Foreign Relations of the United States, 1977–1980, Volume XXX, Public Diplomacy

139. Memorandum From the Acting Deputy Associate Director for Programs, International Communication Agency (Carter) to the Deputy Director (Bray)¹

Washington, July 13, 1978

SUBJECT

• Illustrative Programmatic Approaches to Arms Control/Disarmament Subjects

The following illustrative activities are listed separately to suggest the range of possibilities. In actual practice, they would be closely interrelated to reinforce ongoing communication with important publics.

1. Regional conferences. A typical regional conference would involve both official and unofficial Americans and foreigners. Participants from several countries could meet for two or three days to cover either a broad range of arms control questions or selected specific issues (e.g., SALT, conventional arms transfers, nonproliferation). The conference might be cosponsored by a prestigious local institution in the country where it is staged; that organization could also be given a grant to publish the proceedings. Activities in the period before the sessions could include: exchange grants to the U.S. for key participants, distribution of suitable background literature, media placement, and discussions with Mission officers. Post-conference activities might include: distribution of the proceedings, small-group seminars in the home countries of the participants, ICA library “outreach” programs, media interviews, and personal contact.

2. Special exchange projects. A group of arms control specialists (perhaps all of them journalists, or academics, or “think tank” researchers) might be brought to the U.S. for a “multi-regional project” involving meetings with USG and private arms control specialists, travel to military installations or commercial facilities, and a week-long seminar sponsored by an appropriate American institution. ICA media would give coverage to these activities. After their return, posts would maintain close contact with the participants and involve them in seminars and other programs.

3. Special briefings and tours. Handled under the aegis of ICA Foreign Press Centers in Washington and New York, these activities might involve foreign journalists resident in the U.S. and could focus on single-country or single-region concerns. Coverage generated could tie in directly with seminars and conferences being held overseas.

4. Grants to American institutions. Such grants could be made for a wide variety of purposes including: research on arms control organizations abroad, support to exchanges, subsidizing of conferences, and publication and distribution of materials.

5. Research and media reaction. ICA might commission opinion surveys to elicit information that would help keep American policymakers apprised of foreign attitudes regarding specific issues currently under negotiation. Media reaction reporting could help serve the same purpose, as well as convey any press comment emanating from our conferences or other activities.

6. Innovative program formats. In addition to seminars and exchanges, ICA resources might be used to support dialogue in a number of other formats. For example:

A. VTRs . Videotaped interviews with U.S. arms control specialists could be used to stimulate small group discussions in the homes of Mission personnel.

B. “Electronic dialogues.” One part of a discussion on a particular arms control issue in a foreign country could be devoted to a telephone hook-up with an American specialist in the U.S.

C. VOA “town meeting.” A live VOA broadcast could feature a prominent American specialist who would give on-air responses to questions phoned in from selected countries. (Another VOA contribution might be to devote a series of programs, such as the prestigious VOA Forum, to arms control questions.)

1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Staff Material, Europe, USSR, and East/West, Putnam Subject File, Box 30, Disarmament: Public Diplomacy: 7/78. No classification marking.