowan for his service and welcomed Marks. In doing so, Johnson stressed: “Truth wears no uniform and bears no flag. But it is the most loyal ally that freedom knows. It is the mission, therefore, of the USIA to be always loyal and always faithful and always vigilant to the course of the truth.
“The USIA now has an opportunity, I think, without parallel in its entire history. The truth about America today, I believe, if you tell it, is stirring and exciting. This is a country that is succeeding. This is a country that is moving forward. This is a country that is confident of its course, a country more devoted than it has ever been to the cause of mankind everywhere.
“But truth about America is essentially the truth about freedom—and the story of freedom is the story we want to tell the world.” (Public Papers: Johnson, 1965, Book II, pages 955–956)
The following day, John Chancellor, a prominent journalist with NBC News, joined Marks at the United States Information Agency [Page 162] when he assumed the Directorship of the Voice of America. Over a month earlier, during a July 28, news conference, President Johnson stated that Chancellor “is a man whose voice and whose face and whose mind is known to this country and to most of the entire world.” According to Johnson, “Now, what America is, and was, and hopes to stand for as an important national asset, telling the truth to this world, telling an exciting story, is the Voice of America,” and with Chancellor, he was “satisfied that the Voice of America will be in imaginative, competent, reliable, and always truthful hands.” (Ibid., page 798)
In brief remarks Chancellor made on his first day as the Voice of America Director, he stated: “The news operation of the Voice of America, as I knew it as a listener abroad, and as I have come to know it in recent weeks, is a professional news operation of high quality. It functions well, and its standards of excellence are acknowledged abroad. That is as it should be. We do not serve the needs of an American audience; our competition is found in the products of other countries. Some of these are virtuous, some are not. There is, therefore, a particular responsibility placed upon the news department of the Voice: our product must be deadly accurate, and it must be as fast as yesterday’s rumor or today’s slander. Speed is essential to any healthy and vigorous news operation; but to us, recognizing as we do the political realities of our time, speed is vital, for we are deeply involved in these political realities, representing, as we do, the official voice of the Government we serve. If a commercial broadcaster makes a mistake, he can run a correction. If we stumble, America stumbles. It is fundamental to our performance that we acknowledge this responsibility. It places upon us a special burden of truth and accuracy. Our task is to make the policies of the Government of the United States clearly and explicitly understood around the world, with no chance for any misunderstandings. (Remarks made by John Chancellor on Assuming Directorship of the Voice of America, September 1, 1965; National Archives, RG 306, Director’s Files: 1962–1965, Entry UD WW 191, Box 13, IAE 1965, Broadcasting (IBS))