On the basis of a study forwarded to you earlier this year, we believe there
is wide foreign interest in participating in a Bicentennial event. We also
believe that foreign participation should be related to the inter-action
between this country and the world community. How this can be accomplished
will depend on specific provisions of the exposition plan.
In the past, expositions have tended to attract foreign participation by
pretending that differences between nations did not exist. It might be more
useful to focus instead on cooperative means of reducing those differences.
For this purpose, projects having the dimension of a Bicentennial should be
organized so that their international element contributes to the prospect of
a more peaceful world.
In our view, some of the exposition projects now being considered offer
interesting opportunities in the foreign policy field. We know that other
countries have much to contribute to what we are planning in 1976. We also
believe that the manner in which we organize an
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exposition can give us a better sense of the goals we
hope to achieve, at home and abroad, between 1976 and the year 2000.
Enclosure
Paper Prepared in the Department of State4
1976 Bicentennial Exposition
(Foreign Policy Aspects)
The Secretary of Commerce has posed several inter-related questions on
the holding of an international exposition in 1976 as part of the
Bicentennial. These are:
Whether a decision not to host an exposition for the world to attend
would have unfavorable foreign policy implications;
Whether the organization of such an event would be likely to have an
impact on our foreign relations; and
Whether international participation in a Bicentennial exposition might be
organized in such a way as to clarify U.S. foreign policy aims for the
years 1976–2000.
In answer to the first question; assuming there will be some form of
foreign participation in the Bicentennial, we do not consider it likely
that failure to organize a 1976 exposition will impair our relations
with foreign countries.
It is, of course, more difficult to make prediction about the impact of
exposition projects for 1976 that are still only in the planning stage.
None of these projects have yet received the official sanction of the
Federal Government or the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) in Paris.
Certainly, if such an event is to be held, the role which the U.S.
government plays as host will have to be clearly defined. This will
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have a direct, although
short-term, bearing on our relations with participating foreign
governments and international organizations.
As to the long view, it is generally recognized that, in the past, world
expositions have usually celebrated nonpolitical aspirations and
achievements. Their impact on foreign affairs has not been of great
consequence.
It is believed, however, that some of the exposition projects for 1976
now being examined might serve as a useful way of charting our nation’s
path in the world community during the last quarter of the twentieth
century.
This thought is reinforced by the study, recently forwarded to you, on
the likely interest of some 70 foreign governments in participating in a
Bicentennial exposition.5 The reasons for
this interest are varied. They include a wish to demonstrate bonds of
friendship and historical ties with the U.S. Closely related, even in
the non-commercial type of exposition sanctioned by the BIE, are economic incentives—to promote
foreign trade, travel and investment. Probably most fundamental,
however, is the compelling need to express a special sense of
nationhood.
When all factors are considered, it is believed that a Bicentennial
exposition might serve a useful role if it could help nations project
the cooperative endeavors in the foreign affairs field with which they
hope to be associated in the relatively short period of time between
1976 and 2000.
An effort might be made in the international sector to clarify and
substantially further foreign policy aims of participating countries in
a much more realistic way than has previously been attempted. Perhaps
this could be accomplished through an imaginative project on themes
which are basic to our—and to most nations’—international objectives in
the coming decades.
An exposition might be used to identify common areas of interest. There
are many fields of exploration. Among them are a closer partnership of
nations in practical efforts for peace; for law; for development; for
human rights; for the application of science and technology; for
environmental rescue; for arms control and disarmament, etc. Perhaps
means of actually carrying forward the efforts toward realization of
these goals could be built into the exposition plan through coordinated
elements of national pavilions, joint exhibits, working conferences,
demonstrations and seminars.
Thus, an effort could be made to connect the international component of
the exposition in a more visceral way with operating programs
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of participating governments.
Ideally, the relevance of the exposition, in its foreign affairs aspect,
would be confirmed by definitive solutions to problems between nations
arrived at in years after the project’s conclusion.
Viewed in this light, a 1976 Bicentennial exposition might well serve as
a mirror in which to observe not so much reflections but emerging
relationships between peoples, governments and the lands they inhabit.
Hopefully, a greater sense of common problems to be met by combined
effort will diminish the preoccupation of countries with their “image”
abroad.
These are only a few ingredients of the foreign affairs aspects of the
Bicentennial. There are many more, with interesting ramifications in the
policy field. They suggest, however, that the vehicle of an
exposition—as an inventory of civilization—is still a valid means of
making men focus on where they stand in history. But as the pressures of
history change, so must the vehicle be susceptible to change. It must
adapt itself to the needs of the men who design it.
The above paragraph takes into account several innovative exposition
projects now under consideration by the President’s American Revolution
Bicentennial Commission and the Department of Commerce. It will not be
possible to comment on the foreign policy aspects of these proposals,
vis-à-vis the more conventional but “socially relevant” exposition
projects of other cities, until presentation of the Commerce
Department’s analysis scheduled for May 1, 1970.
