Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917–1972, Volume VIII, Public Diplomacy, 1969–1972

97. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Director, Office of Assistant Director, Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, United States Information Agency (Alexander) to the Deputy Director (Loomis)¹

Washington, July 20, 1970

SUBJECT

• Library in Bucharest; Blood, Sweat and Tears in Eastern Europe

REF

• Mr. Halsema’s Telephone Request

Library in Bucharest

We are on the verge of finalizing arrangements for our Library in Bucharest.² The site will be a centrally-located building, containing government offices soon to be vacated, for which we are presently negotiating the terms of a lease. Meanwhile, the Romanians are doing the same for offices in the Hammarskjold Plaza Building in New York. Both libraries will rent for approximately $32,000 a year. We expect both contracts to be signed late in August, at which time we begin renovating the Bucharest site and hope to have our Library ready for opening by the new year.

Blood, Sweat and Tears in Eastern Europe

The Blood, Sweat and Tears group played to over 50,000 predominantly young people in Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland during its recent East European tour.³ The group gave ten performances (four in Yugoslavia, three in Romania and three in Poland) to audiences which displayed extraordinary enthusiasm. Comments from the audiences and in the press were unanimously positive with phrases such as “fantastic,” “of high excellence,” “unbelievable and incredible” and “a revelation” peppering the reviews. All of our Embassies reported that the group left overwhelmingly favorable impressions in each country.

The one sour note of the tour developed in Romania where Romanian officials objected to the “sensuous” body movements of the ensemble and the high-decibel volume of their amplifier. Although the group was prepared to modify certain aspects of its performing technique in order to meet these objections, they felt they could not radically change their performing style in order to accommodate the Romanian’s demands. At that juncture the Romanians unilaterally cancelled the BST’s final performance which was to have been a benefit concert in Ploesti with proceeds going to Romanian flood victims. (The reason for this cancellation was never publicized.) This cancellation followed two performances in Bucharest to wildly enthusiastic audiences which screamed for numerous encores. At the second of these performances the Romanians used Militiamen with police dogs to sweep the stadium in order to get all the spectators to leave. Notwithstanding this sour note, our Embassy noted that in terms of cultural propaganda the BST appearances “made it possible for us to reach a part of our target audiences never touched before.” The Embassy added that the cancellation was clearly a Romanian political reaction to “an unbelievably successful reception for BST by young Romanians.”

The large film crew which accompanied the BST group on its tour filmed certain scenes (e.g., Polish militiamen seeking BST autographs, Romanian militiamen on guard duty during the BST performances) which may cause problems if used in the final film version since filming of uniformed officials is not allowed without prior permission. We have alerted the Cultural Presentations office at the State Department about our views on this subject and I understand from Mark Lewis that his office will review the film at the rough cut state. A copy of my memorandum on this subject is attached.⁴

1. Source: National Archives, RG 306, Director’s Subject Files, 1968–1972, Entry A1–42, Box 10, Field—Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (IAS) 1970. No classification marking.
2. See footnote 4, Document 28.
3. On June 11, the Department of State announced that Blood, Sweat, and Tears planned to perform in Yugoslavia, Romania, and Poland as part of an 11 concert, 26-day tour. (“American Rock Group To Tour 3 Countries In Eastern Europe,” New York Times, June 12, 1970, p. 4) Richardson sent a copy of the New York Times article to Rogers under a June 12 information memorandum, writing: “We hope the Blood, Sweat and Tears tour will be a plus for the Department as well as useful in Eastern Europe.” (National Archives, RG 59, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary, Subject Files of Assistant Secretary John Richardson, 1968–1976, Lots 76D186 and 78D184, Entry P–242, Box 2, Cultural Presentations Program CU/CP 1971)
4. Attached but not printed is Alexander’s July 14 memorandum to Lewis. In it, Alexander commented that he was “happy” to have Lewis’s confirmation that CU would do “everything possible” to ensure that film sequences featuring militiamen in Poland and Romania would not be utilized in the film of the Blood, Sweat, and Tears tour.