Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, National Security Affairs, Volume II, Part 2

A/MS files, lot 54 D 291, “United States International Information Agency”

Memorandum by the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Administration (Humelsine) to the Regional Bureau Executive Directors¹

[Washington,] January 30, 1952.

• Subject:
• Strengthening U.S. International Information Program

Several background papers were prepared to point up the significant issues which led to the issuance of Departmental Announcement No. 4 “Establishment of the United States International Information Administration (IIA)” on January 16, 1952.² These papers included:

1. A summary statement of the Department of State program for strengthening U.S. international information.

2. A detailed staff paper regarding the U.S. International Information and Educational Exchange Program.

These papers describe the nature and purpose of the steps which are being taken to provide more effective administration of the international information program. The Secretary approved the changes being made in the information program on the basis of the analysis contained in these papers.

Copies of these documents are attached for your information and use as background material during the period of transition to the new form of organization. They should be helpful in providing general guidance regarding the new organization and in amplifying the Departmental Announcement, which remains the authoritative statement on this subject. These papers do not, of course, provide precise blueprints of all operating relationships. The details will be worked out gradually within the framework of these basic papers.

Carlisle H. Humelsine

[Attachment A]

Summary Statement Prepared in the Department of State

[Washington, undated.]

Program for Strengthening U.S. International Information

summary

I. Purposes

1. To improve the USIE program by a greater centralization of responsibility for its planning and execution in the Administrator of a U.S. International Information Administration (IIA) to be established as a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of State.

2. To maintain and to further strengthen the integration of the U.S. international information and educational exchange activities with the conduct of U.S. foreign relations generally.

3. To make available to the Secretary and top officers of the Department expert advice on information problems and information considerations in the development of foreign policy on a sounder basis by freeing the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs of any responsibility for the planning and execution of the USIE program. (This will also assist in the accomplishment of No. 2 above.)

II. Background

Present arrangements within the Department for the conduct of information activities have the following limitations:

1. Responsibility for the USIE program is too broadly diffused within the Department of State.

2. Responsibility for country program planning is discharged by the Regional Bureaus, which are not accountable to the top management of the program.

3. Responsibility for the supervision of field operations is located in the Regional Bureaus, separated from the top management of the program and from the media facilities.

4. The General Manager has to rely entirely upon the central management and service facilities of the Department of State, which are not subject to his control.

5. The USIE organization is not upon an adequate footing in terms either of its status within the Department and some of the missions abroad or its internal structure.

6. The present organization places an impossible burden on the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs who, in addition to his responsibilities as policy adviser to the Secretary and as head of the Domestic Public Affairs program, must act as head of the USIE program in many matters affecting Congress, the public, and other departments of the government.

III. Proposals

1. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs

The Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs will continue to serve as the officer responsible for advising the Secretary on opinion and attitude factors in the development of foreign policy, for bringing information factors to bear on top policy discussions and decisions, for providing to the foreign information program guidance based upon policy decisions at the highest levels in the Department, and for directing programs designed to keep the U.S. public informed on international problems and programs of the Department of State including the international information program. However, he will be relieved of responsibility for supervising the USIE program and will delegate responsibility for domestic information operations.

2. USIIA Administrator

The International Information Administration will be established within the Department of State. It will be so designed as to strengthen the administration of the program, provide greater flexibility of operations and make it possible to hold the head of the program accountable for its operations.

The IIA Administrator will be given general authority to carry out the responsibilities of the Secretary of State in the field of international information and educational exchange.

His responsibilities for the USIE program will include those now discharged by the USIE General Manager, plus certain others now placed elsewhere in the Department. He will also assume the present USIE responsibilities of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs except for an over-all role in the field of information policy described above.

3. Foreign Information Policy

Arrangements for the development of foreign information policy guidance will be such as to assure that the present integration of such policy with U.S. foreign policy in other fields is maintained and strengthened.

The Regional Bureaus and the other substantive areas of the Department will continue to state the approved foreign policies and to advise on the development of information policy applicable to their areas exactly as is now the case.

The Administrator of IIA will be responsible for: (1) developing information policies in support of approved foreign policies; and (2) assuring that IIA programs follow approved policy guidances. In developing information policies, IIA will be provided with broad guidance by the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, who will act as the Secretary’s representative in (1) assuring that information of approved foreign policies is promptly, fully and currently available to IIA in the formulation of its information policy guidance and (2) approving, or seeking the approval of the Secretary of major IIA policy guidances.

Although the size of the Public Affairs staffs in the Regional Bureaus will be reduced in line with the reduction in the total Regional Bureau information functions, staffs will be maintained for performance of the continuing Bureau functions with respect to information policy and programs, including advice to Bureau officers upon foreign public attitude considerations in the development of foreign policy.

4. Program Planning

Responsibility for planning country information programs will be transferred from the Regional Bureaus to IIA.

Responsibility for planning the information program for each country, under the general world-wide plan developed by the USIE General Manager, is now vested in the Regional Bureaus, an arrangement which restricts the General Manager seriously in the discharge of his responsibility for the program as a whole. This arrangement was dictated by the basic principles upon which the Department was reorganized in 1949³ and in fact might be adequate for a smaller and more stable program. In the situation which has now developed, however, the greater flexibility of centralized program planning for all areas of the world is required. Country program plans will be submitted for the advice and consideration of the Regional Bureaus, which in the event of differences shall have the right of appeal.

“Centralized” program planning should be understood to refer to the planning functions which must be discharged within the Department; full reliance will be placed upon the mission in developing the program within each country.

5. Supervision of Field Operations

Responsibility for the supervision of field operations will be transferred from the Regional Bureaus to the IIA.

Under the present arrangement responsibility for program operations is divided between IE for the media facilities and the Regional Bureaus for field activities. Unified direction of an integrated program and speed and flexibility in the supervision and support of field programs can best be produced by bringing together under the Administrator the media facilities, control of funds and personnel and responsibility for supervision of information planning and operations in the field.

6. Administrative Support and Services

Adequate services will be provided to IIA by strengthening the central facilities of the Department where required or by establishing special facilities within IIA.

Departmental services provided to the IIA program have been reviewed in order to determine the action which should be taken in each field. It is intended to assure the provision of services in such a manner that the specialized requirements of IIA will be met promptly and the responsibility of the Administrator for the operations of the program will not be impaired, at the same time maintaining uniformity of policy and practice where such uniformity is essential to the most effective conduct of the foreign affairs of the United States, and retaining centralized facilities where important economies can be effected without impairing service for IIA.

Departmental services in the field of personnel, communications, security, building operations, language, and other services will be utilized by IIA.

Personnel operations will be conducted by the central facilities of the Department, but modifications in existing policies on appointment, promotion, salary, transfer, etc., and special procedural arrangements will be made wherever such adaptations are necessary in the interests of effective operation of the IIA program. In order to assure that full attention is given to the special needs and problems of the IIA program, a special IIA personnel unit will be established within the Departmental personnel office.

The Regional Bureaus will review the IIA selection of the chief Public Affairs Officer at each post and will advise on the selection of his principal subordinates.

IIA will prepare, present and justify its own budget and manage its own financial affairs, subject to such review by the Deputy Under Secretary for administration as is necessary to assure compliance with general departmental budgetary and fiscal policies and that adequate financial arrangements affecting other areas of the Department have been made.

A special IIA unit within CS will handle IIA procurement requirements.

7. Conduct of USIIA Programs at Post Level

Integration of the information program within the total conduct of foreign relations at the country level will be assured by maintaining the authority of the U.S. Mission Chief over the program, with the Public Affairs Officer serving as the chief of one of his major sections. The Mission Chief will be responsible for assuring that the IIA program works cooperatively with the other operating U.S. programs within his country and provides information support to such programs.

Administrative support will be provided to IIA by the Administrative Office of the mission, although, with the approval of the chief of mission, special arrangements may be made to meet requirements at particular posts.

8. Salary Legislation

The Department will propose, for early submission to Congress, legislation authorizing more appropriate salaries for the key IIA positions.

9. A Single U.S. International Information Program

The IIA has been so designed as to provide a framework for the inclusion of all U.S. international information and educational exchange activities in a unified program, although the establishment of IIA is being undertaken without respect to whether it is possible to effect the consolidation of any such activities at the present time.

[Attachment B]

Staff Paper Prepared in the Department of State

[Washington, undated.]

Program for Strengthening U.S. International Information

[Here follow a table of contents and a list of tabs.]

i. introduction

The present international situation demands the development of an adequate program of international information in support of U.S. national objectives. The existing means for the planning and execution of such a program should be strengthened. This paper and the attachments hereto set forth measures which are being undertaken by the Department of State to this end.

ii. background of present information programs

During World War II, the United States executed large programs of propaganda and psychological warfare. Although we were lacking in experience and made many mistakes in the early days, we developed considerable skill and effectiveness in these areas in the course of the war.

After the end of the war, the propaganda program of the Office of War Information was transferred to the Department of State and very largely liquidated. A greatly reduced program undertook the task of presenting “a full and fair picture of the United States” to the rest of the world. When it became apparent that Russia intended to conduct the grossest kind of world-wide propaganda against the United States, Congress enacted the Smith-Mundt Act (Public Law 402, 80th Congress, 1948) in order to provide the machinery for the United States to counteract and overcome the effect of this campaign.

The program authorized under Public Law 402 was maintained on a very limited scale until the President directed the Secretary of State in the spring of 1950 to prepare a vigorous “Campaign of Truth” as a U.S. offensive in the psychological field. Funds appropriated in the fall of 1950 afforded a basis for rapid expansion of the program; policy-wise it had already moved far from the “full and fair picture” basis.

The USIE program, which at its lowest point in 1948 employed fewer than 1,500 persons throughout the world and was operating at a level of less than $20,000,000 per year, has now been built up to a program which calls for a staff of 8,900 and a level of operations of approximately $100,000,000 to be reached during the current fiscal year. Even the larger program of today is below the level required for a full fledged U.S. propaganda program on an all-out “cold war” basis.

After 1948 upon Congressional initiative, ECA developed in Western Europe an information program designed to meet the Congressional requirement that the U.S. should receive full credit for its contributions to the European economy. With the intensification of the cold war, however, and the transition of economic assistance programs into programs of military alliance and military assistance, the informational objectives logically to be associated with these programs have become increasingly identified with the objectives of the USIE program under the “Campaign of Truth.”

iii. critique of present USIE organization

The present position of the U.S. in the field of propaganda has been greatly strengthened in the last two years. Arrangements for over-all mobilization and coordination in the psychological field have been improved by establishment of the Psychological Strategy Board; the USIE program has been rapidly expanded and its operational and propaganda methods radically adjusted to meet present requirements; the policy guidance process within the Department of State and interdepartmentally has been much improved; within the Department of State and elsewhere there is a more acute realization that “action is the best propaganda”; the work of the Psychological Operations Coordinating Committee has done much to develop a common understanding among agencies concerned with propaganda problems and has stimulated extensive joint action by these agencies; the ECA information program has been strengthened and has been adjusted in the direction of the propaganda methods now employed in the USIE program; close coordination of the USIE and ECA information programs in the field has been achieved.

There remain, however, areas of weakness in our international information programs which require attention. With respect to the USIE program, the principal problems are as follows:

1. Responsibility for the USIE program is too broadly diffused within the Department of State.

The present plan of organization makes it impossible to hold any one officer fully responsible for the success of the program. This condition results from applying to this program in too literal a fashion the principles underlying the reorganization of the Department carried out in 1949. The arrangements developed at that time may have been adequate for a smaller and more stable program, but they fail to provide the centralized authority and accountability and the flexibility of operations required for the period ahead.

The major aspects of this diffusion of responsibility are described as separate items below.

2. Responsibility for country program planning is discharged by the Regional Bureaus, which are not accountable to the top management of the program.

Although the General Manager of the USIE program is responsible for developing a world-wide program framework, the Regional Bureaus plan the specific country programs. This arrangement limits the authority and accountability of the General Manager, greatly restricting the flexibility with which he can apply his total resources to the total world-wide problem; it also necessitates an unwieldly process of coordinating country planning with media planning.

3. Responsibility for the supervision of field operations is located in the Regional Bureaus, separated from the top management of the program and from the media facilities.

This arrangement is unsatisfactory for much the same reasons as those set forth under “2” above.

4. The General Manager has to rely upon the central management and service facilities of the Department of State, which are not subject to his control.

For certain functions, this arrangement is entirely satisfactory. For example, there would be no advantage, and very serious disadvantages, in establishing separate facilities for communications, security and intelligence. Furthermore, the relationship of the USIE program management to the other areas of the Department in the field of foreign and information policy development has been greatly improved in recent years and should not be substantially modified.

In certain other fields, such as the procurement of specialized program equipment and the construction of broadcasting facilities, USIE requirements are entirely different from those of other areas of the Department and require special treatment.

In the fields of budget and personnel greater authority and flexibility within the program structure are required, although uniformity of policy and practice throughout the Department in certain respects must be maintained.

5. The USIE organization is not upon an adequate footing in terms either of its status within the Department, its internal structure, or in some of the missions abroad.

Location of the General Manager under the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs tends to layer the program within the Departmental structure. This factor, plus the internal USIE organization pattern and the authorized salary scale, have made it impossible to attract outstanding men to key positions in adequate numbers. The General Manager is the only officer concerned exclusively with the USIE program whose position is classified above GS–15.

6. The relationship between U.S. international information programs and other U.S. programs operating abroad is not sufficiently clear and constructive.

Establishment of the Psychological Strategy Board is an important step in the direction of assuring adequate coordination among psychological programs and with U.S. programs in the economic, military and political fields. There remains, however, the need for improving the working relationships between U.S. international information and educational exchange programs and programs in the other fields operating abroad, such as the economic, military and technical assistance programs under the Mutual Security Act.⁴ While improvements in headquarters’ (Washington) relationships are important, the problem is most concretely evident at the country level, where it is necessary to arrive at one strong information organization and then to assure that it operates in coordination with other psychological programs and in full support of and collaboration with other major U.S. programs.

iv. actions to be taken by the department of state

In order to meet the problems set forth in the preceding section of this paper, the Department of State is establishing a U.S. International Information Administration (IIA), the Administrator of which will report directly to the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary. The authority to be vested in the Administrator, the role of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and the relationship of the U.S. International Information Administration (IIA) to other areas of the Department are set forth below.

1. The Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs will continue to serve as the officer responsible for advising the Secretary on opinion and attitude factors in the development of foreign policy, for bringing information factors to bear on top policy discussions and decisions for providing to the international information program guidance based upon policy decisions at the highest levels in the Department, and for directing programs designed to keep the U.S. public informed on international problems. He shall serve as the senior officer of the Department on all information policy matters, but IIA may propose or initiate, through the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, the consideration of any international information policy matter arising in connection with its activities. However, he will be relieved of responsibility for supervising the USIE program and he will delegate his operational responsibilities in the domestic field.

The present organization, in addition to reducing the level of the operating USIE organization by locating the General Manager under an Assistant Secretary, places an impossible burden upon the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. In addition to his responsibilities as policy adviser to the Secretary and as head of the domestic public affairs program, he must act as the head of the USIE program in many matters affecting Congress, the public and other departments of the Government.

Under the new arrangement, he will have no supervisory authority over the USIE program. He will continue, in matters of policy determination, to serve as the link between the USIE program and the top policy councils of the Department. Although the IIA Administrator is expected to be available for such considerations when necessary. In developing information policies, IIA will be provided with broad guidance by the Assistant Secretary, who will act as the Secretary’s representative in (1) assuring that information of approved foreign policies is promptly, fully and currently available to IIA in the formulation of information policy guidances and (2) approving, or seeking the approval of the Secretary, of major IIA policy guidances. He will not be responsible for developing and providing to the foreign information operators policy guidances on the full range of problems involved in the foreign information program. This responsibility (of the kind now discharged by the Foreign Information Policy Staff) will be discharged within the IIA as described below. The Administrator’s principal policy officer will work for this purpose in close cooperation with the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs.

The UNESCO Relations Staff will remain under the direction of the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. Consideration has been given to the transfer of this unit to the United Nations Affairs Area, but it is believed that present arrangement should be maintained for the immediate future.

2. The U.S. International Information Administration will be established within the Department of State so designed as to strengthen the administration of the program, provide greater flexibility of operations and make it possible to hold the head of the program accountable for its operations.

The IIA Administrator will be given general authority to carry out the responsibilities of the Secretary of State in the field of international information and educational exchange.

His responsibilities for the USIE program will include those now discharged by the USIE General Manager, plus certain others now placed elsewhere in the Department. He will also assume the present USIE responsibilities of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs except for an over-all role in the field of information policy described above.

The principal features of this arrangement are set forth as separate items below.

An outline of the organization to be provided within the Department for domestic and foreign information is attached as Tab A.

3. Arrangements for the development of foreign information policy guidance will be such as to assure that the present integration of such policy with U.S. foreign policy in other fields is maintained and strengthened.

The Regional Bureaus and other substantive areas of the Department will continue to state the approved foreign policies and to advise on the development of information policy applicable to their areas. The Administrator of IIA will be responsible for developing information policies in support of approved foreign policies and for assuring that U.S. programs follow approved policy guidances. In developing international information and educational exchange policies, IIA and the other areas of the Department will be provided with broad guidance by the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs as set forth under IV, 1 above. Specifically, he will approve, or seek the approval of the Secretary of major IIA policy guidances. The rationale for these arrangements is set forth as Tab B to this paper.

Although the size of the Public Affairs staffs in the Regional Bureaus will be reduced in line with the reduction in the total Regional Bureau information functions, staffs will be maintained for performance of the continuing Bureau functions with respect to information policy and programs, including advice to Bureau officers upon foreign public attitude considerations in the development of foreign policy.

4. Responsibility for planning country information programs will be transferred from the Regional Bureaus to IIA.

Responsibility for planning the information program for each country, under the general world-wide plan developed by the USIE General Manager, is now vested in the Regional Bureaus, an arrangement which restricts the General Manager very seriously in the discharge of his responsibility for the program as a whole. This arrangement was dictated by the basic principles upon which the Department was reorganized in 1949 and in fact might be adequate for a smaller and more stable program. In the situation which has now developed, however, the greater flexibility of centralized direction of program planning for all areas of the world is required. With the establishment of IIA, the Administrator will deal directly with the missions in carrying out this responsibility. Country program plans will be submitted for advice and consideration of the Regional Bureaus, which in the event of differences shall have the right of appeal.

It should be understood that it is intended to “centralize within IIA only those program planning functions which must be performed as a headquarters function; full reliance will be placed upon the missions in developing the local program within over-all policies, plans and fund availabilities.”

5. Responsibility for the supervision of field operations will be transferred from the Regional Bureaus to IIA.

Under the present arrangement responsibility for program operations is divided between USIE for the media facilities and the Regional Bureaus for field activities. Unified direction of an integrated program and speed and flexibility in the supervision and support of field programs, can best be produced by bringing together under the Administrator the media facilities, control of funds and personnel and responsibility for supervision of information planning and operations in the field.

6. Adequate services will be provided to IIA by strengthening the central facilities of the Department where required or by establishing special facilities withinIIA.

Departmental services provided to the USIE program have been reviewed in order to determine the action which should be taken in each field. It is intended to assure the provision of services in such a manner that the specialized requirements of IIA will be met promptly and the responsibility of the Administrator for the operations of the program will not be impaired, at the same time maintaining uniformity of policy and practice where such uniformity is essential to the most effective conduct of the foreign affairs of the United States and retaining centralized facilities where important economies can be effected without impairing services for IIA. Arrangements with respect to IIA use of Departmental services will be kept under continuous review and further modifications will be made when required to meet the needs of the program and, in the absence of agreement with the Administrative area on IIA proposals, the Administrator may appeal. In summary, the arrangements to be made initially are as follows:

a. Communications

The IIA will use the present communication system of the Department in the same manner as any other area of the Department.

This arrangement will place at the disposal of IIA a highly developed world-wide system embracing wire and wireless facilities, courier service and the most modern security methods and devices. Duplication of this entire system would be highly uneconomic as well as creating dangers to security.

Not only will IIA use the Department’s facilities for the transmission of messages, but the distribution of information as well as action copies of messages to IIA will maintain intact the present flow of information on foreign policy and operations generally to the information staff.

Attention has been given to the matter of “direct communication” between the Public Affairs Officers in the field and IIA, Washington. All messages to the field are transmitted in the name of the Secretary of State, but approval of such messages is the responsibility of the officer having action responsibility for a given matter. This means that with respect to the great majority of information matters, IIA officers will have full responsibility for approving messages to the field. Advice or review of other areas of the Department will be secured when the contents of the message requires such treatment. Within the mission abroad, freedom for the Public Affairs Officer to communicate in the name of the Mission Chief on his own authority is for the determination of the Mission Chief as the responsible head of the entire mission. Such delegations should be encouraged.

b. Security

No real purpose would be served by changing the present application of the Department’s security program to the information program as a regular part of the Department.

In the field of physical security, the necessity for one security operation is readily apparent, since IIA will share a common communications system and other physical facilities in Washington and in the field.

In the field of personnel security also there appear to be no important advantages and many disadvantages in any separation. The extraordinary efforts which have been made by the officers of the Department responsible for the security program to speed up all personnel security processes for the information program, including FBI investigations, will be continued.

c. Budget and Finance

The problem in respect to IIA budget and fiscal administration is to provide the IIA Administrator that degree of latitude and flexibility in the use and control of funds which is necessary for effective program management, while at the same time assuring through the budget and fiscal process that IIA programs and activities are in harmony with and reinforce total Departmental objectives and reflect over-all Department decisions as to priorities and emphasis in foreign operations. For this purpose the following arrangements are proposed:

(1) The Deputy Under Secretary for administration will remain responsible for the Department’s budget, including the budget of the IIA and the information program generally. Budget estimates, apportionment requests and other fiscal proposals affecting the IIA program will be submitted to the Budget Bureau and the Congress through the Deputy Under Secretary for administration.

(1) [2] The Deputy Under Secretary for administration will normally look to the IIA to prepare, present and justify its own budget and manage its own financial affairs, subject to such review by the Deputy Under Secretary for administration as is necessary to assure compliance with general departmental budget and fiscal policies.

(3) IIA will be responsible for maintaining accounts and preparing fiscal reports on the IIA program, with the advice and assistance of the Office of Budget and Finance. Payrolling, auditing and disbursing functions will be retained by the Office of Budget and Finance.

(4) Estimates for support and services to IIA by other units of the Department, including field administrative support, will be worked out jointly by IIA and the Departmental units concerned and will be developed and submitted as part of the total budget presentation and financial plan for the IIA program. So far as practicable, IIA shall make its funds for administrative support, in the United States and in the field, available for specifically designated services, organization units and posts and they shall be accounted for in that manner. Each departmental unit or field mission will be informed of the funds available to it for IIA administrative support.

(5) The Deputy Under Secretary for administration will call upon the Director of OBF and, as appropriate, other officers of the Department for staff advice and other assistance concerning budget and fiscal matters affecting IIA.

d. Personnel

IIA will place basic reliance on the central personnel facilities and procedures of the Department, but modifications in existing policies as to appointment, promotion, salary, transfer, etc., and special procedural arrangements will be made whenever such adaptations appear necessary in the interests of effective operation of the IIA program. This arrangement is the one which has been decided upon for the Point 4 Program. It appears to be the solution which best reconciles the need for personnel flexibility in an operating program with the efficiency and economy of central operations and the desirability of assuring as great a measure of consistency in conditions of employment in the United States and abroad as is feasible in view of the difference between the several activities to be carried on abroad.

In order to assure that full attention is given to the special needs and problems of the IIA program, a special IIA personnel unit will be established within the Office of Personnel to assure prompt service and full attention to special IIA problems.

The Regional Bureaus will, within reasonable time limits, review the IIA selection of the Chief Public Affairs Officer at each post and will advise on the selection of his principal subordinates.

IIA will have action responsibility for the selection and assignment of field personnel, subject to the review of PER within the applicable standards.

Specifically, IIA will assume those responsibilities relative to the selection, assignment, transfer and promotion of field personnel now vested in the Regional Bureaus.

e. Procurement

(1) While the procurement of supplies and equipment for IIA administrative and program needs is in many respects similar to other administrative and program procurement done in the Department, special IIA requirements and problems must be met. The Department’s procurement regulations, organization, and procedures should be applied to IIA procurement, except that the regulations, organization, and procedures should be modified as necessary in accordance with the exigencies of the IIA program.

(2) In recognition of the need to give IIA procurement requirements adequate and prompt consideration, CS will establish an IIA procurement staff. This staff will maintain close liaison with IIA and become thoroughly conversant with its programs and objectives, so that it can interpret and represent procurement needs of IIA for both common service items procured elsewhere in CS and special program items procured by this section.

(3) IIA should develop two aspects of procurement planning to the maximum extent, so as to meet the demands of a dynamic program:

a. prescribing standard specifications for items and developing guides for the purchase of new or the replacement of existing items.

b. stockpiling standard items so as to expedite the filling of IIA mission requisitions.

f. Buildings Operations

IIA space requirements will be met by the central facilities of the Department and the Foreign Service. IIA will provide the Division of Foreign Buildings Operations with requirements for various types of space and will review FBO plans for the provision of space for such specialized purposes as motion picture theaters and libraries.

g. Language Services

IIA will utilize as far as practicable the Department’s facilities for translation and interpretation, but with the advice of the Division of Language Services may establish additional facilities if warranted by volume or other special circumstances.

h. Other Services

The various services not described above, such as space management, domestic communications, graphic presentation and reproduction shall continue to be supplied by the Office of Operating Facilities. Adjustments in the manner of rendering such services shall be made where necessary to meet the requirements of IIA operations, and IIA may establish separate facilities when experience indicates that they are required in order to provide adequate support.

i. Administrative Support for New York IIA Operation

Arrangements for administrative support for IIA operations in New York will be developed in agreement with the basic arrangements set forth above. Some of the present functions of the New York Administrative Office will be assigned to an IIA administrative office; such functions with respect to IIA as are retained by the Administrative area of the Department, and must be performed in New York, will be the responsibility of a Department administrative office in New York which will continue the present NAO functions of providing support to non-IIA offices in New York and discharging certain responsibilities in support of the overseas operations of the Department.

7. Administration of Program at Posts Abroad.

Integration of the information program with the total conduct of foreign relations at the country level will be assured by maintaining the authority of the U.S. Mission Chief over the program, with the Public Affairs Officer serving as the chief of one of his major sections. Primary reliance in the development of program plans will be placed upon the judgment of the Public Affairs Officer and the Mission Chief as to the situation within the area and the type of IIA program required, continuing a practice which has been emphasized in the development of recent program plans.

The chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission will be responsible for assuring that the IIA program works cooperatively with the other operating U.S. programs within his country and provides information support to such programs.

Administrative support normally will be provided to IIA by the administrative officer of the mission, but other organizational arrangements may be made with the approval of the Mission Chief in order to assure efficient support of IIA operations whenever required.

A more detailed statement of the relationships to be established for carrying out the information program at U.S. posts abroad is set forth as Tab C to this paper.

8. Salaries for Key IIA Positions.

The Department of State will propose for submission to Congress early in the new session legislation authorizing more appropriate salaries for key positions in the IIA organization.

Under the existing organization and salary structure it has been almost impossible to persuade a sufficient number of outstanding men from private life to come into the program. The plan of organization for IIA will be helpful in this matter, with responsibility more clearly placed upon the head of the program, with his status within the Department improved, and with a more “horizontal” type of organization designed to emphasize the importance of the key media and functional positions. These factors, plus improvement in executive salaries, should make service in this program far more attractive to the kind of men the program requires.

9. A Single U.S. Information Program.

It is clearly desirable that there should be a single U.S. program in the field of international information. The IIA has been designed so as to provide a framework for the inclusion of all U.S. activities in this field in a unified program, and the further development and installation of the IIA structure will be made in the light of this eventual requirement and objective. Relationships between the IIA and other departments of the Government and the role of the Mission Chief and the chief Public Affairs Officer in each country will be developed with a view to providing an adequate instrumentality for meeting the requirements of the U.S. Government as a whole in the field of international information.

Tab A

[Washington, undated.]

Paper Prepared in the Department of State

U.S. international information administration: internal organization

1. The attached chart is largely self-explanatory but some clarification of several of the elements depicted is necessary to avoid misunderstanding.

2. Field Representatives. It is intended that these officers be stationed overseas as direct representatives of the Administrator. It is not intended that they become channels of communications or field supervisors. They will act in an advisory and consultative capacity to the missions chiefs, the Public Affairs Officers and the Department in the development of IIA country programs, will maintain liaison among IIA programs in their areas, and will carry out specific assignments for the Administrator.

3. Field Programs. This Assistant Administrator will have responsibilities as follows: (1) the global program planning function now carried on by PRS, (2) assuring that the country missions prepare adequate country program, now carried on by the Regional Bureaus, and (3) expediting the interest of the country missions in personnel, budgetary and related matters.

4. Management. This will include a Management Staff, and personnel budget and finance, and administrative facilities and services activities. Provision is also made for Secretariats to provide for advisory commission secretariats and for certain activities similar to those performed by the Departmental Secretariat. These include the development and conduct of briefings, the development of displays, the preparation of executive reports and reports to Congress, and the issuance of the USIE Newsletter. The New York Administrative Office will serve IIA activities located in New York. The responsibility of the Assistant Administrator for this activity is directly related to the degree of responsibility delegated to IIA in the field of administration, especially in personnel, budget, finance, and administrative facilities and service fields.

5. Private Enterprise Cooperation. This is set up under an Assistant Administrator since it is not a staff function but an operating activity of a special kind and because in this activity prestige is of utmost importance, probably more so than in any other activity undertaken by IIA.

Tab B

[Washington, undated.]

Paper Prepared in the Department of State

Rationale of the Arrangements for Foreign Information Policy Provided in Connection With Establishing the U.S. International Information Administration (IIA)

During World War II our propaganda was not always designed to support approved national objectives and major actions in the military economic and political fields, although the fault was by no means exclusively that of the propaganda agency. One of the important reasons for transferring the OWI program to the Department of State in 1945 was the need for a more immediate association between the foreign information program and the development of foreign policy. There are three primary considerations involved: (1) The need for assuring that information experts are given an opportunity to influence the development of foreign policy. (2) The need for assuring that information programs and output support approved foreign policy. (3) The need for providing a free flow of classified information concerning both policy and operational matters from all parts of the State Department to the operators in the information field. This transfer, however, effected no immediate remedy. It was necessary for officers in other areas of the Department at all levels to realize the nature and importance of international information and for all concerned to realize that there is “information policy” in addition to, but in agreement with, foreign policy. It was necessary for substantive and information officers to learn the process of working together in the development of policy in the field of information which would best meet the sometimes conflicting requirements of long-range, as opposed to short-range, objectives and the needs of our policy in one region of the world as opposed to other regions. Many lessons had to be learned in the attempt to bring to the process of developing foreign policy adequate consideration of foreign attitude factors. Procedures and methods for the development and transmission of information policy guidance required much attention.

Not all of these things were accomplished overnight, and much remained to be done at the time of the reorganization of the Department in 1949. Rapid improvement in the policy process has taken place since that time. The Department is now in a far stronger position than ever before to develop and apply sound information policy and to take into account in all of its activities the sound maxim that “action is the best propaganda.”

Present Policy Arrangements

The Public Affairs Staffs in the Regional Bureaus (which were established by the reorganization of 1949) and the relationship of these staffs to the Public Affairs Area of the Department are the heart of the present policy mechanism.

Tab C

[Washington, undated.]

Paper Prepared in the Department of State

Arrangements for the International Information Program at the Country Level

Role of the Ambassador

The Ambassador or Chief of Diplomatic Mission is the principal United States representative in the country which he is accredited. He has direct responsibility for all activities carried on within the Embassy organization, and has responsibility for providing leadership, and assuring coordination of other programs and activities of the U.S. Government. With respect to the information program, the Chief of Mission has direct authority over the program. His continued interest and support are necessary for its success. The level of interest and degree of personal participation in the direction of the program will vary with the importance of the program in the total U.S. effort in the country concerned, but will generally be concerned with the following matters:

(1) Assuring that the information program is planned and executed consistently with U.S. policy objectives, local conditions within the country and the over-all conduct of U.S. relations with the country.

(2) Assuring that the information program is conducted in close working relations with other operating U.S. programs within the country and with due attention to the information problems of such programs.

(3) Exercising direction of any official [words missing in the source text] local government.

(4) Keeping informed of programs and specific activities with significant political importance or implications.

Role of the Public Affairs Officer

The status of the Public Affairs Officer should be that of the chief of a major section of the mission. He serves the Ambassador in two distinct ways. First, he has an important policy advisory function on the information activities of the U.S. Government, and on the information aspects of other Embassy and program operations, and on public opinion factors generally in the conduct of relations with the local government. In this capacity he serves as a staff adviser to assist the Ambassador in the surveillance of all U.S. activities within the country. Secondly, the Public Affairs Officer is responsible to the Ambassador for the planning and execution of the information program within the country. In this capacity he will be responsible for the direct supervision of program operations, for proper working level coordination of the program with Embassy activities and other U.S. programs, and for keeping the Ambassador informed of matters requiring his attention.

It should be emphasized that IIA Washington will place principal reliance upon the mission for determining, within approved policies, plans and funds, the information activities to be conducted locally.

No inflexible pattern of relationships below the mission level should be prescribed. In general, however, the Public Affairs Officer at a consulate will bear the same relationship to the Principal Officer as the mission Public Affairs Officer has to the Ambassador. In some cases, the information program will be the principal activity of a post, and a Public Affairs Officer may be assigned as the Principal Officer.

Administrative Support

In the interest of efficiency and economy of operations, administrative support functions for IIA normally will be performed by the administrative section of the mission. The Chief of Mission will be responsible for seeing that support is provided in accordance with the relative needs of the various functions under his direction and the purposes for which funds are allocated. He must assure that estimates for IIA program activities and administrative support are properly related to each other so that it is possible to provide adequate support within the financial plan. He will also see to it that the character of the services provided to IIA is based upon the actual requirements of the program rather than the application of blanket standards and practices to all mission activities.

Other organizational arrangements may, with the approval of the Chief of Mission, be made wherever required to assure efficient support of IIA operations.

1. Copies of this memorandum were sent to: S/S, S/P, G, H, L, UNA, IIA, P, FBO, REP, OBF, OOF, CON, PER, A/FS, and FI.
2. See Departmental Announcement No. 4, supra.
3. For documentation on the 1949 reorganization of the Department of State, see Foreign Relations, 1949, vol. i, pp. 1 ff.
4. For documentation on the Mutual Security Program, see vol. i, Part 1, pp. 460 ff.