104. Memorandum From the Director of the United States Information Agency (Reinhardt) to the Deputy Secretary of State (Christopher)1
I am aware that you have asked for your colleagues’ views on policy guidance relationships between the Department of State and USIA, with special reference to the Voice of America, and I want to take this opportunity to present our ideas. I will describe the present system, how it works and what we might do to improve procedures, not only as they relate to VOA but to all of our media.
Background
Reorganization Plan No. 82 provides that the Secretary of State shall provide to the Director (of USIA) on a current basis full guidance concerning the foreign policy of the United States. Coupled with this is the desire of the present Administration that USIA be the vehicle for the conduct of public diplomacy by the United States Government, with policy direction from the Secretary of State.
In discussing how this applies to VOA, I note the clear distinction between news and commentary stated in my memorandum to the Voice on May 4, 1977 (copy attached).3 VOA is solely responsible for the content of news broadcasts, which include correspondent reports and backgrounders. However, Department of State guidance on foreign policy issues is important, indeed indispensable, to VOA analyses and commentaries.
The Present System
Within USIA’s Office of Planning and Program Direction (IOP), we have three sections handling different aspects of policy matters:
—The Policy Guidance Office receives daily from Hodding Carter the briefing papers prepared by various Bureaus for his noon briefing of the press. It also is in frequent daily contact with S/PRS on specific subjects not covered by briefing papers. This Office is the sole unit [Page 303] authorized to convey policy guidance to VOA and other Agency media. All other inputs must funnel through the Policy Guidance Office.
—Assistant Directors of USIA area offices maintain substantive relationships with their counterparts in the Department of State and convey appropriate regional guidance to the Policy Guidance Office for transmission to VOA.
—A newly established office of Issues and Plans is premised on substantive contacts with S/P and functional bureaus in the Department (e.g. EB, PM and IO). Essentially, Issues and Plans will work on mid-and long-term issues; inevitably, these relationships will provide insights into immediate concerns important to VOA—and these will be passed on to our Policy Guidance Office.
In our function of developing all of these guidance insights, we make the following distinctions:
News: We frequently ask S/PRS or Bureaus for information on handling fast-breaking news events. But we are only seeking clarification and information on whether a news story or report on foreign policy is accurate. We are not requesting guidance on the “handling” of the story.
Commentary: The Policy Guidance Office seeks State Department ideas and guidance on how VOA should treat an issue in its commentary, what the overall thrust of the commentary should be and what official statements are applicable.
Is The System Working?
News: Basically, yes. But there are four problem areas.
First, the Department is not fully cognizant of the special requirements of VOA; our requests are handled the same as requests from the commercial media. S/PRS’s work is geared basically to deadline requirements of the domestic print media and evening television news. VOA is on the air 24 hours a day and needs reactions and answers to meet broadcast requirements in a variety of time zones. We need a faster response mechanism when we are faced with commercial news stories which may be misleading or inaccurate, for we want to set the record straight as quickly as possible.
Second, we need advance notice of foreign policy announcements of any worldwide, regional or one-country significance. This means the active involvement of a significant number of Department elements. You will realize that no USIA officer is ever present when foreign policy is evolving or decided.
Third, advance notice of foreign policy announcements and, additionally, suggestions of foreign policy concerns that need clarification, can be extremely useful to VOA in the way it deploys its correspond[Page 304]ents. Clearly, these suggestions must be oriented to situations and events that command attention in the news; but, with that as a given, VOA’s correspondents can be tasked to provide the on-the-spot background and framework for these events.
Fourth, we need advance texts or, at a minimum, advance knowledge of major speeches by Senior State Department officials. The advance knowledge I speak of implies briefings on the major points we should cover. The more we know in advance, the more timely and accurate our news coverage will be.
Commentary: Here, we can do much better. USIA can play a significant role in furthering foreign policy objectives through VOA commentary. A foreign policy analysis or commentary by VOA is specifically designed to illuminate that policy, to explain and define it. I submit that the Department, excepting EUR, is generally passive as we develop commentaries: We get what we seek, but seldom is the initiative with the Department.
Too frequently, when we ask for suggested subjects for analytical treatment, we are asked, instead, not to comment. We understand this when we are in the midst of a delicate negotiation. Sometimes, however, our request involves subjects debated widely around the world and VOA has nothing to go with.
In general, then, we need more lead time in policy guidance from the Department, not only for VOA but all of our media. We need quicker responses on current, fast-breaking stories and we need earlier guidance on mid- and long-term issues.
Recommendations
Specifically, we recommend:
—more regularly scheduled briefings by Assistant Secretaries and others for USIA’s media, area and policy officers, VOA commentators, and others. We have no other authoritative way to learn of developing policy issues and policy objectives;
—briefings of State’s area and functional bureau officers by the senior leadership of USIA—on our role and our requirements;
—an insistence by State and USIA that relationships between our policy and area offices and the Department’s major bureaus focus on the substance of issues, the identification of longer-range concerns and the special needs of VOA.
If VOA in particular, but by no means exclusively, is regarded as another commercial medium, then its special competence and capability will not be utilized fully.
In fine, it seems to me that policy guidance initiatives far too often stem from the seeker rather than from the giver. With the notable and [Page 305] most important exception of EUR, the VOA seems to be considered by the Department as one more problem that you do not need. Seldom, again with the exception of EUR, is the VOA regarded as the one USG instrument which offers an opportunity to communicate with peoples whose ideas and actions are important to advancing American interests.
- Source: National Archives, RG 306, Associate Directorate for Programs, Subject Files of Basic Operating Documents, 1969–1982, Entry P–100, Basic Documents—1977 [C]. No classification marking. Printed from an unsigned copy. Drafted by Alan Carter and Thurber; edited by Reinhardt.↩
- Reference is to Reorganization Plan No. 8 of 1953 (67 Stat. 642) effective August 1, 1953, which established the United States Information Agency.↩
- Attached but not printed is an undated document summarizing the principles governing VOA broadcasts, as Reinhardt outlined in his May 4 memorandum. See Document 48.↩